Saturday, January 24, 2015

Song of the Week! 24 January 2015


Even if really easy songs are becoming rarer and rarer in our journey through the third arcade generation (and all the derivative console games after it), that doesn't mean they are gone for good (and with the ever increasing difficulty, older songs would drop into these easy ranks too)! Today's feature is the latest 2* Oni to be released.

 Monologue (モノローグ) Oresama Kingdom
Version
Allx2 (64)x2 (95)x1 (121)x2 (144)
 Taiko Wii 4
 94
 none
 oresam


With the fourth Taiko game for Wii being a middle ground between the old and current rating standards, it's safe to assume that this song's modes would have been nearly the same (rating-wise) in both scenarios. Monologue is one of the opening themes for the Original Video Animations (OVA, for short) of the manga series Oresama Kingdom (オレ様キングダム), also known as Kings of My Love.

Written by Chitose Yagami (八神千歳) and serialized for the Japanese magazine Ciao, this romantic comedy is about the life of high-school manga artist Nono Nonohara, who draws inspiration for her works from three handsome boys in her school: Shun Kurosawa, Shinogu Hakuba, and Hikaru Akagi. One day, the secret was broken and her relation between the three boys changes throughout the manga's run, which is still running from its debut in October 2009 and counts 12 Tankobon to date.

Not much in the way of media marketing was done for Oresama Kingdom (except a Nintendo DS video-game by Namco Bandai, back in 2011), the series got 14 OVAs exclusively for Ciao readers, as part of the magazine's special DVD supplements. Composed and sung by independent Saitama singer Kannoyuuki (カンノユウキ), Monologue can be heard in episodes from 3 to 9.

As Kettei-Ban was released on the same day as the Oresama Kingdom game on DS, Taiko received Monologue as a way to advertise both the series and the aforementioned portable title, also featuring a custom in-game message from series protagonist Nono Nonohara after clearing the song once. It's a really slow and easy song, with very plain note patterns; easier than most mid to high Muzukashii songs, in fact!