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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Song of the Week! 3 December 2011


December's first pick takes us back to the Anime scene once again, due to an old user request. One of the more interesting revived songs in the genre!

Uchuu Senkan Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト) --- Old ---
Version
Taiko 1

x1 (322)
Taiko 6, Taiko Anime 1x3 (148)x4 (244) x5 (381)x6 (451)
Taiko 1, 6, Taiko Anime 1
140
none
 yama


Taiko 1 Muzukashii

Uchuu Senkan Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト) --- New ---
Version
Allx3 (66)x4 (109) x5 (169)x6 (266)
Taiko 14, Taiko DS 3, Taiko iOS
140
none
 yama


Original Opening theme

This is the theme song of the eponymous science fiction anime series, Space Battleship Yamato, written by Leiji Matsumoto (松本零士) way back in 1974. Set in the 22th century, it tells the adventures of the brave crew of the Yamato, an old 2nd Wold War battleship turned into a modern spaceship, under the skillful supervision of captain Avatar. Between 1974-1981, the network Yomiuri TV has aired the saga's three series, and its success spawned a few movie specials, a laser disc game by Taito and a recent live action movie based on the adventures in the first season.

Due to the spaceship's humble origins, the anime is slightly different when localized in different regions; and so the Westernized version of the show is known as Space Cruiser Yamato in the United States (and Star Blazers in nearly all of Europe), and both the ship and the crew gained names more familiar to the Western population; the Yamato spaceship, for example, was renamed Argo, based on Greek mythology instead of Japanese.

Space Battleship Yamato's main theme, sung by Isao Sasaki (ささき いさお), is one of the very first Anime songs in Taiko. After a low-rated Muzukashii debut on the first arcade (to be honest that 1* Muzukashii was considered high tier already during its debut), it returned in the first PS2 Anime compilation with enhanced audio and all the four difficulties complete. Its old 6* Oni was an average mix of 1/16 and 1/12 spacing.

December 2010 saw the release of the Uchuu Senkan Yamato live action movie, and so the Taiko 14/DS 3 generation brought back its theme song from the grave, with a new singer. The song remains at 6* Oni, however instead of increasing its notes like what is usually done to old charts being updated, the total combo is cut by almost half instead, featuring even simpler clusters than the old one had.