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Monday, February 29, 2016

Behind the Drums: Yuhei Etou


The current leader of the Taiko Team, Yuhei Etou (江藤裕平) was born on June 29th, 1985 and spent his childhood in the Kanto prefecture, where he grew on appreciating the Taiko no Tatsujin series as an early player during the school years. Hired by former Taiko Team leader Takahashi as a notecharter during Taiko 12 Zoryoban's launch window, he succeeded to his master's role roughly some time after the second Wii game's release.

Among his new roles as the new face of the Taiko Team are the management of the Taiko series' official blog updates, arcade/console games supervision and industry directive-related roles, as well as making charts for new songs from time to time. He's also the most recurrent-appearing member in public events for everything related to the gaming series (livestream/tournaments/arcade launches/variety TV shows), signing himself under an alternative way to spell Etou in Japanese (エトウ). He also happens to be in good acquaintance with some of the series' most recurrent external composers, such as Tatsuya Shimizu. As revealed by Etou himself in one of the Taiko Team livestream sessions, he got married by the end of 2014.

As a notecharter, Etou's approach is inspired by the concept of "challenge songs that feel like fit for hard difficulties", putting his efforts on creating charts that while elegible to be cleared in many degrees, they stimulate players to aim for a Full Combo on any difficulty. This philosophy often leads him adding visually-striking features to his notecharts like large notes and multiple BPM/scrolling changes, although he has made a name of himself as a flexible notecharter for both easy and hard Oni modes. Much like Kuboken (くぼけん), his Oni notecharts usually tend to have special-numbered Max Combo values, such as same-digit totals and Namco/Bandai goroawase shenanigans (765/876). While he usually takes less than 1 month to fully chart a song, he may require more than a month for selected songs like Joubutsu 2000. Due to his high position in the Taiko games franchise, Etou isn't used to chart songs with the same frequency anymore.

His profile picture above references his "harder notecharting side" with the so-dubbed 'Etou Beam', an infamous note-dense charting portion he made (with Nicovideo spectators) for Hurtling Boys's Oni mode (stanzas 55-56).

Twitter

Unless otherwise specified, Etou is the only notecharter of the following songs.

