Feature: 2017 - The Year in Hindsight

Another year has come to an end, leading us to the usual tradition of looking back what the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise has granted to its fans in its latest 12 months of activity. The year 2017 has been one of those really eventful ones for the series in recent memory (for better or worse), so join our last chronicle-based efforts of English-spread news casting about the franchise!

As usual, see you after the jump.

Song of the Week! 30 December 2017

For the last song feature of 2017, let's chronicle the story of the very last permanent-deletion tune of this closing year, which -believe it or not- does not involve the arcade scene, for once...

Namco Taiko Blog (28 December 2017) - Happy New Year, da-don!

With the picture above, the Team wishes a head start towards the new year, for what is now the shortest post ever published from their part!

Link to original post

Behind the Drums: IOSYS

*currently Work-In Progress page*

Founded on October 10th, 1998, IOSYS is a music-oriented doujin group basedin the Japanese sub-prefecture of Sapporo, with the bulk of its core contributors coming either from Hokkaido and Kanto. The doujin's main activities are the creation of music and animation clips of all sorts, which are often used to go along with their works, ranging from original songs to parody/cover/tribute renditions of other works in Japanese pop culture. The unit currently counts more than 20 contributors between composers, lyricists, singer and animation/presentation artists.

IOSYS's online rise to popularity came by thanks to their custom arrangements of songs from the Touhou Project series, although in general rhythm gaming its presence can be felt by the original song production portfolio that intertwines many music game series. In Taiko no Tatsujin, the doujin group is more known by its original productions, although playable Touhou-related arrangements tend to be released from time to time as well

Twitter Snippets (December 25 2017): Huis Ten Bosch 3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin on Final Stretch... Finally!

【お知らせ】ハウステンボス様にて好評運営中「プロジェクションマッピング太鼓の達人」は、いよいよ2018年1月28まで！（2018年1月29日以降、運営を終了いたします）
冬休みにハウステンボスへ遊びに行く予定のある人は、ぜひ遊んでほしいドーン！https://t.co/uuK5jKOl5A#taiko765

— 太鼓の達人 (@taiko_team) December 25, 2017

After more than 3 years since July 2014 and countless extensions, Huis Ten Bosch's 3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin installation is finally going to end on January 28, 2018 with no more extensions. That would mean that if you still haven't got a chance to try it, you might want to catch this last operating month of the attraction.

Across Japan: The AC0 Asia Fan-survey

In parallel with the recent developments of Donders dissatisfied with the stagnant status quo on greater Asia's Taiko no Tatsujin arcade scene, here is another way for your voice to be heard beyond awashing the tournament rankings.

From the creators of the Hiroba-nai Movement, the Taiwanese Donder community also spearheaded a fan-survey targeted at Donders all over the world, to collect your views on the almost-four-years-old Asian version.

Link to the survey

(via Google Forms)

When the organizers have compiled the collective views of worldwide Donders (cut-off date is December 31 2017), they will be communicating with Bandai Namco/Taiko Team to hopefully bring about the necessary changes.

This post will be pinned to the top until December 31 2017.

Song of the Week! 24 December 2017

Oh no, I almost forgot to write for the weekly column, when Lokamp is not too available to do so this week! I don't write much of this format other than those times talking about underrated (difficulty-wise) songs like a few Christmases ago, and my online time is also occupied with PuyoQuest and their many events and collabs, like last month when they suddenly collabed with He-...

That's it! That thing is in Taiko no Tatsujin too! I can talk about that!
(Disclaimer: This feature does not have anything to do with PuyoQuest. If you want one that does (marginally), check out this one from last year.)

Across Japan - Canned Heat: December Facebook Tournament Results

With the first foray of the Hiroba-nai Movement concluded, we have created such a scene with 14/20 top names in Oni department and 17/20 in Muzukashii department spotting the ひろばない name. Great job for securing the top ranks... whoever you guys are.

...except the accompanying text post was as canned as ever, simply stating the winners with no additional comment like they used to at the beginning. This also led to a mob of Donders commenting "canned" (likely angrily or exasperatedly) as response.

