Happy 25th series anniversary, everyone! The occasion has called for a streaming session that was not aired during a Sunday, like usual, pertaining a lot of Nijiiro-centric events and elements to both look back at the Taiko no Tatsujin's hiustory as well as to gaze onward to whatever 2026 holds in store for the immediate future.
Credit to Discord user jdrago for a handful of pictures featured in this post!
The first order of business, as usual, is to tell the latest already-released songs for homeland Nijiiro arcades, something that was already discussed in blog form a few days back (link). No major surprises here outside of arcade director/broadcast cohost Kimizu donning a new moustache-based look but the segment to follow sure was a change of pace: revealing which were the 5 most popular Namco Originals of 2025!
At the very end of last year's stream, the call was made to share on social media one's favourite pick of the year, complete with its dedicated hashtag. The results are in and these were the most-voted picks! Quite refreshing to see three out of five songs come from the Ranking Dojo's upper-echelons, no less.
At the very end of last year's stream, the call was made to share on social media one's favourite pick of the year, complete with its dedicated hashtag. The results are in and these were the most-voted picks! Quite refreshing to see three out of five songs come from the Ranking Dojo's upper-echelons, no less.
What's more, however, is that people involved in each of the songs' creation/charting were also invited to chime in with a message that was broadcasted shortly after the Top 5's reveal. In order of displaying from the slide above, let's start with Kakahashi-hime!
For the song, composer Harunaba stepped in to reciprocate the high popularity result with a bit of his own musical history from the past, sharing his memories of playing Tales of Phantasia (on GBA) and being enthralled at the time of the musical prowess of a pianist named Sakura. It's that particular longing the one element that birthed the very name of his latest Taiko no Tatsujin song.
We've also got a comment from newcoming Taiko Team notecharter Ashira (アシラ), charting the song's Ura Oni by request of veteran charter SueP on the grounds of his fast-charting skills. In turn, the charter-sentai freshman delivered a chart made by the core concept of not being careless while playing it, in tone with the Ranking Dojo's upper echelons. Between speed changes and irregular rhythms, everything is fun as long as the final result is fun to play and delivers a sense of accomplishment at the end!
On the other hand, three people were summoned to talk about the next song in line: the fiendishly mischievous Dark Ex Makina from last year's April Fools. Makina's VA Ritsuka Tachibana was really receptive of all the positive feedback about the song, while wondering one time too many how crazy its charts would go in the most intense singing portions.
Composer Rihito Tsuboi, on the other hand, shared his fond memories of the first played Taiko games back to the Wii era's titles and how strong of an impression have left the many boss battles onto him. It's the drive to relieve that surge to ask the Taiko Team en large if it was possible to replicate these feels with a boss-like track, resulting in Rihito and Etou spending entire months to come up with the best possible composition and lyrics body! The same Etou also left a comment as the "unofficial Makina the DARK fanclub member no.0" revealing the thought process of making a "dark version" of a preexisting character song to be thinking about the reverse, of the reverse, of the reverse, [...], of the reverse of the original source, in this case being ultimately helped with the idea of the far-future and the stars to break such a brainstorming loop!
For the other not-Ranking-Dojo-related Top 5 ranker, we've got comments from a couple of people closely tied to Toroika 2000's creation. First we've got the familiar Linda AI-CUE, stating how his remodeling to perform the bass voice in the song was "worth it", with that very comment being read by Etou in his own falsetto voice to better convey the idea!
On the other hand, we've got the impressions of notecharter Kijikiji (キジキジ), in his first charting task for a 2000 song. Top priority for him was to replicate the series' general wacky and surprising antics, a step he deemend to have accomplished by many, many, MANY rounds of trial-and-error. You who are reading these very lines, try it yourself by playing the charts over and over- you might find yourself discovering new things each time!
For the highest Ranking Dojo slot among the Top 5 popularity rankers, Sadakichi and Etou were summoned to talk about Lightning Boys as its composer and charter respectively.
With the former recalling the concept of "Fast-feeling, strong kick" as the original idea for the song(and eventually what lead the final result to be kept the 'Lightning part of the name'), the latter instead reflected on the former Hurtling Boys' live efforts to chart its iconic deathstream, trying to replicate the feel but being adapted for the Chojin course's difficulty standards. Both people, however, agreed it needed a fan nickname like Hurtling before it, so with 'Dove' being the original's fan nickname since the infamous "Etou Beam" livestream creation, ... why not to continue the animal theme and call this one 'Rat'? Etou proposed such to Sadakichi and in his closing remarks he hopes it sticks for Lightning the same!
Finally, for SoulStone -Yami Kui Isakasu-Dan- we've got impressions for both members of the Seifuumeigetsu duo: composer Drop and vocalist Yura Hatsuki. The two aimed to create a Ranking Dojo candidate with a Gothic world view, with rhythms/speed/vocals offering a dark yet uplifting view of the story being told or, in the words of the same vocalist, wanting "to draw [you] in a dark world, with the darkness of my own beliefs".
The aforementioned charter Ashira was also revealed to be charting this song for the first time, while leveraging the delicate balancing act of this being his first Ranking Dojo chart task and the chart/BPM speed to be fit to be a 10-Dan final challenger. He was very anxious about its reception for a long time, but after reading online feeds of people having fun and 1st-time 10-Dan clears with his work, he finally put that proverbial sigh of relief aloud!
A couple of slides at the very end were reserved for notecharter SueP, a figure that had a helping hand in varying degrees for each of the just-digressed popular picks. He was the charter for all non-Ura modes for Kakahashi-hime, supervised "from the shadows" (actual quote) the charting development of Dark Ex Makina for a more blockbuster-y feel, refined Kijikiji's charting sheets for Toroika 2000, lent an aiding hand at Etou's Lightning Boys chart to match the charting excitement of Hurtling Boys and experimented with the same charting colleague Ashira on an "unconventional" approach for a 10-Dan finisher chart in SoulStone.