J-Pop
  • Punishment
  •  LISTEN TO THE STEREO!!
  • Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo -Z Ver.- (行くぜっ!怪盗少女 -Z ver.-)
  • Telecastic fake show
  • Memeshikute (女々しくて)
  • S
  • Dance My Generation
Anime
  • Alright! Heart Catch Precure (Alright! ハートキャッチプリキュア!)
  •  Diamond Happy (ダイヤモンドハッピー)
  • Guren no Yumiya (紅蓮の弓矢)
  • Bokura wa Ima no Naka de (僕らは今のなかで)
Variety
  • Okashi Deka no Uta (お菓子刑事の歌)
  •  Oshiri no Yama wa Everest (おしりの山はエベレスト)
  • Night of Knights (ナイト・オブ・ナイツ)
  • Necrofantasia ~ Arr.Demetori (ネクロファンタジア ~ Arr.Demetori)
  • Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru o (色は匂へど 散りぬるを)
  • Gensou no Satellite (幻想のサテライト)
  • Senshaku Zesshou no Fantasia (仙酌絶唱のファンタジア)
  • conflict
Vocaloid
  • Melt (メルト)
  • Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu -Gekijouban- (初音ミクの消失-劇場版-)
  •  Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu -Gekijouban- (初音ミクの消失-劇場版-)
  •  Matryoshka (マトリョシカ)
  • Jinsei Reset Button (人生リセットボタン)
  • Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru♪【Shite Yan Yo】 (みくみくにしてあげる♪【してやんよ】)
  • Eternal bond - charted with Nicovideo spectators (CreoFuga '14 1/3)
  • Noushou Sakuretsu Girl (脳漿炸裂ガール)
  •  Noushou Sakuretsu Girl (脳漿炸裂ガール)
  •  Roku-Chounen to Ichiya Monogatari (六兆年と一夜物語)
Classic
  •  Etude Op.10-4 (練習曲Op.10-4)
Game Music
  • Overmaster (オーバーマスター)
  • Majide...!? (マジで…!?) - co-lyricist with Kuboken (くぼけん)
  • Alice or Guilty
  • Tatakae! T3 Booei Tai~GDI mix~ (戦え!T3防衛隊 ~GDI mix~)
  •  KAGEKIYO
  •  Ridge Racer
  • KARMA (Tatsujin Mix)
  • Doom Noiz
  •  Venomous
  •  Music Revolver
  • The Windmill Song (ミュージック・リボルバー)
  • VERTeX
  • Dr. WILY STAGE 1
  • Over Clock ~Kaihou~ (Over Clock ~開放~)
  • Famicom Medley (ファミコンメドレー)
Namco Original
  • Hello! Halloween (ハロー!ハロウィン)
  • Negaigoto☆Puzzle (ねがいごと☆ぱずる)
  • SORA-II Gliese 581 (SORA-II グリーゼ581)
  • SORA-VI (SORA-VI 火ノ鳥)
  •  Metal Police (めたるぽりす)
  • Zeihen ~transformation~ (蛻変 ~transformation~)
  • Hyakki Yakou (百鬼夜行) - Normal route only
  • Taiko Time (タイコタイム)
  •  Taiko Time (タイコタイム)
  • NECOLOGY
  •  Dodon ga Do~n (ドドンガド~ン)
  • Uchuu SAMURAI (宇宙SAMURAI)
  • Tsukikage SASURAI (月影SASURAI)
  •  Tsukikage SASURAI (月影SASURAI)
  • Black Rose Apostle
  • White Rose Insanity
  •  White Rose Insanity
  • Red Rose Evangel
  • Blue Rose Ruin
  • Purple Rose Fusion
  • Yuugen no Ran (幽玄ノ乱)
  • Shikou no Ran (紫煌ノ乱)
  • Joubutsu 2000 (万戈イム-一ノ十)
  • Soroban 2000 (十露盤2000) - Morse code on Taiko PSP DX, Taiko 0, Taiko Wii U 1, Taiko +
  • Shimedore 2000 (〆ドレー2000) - Combo counter adjustment only
  • Shimedore 2000+ (〆ドレー2000+) - Combo counter adjustment only
  • Suuhaa 2000 (スーハー2000)
  • Donkama 2000 (ドンカマ2000)
  • Norudon 2000 (ノるどん2000)
  • Ao no Senritsu (蒼の旋律)
  • Aka no Senritsu (朱の旋律)
  • Pastel Dream (パステル ドリーム)
  • 3Q-4U-AC00
  •  Samba Alegria (サンバ アレグリーア)
  • Kimi no Planet (君のプラネット)
  • Dokidoki Munekyun Omatsuri Time (ドキドキ胸きゅん おまつりタイム)
  • Famires Wars (ファミレスウォーズ)
  •  Phantom Rider
  • 3piece-JazzParty!
  • Zero no Nocturne (零の夜想曲)
  • Haryu (春竜 ~Haryu~) - co-charter with Kan (カーン)
  • D's Adventure Note - charted with Nicovideo spectators (CreoFuga '14 2/3)
  • Tsundere Cafe e Youkoso☆ (ツンデレCafeへようこそ☆)
  • DEBSTEP!
  • Hurtling Boys - charted with Nicovideo spectators (CreoFuga '14 3/3)
  •  Jinpuumaru (迅風丸)
  • Mugen no Sora (夢幻の蒼空)
  • Yamatai★Night Party (ヤマタイ★ナイトパーティー)
  • IOSYS Aki no Nikushoku Matsuri 2014 (イオシス秋の肉食祭2014)
  • Sacred Ruin (セイクリッド ルイン)
  •  Sacred Ruin (セイクリッド ルイン)
  • Picopico Ruin (ピコピコ ルイン)
  •  Picopico Ruin (ピコピコ ルイン)
  • Shiny Kung-fu Revival
  • !!!Chaos Time!!! (!!!カオスタイム!!! )
  • VICTORIA
  • DokuLO CANdy♡ (毒LOCANdy♡)