Of all the new songs on Taiko 3DS, it also revived one of the oldest Taiko no Tatsujin original songs ever made. Let's dust it off and see what it is.
Kimi ni, Romantic. (君に、ロマンティック。) --- Old ---| Version |  |  |  |  /  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 1 | x4 (263) | |||
| Taiko 2 | x6 (263) | |||
| Taiko PS2 2 | x5 (176) | x4 (326/294/263) | x5 (263) |
Taiko 1, 2, Taiko PS2 2
130
Techno -> J-Pop -> Pop
ccb Kimi ni, Romantic. (君に、ロマンティック。) --- New ---| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (101) | x5 (171) | x5 (263) | x6 (326) |
Taiko 3DS 130 Pop -> Namco Original ccbDirectly from the first Taiko no Tatsujin videogame ever made, Kimi ni Romantic (literally meaning 'To you, Romantic') wrests the record of having the longest hiatus between two of its latest appearances on Taiko, after almost 11 years. The creation of this song goes back even further to when Taiko had not even existed.
Composed by Yano Yoshito (矢野義人; Konya wa Homi and Yami no Tamashii are among his works) and sung by Denji Sano (佐野電磁) - aka sanodg and father of Rare Hero and Taiko Time - Kimi ni, Romantic was one of the very first experiments to catch on to popular musical genres of the time in Japan. The lyrics easily resemble the archetype of a typical love rock song in the late 80s.
As happened with many of the oldest Namco Originals, the song's creation involved a 'musical muse' as inspiration source for the song's style. Kimi no Romantic's very own inspiration were the songs of the Japanese rock band C-C-B, active until 1989. Starting in 1982 as the Coconut Boys, C-C-B's influence in Japan is still going strong that jukebox machines still save a record or two from their hits.
One of these, named Romantic Ga Tomaranai (Romanticが止まらない) has been used as a model for Namco's very own rendition to the band, so strong that the final product stayed in the J-Pop category (and related sub-categories) all the way back to the oldest arcade and console games! The song's ID (ccb) reflects this tribute as well. Later on, Romantic Ga Tomaranai itself became a playable song in the second PSP game, but I'll save the story for another week, as we'll going deeper into C-C-B's history.
Kimi ni, Romantic's Donderful/Oni and Muzukashii charts have been linked since the old days, and this connection still holds up on 3DS. Starting out as a Muzukashii-only challenge (later put as Donderful mode on Taiko 2), Taiko PS2 2 gave the song one of the few Muzukashii charts to have a higher notecount than its respective Oni/Donderful mode, with a forked-path play (Normal Route is the older Muzu/Donderful modes from Taiko 1 and 2). Taiko 3DS set the old Muzukashii's Master route as the new Oni mode with a generous 6-star rating, while the other modes were renewed, with a completely new chart for Kantan.
On Taiko 3DS's Story mode, Kimi ni, Romantic is also used as the song for the boss fight against Ashumo, the flower spirit of the forest.
