In our first double-header of 2019, here's a couple of songs that will lead you straight to Wonderland! You'll further figure out the linking motif by further reading what follows...
Kagami no Kuni no Alice (鏡の国のアリス) Itou Kashitarou| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (120) | x4 (162) | x5 (288) | x6 (443) |
Taiko 0 Y, Taiko +
160
none
kaliceMale-driven vocal songs don't happen to be that frequent in modern Taiko gaming, let alone inside the Namco Original genre. This makes the more endeering to talk about an artist contributor whose musical roots stretch far into the digital synth female fields of Vocaloid software!
Known also by the FuwamokoP (ふわもこP) producer handle, the Kanagawa prefecture-born Itou Kashitarou (伊東歌詞太郎) is in activity since September 2009 as a Vocaloid producer, branching more towards an utaite-driven production as songwriter/singer since the last 5 years. His main alias is molded after the namesake Edo-period samurai from the Shinsengumi (新選組) special police squad, only with the 'kashi' (甲子) part of the name from the historical Itou being morphed into the equal-meaning '歌詞', only written with the Kanji symbol for 'lyrics'. The artist Itou Kashitarou often had collaborations with other Vocaloid composers, including the nicknamed LeftyMonster-P (レフティーモンスターP) with which is part of the Itowokashi (イトヲカシ) unit for non-Vocaloid works. Another collaboration-driven piece from the Yokohama composer has also been spotted in the jubeat series (By Your Side) for a limited time as a contest victor, created with Hachioji-P (八王子P).
The second Namco Original under Itou Kashitarou's belt, Kagami no Kuni no Alice (lit. 'Alice of the Kingdom of Mirrors') appears to be keen on referencing the literary works of the English writer Lewis Carroll, seeing how both the song's title and the theme permeating the song's lyrics are giving more than one wink to Alice Through The Looking Glass, one of Carroll's most known stories. Both this song and the Taiko-remade version of Time Traveler -the artist's first NO contribution- have been extended for the solo album Nichiren (二天一流), released on October 2017.
Arranged for Taiko gaming purposes by nishi-ken, the song definitely leans on the average-difficulty ballpark of many other picks from the J-POP genre before it, never venturing outside the 3-note cluster format while still packing quite a bunch in the note density and handswitching departments for the Go-Go Time portions.
Marisa Stole the Precious Thing (魔理沙は大変なものを盗んでいきました) Touhou Project Arrange - ARM+Yuuno Yoshimi (IOSYS) feat. Karin Fujisaki| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (151) | x5 (214) | x6 (437) | x9 (810) |
Taiko 0 B 170 none
???And for the second year-beginning in a row, I made it again to sneak in some Touhou-related talk with the excuse of having a seemingly-offtopic double feature! Don't let be entirely fooled by my intentions, though- there is an actual logical connection with the 'Wonderland' theme for 2018's only new addition to the Touhou arrangement scene's Taiko front... namely being: the character related to the original, arranged tracks! We happen, in fact, to come across another kind of 'Alice' in musical media to talk about with this song: Alice Margatroid (アリス・マーガトロイド), a doll-manipulating magician from the PC-98 era games whose canon origin and relations were reworked after the transition to the Windows PC games of the series.
The original Alice Margatroid, among other sources, was inspired by the character of Alice from the Megami Tensei series, molded after the namesake Alice from (once again!) Lewis Carroll's novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel story mentioned in our other song feature of this page. Not for nothing, in fact, it's worth mentioning that Touhou's Alice in her debut game has created a sort of 'mini Wonderland' as the game's Extra stage setting, complete with card soldiers as enemies to defeat! In the Windows-era media, it's been established that Alice was a human who turned herself into a youkai creature as a way to master her magecraft techniques and greately improve her lifespan, at the price of her vaning human traits. Even without playing any of the Touhou games, Alice is sure eager to show up to track Taiko players' progress; after all, she's the 1st support dancer from the left in the Touhou Project custom dancers set!
According to one of IOSYS' earliest Touhou viral hits, Alice is also one of the burglary victims of the human magician Marisa Kirisame, one of the series' recurring main heroines... although the stolen good doesn't appear to be of a physical matter per-se! Marisa Stole The Precious Thing premiered in the popular doujin circle's 2nd album release -Touhou Otome Bayashi (東方乙女囃子, lit. 'Touhou Maidens' Orchestra')- of August 13th, 2006, released for the 70th Comiket. Youhei 'ARM' Kimura (木村洋平) of Cirno's Perfect Math Class fame is the lead composer of this vocal piece, whose lyrics set was penned by IOSYS circle director Takafumi Suzuki (鈴木隆文), credited for this song under the 'Youno Yoshimi' (夕野ヨシミ) alias and in its first version of the song as "'loving' YOUNO". The credited singer is Karin Fujisaki (藤咲かりん), the earliest pen name used for the independent vocalist we nowadays know as miko, from the Alternative Ending circle.
The earwormy arrange piece mashes up three songs from different games that are all related to Alice Margatroid's stages: Perfect Cherry Blossom's Stage 3 BGM and Stage 3 Boss BGM [respectively, Doll Maker of Bucharest (ブクレシュティの人形師) and Doll Judgment ~ The Girl Who Played with People's Shapes (人形裁判 ～ 人の形弄びし少女)] as well as Alice's Stage theme from the 1v1 danmaku game Phantasmagoria of Flower View: Spring Lane ～ Colorful Path (春色小径 ～ Colorful Path). The IOSYS arrange's title was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro movie, being also spoofed for a couple of line exchanges in the song's longer versions that either parody or directly quote the last few lines from the Monkey Punch-inspired flick! Marisa Stole The Precious Thing was republished in many other later IOSYS albums, including quite the wide number of Japanese music game series adopting the song and/or is official PV as a playable challenge:
After being featured in 2018's edition of the Autumn Reitasai as an event-exclusive preview, Marisa Stole The Precious Thing was added to public Blue Version arcades. The pressing stamina factor is what makes the bulk of its 9-star Oni notechart's difficulty degree, topped off with an ever-increasing care on handswitch-oriented sections between its ending, cluster-based portion.
