First video of Juukinzou Fugitive

From last weekend's NicoNico Conference 2, we had seven songs that would make their way onto Sorairo not too long from now. Among them are the four GUMI songs from last year's CreoFUGA contest. Juukinzou Fugitive comes from said contest and it's made by Ryuwitty, the same person who won a spot in the song composition contest for Taiko PSP DX!

A video for Juukinzou Fugitive (重金属フューギティブ) with its Oni patterns is already made available for everyone to see on Youtube, and... wow.

Promotional songs in Taiko no Tatsujin (3rd gen arcade)

Starting from Sorairo Version, the latest generation of Taiko no Tatsujin arcades moves forward once more by taking advantage of the flexible nature of its songlist to add promotional songs or subtract other songs specially for events held in Japan. These special songs include prerelease promos which will later be available on the public Sorairo arcade, and others which would remain exclusive to their respective events.

NicoNico Conference exclusive song videos

The weekend is over all too soon and it brings the NicoNico Conference 2 to a resounding end. All the Taiko songs promised to be shown there were all there, including the seven Gumi/IA songs to be added in a future update, but right now let's concentrate on the other three which would probably not have a chance!

Song of the Week! 27 April 2013

Finally, our Anime month is coming to an end with another double feature! The first one was requested by a random otaku (no seriously, it's the requester's nickname), while the 2nd one is here to fill our monthly Ura slot.

Petition to bring Taiko no Tatsujin Sorairo Version out of Japan!

Sign the petition!

The aim of Taiko Time as a blog is to bring Taiko no Tatsujin news and updates and information about everything related to the rhythm game series to an international audience, which is important for us who can't read Japanese well. Most of us have access to the older and current Taiko no Tatsujin console games. Some lucky fellows get to play an arcade version, all the way up to Taiko 14.

...but nothing since Taiko 14 has ever been released outside Japan; since the new HD cabinet and network was introduced, no Taiko has made its way out of the country despite lukewarm interest and some really passionate fangroups in countries who have Taiko no Tatsujin arcade cabinets. And it's been two whole years since then, and still no Taiko HD.

Interest is dying out and fangroups are getting irritated at why Namco aren't exporting Taiko HD. Is it licensing? The network issues? Translation? Profit-oriented? Who knows?

What we do know is that we're making this huge effort to get the message over to Namco, and we intend to make it larger, way larger, than the occasional pestering on Taiko Team's Twitter; we're sending physical letters and the results of an online petiiton straight to Namco Bandai, and we will make ourselves heard! Support the cause and convince Namco to release Taiko Sorairo Version outside of Japan!

Sign the petition by following the link above, logging in with your Facebook if you have one, or providing a name and email address, then click the Sign button to complete it!

Namco Taiko Blog (26 April 2013) - Puzzle&Dragons on Sorairo arcades

The "limited-songs-on-arcades" fever is becoming quite a thing on Sorairo arcade and another team-up with GungHo's Puzzle and Dragons is going to lighten up this trend once more.

Namco Taiko Blog (25 April 2012) - A May of Donchare and Children

Another month wraps up, which means that it's time for another Don Challenge-related blog post! There's also something about this weekend's NicoNico conference as well.

Taiko no Tatsujin Sorairo Version bootup

A video of Sorairo's initializing screens before it boots up for the day's work. It's not much different from Katsu-Don's boot process, but you get to see the XMB menu interface in full clarity for the first 2 seconds or so, and the licenses on the title screen too.

Made by You: Surgam Identidem and more

Another round of your custom-made Taiko charts, this time with a well balanced mix from four different people!

Kanjani Eight exclusive Taiko Sorairo charts

Kanjani no Shiwake Eight is a variety TV program that has featured arcade Taiko being played on-stage several times, and they have 10 J-Pop songs in a special Sorairo build that is only playable at the TV Asahi station! All of them are accumulated over the course of the show for the past few months.

There are ten videos so watch at your own time. The first one is shown above,  T.W.L by the band Kanjani Eight, which is a cool 6* Oni (dificulty 3/4/6/6)

Here are the rest of the songs. Remember that they're technically authentic, just not open to the public machines in the arcade, like the three NicoNico Conference exclusive songs. Some of the artist names are missing so assistance would be great!

