Time for a yearly tradition for our January SotW business... as much as apparently is a yearly one-time-only affair for the Taiko series holders as well!
Kanbu de Tomatte Sugu Tokeru ~ Kyouki no Udongein Touhou Project Arrange/ARM(IOSYS) feat. miko
患部で止まってすぐ溶ける ～ 狂気の優曇華院／東方Projectアレンジ ARM(IOSYS) feat.miko
| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro |  | ★2 (144) | ★4 (228) | ★7 (480) | ★9 (915) | - |
40-200
???While not really engaging that much on the playable Touhou Project arrange wagon, it appears that the ongoing status quo for the series consists of featuring one new playable song per year in occasion of the yearly-recurring Autumn Reitaisai foray, having it as an event-scouter at first and as a subsequent public treat later on. The vintage arranges being chosen tend to be quite similar too: in 2019 there was a meme-filled song from IOSYS and in 2020 we also had a meme-fueled IOSYS arrange!
Bearing a title whose translation leads to think of a pharmaceutical drug's functioning principle ('Stops at the affected area and immediately dissolves ~ Lunatic Udongein'), this is an Imperishable Night track arrangement from 2006's very end, released with the 71st Comiket's Touhou Tsukitorou (東方月燈籠) doujin album. The arranged piece -Crazy Eyes～Invisible Full Moon (狂気の瞳～Invisible Full Moon)- is the Stage 5 boss track that is played during the fight against quite an otherwordly character: Reisen Udongein Inaba (鈴仙・優曇華院・イナバ), a rabbit from the Moon. Having fled Earth's satellite during a Lunar conflict, she found her way to a hidden household in Gensokyo, the Eientei, where another couple of fellow Lunarian fugitives lie in and where ultimately found her new home as a household attendant, strong of her own powers (including a vicious madness-enducing gaze) as well as the newfound teachings from Lunarian pharmacist Eirin Yakogoro. Alongside several early official Touhou manga publications appearances as a mainstay character, Reisen was also made playable in later danmaku Touhou games (Phantasmagoria of Frower Dream and Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom), as well as all of Tasofro's official Touhou fighting games. Hell, Reisen was even an exclusive playable character for the PlayStation 4 port of one of their games, Urban Legend in Limbo!
The infamous 2006-end IOSYS arrange of Reisen's theme is composed by Yohei 'ARM' Kimura (木村洋平) and sung by the trio of miko/quim/Shacho (しゃちょう), with lyricist Yoshimi Yuno (夕野ヨシミ) being credited in the original album release as "Hakase with "mad" YOUNO'". In line with the Lunarian rabbit's madness-generating powers, it's a song when a medical treatment procedure is described as crazed as possible, where the predominant meme play is based on assorted early 2ch message board mockeries of sorts to those who only play Touhou games on Easy mode, with some of these ending up really strained the same! The joke is further stressed on with the song's official promotional video, where the infamous 'Easy Mode shaming' scene is played while displaying a mock-up panel from mangaka Nitta Jun's adult manga Pay Back, originally portraying two girls mocking an off-screen young boy for still being a virgin. The popular IOSYS arrangement would be later rereleased as part of April 2009's copyright-strike-dodging album rerelease Touhou Tsukitorou Safe! (東方月燈籠セーフ！), as well as coming back in full instrumental fashion for 2007's Gossun Toka no Karaoke (ごっすんとかのからおけ) and 2010's Touhou Utau Cirno-Chan (東方うたうチルノちゃん) doujin releases for karaoke purposes..
Needless to say, this is yet another evergreen arrangement that made it to the music game fore for quite literally every other arcade room competitor before landing on Taiko shores. Konami's bemani division geeted the songs among the ranks of both the SOUND VOLTEX and BeatStream series, trope forerunner Taito included it on its ongoing Groove Coaster series and Sega pasted the song to all its active arcade music games over time: maimai, CHUNITHM and Ongeki. The limited-venue Taiko debut of the track came with a typo on the artist credits with miko's nickname being displayed with a capital M, which was fixed in time for the public release.
Despite launching at the same time as the revised AI Battle Performance's unlockable difficulty demons, the Oni mode of this piece can truly drive people insane! All thanks to a merciless succession of single notes/clusters flowing at 200 BPM and the latter end's enphasis on handswitching, making the hurdle to accurately perform under a 7.33 hits/second ratio (balloons unaccounted) that much taxing. It's also no small feat to have such a long 2-hit hitballoon at the very end, for a top-ranking-nearing Oni setting!