The next tournament will span the January 13~21, and the song choices be announced on January 10. We'll see everyone regroup then.

Link to original post

First Video: PS4 Donder Pack Vol. 3 and Yellow ver. Update G/V 10.09

Today marks quite a load of brand new songs and notechart from both PS4-1 and AC0 Yellow ver.! Let's unpack each of them now.

オリジナルミライ Original Mirai (3/3/5/8, notes on Oni)
　　　feat.マモル (nhhmbase) feat. Mamoru (nhhmbase)
Over the peppy vocals are a nice selection of mid-★8 worthy patterns consisting of mostly triples, with 24th single-color quadruples peppered around. Gets more technical as the guitar solo bridge comes around.

Twitter Snippets (18 December 2017) - t+pazolite's Latest Album: the Full Reveal!

【告知】
t+pazolite 4thアルバム、情報公開です！！！
出すよ！！！🙌🙌

もう1曲は「Contrapasso」のparadisoとinferonoを一つにし(てロングにし)ちゃいました！！https://t.co/vinewWdNxv pic.twitter.com/NnoTs843Lh

— とぱぞらい@C93 金東A-86a (@tpazolite) 18 dicembre 2017

The time of t+pazolite's album-teasing action is over, as its intended release date (the end-of-the-year Comiket of 2017) is approaching fast. With that in mind, have a handy tweet with all the featured songs!

Bearing the title of Good Evening, HOLLOWood, the artist's 4th solo album will have original songs alongside extended editions of tracks that were made for thythm games, as we disclosed in the past: CHUNITHM's Infantoon Fantasy, Groove Coaster's QLWA, the maimai/CHUNITHM cross-over song Contrapasso in a version that labels itself as a "middle-of-the-road" new version and, of course, Taiko no Tatsujin's !!!Chaos Time!!!.

It's good custom, however, to take a gander at the last two tracks, which are remixes for two of the music-game-famed tracks we've just disclosed. Sure enough, one of the two is !!!Chaos Time!!!, which is going to have a remixed version made by Rei Furuba (古葉玲), the latest addition to the HARDCORE TANO*C label as the nick-named Kobaryo.

あと、来年夏もですよ。忘れないでね。 pic.twitter.com/o32ZhqtfPh

— とぱぞらい@C93 金東A-86a (@tpazolite) 18 dicembre 2017

During the same day, t+pazolite also revealed that there's going to be a mini-album to serve as a follow-up to the incoming release, containing 4 mystery songs and slated to a Comiket 94 (Summer 2018) release.

Across Japan (December 18 2017) - Among Copyrighted Ashes of the Non-existent Plaza: Yellow ver. Asia G/V 8.04 Update

Hotly off the grill with the first instance of the Hiroba-nai Movement, the upcoming update to Asia's Yellow ver. cabinet still failed to bring all of the addition from Japan's G/V x.xx update to greater Asia, leaving out the usual suspects (J-POP, non-BNEI animes). The lack of an "update image" is also a point of contention among the more riled-up Donders for the dwindling effort towards the overseas crowd, but we'll leave that at this.

If you forget the full list, we have copied the relevant parts from our last post to reproduce after the jump.

Link to original post

How to Really Name Your Player Profile on Taiko no Tatsujin HD Arcade

Remember when we say this in our Hiroba-nai Movement post?

"[the ability to change player name] is especially helpful for outside Japan when Donders not knowing Japanese might have just spammed a random name like あああああ (aaaaa) or the default どんちゃん (Don-chan) [...]"

Yeah, we kinda didn't fully instruct the Donders not knowing Japanese who want to participate in the movement how to actually set your player name to your heart's desire, which is probably the most important step when we want to flood the monthly tournament rankings with the key phrase of ひろばない (lit. no Hiroba). Here are we giving a follow-up post to explain just that.

Song of the Week! 16 December 2017

Today's double-feature topic is about seeing how song-addition scheming trends on both console and arcades may be disrupted from time to time with a 'black sheep' crossing to the opposite shore.

Namco Taiko Blog (December 14 2017): A Groovy Update for a Smooth Winter - Yellow ver. Version x.xx Update

The first official Namco Taiko Blog after the singularity is the announcement for the next Yellow ver. version update and the next season change for the Don Medal Rewards Shop, both of which are coming December 21.