• Zurui Onna (ズルい女) - Sharam-Q, 3*, 4*, 5*, 6*
• HONEY - ???, 3*, 4*, 5*, 6*
• Aoppana (あおっぱな) - Kanjani Eight (glitch; all are displayed as 1*)
• Aruite Ikou (歩いていこう) - JUN SKY WALKER(S), 3*, 4*, 5*, 6* (not to be confused with Ikimono Gakari's song of the same name)
• survival dAnce ~no no cry more~ - TRF, 3*, 4*, 5*, 6*
• ultra soul - B'z, 3*, 4*, 5*, 6*
• Naniwa Iroha Bushi (浪花いろは節) - Kanjani Eight, ?, ?, 6*, 6* (Taikojiro reproduced)
• Chiisana Koi no Uta (小さな恋のうた) - MONGOL800, ?, ?, 7*, 6* (Taikojiro reproduced)
• Yuuyaku (誘惑) - Kanjani Eight, ?, ?, 5*, 6* (Taikojiro reproduced)

Because of the private nature of these songs, not much information is being spread around except of course, through Kanjani no Shiawake Eight, and precious few have played these songs and took fotage of them all so kudos to the recorders! Who knows, maybe someday they'll appear in a public Taiko no Tatsujin machine.

Credits to tetsutaro for the find!

Song of the Week! 20 April 2013

Third anime week! The first song is a request by tetsutaro done via the chatbox to the left of this page, and the second song, another random anime of my choosing. I bet a lot of you will know this song.

Hanaoto Ura Hyoushi lyrics

Composer, lyrics: Harunaba
Vocals: Hatsune Miku

Videos of new Sorairo songs

The new Taiko Sorairo update goes live today, together with the three new songs! And HD captures of them so soon!



Dance My Generation, the second Golden Bomber song to be included in Taiko after Memeshikute features the same visual kei style. It's none too difficult; 7* Oni and slower than Memeshikute, with 325 notes. It is further split into 186 and 170 for Player 1 and Player 2 if the 2P Ura Oni is activated.



Happy Go Lucky! Dokidoki! Precure is the next iteration in a long line of Precure opening songs (there seems to be at least two new ones per arcade since Taiko 0 came out) and it's just as middling as the rest of 'em, at 5* Oni with 238 notes, and big notes everywhere.



The last of the three new songs, VAMOLA! Kyoryuger is slightly tougher than Precure, but with even less notes. 6* Oni with 223 total notes, and a really great song to practice drumrolls.

Namco Taiko Blog (18 April 2013): Hanaoto Ura Hyoushi lyrics

Dusting off the ages-old lyrics corner of the official blog is the only Vocaloid song in the eight CreoFUGA winners from last year. Hanaoto Ura Hyoushi! We'll translate the lyrics soon, of course.

There's a short interview with song creator Harunaba, who created this song with a very heavy Japanese atmosphere to it, and the lyrics are about love. The lyrics are pretty easy to understand, and the general theme is something that appears in all popular media, making it easy to work with!

I'll get the lyrics set up, probably by tonight or tomorrow.

Link to original post

Fanart: April Fools 2013

April Fools has come and gone and now that the dust has settled, let's feature one more Taiko-related piece of art created for the occasion. This was done by a pixiv artist called HalHAL to trick people into thinking X-Day 2000 was being ported from Taiko to Konami rhythm game Sound Voltex Booth. The original prank was very convincingly made too (with the 'illustration by' part giving it away).

So much for 76573...again. Well anyway, click on the picture to view it in fullsize and be sure to visit the artist's page to bookmark it or something if you have a pixiv account!

Made by You: Show Spirit and more

Been a slow month isn't it? Not many things to do...let's see some custom-made Taiko charts and songs, shall we? So far, I've covered everyone's creations, but haven't actually featured my own charts, so this edition will be a mix of your creations and mine! Let's all make new creative Taiko charts together!

Remember, we accept new charts anytime so post a video of it at our Facebook page!

Song of the Week! 13 April 2013

After featuring something from aquabluu/pikaby's favourite series last week, I think it's time to add something from my favorite anime, too! There's something different a bit later on, but let's see my personal favorite first.

Off Rock lyrics

Composer: Misumi Yuri
Vocals: Yukiko Watanabe (渡辺有希子)

Namco Taiko Blog (11 April 2013) - Taiko no Tatsujin x NicoNico Conference 2, the details

The highly-anticipated NicoNico Super Conference 2 is going to begin in about two weeks (on April 27-28), and today's Taiko Team blog entry finally reveals the promo songs that will be in Sorairo during the event!

Namco Taiko Blog (10 April 2013) - Sorairo Version's first firmware update

The beginning of this year's Spring season has been pretty quiet for the Taiko gaming front, but an upcoming firmware update for the current arcade will surely make the wait a little more bearable.

Vocaloid Corner

Vocaloid started off as a singing voice synthesizer software, produced in the Pompeau Fabra University in Spain, developed and funded by music company Yamaha. Available in English and Japanese, it was described as being 'a singer in a box'. You can literally create a singing voice from nothing using this software. Vocaloid gained immense popularity in Japan soon after the release of the second engine (called Vocaloid 2) and Hatsune Miku (literally, 'first voice' Miku), the first of the Vocaloid software to label the synthesized voice with a character. It was released by Crypton Future Media in Japan.

