Hi there! We're experimenting with new formats to deliver our footage delivery for Taiko-newcoming songs, with a handy portal for all of the month's newcoming songs that will eventually be added in the sidebar soon enough as opposed to single 'First Video' posts we've done in the past.
Don't get us wrong, however- we're not crossing out the intention to make timely features of songs coming out in the same Saturday as their own Song of the Week featurette. Such as this one!
Aragami xiDon't get us wrong, however- we're not crossing out the intention to make timely features of songs coming out in the same Saturday as their own Song of the Week featurette. Such as this one!
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y3) |
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★3 (148) |
★4 (268) |
★6 (415) |
★10 (839) |
- |
98-196
???Standing tall as the final adversary of Nijiiro's Year 3 Ranking Dojo 10th Dan course is one, piano-crazed tune hailing from BMS shores, courtesy of the nick-named xi after his own FREEDOM DiVE↓ and Parousia. Given my... shall we say, heated precedents with the former, I'h honestly surprised how that release would eventually lead with time into the Taiko porting of my personal favorite BMS song of his so wow, I guess contrapasso works out both ways!
For as tempting as a Bandai Namco reference might be with that title, there's no relation to the God Eater gaming series with Aragami, as its roots are planted a bit later in time, as a contestant entry for the 2014 edition of the BMS OF FIGHTERS tournament series, going by the name of G2R2014 "GO BACK 2 YOUR ROOTS". In the song entry, xi explained how the dominant theme for its creation was "roughness and delicacy", something that the English-worded Japanese title could also give away (Aragami as in, 'Fierce God'). Additional challenges were also documented by the composer as a post-scriptum in the same entry after the announcement of the contest's end-result, including the challenge of making a track that lasted under 2 minutes, giving an elegant Japanese feel to it without actually using Japanese instrumental backing, while at the same time making the effort to incorporate something reminiscent to a powerful beam firing off, in perfect Japanese style!
Aragami's popularity already kicked off among G2R2014 digital attenders, being the tournament's 2nd most popular song only railing behind Sakuzyo's Altale, another tune that had also booked out a Taiko seat precedently (link). Thanks to this one latest port, however, xi's genre-titled "LIFE STREAM" managed to 1-up the contest victor in the porting-into-pre-existing-games scenario. Starting from the mobile front, the song got adopted first into Rayark's Deemo where it also received an OST-exclusive piano rendition by Tomoko Asaka, being succeded by its inclusion in Cytus II as part of the inhouse Deemo collaboration. Arcade-wise we got Sega harnessing the 'lifestream' with both maimai and CHUNITHM franchises, with the Konami-proprietary bemani being happy enough with the song popping up for the 4th main iteration of the SOUND VOLTEX series. A long version of Aragami was also made for xi's 3rd solo album World Fragments, which is also why the official upload of its long version doesn't lie on the artist's personal YT channel, but rather the one of DiverseSystem, the circle he's affiliated and distributed said album on (link).
Premiering as the only ture-series-debuting song of the Summer '23 Rewards Shop lineup, Aragami roars in not with the spam of ten thousand density-change charting gimmickry but rather the menacing posture of frequent 1/16 clusters, each either going with consecutive Don/Kat triples or intertwining more vicious handswitching from even-note to single changes, culminating with the very final stream of notes. A far cry to deadlier 10-star contenders of the modern day, but you can still see how its inclusion as the 10th Dan course finisher is totally warranted!
