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Saturday, May 20, 2017

Song of the Week! 20 May 2017


Due to the recent song lot announcement, we're about to have yet another double-pick week, this time around being all about... rabbits! ...kinda.

 Usagi no Shippo (うさぎのしっぽ)
Version
All x3 (142)x4 (224)x5 (368)x7 (521)
 Taiko 0 Y, Taiko Wii U 1
 170
 none
 u3gino


Rabbits have been a truly fascinating subject to talk about along the centuries, both for their aspect/habits and even for fantasy-based stories. Japanese folklore often had a place for those herbivore critters (with some of these also being spotlighted by us in the past), but the first Namco Original about those critters follows lighter tones, all associating on a train of thoughts based on chasing a bunny's tail, thus giving the title to the song itself.

Usagi no Shippo is composed, performed and sung by Mai Masuda (益田舞), a student at the JBG Conservatory. This is the 10th song (out of 12 thus far) to come into the Taiko no Tatsujin series this way and together with the 9th awarded JBG creation, Seagal (セガール)'s Robot Rock'n'Roll☆, Usagi no Shippo made its debut on Taiko no Tatsujin Wii U Version as an unlockable track. It's also going to be one of the Summer '17 purchasable items at Yellow Version's season-changing Rewards Shop!

Aside from the speedy BPM tempo, Usagi no Shippo's Oni is a quite tame 7* challenge, considering that most of the clusters featured in there are mono-colored. Remember to pay attention to the slight change of rhythm after the first Go-Go Time section, though!

 Dokidoki Koi no Yokan!? (ドキドキ恋の予感!? ) Noriyuki feat. GUMI
Version
All x3 (145)x4 (201)x5 (318)x7 (473)
 Taiko 0 S
 165
 none
 ???


When it comes to eating, rabbits are conventionally known for the heavy inclusion of carrots in their usual diet, so here the plan was to have a carrot-based Taiko song for this feature... Thing is, however, that we already did a SotW feature about that track some years ago, so here's a substitute for it instead... it still counts, right? After all, it's another GUMI song and she loves carrots, too!

Dokidoki Koi no Yokan!? (lit. 'Dokidoki Feeling of Love!?') is one of the four tracks that come from the 2013 Taiko x GUMI CreoFUGA contest, whose winning tracks made their debut during the 2nd Niconico Chokaigi, followed by a public release on Taiko Sorairo and different console titles. The story, however, is different for this one track, as it's the only one of the lot to be an arcade exclusive pick to this day. The original title for the song in the CreoFUGA entry was Gumigumigumi (グミグミグミ), which was changed since its playable debut.

This song's creator is the nick-named Noriyuki, an independent composer and ukulele player in activity since the early 2010s. While not that much is known about the artist 's past, it's possible to find Noriyuki songs in different music series, most prominently in the mobile app nanobeat with 6 tracks to date (including Apple&Honey and Elevenses). Noriyuki songs starring GUMI also appeared in the SOUND VOLTEX series with BlueSky and Todoke! Shooting Star☆ (which also appeared in pop'n music later on), but the very same artist stated that the two tracks might be removed from both bemani series in the near future. On the Internet, Noriyuki owns a personal blog (also on Blogger, like us!) and a Twitter profile.

With less notes and a lower BPM than Usagi no Shippo, this Vocaloid track manages to have a more compelling challenge for the current rating standards due to an heavier presence of consecutive-note sequences as well as some entry-level trickery with cluster-related, hand-switching action.