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Saturday, September 17, 2011

Song of the Week! 17 September 2011

 

Ura week! And a really new Ura for a really old song too.

Taiyou mo Yappappa (太陽もヤッパッパー) --- Old ---
Version
Taiko 1
x4 (230)

Taiko 2


x3 (230)
Taiko 1, 2
146
none
 lov193


Taiyou mo Yappappa (太陽もヤッパッパー) --- New ---
Version
Taiko PS2 2x3 (226) x4 (361/357/348)x5 (361/357/348)
Taiko PSP DXx4 (144)x5 (231) x6 (348)x5 (361/357/348)
Taiko 3DS 3x4 (144)x5 (231) x5 (348)x4 (361/357/348)
Medal 1, Taiko PS2 2, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko 3DS 3, CD Red
146
Dance -> Namco Original
 ypp


Go Go Kitchen isn't the only song on the first Taiko arcade composed by Yuri Misumi, one of the most active members of the Taiko Sound Team. This tune, which is much more obscure, was also made by her.

In tune with the original Taiko's aim of creating a traditional festival atmosphere, Taiyou mo Yappappa is a mixture of sounds, voices (like the illegible one that sounds like 'Everybody, Amen!' which repeats multiple times) and western musical instruments, kind of like merging traditions with new culture and style, after all, it was the turn of the new millennium when this song was made. 'Taiyou' means 'sun' in Japanese, while 'yappappa' is an onomatopoeia referring to a lively musical beat, and the title in full can be translated as 'Even the Sun is dancing to the beat' or something similar. It's not a new term, other media have used it before, like the anime Ranma 1/2's first opening theme.

Have you even heard of this song before? I don't blame you if you haven't; it was only available to play in the earliest of Taiko games when there wasn't much of a competitive factor in the game yet. The lone Futsuu difficulty was ported untouched to Donderful difficulty in the 2nd arcade. This wasn't nearly enough, and when Taiyou mo Yappappa was brought to the 2nd PS2 Taiko more difficulties were made for it, and the new Oni had forked paths. However, there was never any point which a Kantan was made during this time. Eight long years later Kantan was finally made for Taiko PSP DX. Heck, being such an old song, PSP DX is also Taiyou's first time in the Namco Original genre!

Both the old and new version in Taiyou mo Yappappa share the low BPM value and a easy-to-read 1/16 note stacking, but while the old Donderful doesn't have any note clusters (due to it being identical to Taiko 1's Futsuu difficulty), there are some in PS2 2's Oni mode, which is still the current one being used on Taiko PSP DX. There is a segment at the end of the song which uses the simple triple beat (1-2-3 1-2-3 instead of 1-2-3-4), the first one in Taiko, but it was only at Yokuderu 2000 that simple triple was used for a full Taiko song.

 Taiyou mo Yappappa (太陽もヤッパッパー)
Version
Taiko PSP DXx5 (184)x7 (290) x6 (360)x8 (549)
Taiko 3DS 3

x8 (549)
Taiko PSP DX, Taiko 3DS 3
146
none
 exypp


Like Dajare no Oshare in Taiko Wii 3, Taiyou mo Yappappa is another extremely old Namco Original to be given a Ura difficulty of its own, this time featuring more modern difficulty with lots of clusters. Beware the simple triple part in the Ura Oni; alternating big and small notes are some of the most effective ways to throw players off their rhythm. Like Kikyoku's Ura mode in Taiko Wii 2, some sections of the song sound a bit delayed due to a wrong offset; however this affects only the starting and the ending beat stanzas, and not the whole song.