そなえよ pic.twitter.com/ob3GG49Cvq
— 【公式】太鼓の達人 ゲームセンター版 (@taiko_team) April 6, 2026
While we've already indulged on this ongoing mystery via our SNS feeds, we've come to a point where it's safe to have a recap on the blog about what's going on since April 1st, considering the current state of matters.
Just as we've touched upon during the proper April Fools' Day post, this year's song release -Saitama 2001- comes with a forked-paths chart that works in a different way than the original, with forced branching paths before the Don-Katsu Chitai sequence and one set of morse code in notechart form, appearing under particular conditions.
By hitting the two drumrolls exactly 11 times, the song's Oni mode chart will lock into the Advanced route and display the morse code in question, as shown in the video below:
"タ゛ノナリマシ゛ハクナハテ゛リワオハレコヨエナソニイラウトノミヤヘノモシカアキト"
This is the resulting message, which is gibberish if read as-is. However, by reading it backwards, we're getting a readable message, also in Japanese:
解き明かし者へ
闇の到来に備えよ
これは終わりではなく
始まりなのだ
"To those who have solved the riddle
prepare for the arrival of darkness
this is not the end
this is only the beginning"
This foreboding statement was made aware since April 1st but no one got a clue for what's this about, up until the tweet sent by the Taiko Team this past Monday on top of this post, with just the word 'Sonaeyo', or "Prepare" from Saitama 2001's hidden backwards message.
Nothing else outside the image and the word is on the post, leaving the Donder fanbase en large with speculations of all sorts. One of the leading theories for the delivery of whatever's behind this message was to wait until today -April 11th- as 11 were the hits needed across both drumrolls in Saitama 2001 to access the hidden Morse branching chart.
And sure enough, ...
The same image from last Monday, only with a giant '5' on front. If we have to take the number as the start of a countdown (in days), we know that the final day -April 16th- is also the day of the next Nijiiro Version software update for overseas arcades, making of next week's update also the harbringer of the darkness hidden behind the latest April Fools song. See you then...
This is the resulting message, which is gibberish if read as-is. However, by reading it backwards, we're getting a readable message, also in Japanese:
解き明かし者へ
闇の到来に備えよ
これは終わりではなく
始まりなのだ
"To those who have solved the riddle
prepare for the arrival of darkness
this is not the end
this is only the beginning"
This foreboding statement was made aware since April 1st but no one got a clue for what's this about, up until the tweet sent by the Taiko Team this past Monday on top of this post, with just the word 'Sonaeyo', or "Prepare" from Saitama 2001's hidden backwards message.
Nothing else outside the image and the word is on the post, leaving the Donder fanbase en large with speculations of all sorts. One of the leading theories for the delivery of whatever's behind this message was to wait until today -April 11th- as 11 were the hits needed across both drumrolls in Saitama 2001 to access the hidden Morse branching chart.
And sure enough, ...
— 【公式】太鼓の達人 ゲームセンター版 (@taiko_team) April 11, 2026
The same image from last Monday, only with a giant '5' on front. If we have to take the number as the start of a countdown (in days), we know that the final day -April 16th- is also the day of the next Nijiiro Version software update for overseas arcades, making of next week's update also the harbringer of the darkness hidden behind the latest April Fools song. See you then...
