Let's move away from Namco Originals for a bit.
Natsu Matsuri (夏祭り) Whiteberry --- Old ---| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 2 | x3 (172) | x5 (312) | x6 (389) | x8 (361/300/172) |
| Taiko 3 | x4 (172) | x6 (312) | x5 (389) | x8 (361/300/172) |
| Taiko PS2 1 | x4 (172) | x6 (312) | x5 (389) | x8 (389) |
Taiko 2, 3, Taiko PS2 1, CD Blue
170
none
natsu Natsu Matsuri (夏祭り) Whiteberry --- New ---| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 4 | x4 (172) | x6 (312) | x5 (389) | x8 (488) |
| Taiko 5 | x3 (135) | x3 (172) | x5 (389) | x8 (488) |
| Taiko 6 | x3 (135) | x3 (172) | x5 (389) | x7 (488) |
| Taiko 7 to 9, Taiko PS2 5, Taiko PSP 1 | x3 (135) | x2 (172) | x5 (389) | x6 (488) |
| Taiko DS 1 | x3 (131) | x2 (174) | x6 (389) | x6 (488) |
| Taiko Wii 1 | x3 (141) | x2 (180) | x6 (389) | x6 (488) |
| Taiko 10 to 14, 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 4, Taiko 3DS, Taiko 3DS2, Taiko Wii U, Taiko PS Vita, Taiko iOS | x3 (135) | x2 (172) | x6 (389) | x6 (488) |
| Taiko 7 onwards, all console (2P) | x3 (135) | x2 (172) | x5/6 (389) | x6 (488/488) (video) |
Taiko 4 to 14, Taiko 0, Medal 1, 2, Taiko PS2 5, Taiko PSP 1, DX, Taiko DS 1, Taiko Wii 1, 4, Taiko 3DS, Taiko 3DS2, Taiko Wii U, Taiko PS Vita, Taiko PS4, Taiko Switch, Taiko + 141 none natsuFinally got to this song eh? The most popular song in the entire J-Pop genre in Taiko. Natsu Matsuri (literally, Summer Festival) is one of the songs with the highest inclusion rates, being on 8 console games and 17 arcades (up to Taiko 0). That's all the arcades save for the very first one, and not even the Asian Taiko arcades were left out! It also appeared on the two Medal no Tatsujin games, too!
The song was originally a composition of the band Jitterin' Jin, but it became really popular in Japan thanks to the cover made on August 9th 2000 by Whiteberry, a five-piece all-girl pop/rock band founded six years earlier. The young members of the band - vocalist Yuki Maeda, guitarist Aya Inatsuki, bassist Yukari Hasegawa, keyboardist Rimi Mizusawa, and drummer Erika Kawamura - are all lifelong friends who met each other in elementary school, while Maeda and Kawamura are also cousins. The group disbanded on March 2004 because of Aya, Yukari, Rimi, and Erika's college commitment.
Natsu Matsuri, although not Whiteberry's creation, was their 3rd single and quickly became the number-one hit of the band, and it was promptly put into Taiko, with enduring popularity even until today. The notes have been remade once before, though it was not an overhaul done in one version; Taiko 4 has the current Oni notechart but kept the old Kantan and Futsuu for one more go. The Kantan and Futsuu for Taiko DS1 and Wii1 are also slightly different because of the respective versions' gimmick notes being in the song.
Originally thought to be hard, Natsu Matsuri saw a steady drop in difficulty star rating from 8 to 7 and eventually to 6, even with the tougher Oni notes of today. The forked paths were trashed in favor of a more streamlined notechart. The note patterns of the first and second stanzas of the song are reversed in 2P play, but there's no change in total score (another example of switched 2P notes is in Soul Calibur II) On the arcade popularity rankings, Natsu Matsuri is consistently in the top 10, if not in first place, and that contributed to why it's still around right now.
The popularity burst of this song on Taiko throughout the years let Natsu Matsuri to be one of the first J-Pop licenses to be featured in Synchronica, BNSI's second arcade rhythm game franchise.
