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Saturday, July 18, 2015

Song of the Week! 18 July 2015


Today's featured song comes from a J-Pop band that Taiko games haven't seen for a really long time. How long, you say? Check this feature for yourself to find out!

 Kenka Joutou (喧嘩上等) Kishidan
Version
Allx3 (154)x4 (209) x5 (380)x8 (516)
 Taiko 0 K to 0 R, Taiko Wii U 2, Taiko +
 160
 none
 kenkaj


Kimidori Version's second-to-last new debut for the J-Pop genre, Kenka Joutou (lit. 'Quarrel Choice') has made its debut in the Japanese musical scene with the release of the namesake single on May 21st, 2014. The song belongs to the pop rock/funk group Kishidan (氣志團, lit. "The Knights"), founded in 1997 and still active to this day. It's the second song from the band coming to Taiko, after the always-popular One Night Carnival which was released over 10 years ago, back in the Taiko 3 days!

Coming from the Chiba prefecture, the core band is made of three main members: vocalist Show, dancer/screamer Hikaru and guitsrist Tommy, with the addition of two guitarists Ranma and Matsu between 1998/1999 and former drummer Yukki, retired from the band since 2013 in order to be treated for dystonia. Kishidan has been is notorious in Japan for their fondness of singing about youth issues along the years, between old and new generations; this is also mirrored by the characteristic outfits their members are used to wear on stage performances to mirror that, wearing custom versions of old Japanese gakuran (boys' school uniforms) in the style of bōsōzoku uniforms worn by kamikaze people. The band is also known for taking comedy spin on other popular Japanese songs, such as Ken Matsudaira's Matsuken Samba II and Nana's Glamorous Sky.

Kenka Joutou is one of the two songs included in Kishidan's only single for 2014, composed by guitarist Hitomi 'Tommy' Saionji (西園寺瞳) and lyricized/sung by band leader Show Ayanocozey (綾小路 翔). After having reached positive peaks at the Origin Daily and Weekly charts (respectively peaking 6th and 5th place), the song has also been used as the opening theme of the TV Drama adaptation of Gokuaku Gumbo (極悪がんぼ)

One of Kimidori Version's highest-rated new J-Pop tracks, Kenka Joutou's Oni mode brings back reminiscent elements from previous iconic Taiko charts, such as a taste of Ikenai Taiyou's consecutive cluster sections and the Taiko Time Ura Oni notechart prank of putting the very last notes to hit at a multiplied scrolling value at the very end of the Taiko cut, after several empty note stanzas and the main music seemingly fading to silence as usual. Beat Stanzas ticks are also disappearing after a while, so players have to keep the song's rhythm in memory in order to achieve a no-errors play!