It's time, once again, to take a trip to Meme Land, in order to find out that there's more that meets the eye, when it comes to the history of the artist behind one of the latest international Internet viral hits...
Pen-Pinapple-Apple-Pen (PPAP) (ペンパイナッポーアッポーペン(PPAP)) Pikotaro| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x2 (34) | x4 (81) | x4 (98) | x7 (156) |
Taiko 0 R, Taiko PS4, Taiko +
118-159.48
none
ppapAs a testament to the notion that anything can become a meme in this world with the right attention-grabbing elements and a generous worldwide sharing process, the brief music video that was uploaded on Youtube last year on August 25th about mixing pens with fruits has scored over 125 million views as of today, resulting in many quiffs/references in moden pop culture and the brief song itself becoming playable in Taiko no Tatsujin.
Pen-Pinapple-Apple-Pen is made by the song-writer Picotaro (ピコ太郎), which is one of the art names used by comedian/DJ Kazuhito Kosaka (古坂和仁). Born July 17th, 1973, his musical career started out as one of the main members of the comedy-oriented unit NO BOTTOM! (ノーボトム!) as Daimaou Kosaka (古坂大魔王), making music that could be better described as a mixture between festival/traditional Japanese vibes and electronic music. In the early 2000s, NO BOTTOM! has been re-branded under the title of NBR (NEW BUSHIDOU RAVERS), which is still an active act to this day! During the NBR days, Kazuito Kosaka has made a couple of original songs for the PlayStation 2 port of the 12th arcade installment in bemani's pop'n music series: TIN-DON-DANCE and Ora Tokyo sa Iguda (I'LL GO TO TOKYO!), both of which being further built upon with long versions in subsequent soundtrack releases.
Back to the more current meme-y grounds, PPAP truly started to become a break-out sensation on about a month, with many parodies all over Youtube and a 1st-month balance of nearly 8 million views. The song being shared over Twitter by Justin Bieber sealed its popularity overseas as well! While, by admission of Pikotaro himself, the Youtube upload of the song didn't make him earn a single Yen, the song made it to be purchasable in digital and retail forms, peaking the Billboard Japan Hot 100 charts at No.1. Being the shortest song to ever accomplish such a feat on these charts (about 45 seconds!), Pikotaro's creation was also awarded a Guinness World Record for accomplishing such a feat. Outside of Taiko, PPAP has been ported to bemani's jubeat series, with the song's long version (link) being released on Youtube two days after said jubeat port, on October 27th, 2016.
While it's the shortest playable song ever featured in anything bemani-related yet, this is not the case on Taiko fields, where instead it has grabbed the (dubious) milestone of being the song whose combined notecount on all modes is the lowest one among the current arcade generation's songs (369); with a pale value of 156 notes on Oni, it's also the 7-star challenge with the lowest note count in the current rating standard, topping even the actual shortest-playable song in Taiko history to date! (Taiko 3DS 3's Sekai Fushigi Hakken! Opening Theme, which has 167 notes instead). Numerical accolades aside, simple 3-note cluster sections and scrolling speed wizardry are PPAP's signature traits, aiding to give a sense of visual variety between frequent BPM shifts and drumroll markers.
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The fun's not over for today! Hop over to our Taito song series showcase to see a brand-new entry...
