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| AC Nijiiro (Y3) NS2 (MP) RC |
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★3 (164) |
★5 (224) |
★6 (382) |
★9 (765) |
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160-276.5
mknyel (Makina Yell)Anniversary songs for Taiko no Tatsujin have never been really a thing up until these past five years or so, with Donders online arguing how the release of select end-0-firmwares/Nijiiro-era Namco Originals were released around the series' inception day of February the 21st (namely, Taiko Roll and the Taiko no Time Travel song series' starting/ending tunes). As far as the Taiko Team seems concerned about, however, the true anniversary trend started with music that was specifically labeled as such- standalone releases with no strings attached, starting off with this here cutie from 2 years ago! It's also a timely occasion for us going into due-diligence for correcting the record on the song's composer, seeing how we've been getting his name translation CONSTANTLY wrong around here, up until official localized Taiko-versed material has risen online...
Composer Rihito Tsuboi (坪井理人) was one of the talents graduating at Bandai Namco's inhouse GEMini program, marking its gaming-contributory debut in one of the Japan-only PC games coming out from said project: 2023's EXCYCLE, as its solo music composer. With his own X handle being just as active as yours truly's, most of what we can tell about the artist's activities as of late is in these past two years of involvment across Taiko no Tatsujin activities, from composing Taiko-anniversary songs (this one and TENSEI -Kiyoshi ga Matsu Tsuwamono- from last year) and co-creating the Nijisanji collaboration song Koko Doko? Tabun Dokka-tou! to taking part in the 2024 Taiko no Tatsujin music contest's judges board, as well as performing for the end-2024 Anusement Music FES concert on part of the Bandai side of talents. Rihito Tsuboi also composed one of the Bandai-proprietary Vocaloid Mirai Komachi's official songs in 2023, with #Zutmot Shot. He was also one of the choir singers for the April Fools song Koritsu Aoharu Gakuen Kouka!
Rather than a reference to the story trope of resolving an unsurmountable situation with an unannounced tool/person/act happening all of a sudden, the title of Yell Ex Makina is owed to the Banapassport-unlockable 'Deus Ex Makina' (デウス・エクス・マキナ) title, unlockable via Nijiiro Version's AI Battle Performance mode after clearing the grueling task of winning ten thousand AI Battle matches! The singer for this one song, after all, is none other than the titular Makina, the mode's AI assistant hailing from the year 2765 to offer Taiko-training assistance from the future. She's voiced by the Brush-up One talent agency's Ryo "kabaccho" Kawasaba (樺澤綾; Twxttxr), also bolstering a speaking role in the long-gone Synchronica music game series, voicing the character Kitty.
You can tell how "anniversary songs" started to be an officially-sanctioned thing, when one of such songs lays really thick Taiko-referencing and 765-numberplay in what it feels a really long time! This is owed to Taiko Team crewmates of old and new bringing life to the lyrics body and registration booth, as the same Etou novered on social media in the past (link); not only (Yuji) Masubuchi, Tsuboi and SueP all played part for the lyrics body, they actually showed up to to let the singing Kawasaba brim with excitement as the recording went on. This, of course, without skimping over the "Makina takes" on Namco Original bits from the past -Future Lab, Mekadesu. and Dokidoki Mune Kyun Omatsuri Time-, complete with corresponding charting portions on top. Coupled with most of the song being timed under an "x76.5 BPM" value and a Nam-combo to boot on Oni and this Kat-leading chart can easily go hand-to-hand with all the goroawase antics from the 2nd and 3rd arcade gens!
