Another Anime double feature is upon us, in order to rock your dragon once again into Akira Toriyama's most known series!
Dragon Soul Dragon Ball Kai| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 12.5 to 14 | x2 (73) | x3 (96) | x5 (193) | x6 (324) |
| Taiko 0, Taiko Switch | x2 (73) | x1 (96) | x4 (193) | x6 (324) |
| Taiko Wii 2 | x2 (73) | x2 (96) | x4 (194) | x4 (324) |
Taiko 12.5 to 14, Taiko 0 to 0 K, Taiko Wii 2, Taiko Switch
162
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dsoulThe Dragon Ball Z series has left quite the mark in pop culture worldwide as one of the most affirmed Anime series of all time, a sentiment that is also shared with their animation right holders... to the point of remaking it anew with more modern animation tools at their disposal!
This sentiment has led to the creation of the Dragon Ball Kai (ドラゴンボール超) series, a revised version of the original Anime cold classic from 1989 with hi-definition visual representation and sound design, with digital tracing over the few surviving animation cels/sketching and voice acting from the original DBZ cast in order to grant the highest fidelity towards the source material. As Dragon Ball Kai is based on all the chapters from the manga that were adapted in the original Anime, nearly all the original elements of a filler-y nature were cropped from Kai, bring the episode total from 291 down to 169.
The original Kai run (April 2009-March 2011) started with Toei Animation's 20th anniversary and covers the events up to the Cell saga, with the final story arcs -World Tournament and Majin Buu- being tackled in another DBZ Kai run (April 2014-June 2015), whose start also aligned with another Toei Animation anniversary (the 25th). Worldwide, the series is known as Dragon Ball Z Kai, with the 2014-2015 stretch being labeled with the subtitle of 'The Final Chapters'. It's worth mentioning this localization edition in particular, as the series' worldwide distribution of the final stretch is actually the only one to feature the originally-planned number of episodes of 69, whereas in Japan only 61 of these were aired. Multimedia distributions of The Final Chapters episodes from Toei Europe (EU) and Funimation (USA) even have the Japanese audio option for these elusive episodes, while in homeland these are still unreleased to this day!
Dragon Soul, Kai's opening theme for the 2009-2011 run, is performed by guitarist/composer Takafumi Iwasaki (岩崎貴文) and sung by Tanimoto Takayoshi (谷本貴義), making it the latest Anime contribution to the Taiko series from the latter artist of also-Namco-Original fame (Happy & Peace and Hikari no Kanata e, among others). For the American release of the series' first stretch, each of its 8 box sets all feature english covers of the song starring different lyrics as well as DBZ Kai voice actors from the distributor Funimation itself: Sean Schemmel (Goku/King Kai VA), Justin Cook (Raditz VA), Vic Mignogna (Broly/Burter VA), Greg Ayres (Guldo VA), Sonny Strait (Krillin) and Brina Palencia (Chiaotsu/Puar VA) all have a solo version for parts 1-6 in that order, while parts 7 and 8 feature two trios of the aforementioned artists. The original Dragon Soul's single release, dated May 20th, 2009, has peaked 23rd place at the Oricon weekly charts, where it stayed for 18 weeks in total.
A lot of repeating note patters constitute the main treat of Dragon Soul's 6-star Taiko Oni challenge, with some tricky small cluster passages being saved for the very end. If you're just starting your Taiko journey, however, watch out for those KDK note clusters near the end!
Chouzetsu☆Dynamic! (超絶☆ダイナミック！) Dragon Ball Super| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x2 (63) | x4 (97) | x4 (225) | x6 (308) |
Taiko 0 R, Taiko 3DS 3, Taiko Switch, Taiko + 192 none dbcdynFrom a series that is basically an "HD port" Dragon Ball Z, we jump in Dragon Ball history to... yet again, more DBZ lore, branching the saga's canon forward from its own conclusion!
Started on June 2015 in manga form, the Dragon Ball Super (ドラゴンボール超) series is set up as a direct continuation of the events from DBZ, with Goku and his other friends/warrior allies on Earth facing even more threats that not only come from outer space, but other universes as well... gods included! The Anime series, broadcasted from July of the same year, has ended on March 2018 with 131 episodes, aimed at a younger demographic than the original DBZ run and thus having blood/gore-related elements being toned down by comparison.
The original story of Super was penned by series creator Akira Toriyama himself and illustrated in a manga serialization of the same name by the nick-named Toyotarou (とよたろう). counting 9 tankobon releases to this day. Said story actually starts with an adaptation of the last two Dragon Ball Z movies in Anime form -Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F'- to which then has followed the 'Super-born' story arcs. The Super series' first movie -Dragon Ball Super: Broly- managed to gross more than 116 million dollars worldwide over a budget of 8.5 millions!
Dragon Ball Super's first opening theme, Chouzetsu☆Dynamic! (lit. 'Excellent Dynamic!') is lyricized by veteran Dragon Ball songwriter Yukinujo Mori (森雪之丞; pen name of Masakazu Mori) and performed by vocalist/guitarist Kazuya Yoshii (吉井和哉), lead member of the Japanese rock band The Yellow Monkey. Being adopted as the OP theme for the first 76 episodes of Super, the song's single release of October 7th, 2015 also includes a The Yellow Monkeys-powered cover of Romantic Ageru Yo from the very first Dragon Ball series, ultimately leading to the collective effort of pushing the single to the 13th place peak on both Orocon and Billboard Hot 100 charts.
It's another 6-star Oni song, and a speedy one on top of that! While the speed might be scary for newer players, the mono-color small clusters and repeating pattern lead this challenge to be placed on the 'cakewalk' tier side to its full-combo path.
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Be sure to also check out our Maka Fushigi Adventure song feature from two years back for its updates that are related to its very recent Nintendo Switch revival!
