It's been a while since the last time, but our No.11 intern-kun is back on the official Taiko blog to give some space into the stories lying behind a Taiko song's creation! Our focus for today is the Namco Original Ano Hi Deaeta Kiseki, the sole 10* Oni for Green Version's launch window as well as one of the first additions to said arcade's seasonal Rewards Shop lineup.
The storyteller for this blog entry is the nicknamed Emukepi (えむけぴ), the notecharter for Ano Hi Deaeta Kiseki, going on its 3-act tale to state how the end product is an unadultered showing of gratitude to Yuji Masubuchi, one of the longest-running contributors to the Taiko series for both song-making and notecharting duties.
The reason of why Emukepi was summoned to make the music for the song in the first place was due to the shared friendship with the song's main composer: Yuma Mizonokuchi (溝口ゆうま) of the Innocent Key doujin circle. More specifically, it's Mizonokuchi's admiration towards Yuji the factor that made this song's creation possible, over the span of literal decades of online messaging! Both artists knew each other thanks to online messaging boards systems, and for 20 years the two have been in digital contact, between several conversations and original music sample exchanges from both sides... in all these years, however, the two never actually met in person.
Years pass by, and Mizonokuchi has had the occasion to work and chat with many different people, including the indie composer/music game sensation t+pazolite. When touching the subject of the Taiko no Tatsujin series, Mizono expressed to t+pazo his wish to send his thanks to Yuji Masubuchi in person, to which he candidly replied: "It sounds interesting, so let's go meet Etou for it!". And so a 5-people official meeting was held with the three, Emukepi and Marimo Institute from the Taiko Team's Notechart Sentai squad. From this meeting, the idea to make Mizonokuchi create a song for Yuji sparked out as a joke from Etou, paraded by the also-candid statement of "Since it took a while for you to get here, why don't you give him a shock?!"
And so, a nearly 1-year time span for the song's creation and release has started, all while Yuji Masubuchi was only told that the resulting work, Ano Hi Deaeta Kiseki, was the 2nd song made by one of t+pazolite's subordinates instead, under the pen name of MZN. For this song, Mizono himself has specifically asked for Yuji to be the notecharter for it; upon questioning by Emukepi on the matter, the composer has stated his will to be so in order to give its charts in the hands of someone who's very familiar with music tone changes, as the end product is a very rhythm-changing song.
We now jump to 2019's New Years Eve celebration, where the same party (sans Marimo Institute) was gathered once more, with Yuji being also invited to attend in person under the fake request of "counseling for MZN's second song project". For this meeting, Mizono has hatched a curious way to stage their first IRL meeting with a memorable scenario: he asked Emukepi to change his phone ringtone to one of the music tracks that Mizono has made and sent to Yuji through BBS messaging 10 years ago, while also setting up another device so that Emukepi's phone would receive a phone call roughly 30 minutes after the meeting's start. The tension from everyone involved into the stunt was real and high that night, moreso considering how Yuji Masubuchi did not get that reference in a whim... Hell, he even made panic out t+pazolite a bit, calming Mizono down by saying his real name!
The expedient, in the end, was fruitful, and Yuma Mizonokuchi was ultimately glad for having a chance to meet in person a man he messaged with for so much time. On the other hand, Masubuchi's reaction for understanding MZN's true identity, was a really direct "Sorry-!!!!". By admission of Masubuchi himself, overhearing t+pazolite's slip-out words led him to think more of the presumed nature of MZN's song composing issues for which he was called in, rather than his identity.
We also have a picture of Yuji Masubuchi after that he found out what was behind the phone call scheme! Even if he got irritated for getting that reference late, he sure has a way to regain his cool fast, doesn't he?
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