All in all, ... all in a day's work, one could say!
We surely had a LOT to talk about for the first half-hour of the broadcast, but things are racking up the pace with a few merch-related announcements. First of all, the latest iteration of the Taiko no Tatsujin Goods Campaign!
Starting next Friday and up until May 24th this year, (Japanese) Banapassport players can claim one of three kinds of available rewards by spending a set sum of event points, awarded after each Banapassport-registered credit play in Taiko machines. It's the same kind of event from last year, but with a different prize assortment!
This time around, the big prize is a Taiko-themed reversible minibag, available at 70 points. Both classy and colorful Donders might get a kick out of this!
At 40 points, we got a choice out of three acrylic standee sheets between Makina and AI-Don, the duo's DARK variant and the Tatsu-Don himself! Finally, another way to make him stand up.
The cheapest reward is at 8 points, for a choice of one out of 3 sticker sheets with Wada Don and friends, the Aoharu no Tatsujin students and a few special titles from recent Nijiiro memory.
Not only that, but after the campaign's end there's gonna be a lottery extraction for 10 more acrylic standees to be shipped across all participants! Further details on the campaign en large will be doled at a dedicated website, yet to be activated.
For the 'regular merch' corner, we've got a couple more Taiko-branded items to be available as prizes in Banpresto's ufo catchers: Wada siblings-shaped lunch boxes and headphone sets!
A couple of live events were also recounted as snap collages, this time around starring events from Mainland China and Japan.
A peculiar new kind of live event is also about to be rolled out in select namco game centers!
This is going to be a two-players-couple score attack tournament in which everyone will compete in couples to achieve the greatest combined score of the day on Oni mode, playing a couple of songs from a pre-determined pool that will be decided at the day of the event itself. Even the youngest players are given a chance to join, as they're allowed extra lotto pulls after playing according to their respective school grade.
This is going to be a two-players-couple score attack tournament in which everyone will compete in couples to achieve the greatest combined score of the day on Oni mode, playing a couple of songs from a pre-determined pool that will be decided at the day of the event itself. Even the youngest players are given a chance to join, as they're allowed extra lotto pulls after playing according to their respective school grade.
The following piece was a refresher of the currently-active campaigns in Nijiiro Version cabs, from the Rewards-a-plenty campaign to the Arknights collaboration (with display of the collaboration keychains on toe!). Right after that, however, is something definitely new for the game center horizon...
At long last, the Taiko leg of the Project Sekai collaboration is about to start! The event will last a couple of months like in the mobile game's side, with crossed-over songs and a few unlockable customization goods for Banapassport-geared players.
First of all, the new songs.
A representative song for each of the Vocaloid-fueled game's units is bound to reach game centers from the campaign's start, on February 25th! Playing those with a credit play for Banapassport players will earn them event tickets to exchange with a selection of event-exclusive elements, in form of Petit Charas and custom titles.
Last but not least, three limited-edition Banapassport designs with the collaboration Petit Charas will also be available for sale, starting from April! Again, expect to be hearing more from a dedicated, soon-to-be-online campaign page.
And now, at long last, the main event for the stream takes place... Happy 25th series anniversary!
The jolly reveal, as per tradition, was followed with a few slides containing some heartfelt comments from Donders recounting their memories with Taiko no Tatsujin. Feel free to see them from the 1h23m mark on the stream!
Of course, one set tradition for these anniversaries is to match the celebration with an anniversary song. Something we're surely not shying away from, this year!
While sure, by this point it might not be a surprise to see Rihito Tsuboi behind a Taiko anniversary song, what's more surprising is the vocalist duo we've got on board this time: Nanahira (Love♡Spice♡Like You!!! and Zenryoku Dive in Taiko) and Yoko Takamitsu, the iconic vocalist behind the Angel Dream songs!
Re:Play is going to be playable from tomorrow, with the playable audio cut already available on Bandai Namco's YT channel, right after being played in today's livestream.
Once again, Donders all over the Web are invited to join the celebration, even beyond the new song! For one month starting from today, it will be possible for everyone to suggest a 25th anniversary title to be available to everyone for free, followed by the hashtag query pertaining to the event. The best one chosen by the Taiko Team will be distributed to everyone, after the campaign's end!
Coming up next is the return of a well-accepted habit from the early Nijiiro years' inception... Say hello to a brand new Taiko no Tatsujin music contest!
Coming back after a leap year, this edition will assume the structure of the one from 2024, with two kinds of review for the selection of the winners: the first one from the judges' board and the second one from the userbase en large, via polling after the reveal of the judge-elected winners.
What's new, this time around, are a couple of elements to keep the tune-crafting grounds fresh: a separate participation pool for Under-25 Years Old Artists and the implementation of a triad of guest judges, giving their impressions over the winning entries chosen by the regular Taiko Team board of judges.
The three Guest Judges were also revealed on stream, all three key players in Taiko history across the ages: Tatsh, t+pazolite and Linda AI-CUE.
For the very final new piece of Taiko intel from the livestream, we've got a small teaser for the return of the Ranking Dojo in 2026, revealing that this year's new song for the 10-Dan course will be a collaborative effort between Kaneko Chiharu and cosMo@BouSouP, two artists that both share a common history of top-tier devilish Taiko gauntlets in the past, be it for tournaments or past iterations of the very same Ranking Dojo.
This wraps up 2026's first Taiko no Tatsujin livestream! Take care.