UPDATE (15/12/17) - Post-script notice added.

Kero⑨Destiny Lyrics

Arrangement: NYO
Lyrics: bit
Vocals: Ameko (あめこ) aka Meramipop (めらみぽっぷ)

*credits to the song's entry page on the Touhou Wiki for the English translation of the song!*

Site Announcement: Yes, We Mod The Comments

But not to remove the genuine and enthusiastic discussion from fellow Donders. We are doing this only to remove cruddy spam comments like this, eww:

Yeah, us relaying the news about World Hobby Fair 2013 from Namco Taiko Blog really helped you in 2017. (Comment since removed from view and into the spam folder)

Speaking of blog post comments, since Blogger does not have a by-comment we check them very, very infrequently especially if it is not on the first page: only once in a reeeeeeeeaaaal while in fact. Yes, we have advertized many a times that this is one of the ways you can engage with us, yet we should have been open about that dismal frequency.

This is far from being the best way to alert us like the mass video mislinking incident earlier this year, especially not with multiple comments in months/years-old posts and especially not with "attitude". We will reserve the right to deal with (including deleting, at a minimal scale hopefully) comments that border on unconstructive spamming.

We found this only in late May long after we ourselves found the problem. Considering the actual context of what was happening, this got really morbidly insensitive all of a sudden.
(Please note that we have since deleted this and related comments for the less-than-stellar language, even while we appreciate it coming from a more-than-enthusiastic Donder.)

Here is a list of better ways that give you as much as 76.5% better chances to urgently find us in a jiffy for a blog incident:

• Taiko no Tatsujin Discord server (use @Taiko Time Staff role for best effect)
• Twitter @taikotimeblog
• Facebook Fan Page (when Lokamp does the monthly review there)
• Chatbox on your left

And once again, in case one of the automated spammers stayed long enough to read this message... Please go away and don't spam us any more; we don't have the traffic that you seek.

Song of the Week! 9 December 2017

Today's weekly feature is Idolm@ster-themed, as we take a look at a couple of songs that have been composed in two different "game generations" of the franchise from each other.

Across Japan (December 7 2017) - The Hiroba-nai Movement: Last Straw over the Camel's (non-existent) Plaza

We're making the "official part" of this post quick. Announced on December 6, Asia version's December 2017 Facebook Tournament will be:

Facebook Tournament: December 12~17 2017
　　　 Results Announcement: December 21 2017
セイクリッド ルイン Sacred Ruin x9
濃紅 Koi-kurenai x7
　　　黒沢ダイスケ × 小寺可南子 Daisuke Kurosawa × Kanako Kotera

So what makes us suddenly picking back up the Asia ver. Facebook Tournaments scope after a two-month hiatus? That's because we are hoping to take that opportunity to bring awareness to the Hiroba-nai Movement that started just today (December 7) by veteran Taiwanese Donders including Shoushou, Woolala and Gumin.

 
Promotional posters for the movement (left: Chinese, right: Japanese)
Source: original post on Shoushou's Facebook

"Hiroba-nai" (ひろばない) literally means "No Hiroba", and aims to express the dissatisfaction with the still-lingering absence of Donder Hiroba support for greater Asian Donders. If you forgot what it was about (likely due to the aforementioned absence), the Donder Hiroba gives many supporting functionalities to HD-arcade Donders including:

• Player name changing. This is especially helpful for outside Japan when Donders not knowing Japanese might have just spammed a random name like あああああ (aaaaa) or the default どんちゃん (Don-chan), but have to be stuck with that for god knows how long.
• Better customization options, including titles/title parts and the more expansive four-part outfit system
• Additional song acquisition means (Katsu Medal Shop)
• Donder-held tournaments and challenge gauntlets
• and more!

Yes, it was quite a godsend already when greater Asia got a (nonetheless smaller) export of the awaited HD arcade back in 2014 after AC14. However, the absence of Donder Hiroba created such an inconvenience compared with other arcade music/rhythm game franchise, leaving veteran and budding arcade Donders alike greatly discouraged. Attempts have been made by many to express such views via letters, social media and more but was still in vain.

