For the last time in 2022, here's a Song of the Week... that is actually THE song of the Week, the one to come out at this exact same day!
Illusion Flare Mihile
ミハイル
| Game | Genre |
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y3) |
 |
★4 (???) |
★6 (???) |
★7 (???) |
★10 (766) |
- |
180
???The one notable aspect about the second of the Columbia-Makes-hosted Taiko no Tatsujin song contests is that it was made with the explicit desire to award original creation from people who have never contributed for Taiko gaming before in any shape of form, with the introduction of the "First Submission Entry" sub-bracket and the clause of awarding at least one submission from there. As it turned out, however, everyone but ONE of the eleven winning tracks were by never-heard-before names in the ongoing drumming lore! The sole returning winner -author of the just-released song up here- was one of the original CreoFUGA success stories, too.
Indeed, the jazz-a-holic Illusion Flare comes from the hands of the same Mihile (ミハイル) that brought us 3piece-JazzParty!, straight from the original CreoFUGA contest back in 2011 and also one of 5 tunes to eventually reach out foreign otoge pastures with the past Taiko x Deemo collaboration (link). As it turns out, this wasn't the only victory for the artist in 2022, as he managed to earn a contest-winning slot with K.key by the power of the collaboratively-molded Garland, one of 8 tracks that was adopted for the SOUND VOLTEX-related BEMANI PRO LEAGUE circuit (its Season 2, that is) which is bound to a publicly-playable debut sometime in the future.
In regards of Illusion Flare, judge Yuji Masubuchi was more than eager to praise the piece for starting out with a bitter/cool riff attitude up while piling up a certain overflow as the song goes on to come out in a passionate burst, much like a heo's journety from his rookie days down to finally becoming a real-deal superhero. The NBSI veteran was also impressed by the portability to music gaming that made him go "I can see myself charting it like this" after one full listen, despite belonging to a genre as changeling as a piano-lead progressive rock. The same Mihile also penned on Twitter about both being inspired to make a "cool piece, for some reason" (link) for its 2022 creation, with the end result being a song that was composed while Mihile himself would imagine how its chart would look like in Taiko games (link). Apparently, from the same tweet, the end-result charting job managed to surprise Mihile himself!
We've already reported in the previously-backlinked SotW article for 3piece-JazzParty! about Mihile trying once more the Taiko contest grounds with a continuation/derivative track with the later CF competition's 4piece-JazzPanic!, but it turns out he's been trying to fit in in these past Gen4-rooted competitions as well! For 2020's Faith Creation venue, he brought up the song Stratosphere Flight, while the previous year's Columbia Makes joint has welcomed his Passionate Shadow (original version on Mihile's YT channel), awarded for the latter with a Silver-graded Honorable Mention with Yuji Masubuchi praising it for a song that would make kids interested into the jazz genre as a whole. Years later, it's heartwarming to see the same Masubuchi directly mentioning Mihile's continued efforts in later Taiko contests when the mark has been hit once more, wouldn't you say?
Reiterating in a different wording what both the Illusion Flare creator and its award-handing judge have stated, it's a musical-notation charting in the purest of its forms: if it's defined by a drums or a trumpet string, it's translated in Taiko form with a note! While missing the mark on a Nam-Combo Oni value, players can easily feel the pressure of the 7-notes-per-second average being met by this primarily-1/16 charting trek. No visual gimmickry is laid upon either-what you see is what you'll hit just like the original 3piece!
