After spotlighting one of the hardest songs in recent Taiko memory last week, it's only fair for us to drift to the other extreme for today's feature, ... right?
Koi (恋) Gen Hoshino| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x2 (84) | x3 (117) | x3 (191) | x6 (332) |
Taiko 0 Y, Taiko PS4, Taiko Switch
158
none
2ge8jiOriginally announced to come in Taiko gaming during the Taiko Team's very last livestream of March '17, the 2016 Japanese smash hit Koi (lit. 'Love') is a song that has found a place to call home both in the arcade scene and in the PS4/Switch console scene as one of the many DLC songs for both systems' first Taiko game.
This entry in the J-Pop genre (or 'Pops' for the console crowd) is the 10th single for the Saitama prefecture tarento Gen Hoshino (星野源). Born on January 28th, 1981, Gen Hoshino is in activity since the year 2000, as a marimba and guitar player for the Sakerock (サケロック) instrumental band; ten years later, he started to pursuit a solo career as a musician/singer and from there, his artistic scope has stretched out in multiple fields of the show business, from lyricist roles to acting/voice acting.
Koi is used as the theme song of the 2016 TBS Television drama Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu (逃げるは恥だが役に立つ, lit. 'The Full-Time Wife Escapist'), based on the romance manga by the same name. After the song's release in the namesake single of October 5th of the same year, it managed to win a number of accolades from several sources, as well as counting the RIAJ Platinum and Gold seller status for respectively the physical and digital versions of said single. Among the accolades revceived by Koi are we both find some related to its TV drama link (Best Theme in 2016 and 2017) as well as some related to the song itself, including awards related to the Best Choreography and Most Downloaded categories, ultimately leading Gen Hoshino himself to become the Best Male Artist at 2017's Space Shower Music Awards.
The song in Taiko gaming bears its TV drama heritage inside its number-punny SongID [Ni(2)geru wa Ha(chi -8)ji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu], as well as a fully-charted set from Taiko Team leader Etou. Many repeating patterns at an approachable speed await the players of Koi's Oni mode, with mono-color clusters and off rhythms being the main selling points of thius song's charts.
This, once again, isn not why this song has been featured today...
Koi (恋) Gen Hoshino| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | - | - | - | x1 (81/95) |
Taiko 0 Y, Taiko PS4, Taiko Switch 158 none ???Likewise to Dangan Notes getting an hellish Ura Oni since its debut, Koi also has an alternate Oni notechart setting, although its difficulty degree is definitely not running in the same direction...
In the same vein of Souryuu no Ran's 2-player Ura Oni notechart but for beginners, this Sou-uchi challenge was designed by Etou with the mindset of making a double drum challenge that is "so enjoyful to play that makes you want to dance along", as the Taiko Team lead himself told in the blog entry preceeding its debut under Yellow Version arcades! That line of thinking has led to the creation of two Oni sets that, of course, if picked up individually as a solo Player 1/Player 2 play will no doubt lead to quite an easy hurdle to ram through.
