Other than the' ac' in their titles, there's not much that binds this series of songs together with a few exceptions, but it's sort of a fun way to present a vibe which each arcade version represents, although quite a few versions have been skipped along the way. Taiko 12 and Taiko 13 did not have an ac. series song of their own; however, there was one April Fools incident involving Taiko 12 in which a fake announcement for a song named 'xenon ac.12' was released on Japanese Taiko fansites. This was taken down immediately.
Right, so now we move on to the real songs in the ac. series. Five so far, with the latest being on Taiko no Tatsujin, the HD version arcade.
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Numujika ac.10 (ヌムジカ ac.10)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All arcade, Taiko DS 2, Wii 4 | x3 (145) | x5 (191) | x7 (446) | x9 (631) |
| Taiko Wii 5, Taiko 3DS 3 | x4 (145) | x5 (191) | x8 (446) | x9 (631) |
Taiko 10, 14, Taiko DS 2, Taiko Wii 4, 5, Taiko 3DS 3, CD 2008
153
none
numu10First song in the ac. series, and an important song in the Taiko 10 generation. One of the five Namco Original songs to be revived on Taiko no Tatsujin 14. The title can be romanized into 'new musica', a new type of music. Numujika ac.10 sounds like fun carnival music, composed by Oogami Masako (大上昌子), one of the two people responsible for the songs in this series. It was also probably because of the popular vote for revival that its sequel song, Arumujika ac14.0V, was made.
Numujika features many short, consecutive drumrolls, short clusters and balloon notes, with a particular affinity for two-note clusters and handswitches. In Taiko 14's version, some of the short consecutive drumrolls in the middle of the song are turned into short balloon notes, changing the score slightly, but the total number of notes remain the same.
STAGE 0.ac11| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 11, Taiko 0 M, all consoles | x5 (157) | x7 (404) | x8 (503) | x9 (765) |
| Taiko 11 Asia | x5 (157) | x7 (404) | x8 (502) | x9 (763) |
Taiko 11, 11 Asia, Taiko 0 M (promo only), Taiko 0 K, Taiko Wii 1, 5, Taiko PSP DX, CD 2008 138 none stg0Second song in the ac. series, composed by Masubuchi Yuuji, the second person to compose an ac. series song. It was released on Taiko no Tatsujin 11 and later ported to Taiko no Tatsujin Wii. Sounds like a rock concert and according to fans, is arguably the hardest ac. song to date, on account of the long streams in the middle of the song and notes that barely make any sense.
The full stop being in front of the letters 'ac' isn't an error, it was intended by Namco. God knows why they want to play with it, but the fact they were conscious of its position the entire time was made clear during the Arumujika ac14.0V blog post.
On Wii 1, the song's title was changed to small letters instead of all caps (Stage 0.ac11). The 11 Asia notecharts on Muzukashii and Oni has a few notes taken out, effectively breaking the Nam-Combo.
Akuukan Yuuei ac12.5 (亜空間遊泳ac12.5)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All arcade, Taiko PSP DX, Wii 2 | x5 (144) | x7 (247) | x8 (625) | x10 (777) |
| Taiko Wii 5 | x5 (144) | x7 (247) | x8 (625) | x9 (777) |
Taiko 12.5, 13, Taiko 0 K (promo only), Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 2, 5, CD Donderful 153 none akukanThird song in the ac. series, released first on Taiko 12 Zoryoban (or Taiko 12.5), Taiko 13 and Taiko Wii 2, and used as the battle song with Tellurium, the speed mecha, in Taiko Wii 2. The first ac. song to appear on multiple arcade versions outside of its own, it was ported to Taiko 13. Although its difficulty stars exceed that of all other ac. songs, people argue that it is not as hard as Stage 0. Continues the rock music theme, except this time it sounds more like outer space. Translated, the title means 'swimming in space'. Same composer as in STAGE 0, which is Masubuchi Yuuji.
Although it doesn't have the lengthy streams of STAGE 0, it has a massive load of smaller ones, all of which require hand-switching and changing of speed from 1/16 to 1/24 and back. At this intermediate BPM it's also good practice for mastering the more complicated patterns in Taiko.