The main requirement for this movement is simple:

1. Purchase, or otherwise obtain, another Banapassport or Aime card
2. Set the player name to be "Hiroba-nai" (ひろばない)
3. Try your best at each of the coming monthly Facebook tournament on that account
4. Snap your participating result(s) and post to social media and the result announcement post on the official Asia ver. Facebook

The main idea is that hopefully the name/message is will be taking over the top 20 rankings in both departments. That said, do not be discouraged even if you think/know you are not going to rank in: it's the thought (and the total number of players to do so, which Taiko Team should be seeing) that counts.

We suggest you check out the original post on Shoushou's Facebook (in traditional Chinese) which comes with the above promotional poster designs in (traditional) Chinese and Japanese for your easy spreading.

Twitter Snippets (6 December 2017) - VERTeX in CHUNITHM

【12/7(木)「ORIGINAL」楽曲追加！】（勝手に）音ゲ祭・サドンデス！？maimaiで猛威を振るったあの楽曲が、チュウニズムにも登場します！　※こちらの楽曲は、すべての店舗でプレイすることができます。 #チュウニズムSTAR https://t.co/5Iy72WSFHf pic.twitter.com/poKItrEG3x

— チュウニズム公式@12/7新イベント開催！ (@chunithm) 6 dicembre 2017

As Sega's Konami-enhanced arcade series CHUNITHM has started to sink its teeth into the Tenkaichi Otogesai's crossover-y treats, one Sega-spawn track from the 1st edition is about to be ported into the game tomorrow, as Hiro's VERTeX becomes a publicly-available track.

Tune in tomorrow for the first video recordings of the song in action!

UPDATE (09/12/17): And here's a no-hit video of VERTeX's Master mode.

Tenkaichi Otogesai 4 Block Qualifiers Song Choices Are In

With the Block Qualifiers happening on the 16th and 17th of this month, it is time the song choices for the fourth Tenkaichi Otogesai be announced. And for Taiko no Tatsujin, here are the songs that are slated to show the competitors' skills:

Tenkaichi Otogesai 4 Block Qualifiers: Taiko no Tatsujin Yellow ver.

Stage	Song(s)
Preliminary	Taiko Drum Monster
Semi-finals	極圏 Kyokuken
3rd-place Decider	怒槌 Ikazuchi
Finals	Scarlet Lance
Playoffs (if 4th and 5th are tied in the Preliminary)	セイクリッド ルイン Sacred Ruin 毒LOＣＡＮdy♡ DokuLO CANdy♡ 朱の旋律 Aka no Senritsu

You can take a look at the full list at the Tenkaichi Otogesai site for the rest of the games' selections.

As a bonus fact, in all three other JAEPO-level games, our dear Sacred Ruin is used for the Semi-finals. Coincidence? Maybe.

Twitter Snippets (4 December 2017) - New Taiko x IDOLiSH7 Collaboration Teaser

【アイドリッシュセブン×太鼓の達人のコラボ続報】
コラボを盛り上げてくれる「太鼓の達人応援団」大発表！！
さらに！太鼓の演奏ゲームにも「踊り子」としてアイドルが登場予定♪
楽曲は2018年春頃、収録予定！…の前に、サプライズがあるかも!?お楽しみに★#taiko765 #アイナナ pic.twitter.com/5RZas8yYSV

— 太鼓の達人 (@taiko_team) 4 dicembre 2017

Outside from the weird oddity of the Taiko Team's Twitter account becoming flagged for "potentially sensitive content", today's note-worthy element to point out is the latest reminder to the future IDOLiSH7 collaboration event, now complete with not-blacked-out collaboration art and tentative custom dancers/petit charas!

We now do know that this event will kick in sometime during Spring 2018.

Kagayaki o Motomete Lyrics

Artist: Versus
　　Vocals: Fuuko (ふーこ)
　　Guitar: Carlos (カルロス)
　　Bass: Taicha (たいちゃー)

Japanese lyrics sourced from original Creofuga submission.