The original target audience of the software was for professional producers (Vocaloid is sold at a very steep price with high system requirements). The proliferation of her songs was based on a number of factors: one, anyone can do it as long as they have a copy of the software, and two, it was a very useful and cheaper tool for budding music companies to produce their own vocals without resorting to human artists, who can be expensive to hire, and three, because it is well accepted by the cyber community, it was a great way for new artists and bands to promote themselves.

Nevertheless, the otaku fanbase grew rapidly because of immense user input, since it was so simple to create a song with the Vocaloid software and a simple music synthesizer, much like you would create a painting with Photoshop.

Whole articles could be written about the Vocaloid fandom in Japan, but this isn't a Vocaloid site, it's a Taiko no Tatsujin site. The first Vocaloid song, Melt by Hatsune Miku, was released for Taiko 12 Zoryoban, and the number of Vocaloid songs have increased exponentially since then, at first sticking to just Miku songs but later growing to encompass several different Vocaloids. All the songs were in the J-Pop genre until Taiko 14, where the entire thing was moved to Variety after it was decided that Vocaloid songs are not strictly J-Pop, and then gained its own genre on March 2013 after the release of Taiko no Tatsujin Sorairo Version.

Vocaloid
KAITO
MEIKO

Vocaloid 2
Hatsune Miku
Kagamine Rin/Len
Megpoid GUMI
Camui Gackpo
Megurine Luka

Vocaloid 3
IA
Yuzuki Yukari
ZOLA PROJECT
flower

Vocaloid 4
Mirai Komachi

Back to Song Series Showcase page

Song of the Week! 6 April 2013

Well guys, it's April and I just made up another month-long theme for this Saturday corner! Since the Anime genre is usually left behind when it comes to Song of the Week, this month's features will all be from this popular licensed genre. If there is an anime show you really like, feel free to post its name below in the comment section! We'll accept user requests for specific anime series as well.

Let's start this month with an opening theme, coming from aquabluu/pikaby's favourite anime.

Random: Taiko no Tatsujin Crusher

This video was uploaded in 2011 but has recently been making the rounds in a few other Taiko fansites through its original upload site on Nicovideo. We didn't embed that here because not everyone can view Nicovideo, but tetsu from the chatbox found a Youtube version of the Taiko no Tatsujin Crusher so we can put it here!

It is six minutes long; a full play, of a person doing stunts in front of a Taiko no Tatsujin 7. Swinging his arms wildly, smacking the Taiko with all his strength while making the maximum movement possible! It's more apparent when the note patterns are less complicated. Just watch! There really are some priceless moments in here.

Namco Taiko Blog (4 April 2013) - Taiko Music Contest Recap

Today's blog entry is just a reminder about the latest Taiko CreoFuga contests, both the Spring 2013 and the April Fool 2013 one.

That Super Familiar 2000 Thing

The final bonus track obtained by purchasing the digital album of Taiko 3DS background music. Ever wondered what it actually is? It's definitely familiar if you've been keeping up with the latest progress of the 2000 series songs!

....though it's a bit underwhelming.

Taiko no Tatsujin Plus - Introducing the Rose Pack

Are you a fan of Zeami's works on Taiko? Do you have a smartphone? If your answer to both the question is 'Yes', then prepare to jump out of your chairs!

First videos of Haryu

After yesterday's April Fools day, Azu♪'s second song for Taiko is finally recorded on Youtube. Much like the previous one (Toryu) it features several segments where the scrolling bar doubles up the speed, in a more gradual way than last time. Haryu also shares Toryu's star ratings (4/5/7/8), with 698 notes on Oni mode.



Much like Toryu, Haryu has a more difficult 9* Ura Oni, but it's being introduced right away instead of waiting for another console release! Unlike the troll 1/32 clusters on Toryu Ura, Haryu features a slightly easier to FC chart with speedups and slowdowns, and long 1/12 note streams with a high notecount of 833. Very fun chart!

Don Challenge list (Sorairo Version)

Don Challenge (shortened to 'DonChare' (ドンチャレ)) was introduced in the July 2012 update of Taiko no Tatsujin (HD) for Banapassport-equipped arcade players, which is a set of 11 goals that has to be cleared by playing the game and meeting certain criteria. The challenges change on a monthly basis, and once a certain number of them are cleared, the player can unlock new songs and titles for themselves too! 10 of the goals can be cleared by individual players, and the 11th one is a group effort, contributed by all players with Banapassports.

The songs unlocked through Don Challenge will be available to all other players in the following month when the goals are renewed, so it is an incentive for regular arcade-goers to clear goals so that they may be able to play new songs earlier than everyone else and unlock more new content.

Below is the list of Don Challenge goals made for the Taiko Sorairo Version firmware and the content they unlock. These will also be listed in the related unlock article.

Namco Taiko Blog (1 April 2013): DOKODON FIGHTERS Theme Song!

The epic fighting game prank from last year is back, and now bigger than ever!