The Wii article was actually published after this one, but this goes last because it would be easier to see on top, as this introduction is for no ordinary song; it's Namco's long-awaited promise to tell us more about the 2000 series' most difficult and enigmatic entry, Joubutsu 2000. Yep, two years late, and still a steadfast Wii exclusive.
Linda AI-CUE and Masubuchi are on today's song feature! It's been a long time since we had them on an interview like this.
As most players deduced on the first day, the broken title pieced together to form a 2000 song, and it was indeed an effort from the both of them to conceal the name. They were drafting out ideas for a new name for a 2000 song, but couldn't find any creative way to present it. How did they eventually come up with the broken title idea? Well, it involved a lot of scribbling, breaking up, combining, and usage of symbols.
So many rejected ideas....they really were trying. 'Man-ka Imu' was pitched at one time as an even deeper encryption after the separation into stroke portions, but that was dropped.
The title is drafted, now for the song!
Linda wanted a song that has nothing to do with anything Taiko no Tatsujin has ever done before. A recorder solo was done (the flute) but the rhythm was not difficult enough to follow. Masubuchi came in to edit the song, and in came the chaotic drumming in the background.
Though it all sounded really cool at this point, again it wasn't enough. Shoko-san was pulled in for the project, feeling that the song needed a 'cool-sounding foreign language' for the chorus, which was the slow middle portion, hence the sad, almost creepy French voice provided by him (the other Taiko Team contributor with knowledge of a foreign language is MC Linn).
The two were really excited to release the final song! Why was so much effort put in for this? Because the team really did intend for the 2000 series to end at this point, along with Shimedore 2000 for the arcade. It didn't end though, everyone knows that already, but this has always been seen as a 'final challenge' for all players.
Masubuchi, who is the person behind the drums, muses about the complicated beat structure of the song provided by all three components, recorder, drums and voice, to create a truly chaotic mix. A very high difficulty song with constantly changing beat structures, changing tempo? The aim of making Joubutsu was also partly to confuse players with this tactic, making the song just that much harder to master.
Joubutsu 2000 really is a mess. A very beautiful mess. Have you played it?
Note: Nothing is mentioned about the repeated mentions of 37564 'minagoroshi' in the song. Best to keep some part of this song mysterious and scary eh?
