Today's SotW topic has made a drastic pivot halfaway this week due to the fortuitous circumstances surrounding the target song's composer at hand! It also doubles as one of the lucky parables in life where diligent assiduity and tenacity are rewarded, at least in music gaming...
| Game | Genre |
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|
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y6) |  |
★5 225 |
★7 375 |
★8 548 |
★10 926 |
- |
200
???Everyone loves a good underdog story, right? Tales of people in the dumps who keep striving for their goal despite all odds stacked against them, only for their perseverance being met with a well-deserved reward after all sorts of trials and tribulations. Around the music gaming scene, the scenario is mostly itemized by returning composers in original music contests, who keep returning in spite of the hurdles shown year after year. In Taiko fields, most who failed a contest either quit or return a bunch of times, some perhaps after a hiatus... but here comes someone who's been trying since the 2016 CreoFUGA music contest, never missing a BanNam-endorsed contest competition since then! This was the story for the nick-named TAKIO (X account; YouTube), landing at last the much-researched victory with the Columbia Makes contests line last year. You can tell the degree of realization of such a result when the composer was eager to be one of its Day 1 DFC performers, filming his endeavor on YT as well (link)!
Unfortunately, the WayBackMachine scholars can't help us this time on digging up TAKIO's entry/ies for the 2016 Taiko-themed competition, but all others are still up on each of the Nijiiro-era editions! We got Dawn the Peri0d for 2020's FaiCre contest, Onagi Hoshizora no Shita ne for the 2021 contest (one of Etou's Bronze award picks), a couple songs in 2022, each among the Silver Honorable Mentions for judges Etou (Ase) and SueP (Suisei Kido no Shuchaku-ten) and SIX different entries between solo and collab works in 2023, among which we find Etou Silver HM Konton to Shukufuku no Saidan and SueP Bronze HM Dear Ultimate Donders. Finally, three entries are accounted for last year's TAKIO shining hour, with his other two contest entries also getting Bronze honorable mentions: two for Yoki Ranbu (Masubuchi and SueP) and Rihito Tsuboi's thumbs-up on Ukiyo-e Metro. The same Tsuboi is also the one to pen his impressions of the winning "SSS Line WaveSounds No.205", positively commenting on the artist-self-appointed 'post-rock and starry approach' to composition, resulting into a vivid scenery to be imagined over and over again, after each listen!
The song's name was decided from the 'Seaside Secret' line halfaway the track, uttered by the nicknamed Nachi (Sesha) [なーち(せしゃ)] which also acts as the unlockable Oni Full Combo title that Banapassport-geared Donders can claim on game centers. Notably enough, this is the second of three "-Line" songs released by the composer thus far: Kosoku 105-Gou SSS-Sen made for doujin circle Exabit Record's Highway TOKYO album and the recently-released Seikan 505-Gou CR-Sen, which was instead submitted for this year's edition of the Cosmic Radio music contest line. With Taiko no Tatsujin being one of the affiliated partners for song adoptions as of late, who knows- we might have yet to hear the last of TAKIO!
In the meantime, the composer has also accomplished many an accolade elsewhere in otoge fields, both commissioned and as contest victor! In Lanota, we find the Cosmic Radio '24 song Diva of the Constellation; originals, on the other hand, were landed on Shoya Otake's iOS-exclusive Liminality with Merry Go Round Lullaby and on Kalpa with Red Bullet feat. Yoshina Haramori. Fresh of the presses this very week, it was also revealed how TAKIO managed not only to win among many the latest music contest for lowiro's Arcaea- it was as its Grand Prize winner, too!
One of the 2024 contest winners to come with star-rating-maxed charts for all main modes, Shiosai 205-Gou SSS-Sen also firmly stands its grouns as one to make of the music-notation charting a second-nature asset for official-Taiko-chart-making. It might still be a hassle for newcomers on the energy-management department to tackle 1/16 and 1/24 hybrid charting, but the Don/Kat placement is as intuitive as it possibly can, saving the only speedup curve balls for its very end!
