We have a hero for this month's Ura Oni pick! Just, not the kind of Hero you might have read around here beforehand...
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACN (Y4) NS2 (MP/DLC) PTB RC |
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★2 107 |
★3 151 |
★5 206 |
★7 362 |
★9 657 |
208
friere (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)Different-title spelling aside, the kind of hero on display today is one from increasingly-popular Anime pastures, one where the 'hero' in question appears to be dead already for the intents and purposes of the source series' whereabouts. Hell, it's not even the first time we got songs for dead heroes in Taiko already... and as an original song at that!
The story told by today's source series is on all accounts the extended telling of another's aftermath, in a fantasy world where its greatest threat is expunged by a party of four adventurers: the human hero Himmel, the dwarfen warrior Eisen, the human priest Heiter and the elven mage Frieren. At the end of their adventure, the four witness a rare meteor shower known as the Era Meteors that is said to occur once every 50 years and vow to meet again at the Capital to attend to the next one. Fifty years go by and at the return of the capital, the long-living Frieren finds out that while her species' traits let her stay about the same for the reunion, the rest of her party has shown in greather lengths the passage of time, most notably for the hero Himmel who died of old age, right after his last adventure. After attending his funerary rites, Frieren realizes her grief for not getting to know Himmel better back in their adventure and after granting priest Heiter's request to teach and take care of his adoptive son Fern, she decides to embarg in a northward journey to the souls' final resting place, in order to have one last chance to speak to him.
The source manga, while surely brought to life by its mangaka Kanehito Yamada (山田鐘人), also owes a lot of its identity to the energic endeavors of its editor-in-chief Katsuma Ogura, moved by Yamada's previous manga work Bocchi Hakase to Robot Shōjo no Zetsubō Teki Utopia despite not being a commercial success. The endeavors of Oguma started the initial hook of the writer to what would eventually become the series' illustrator Tsukasa Abe (阿部司佐), after an initial character pitch that would eventually become the series' protagonist due to giving out the impression of an "aura of humanity" from her. Even the original title is partially owed to the editor-in-chief; in a past online interview, it was revealed how at an editorial meeting the same Ogura offered 10.000 Yen of his own pocket to the one to deliver the best idea, which incidentally came to the vice-editor-in-chief with Soso no Frieren (葬送のフリーレン, lit. "Frieren at the Funeral"), the name which stuck for the original serialization release at Shogakugan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday. On top of all accolades that Madhouse Studio's 28-episodes series on Frieren has received (including 2024's Tokyo Anime Award Festival for Best Music, which composer YOASOBI won for this one song!), a 2nd season has been greenlit to release next year, with the still-running original manga already bolstering 14 tankobon releases and more than 2 million copies sold worldwide..
Alas, Taiko gaming's take on this song starring the vocalist Ayase is a cover version; nevertheless, it magnetized donders all across the continent to the point of getting a Nintendo Switch port (via Taiko Music Pass) as one of the most-voted songs for the first years' anime poll of the game! Other noteable ports of the song in music gaming are currently found in beatmania IIDX 31 EPOLIS as an arrangement from OSTER Project and at Sega's for closer-to-the-source ports, with the "TV Sized" version available in maimai Deluxe PRiSM since its launch and an edited cut from its full version appearing in CHUNITHM since the LUMINOUS PLUS revision update. Outside of music gaming, Yuusha has also received an English version to its tally from the same YOASOBI, under the name "The Brave" and as a YouTube-channel-first premiere.
For YOASOBI's highest BPM average track to date, Taiko Team leader Etou was summoned to chart each of its Taiko modes, from Kantan to Ura Oni. Be it for the regular Oni's upper-hand of 3-note clusters and the Ura variant going savy on cluster triplettes and longer note streaks for the final Go-Go Time portion, there's always a quick-scrolling Kat note to hit before the bridge hits!
