Not every Taiko perma-deletion happened on arcade grounds... some of these have occurred outside the game centers, too! Here's one of them.
Nerai Uchi (狙いうち)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (166) | x5 (209) | x6 (382) | x8 (616) |
Taiko + (iOS only)
152.11-171.38
none
neraiuWith most modern Taiko games basking under the light of downloadable additional content since the PSP entries, the OG champion of DLC delivery still remains the iOS-exclusive Taiko no Tatsujin app, choke-full of 5-song packs that lived on up until the name-rebranding for the app version available on Android stores. With that also came the timely dictontinuation of any and all former packs, meaning that several songs like the one before your eyes can only be played by those who purchased said packs while the option was still offered...
This Variety pick is one out of five Taiko Plus-exclusive brass-band arrangements of popular music from Japanese pop culture, coming from the same DLC pack who also hosted this Lupin III arrangement we've already talked about in the past. The musical piece of choice, this time around, is the eponymous 70ies hit song by Linda Yamamoto (山本リンダ), from the Fukuoka prefecture's city of Kokura.
Born March 4th, 1951 by a Japanese mother and an American father as Atsuko Yamamoto, she's had some troubling times in her childhood due to her father's death as a solider in the Korean war when she was 1 and moving out to the Kanagawa prefecture four years later, where she got bullied in school for her half-blood nationality nature. Despite such upbringing, she worked hard in her teens in order to become a famous model while, at the same time, kickstarting a flourishing music carreer for Minolphone Records. This lead not only in success, but quite an astonishing one: many key roles as an actress (most notably for the Kamen Rider series), the production of over 50 songs across 40 years (and counting!) and the opening of her own modeling office are not feats that many can bolster! The stage name of Linda was chosen because of her father's loving nickname for her, with the word meaning 'beautiful' in Spanish and Portuguese.
Nerai Uchi (lit. 'Sharpshoot/Aim High') is Linda Yamamoto's 23rd single, released on February 5th, 1973 under Canyon Record in tandem with the song Yume Yaburete (夢やぶれて). Composed by Shunichi Tokura (都倉俊一), the song's lyrics were penned by Aku Azusa (阿久悠), who allegedly also came up with the 'U-la-la U-la-la' tune that became the main focus for the song's rhythm and coreography instead of the originally-planned 'La-la-la La-la-la' rhythms. After being associated as a baseball-cheering song from the Meiji University's sports' team of that time, Linda Yamamoto herself authorized the use of her song as a cheering tune to be performed in stadiums for Japanese baseball teams. As karma lead its way into gaming, Nerai Uchi was used as an actual cheering song in one more rhythm game before Taiko: iNiS's Osu! Tatakae Ouendan, where the game's cheering song dance at in order to support an overweight Cleopatra to get her mojo back and be able to slim herself up enough to be noticed by Marc Antony, (one of) her historical love interest(s).
Nerai Uchi's brass-band arrangement on Taiko is littered by numerous slight BPM shifts all throughout the song, while its Oni notechart follows a more linear "backbeat notechart with increments" charting mindset that was quite common to see during the first generations' games.