Song of the Week! 2 December 2017

As we caught notice weeks ago, Yellow Version arcades are about to permanently lose some other songs... for the third time in the lifespan of a single arcade version, a questionable first in HD Taiko gaming.

To better impress the mileage of this dubious milestone in the series' arcade history, we have a triple feature with the three Anime licenses that are about to leave official Taiko gaming for good next Wednesday...

Taiko Plus/STH - December '17 GTH Additions

The next batch of Gakkyoku Tori Houdai additions save some of the upcoming removals from Yellow ver. ... but they were not the AC0 exclusives so what's the point :/

Gakkyoku Tori Houdai Adds: December 1 2017
24 karats TRIBE OF GOLD
365日のラブストーリー。 365 Nichi no Love Story.
LET'S GO OUT
ロシア民謡メドレー Russian Folk Medley
朱の旋律 Aka no Senritsu
真・画竜点睛 Shin Garyoutensei (+Ura)

Namco Taiko Blog (30 November 2017) - Blog/Twitter Updates Schedule Change

We end this November on a low note, with the latest official blog entry foreshadowing a lower new-post ratio from now on, due to an internal change of social media management. In today's notice, in fact, we're being told that there's not going to be a weekly blog update guarantee from now on: as opposed to before where Thursdays are the usual new-post day, the Taiko Team blog will now be updated only when the staff is ready to share the latest news. The same goes for the Twitter handle, which will be only active if there's going to be a new notice to be shared.

If the posting schedule is going to change again in the future, there's going to be another official blog entry to address later changes.

Link to original post

Twitter Snippets (29 November 2017) - New iDOLM@STER SideM Song for Taiko Arcades

ゲームセンター版太鼓の達人に「Reason!!」が収録。 pic.twitter.com/sIJ5cieZmb

— アイマスDB (@imas_DB) 29 novembre 2017

Thanks to Bankslammer from the Taiko no Tatsujin Discord group for the find!

With the main Taiko Twitter feed being dormant, new cross-over-y song inclusion notices are properly chronicled elsewhere on the Internet, with the latest find involving the SideM spin-off of the iDOLM@STER series.

As a result of livestream-fueled notices, it has been made public that another song from the male-oriented series is going to appear to Taiko arcades soon: Reason!!, from the recently-debuting SideM Anime series. Its release date, however, is still unknown...

UPDATE (30 November 2017) - This song inclusion has also been addressed by the Taiko Team as well (link)! We also come to know that the Twitter handle's name has been changed into a 'Taiko no Tatsujin' label...

Taiko no Tatsujin Blue Version (AC0B)

Source

We've been treated with 8/9-long life cycles for modern Taiko arcade firmwares thus far, but it seems that Yellow Version is going to be lasting a little longer than the former firmware releases, as a sneak peek into the one arcade vendor we've been checking for a while is telling us today!

Indeed, it appears that the next color in modern Taiko gaming's firmware canvas is coming out next year during March, this time around being labeled as the Blue Version. There's nothing else noteworthy to mention besides the obvious, so we're back playing the waiting game...

Song of the Week! 25 November 2017

Once again, I landed on our Discord group looking for song suggestions to be featured for this Saturday, with the early replies generally asking from something spicy in the Classic genre...

...it hardly gets spicier than today's featured track, trust me!

Namco Taiko Blog (24 November 2017) - Playstation 4's End-of-November Content Delivery

With yesterday being a national holiday in Japan, the weekly blog entry has come one day later to inform Taiko fans about the next Taiko-themed content's coming for PlayStation 4's users.

Across Japan (November 22 2017): The Follow-suit Removal, December 2017 edition

By this time all of us should have expected that song removals in Japan will be mirrored in greater Asia in due course because of license expiry and whatnot. Here is the confirming piece for the latest of those removals on December 6 2017, for instance. If you forget where else you could have found these songs after the removal, we have copy-pasted the list below the jump again for your reference.

