A quick one for today, starring one of the former Taiko generation's single-arcade-game song releases!
Strawberry melody (ストロベリmelody)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (112) | x4 (137) | x5 (282) | x6 (395) |
Taiko 10
126
none
sutoroOne of the 10th Taiko arcade's exclusive songs, Strawberry melody is one of the earliest musical works from Shōko Nakagawa (中川翔子), one of Japan's many tarento performers (popular slang for 'multiple-fields media personality') in the 2000s. Legally named as 'Shioko' (しようこ) for most of her life due to the used of the initially-character '薔' in Shōko being forbidden for naming by Japanese law, this artist has covered many different working fields in media, from illustration roles to acting roles, VA tasks for movies/Anime and song-making.
Strawberry melody has been arranged by the nick-named Shinnosuke from the formerly-active hip-hop unit SOUL'd OUT, with its lyrics body being co-written by Shoko herself and Akiko Watanabe (渡邊亜希子). Made out as a song that could capture the singer's more idol-prone side, it made its debut on the single by the same name on February 14th, 2007 (Shoko's 2nd one overall), peaking 15th at the Oricon charts with roughly 10k copies sold in its debut week. The song was also used as the ending theme for two different TV shows: TBS's Wanagona (ワナゴナ) and Fuji TV's Ultra V.I.P. (超V.I.P.)
Shoko's talents more than often intertwined on different fields with each other; one of such cases is tied with today's featured song, which is somehow related to TV Tokyo's Pokemon☆Sunday (ポケモン☆サンデー), a variety-themed Pokemon show that ran from 2004 to 2010 that had Shoko herself as its main host. The single release that has the Strawberry melody song, in fact, also bears the opening theme for the Pokemon variety series: Pokemon Nicely Sunday (ポケモンなりきりサンデー). Another credit mention we have to cite for Taiko gaming's sake is her singing role for Puzzle & Dragons Z's theme song Sakasama Sekai, which got time-limited releases in both arcade and console Taiko no Tatsujin titles.
Another quirky 6-star Oni addition from the former Taiko generations's turf, Strawberry melody features a lot of repeating patterns where handswitching is made easy by the song's mild base speed, with clusters of an unusual side for the mid-tier star rating popping up every now and then.
