Hi again! Been a while since we last covered a major eventful song to hit the arcade, so let's get right to it!
Karamari no Hana (カラ鞠の花) Harunaba feat. Yuzuki Yukari
| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (209) | x7 (298) | x7 (462) | x10 (774) |
Taiko 0 S, Taiko 3DS 2, Taiko Wii U 2, Taiko +
148
none
karamrThis song is one of three Vocaloid songs contributed by a frequent face in Taiko's song-creation competitions: Harunaba. We've featured him before a few years back on the Hanaoto Ura Hyoushi weekly article (back when the chart for this song wasn't even released yet!). Fast-forward two years, he's placed a submission on yet another song-creation contest for 2016, so it's high time we talked about his latest winning entry!
It's interesting to note that Harunaba has been quite varied in his choice of Vocaloids for all of his winning songs; for Kohi no Aji to, he used GUMI, for Hanaoto Ura Hyoushi, the ubiquitous Hatsune Miku, and for this song, Yuzuki Yukari (結月ゆかり), a relatively under-represented Vocaloid developed by AH-Software and has a slightly deeper quality in her voice than either GUMI or Miku. In fact, this is the first (and currently the only!) song in Taiko to use Yuzuki Yukari. Karamari no Hana ('Karamari' referring to small patterned balls; not calamari as in the fried squid rings!) is a tense rock song which makes excellent use of the deep quality of Yukari's voice. The lyrics matches the song's slightly depressing tune; about the difficulties of life. The chorus ends with a wish of hope for a better future.
There were no expectations as to the difficulty of each winning song chosen in the CreoFUGA 2013 contest, but Karamari no Hana was used as one of three songs in the final round, which meant a 10* Oni chart; though it's the easiest one to clear when compared to its finals counterparts Calculator and Hurtling Boys. Part of this is due to its low BPM, which hampers its ability to be absurdly difficult. Karamari makes up for it with a really technical Oni chart, filled to the brim with handswitch streams, backbeats and 1/24 stream mixups, making for a song that's easy to clear, but hard to Full Combo or get good accuracy on. Its slow, meandering style lends itself well as the first song in the 10-Dan Ranking course in Taiko no Tatsujin Murasaki.