Link to original post

Twitter Snippets (November 21 2017) - IDOLiSH7 Collab Drumming Up Heated Support

アイドリッシュセブンと太鼓の達人のコラボ緊急続報★
コラボを盛り上げてくれる「太鼓の達人応援団」のシルエットが公開！！
さらに！今後、ある条件を満たすとあのグループからも…！？
次回の情報公開は…12月上旬ごろお楽しみに♪#taiko765 #アイナナ pic.twitter.com/W0v4Njnnvi

— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) November 21, 2017

Surprise additional scope for the Taiko no Tatsujin x IDOLiSH7 Collaboration!

Participating idols from the game are forming a Taiko no Tatsujin Cheering Squad (太鼓の達人応援団) (NB.: no relation to a certain pink game) being ambassadors for the collaboration. See the teaser silhouettes from the tweet above. Plus, if Donders clear the upcoming IDOLiSH7 song on arcade Taiko no Tatsujin for a designated number of times, the cheering squad will be graced with the addition of a certain idol from that certain group!

Further news to be expected in early December, so stay tuned.

Twitter Snippets (17-20 November 2017) - INSPION 2017's Autumn Auditions Grand Winner (+ Extra)

【Best Vocal部門】
入賞https://t.co/Y3bTgEPEsj
セクシーだ・・・と声に審査員もうっとり。歌唱力も良し！ 1分21秒の歌詞は何て言ってるんだ！と話題になりました（笑）受賞おめでとうございます！

— INSPION (@INSPION_IZENE) 17 novembre 2017

The INSPION enrollment audition session of which we already talked about last month (link) has finally come to an end! As the Taiko Team Twitter account has retweeted the most relevant announcements this morning, up here we can see the announcement for the winner of the Vocals section: the Youtube user nagisa .f under the artist name ORI-Hime (ORI姫).

As announced in the past, our winner will be featured in official Taiko games in the future, as the female vocalist who landed the 1st place in the Best Vocals category is going to take part in new recording endeavors with both INSPION and NAMCO SOUNDS musicians. Below these lines, you can also have a look at the winners/honorable mentions for the INSPION contest's two categories:

Best Vocal - Excellence Award
Best Vocal - Honorable Mentions
Best Creativity - Excellence Awards

Ike, Mekadon! Lyrics

Composition: Kimitaka Matsumae (松前公高)
Lyrics: Hideki Kimura (キムラヒデキ)
Vocals: Susumu Matsumoto (松本進)

Song of the Week! 18 November 2017

Back for another 'blast from the past' feature, this time around starring the Taiko origins of quite the oddball shoot-em-up song trilogy...

Twitter Snippets (17 November 2017) - New Taiko x Osomatsu-san Collaboration Teaser

おそ松さんと太鼓の達人のコラボ「ドン松さんコラボ」のイメージが発表！
太鼓の達人のどんちゃんが、6つ子に!?
さらに、このきせかえがプライズ景品にも！？
コラボ実施が、待ちきれないドーン！#おそ松さん#taiko765 pic.twitter.com/VB96UZmikf

— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) 17 novembre 2017

This post's title says it best, and so does the attached picture! As a primer to the future collaboration event with the Osomatsu-san series, here's a sample of the promotional goodies that will be available with it: custom Kigurumi parts, to match your looks to any of the Matsuno siblings.

Namco Taiko Blog (16 November 2017) - Taiko PS4's First Licensed DLC Content

The week-long period of radio silence from the Taiko Team has been brought to an end with today's blog entry, starring the first DLC songs that are going to be muted for PS4 livestream means are coming from the license-heavy song genres.

Taiko Plus/STH - November '17 GTH Additions

New songs are coming for the Android/i-devices Taiko Plus app, all headed to the Gakkyoku Tori Houdai mode. At this point it's just as surprising as us catching notice of mobile-related news days/weeks/months later!

Gakkyoku Tori Houdai Adds: November 8
 Soup
 Kagerou (カゲロウ)
 Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (君の知らない物語)
 Saika
 Negai wa Esperanto (願いはエスペラント)
 Kimi no Planet (君のプラネット)

Song of the Week! 11 November 2017

November 11th in China is known as the "Singles' Day", made to celebrate those single individuals that are proud to be classed in said social status.

With that in mind, here's a single from China in our spotlight... with 'single' stated as referring to a commercially-released song, of course!