Arumujika ac14.0V (アルムジカac14.0V)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 14, Wii 3 | x5 (111) | x7 (222) | x7 (333) | x9 (555) |
| Taiko 0, Wii 5, + | x4 (111) | x7 (222) | x7 (333) | x9 (555) |
Taiko 14, Taiko 0, Taiko Wii 3, 5, Taiko +, CD Donderful 140 none numu14Although it breaks the naming tradition a little, adding an extra '.0V' to the back of 'ac14', Arumujika is the direct sequel to Numujika ac.10. Namco aren not kidding when they said this; Arumujika shares the same composer as Numujika ac.10, Oogami Masako. It comes back to 9* on Oni , has the same style of tough note patterns as ac.10, and revives the lighthearted funfair music from ac.10. (as opposed to the rock music in ac.11 and 12.5). Before Taiko 14's launch, keen Taiko fans will notice a secret pre-release screenshot hidden away in one of the blog posts, in the source code.
No one knew which song this was until Taiko 14's release (and an updated picture on the blog finally shows the title). It's identified as a picture of Arumujika ac14.0V's impossible balloon note, which needs 444 hits to break over the time of just one beat! (Fun fact: to break the balloon note, you'd need a speed of 1036 hits per second) It's not the only triple number in Arumujika, in fact there's a whole sequence of them. The total number of notes, from Kantan to Oni are 111 (Kantan), 222 (Futsuu), 333 (Muzukashii), 444 (balloon note), 555 (Oni). Pretty amazing number play this time.
Since it's Numujika part 2, the Taiko Team were thinking of ways to play with the number 'two'. They tried different languages, and eventually the 'aru' part was derived from the romanization of the Chinese word for 'two' (which is pronounced 'er' in Chinese). The '.0V' at the back does indeed refer to voltage. The team had a 'parade of electrical appliances' theme in mind when composing this, and naturally appliances = electricity = voltage. Before the name was finalized, they had five other name proposals, which didn't go over so well.
「リヌムジカａ．ｃ１４」 (Rinumujika a.c14) (I don't get their obsession with putting the full stop at different positions every time)
「Ｒｅ．ヌムジカａｃ１４」 (Re. Numujika ac14)
「スムジカａｃ１４．」 (Sumujika ac14.) ('su' here probably sounds like 'two')
「ヌムジ力（ちから）ＡＣ１４．０Ｖ」 (Numujika (chikara) AC14.0V) (what)
「ヌ・ジムカーナａ．ｃ．１．４．」 (Nu. Jimukaana a.c.1.4) (people are weird)
3Q-4U-AC00| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 0 | x3 (138) | x6 (202) | x4 (276) | x8 (539) |
| Taiko 0.5, Wii 5 | x3 (138) | x6 (202) | x4 (276) | x7 (539) |
Taiko 0, Taiko Wii 5, CD Donderful 168 none ogm10tFirst seen as one of Taiko 0's Banapassport unlockable songs, 3Q-4U-AC00, the third ac. song composed by Oogami Masako, is a strange turning point for the series. Not only is the title ten times more cryptic than the previous four, it also eschews the obsession with the single full stop in every one of the songs (and uses dashes instead). As for more major changes, this is the first ac song to have vocals, like SORA-IV did for its own series. The voice is a robotic voice similar to the one heard in Taiko Wii 3's Mitsubachi Daisakusen minigame, but is actually a synthesized voice provided by Oogami Masako as well. The songID also hints to both the singer's identity (ogm=Oogami).
Look closer at the title and you'll see that it makes up a simple sentence with number and letter play, '3Q' being 'Sankyu' or 'thank you' in romanized Japanese, and '4U' being exactly what it sounds like in English 'for you', completing the sentence as 'Thank you for you', an appreciation of how supportive the fans have been for the series throughout its first 10 years (as the ID's 10t also hints to). It is also the reason behind the current nickname for Taiko HD, as 'zero' would mean a reset to beginning and starting fresh, which is what the HD machine plans to do, and is also the reason why this blog decided to call the ambiguous HD 'Taiko no Tatsujin' as 'Taiko 0' to avoid confusion with the arcade version of identical name from 10 years ago.
The lyrics reflect this sentence accurately, because the voice is imagined to be what the arcade cabinet would sound like if it were alive and can talk, and are of appreciation to players who have come face-to-face with Taiko for ten years and still supporting the franchise (a weird dream story by Masako led to the creation of this song). 3Q-4U being a Banapassport unlockable song allows the thank-you message to be delivered to not just anyone, but to the most avid of players and fans all over Japan.
Given the heightened difficulty standard of Taiko 0 it's surprising that AC00, with all its simple, basic clusters, would get an 8* on Oni. The star rating was fixed on the July 2012 update of Taiko 0. The simplistic chart was also a decision made by Namco.
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