Fifty years ago, on this very same day, humanity as a whole could chronicle one of its most important events in outer space exploration: the first succesful moon landing attempt from our species.
We've seen plenty of moon-related songs along the years, between both former Song of the Week features and series showcases... but for our very last stretch on the topic (thus far), we only have to aim not for the sky, but for seemingly-endless bullet barrages from ZUN's Touhou Project franchise...
Help me, ERINNNNNN!! Sachiko Kobayashi ver. (Help me, ERINNNNNN!! 小林幸子 ver.) Touhou Project Arrange - Beat Mario feat. Sachiko Kobayashi| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (???) | x4 (???) | x5 (???) | x6 (???) |
Taiko 0 Mu (promo only)
???
none
??? Help me, ERINNNNNN!! -Cranky remix- Touhou Project Arrange - Beat Mario x Cranky| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (???) | x5 (???) | x7 (???) | x9 (681) |
Taiko 0 W-R (promo only) ??? none ???It happens sometimes (
Alas, Taiko games thus far do not hold any playable arrangement of said boss' main theme -the Lunarian pharmacist Eirin Yakogoro- so we'll have to resort to talk about an arrangement that is related to said character. Here we are, then: talking about Help me, ERINNNNNN!! yet again, roughly 3 years since our last time under these lines (link)... or more specifically, some of its more elusive arrangements in Taiko lore.
First in line is a different vocal rendition of the song, starring Japanese Enka singer Sachiko Kobayashi (小林幸子) instead of Beat Mario. This version of the song was released for the COOL&CREATE album Kukkuri Hakurei Omatsuri E-rin! (くーくり博麗お祭りえーりん！), which was first released on the 88th Comiket fair, on August 2015. Later in the same year, the Sachiko Kobayashi cover of the FinalB boss theme in Imperishable Night was included in the promo Taiko cabinets that were brought for 2015's Autumn Reitasai convention, never to be seen again on anything Taiko afterwards... This version, however, found for itself a permanent home on another music game franchise, as it's playable in all the public builds of the REFLEC BEAT arcade branch (link) since RB VOLTZA.
The other limited release of the day, spotlighted in 2016's edition of the Niconico Chokaigi gaming -con and in both Reitasai venues -the regular one and the Autumn run- is a custom arrange of Help me, ERINNNNNN!! made by independent composer Cranky, a song which later on would receive an extended release as part of Cranky's song lineup for the solo album Rave-SLave 2017, premiered on the December Comiket of the same year. The song would get permanent releases like the Sachiko Kobayashi cover in music gaming later on, ultimately getting the better diffusion of the two between bemani's SOUND VOLTEX, Taito's Groove Coaster and Sega's CHUNITHM.
Being venue-limited songs, all the Taiko-related data we can report you about these two elusive arrangements' charts by Etou only amount to textual reports we caught on in the immediate aftermath of the involved Reitasai venues. However, if your itch of ERINNNNNN-shouting is not over yet for whatever reason, let it be known that December 2018's Comiket has seen the release of COOL&CREATE's Help me, ERINNNNNN!! LOVE( ﾟ∀ﾟ)o彡゜, a collection album that only features the original song and a bunch of different arranges from other doujin circles' talents, including circles that have been quite active in music gaming as well (IOSYS, A-One and Butaotome among others). For said album, even Cranky joined to give yet another arrangement of his original arrangement of Beat Mario's original arrangement of the original song (try saying that three times fast), now dubbed as the 'Cranky Remix 2018'!
Tsuki ni Murakumo Hana ni Kaze (月に叢雲華に風) Touhou Project Arrange - Yuuhei Satellite| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (104) | x5 (160) | x6 (285) | x8 (382) |
Taiko 0 M (promo only), 0 K, Taiko NSwitch, Taiko + 160 none ???Taiko gaming has no shortage of songs oriented about the moon or, on a larger scope, space-related phenomena in general; it's just that we've ended up taking about most of them already! Be it for violin-guided instrumentals or the ealriest songs from Kaori Aihara or even song series-joining picks, we've almost scraped the barrel on this theming choice, so let's just land over another Touhou arrange with some mentions of it in the title. Not that I'm complaining either, considering that this one is my personal favorite among doujin-produced Touhou arrangements to date!
Originating from the Extra Stage music track Last Remote (ラストリモート) from Subterranean Animism, Tsuki ni Murakumo, Hana ni Kaze is named after a Japanese saying of the same naming (lit. 'Cloud Over the Moon, and Winds Over the Flowers'), stating how good times are not long-lasting ones. The song is made by a selection of artists that are affiliated to the Yuuhei Satellite doujin circle, of which we also talked about here some years ago (link).
The original version, from 2011's Comiket 81 album release of the same name, is arranged by Iceon and sung by the nick-named senya with the words penned by Kamazetora (かませ虎); years later, a 'Fractal Orchestral Vocal version' of the song was released for the 2017 album Moment Everlasting (瞬間エヴァーラスティング), crafted by the hands of several artists from Shoujo Fractal (少女フラクタル), one of Yuuhei Satellite's sister units. Much like Ephemeral, Great and Splendid Land of Grief, the song was adopted for an episode trailer Manpuku Jinja's Touhou fan animation series Gensou Mangekyou ～The Memories of Phantasm～, which is why the related animated teaser is also featured in some of the other music gaming series that have received ports of this track.
Indeed, this song is easily one Yuuhei Satellite's most appreciated tracks in music gaming... possibly the most popular one even, seeing how many series ended up adopting it along the years! Outside of Taiko, bemani's SOUND VOLTEX series hosted it since its very first installment (link), leading to its later ports headed to different franchises as well: jubeat, MÚSECA, REFLEC BEAT, BeatStream and Nostalgia. Konami's music branch aside, we have Sega with the song getting ported to all pillars of its music game trilogy (maimai, CHUNITHM and Ongeki) and Bandai Namco double-dipping with the nearly-discontinued Synchronica series. However, if you want my personal advice on how to experience this song in the best way possible, run -don't walk- to your nearest up-to-date Groove Coaster cabinet/Steam build (link), for a dazzling background accompaniment of elements from nearly every stage from the game the original song comes from!
Tsuki ni Murakumo, Hana ni Kaze was introduced to the Taiko scene through a couple of event-related venue releases, for 2014's main Reitasai and Niconico Chokaigi conventions under the Momoiro firmware regimen. This song began becoming a public affair treat from the subsequent firmware, with downloadable ports for the mobile/Nintendo Switch main Taiko games. For the longest time, the song in Taiko had an '(Arranged: Iceon)' notation attached to the main title for a long time, which got removed through one of Yellow Version's minor updates.
Charted by Arihotto (アリーホット) of the Taiko Team, this song's Oni chart offers a note-light approach to consecutive cluster sequence, in a similar manner to the Game Music genre's URBAN FRAGMENTS sans its soflan scrolling speed wackiness. It's a good place for 8-star Oni newcomers to start from, when searching for a taste of the general stamina pressure for the same-rating charts in modern times!