Twitter Snippets (8 November 2017) - ???Long Version Time???

【お告知】
この前のグルコス4周年でも告知しましたが、4thアルバムに

🙌☺️🙌QLWAのロング版収録決定です！！🙌☺️🙌

続報はしばしお待ちを～～～～ pic.twitter.com/aj5GyQbzi2

— とぱぞらい@C93 金東A-86a (@tpazolite) 8 novembre 2017

In a similar way to how the long version of Shiny Kung-fu Revival has been (subsequently) revealed 2 years ago (link), it appears that t+pazolite's future albums are going to have some more of his rhythm game music magic on them!

The picture concerning his next solo album, scheduled to a Winter 2017 release, has quite the tell that Taiko-rooted tracks might show up once again, with a track marked as !!!?????!!! slated for a formal reveal on November 20th. This, of course, points out to the coming of a certain song, but will it be the regular cut or a longer version? And will some of his other songs on Bandai Namco grounds make their appearance as well?!?

First Video: Groovy Duel

 Groovy Duel (3/5/7/10; 655 notes on Oni)
Today's Yellow Version update has come, and so is the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt collaboration song. Tacked with a 10-star rating, this Oni feels like the lesser cousin of No Gravity with its low note count and multiple rhythm changes, although being shaped to be a more easy-to-clear task than many other modern 10-star-rating tracks before it. Expect an update to our former SotW feature about the song coming soon!

Here are some other notices concerning the arcade update that deserve a brief mention:

• Oodain's Oni mode has been demoted to an 8-star rating, while its Futsuu mode is now rated as a 7*;
• The blurred-out songs of the Challenge! 1400 Drumrolls!! Dojo Ranking Gaiden trial from last week's preview picture turned out to be respectively Honey Heartbeat ~10 Stars Mix~ and Necrofantasia ~Arr. Demetori;
• General Asia's Yellow Version arcades have also been updated today with Oodain and the three new Dojo Ranking Gaiden courses. Groovy Duel, however, is not included and no song deletion notices have been issued as of now (Source).

Twitter Snippets (6 November 2017) - Taiko no Tatsujin x IDOLiSH7 Collaboration

【お知らせ】2018年、アイドリッシュセブンと太鼓の達人のコラボが決定だドーン！
アイナナの人気楽曲を収録予定！さらに、アイナナメンバーたちが踊り子になって登場！？
続報は…12月ごろ、お楽しみに♪#taiko765 #アイナナ pic.twitter.com/IpBmJhaT1Q

— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) 6 novembre 2017

The year's not over yet, but the Taiko collaboration announcements are already branching out to the next year! The first of those to be announced is an event that will tie the series with the rhythm game/visual novel IDOLiSH7 mobile game, with the tweet teaser already mentioning the future venture of new songs and custom dancers for those.

While, again, the event is rolling out in 2018, expect to hear more about this campaign next month.

Sotsu Omeshiki Lyrics

Composer: Yoshinori Kawamoto (川元義徳)
Vocals: unmo

Japanese lyrics sourced from official YouTube preview dated February 15 2016

Feature: Hiding the Staff, a Sympho-Neighbours Story

While yes, we are fully aware of our nature on this corner of the Internet of being a Taiko no Tatsujin-oriented news blog, we've been subjected to a particular episode earlier this week that is gradually turning out to be one of the many jigsaw pieces in a particular frame, picturing quite the worry-some scenario for Bemani series fans and music game players in general.

With this situation coming out fresh on many fronts and (almost) nothing but a sea of undocumented/unverifiable facts surrounding the problems of artist mentions' disappearance, this blend between our usual Taiko-centric trivia sources and the Sympho-Neighbours family of features is here to have a look at how is the stage being set for this peculiar situation. Take this as a 'starting point' look for the events that are unfolding during these very days, as we won't make of this a step-by-step episodic series to follow up...

For the user-input piece of media you're about to see, we'd like to thank the people contributing to the "Konami/Bemani and Artist conflicts." forum board on rhythm game website Zenius -i- vanisher, as well as Twitter users @p6p, @MILI216, @acTroopers and the plurk thread that gave us the picture on the top of this page, among others.