It's time, once again, to bring up yet another live example of how getting geared with an Ura Oni chart isn't a licensed cover song's way to dodge perma-deletion action in Taiko grounds.
This time around, it's arguably a greater loss for those looking for an easy arcade medal grind...
| Game | Genre |
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y6 deletion) |  |
★2 41 |
★2 57 |
★4 115 |
★5 165 |
★9 298 |
280
ashibe (Shonen Ashibe)Later this month, three songs are about to get their permanent leave on Nijiiro version grounds, and in Taiko gaming in general, among which we have *insert Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas joke here* and today's pick as departures for the Anime genre.
What we have here is the 4th opening theme in the 2010s revival of a Weekly Young Jump-serialized manga between 1988 and 1994: Shonen Ashibe (少年アシベ), a slice-of-life series telling the story of the titular Ashibe and his family, after moving out from his home town due to a work accident caused by his father. A colorful supporting cast pops up between chapters of many species and nations of origins, including a baby harbor seal that would eventually become the de-facto 2nd protagonist, getting the name of Goma-chan. Additional works pertaining the series would include manga spinoffs about the same Goma-chan in the early 2000s (COMAGOMA) and the same Ashibe during his elementary-school years (Young Ashibe), getting new chapters for the latter since 2017.
The world of Shonen Ashibe would be later portrayed in animated form across two periods: a pre-Third-Millennium one across six OVAs by Nippon Animation and a four-seasons Anime series getting produced for the NHK educational TV, under the title of Shōnen Ashibe Go! Go! Goma-chan; of those four, the first two would come to light thanks to Bridge and Hoshio studios in a style that was more similar to the origilar manga run, while the other two -closer to the OG mangaka Hiromi Morishita's ongoing artstyle from the aforementioned COMAGOMA manga spinoff onward- would mainly involve Studio Palette instead. There's no Arthurian legend involved, but the opening theme Smile! Smile! Smile! was single-handedly owed to Kitagawa Katsutoshi (北川勝利) from the on-hiatus ROUND TABLE act. We rarely get insights on the people behind licensed music covers across Taiko games, but this time around we are aware of the nicknamed Kinamiumi (きなみうみ; X account) being responsible for this one among others, as revealed by the same artist on X a few years back (link).
Sure, we can go on about the unusuality of finding a 280 base BPM song in the Anime genre, the slow-down scrolling speed modifier applied to the conventional 4-difficulties set and how the Ura Oni makes out the most of its brutal speed to squeeze in as many monocolor clusters as possible, matching long-running speed fiends like Haya Saitama 2000... but for the more seasoned game center goers, however, this song has been the most relevant one since Nijiiro's first-year tenure as the shortest available song in the base songlist at around 43 seconds of playtime, thus making it the best pick to finish a credit play early and farm Don/Katsu medals as quickly as possible for all the Banapassport-relevant shops. After its impending removal, the remaining alternatives are the infamous PPAP song and Yokuderu 15300. Granted, of course, that for the latter candidate you're going to book a game center subscription for the lone month of April...
