July 2021's Ura pick also happens to be the only one of the 2020 Faith Creation contest winners that doesn't have a title unlock for the regular Oni chart on Nijiiro arcades... Which one is it?
1-2-San-Shi no de Dondokaka! AI Kiritan feat. Yu-ki Hirose
1・2・さんしのでドンドカッカッ！/ AIきりたん feat.ユーキヒロセ
1・2・さんしのでドンドカッカッ！/ AIきりたん feat.ユーキヒロセ
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro |
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★1 (82) |
★1 (120) |
★4 (299) |
★7 (511) |
★9 (715) |
142
???One of the first contest-spawn songs to get the Ura Oni treatment, the peppy 1-2-San-Shi no de Dondokaka! is made by the 1992-class freelance musician Yuki Hirose (廣瀬祐輝; Twitter; personal website; YouTube), more commonly known by the 'Yu-ki Hirose' nick handle that also appears as this song's subtitle.
Born on January 13th, he graduated from his music school studies as a guitar player, which lead him to some band activites as a roadie for a number of years. The experience was followed by some studies on arrangement and composition as an office writer during which time he created music for several Anime shows (among these, the opening themes of Kenja no Mago and Nekopara). As anticipated, Yuki Hirose is currently a freelance musician that mostly gravitates towards videogame music creation, having already landed in rhythm gaming with pluri-artist-participating pieces like Lanota's Lapis lazuli; Muse Dash's I Love Lettuce Fried Rice!! (ウォー・アイ・レタス炒飯!!) and SOUND VOLTEX's Odorimashou yo! Dragon-san ~Tensei Shitara Game Kyoku Deshita~. Yuki himself is a Taiko player ever since Mekadesu. put him on the fore since his elementary school years, although by the artist's own admission (link), it's really easy for his energy to get drained while drumming...
For this Taiko debut as a contest champion, Yuki Hirose stands alone with his winning piece thanks to the digital help received in form of a digital voice bank performing the singing duty: Tohoku Kiritan (東北きりたん), based on the voice of i☆Ris iodol group member Himika Akaneya (茜屋日海夏). Co-developed by AH-Software Co. Ltd. and SSS LLC., this was one of two voice banks that managed to join the voice synthesizing program UTAU in 2015 as a result of a contest from the prior year to make two 'sister voice banks' to 2011's Tohoku Zunko, the Voiceroid/Vocaloid developed as a means to raise funds for the namesake region hit by the infamous 2011 tsunami calamity. Both of the contest's digital winners -Itaho and Kiritan- made it to be featured in other voice bank programs across the years, but Kiritan definitely had the lion's share with dedicated voice banks developed for Voiceroid (2016), NEUTRINO (2020, as 'AI Kiritan') and CeVIO AI (2021). Given how the 'AI Kiritan' nomenclature is only used for NEUTRINO's voice bank, it's highly likely how this is the version of Tohoku Kiritan we can hear on Yuki Hirose's Namco Original debut.
For this Taiko debut as a contest champion, Yuki Hirose stands alone with his winning piece thanks to the digital help received in form of a digital voice bank performing the singing duty: Tohoku Kiritan (東北きりたん), based on the voice of i☆Ris iodol group member Himika Akaneya (茜屋日海夏). Co-developed by AH-Software Co. Ltd. and SSS LLC., this was one of two voice banks that managed to join the voice synthesizing program UTAU in 2015 as a result of a contest from the prior year to make two 'sister voice banks' to 2011's Tohoku Zunko, the Voiceroid/Vocaloid developed as a means to raise funds for the namesake region hit by the infamous 2011 tsunami calamity. Both of the contest's digital winners -Itaho and Kiritan- made it to be featured in other voice bank programs across the years, but Kiritan definitely had the lion's share with dedicated voice banks developed for Voiceroid (2016), NEUTRINO (2020, as 'AI Kiritan') and CeVIO AI (2021). Given how the 'AI Kiritan' nomenclature is only used for NEUTRINO's voice bank, it's highly likely how this is the version of Tohoku Kiritan we can hear on Yuki Hirose's Namco Original debut.
As noted by the artist himself on Twitter (link), his own name in the artist mention comes as the 'feat.' right after Kiritan's as he believes this is an AI Kiritan song first and foremost with the song composer just being a 'minor contributor' for it by sprucing its final touches up to completion, in the same way as your average Vocaloid artist credit mention is usually "composer feat. VOCALOID/s" as the digital singer/s gives her finishing touches to the artist's craft. Much like with Stick Trick Show Time!, we have steμ praising 1-2-San-Shi no de Dondokaka! as the Faith Creation judge crowning it to victory, due to its energy and bounciness that cheer players up as they're playing with it. Steμ himself longs for the day he'll be able to play the song while humming it at the same time...
Both Oni chart mostly play on the 1/16 charting spectrum with some 1/24 shift and scrolling speed ramp for some big note/drumroll segments... that, however, definitely gears up with the Ura Oni mode, where the scrolling speed is naturally doubled up everywhere on top of your usual pattern-upgrading job we're used to see for Ura upgrades. If you long for the way-back times of Diamond Happy and White Rose Insanity's Ura hurdles,... look no further!
Both Oni chart mostly play on the 1/16 charting spectrum with some 1/24 shift and scrolling speed ramp for some big note/drumroll segments... that, however, definitely gears up with the Ura Oni mode, where the scrolling speed is naturally doubled up everywhere on top of your usual pattern-upgrading job we're used to see for Ura upgrades. If you long for the way-back times of Diamond Happy and White Rose Insanity's Ura hurdles,... look no further!
