Always on Anime shores, this is how we're wrapping things up for the month: with a longrunning arcade license in Taiko that has become relevant once again in this ending week!
Hamtaro Tottoko Uta Tottoko Hamtaro --- Old ---
ハム太郎とっとこうた／「とっとこハム太郎」より
ハム太郎とっとこうた／「とっとこハム太郎」より
| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  / |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC3 |  | ★2 87 | ★2 131 | ★3 268 | ★6 268 | - |
| AC4 | | ★2 87 | ★2 131 | ★3 268 | ★4 338 | - |
| AC5-6 | | ★2 87 | ★2 131 | ★4 268 | ★5 338 | - |
| PS2 1 | | ★2 87 | ★2 131 | ★3 268 | ★6 268 | - |
140
ttk (Tottoko Hamtaro)Hamtaro Tottoko Uta Tottoko Hamtaro --- New ---
ハム太郎とっとこうた／「とっとこハム太郎」より
ハム太郎とっとこうた／「とっとこハム太郎」より
| Game | Genre | | | | / | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS2 Anime 2 AC8 | | ★2 63 | ★2 100 | ★5 256 | ★6 401 | - |
| AC9-10 AC11 Asia | | ★2 94 | ★3 150 | ★5 256 | ★6 401 | - |
| AC0 | | ★2 94 | ★3 150 | ★4 256 | ★6 401 | - |
| AC0 K-D | | ★2 94 | ★3 150 | ★6 256 | ★6 401 | - |
| Plus/STH RC | | ★2 63 | ★2 100 | ★6 256 | ★5 401 | - |
| NS2 (MP) | | ★2 94 | ★3 150 | ★6 256 | ★5 401 | ★10 597 |
| Wii 4 | | ★2 63 | ★2 100 | ★4 191 | ★5 262 | - |
140 ttk3/ttk3s [Tottoko Hamtaro 3rd song/Tottoko Hamtaro 3rd song short (Wii 4 only)]Wii 4 short version
The slice-of-life genre has held its appeal across the teenager demographic for quite a while, but arguably its roots can be found in cozier stories for children! This is the case of the Tottoko Hamtaro (lit. 'Trotting Hamtaro'), the manga created by Ritsuko Kawai (河井リツ子) about the titular hamster Hamtaro and the zany events happening in his daily life, be it with his human owner Hiroko Haruna or with a nearby clan of fellow hamsters, collectively known as the Ham-Hams.
The original run was serialized across Shogakukan's elementary-grade magazines, starting on April 1997 with Shōgaku Ninensei and eventually having chapters in the longrunning Ciao and in three standalone tankōbon. Come July 7th, 2000, the first Tottoko Hamtaro anime series started its broadcasting on TV Tokyo, mostly with self-contained episodes and a few multiparters to match the source material. This series also made the jump overseas, with English-speaking countries having a dub from the same Ocean Studios that first brought localized voice acting to the iconic Dragon Ball Z. Its success, however, was nowhere as expansive in the Americas and no other series were adopted, with the distribution of later Hamtaro series only issued for a fistful of European countries. However, what this children's series was mostly known for worldwide had little to do with either printed or silverscreen works: it had a prolific line of portable videogames on Nintendo systems to its name, most of which were published by the same Nintendo- developed even, in some cases!
Under the same title lie two versions of the same song: the original one from the 2000-starting series and a revised version made in 2005 for its sequel series Tottoko Hamtaro Ham-Ham Paradise! (とっとこハム太郎 はむはむぱらだいちゅ！), the 6th one overall. Both were composed/lyricized by Hamtaro's mangaka Ritsuko Kawai, with arrangement done by Iwasaki Motoaki (岩崎元是) and vocal work by most of the hamsters' voice actors, in-character as the Ham-Hams (ハムちゃんず). Slight rating revisions aside, the title has received a change on Tobikkiri! Anime Special alone as 'Hamtaro Tottoko Uta 2005', before every subsequent release inheriting the same title as the original one from Gen1 titles.
The song's subtitle across 2nd-gen arcade also changed a couple of times from the norm, with Taiko 9 quoting the Ham-Ham Paradise sequel series as the source and Taiko 10 listing another series on its stead, which also used the main theme's 2005 version: 2007's Tottoko Hamtaro Hai! (とっとこハム太郎 は～い！), a 3D-graphics miniseries of 5-minute episodes that was aired as part of the Nori-suta Hai! (のりスタは〜い！) program. Hamtaro Hai's distribution was so short to only bolster an Italian dub and the only official episode distribution via DVD to note in Thailand; however, it was eventually reaired in Japan between the years 2011-2012, being possibly the reason behind the 2005 theme's arcade revival in the Taiko 0 generation after skipping all other two-digit firmwares (remember, only the General-Asia Taiko 11 arcades had this song!). One last Ham-alteration to note across the years was the song's porting to the Wii's Kettei-ban, for which the song was cut in length in the same way Anpanman Taisou was cut (also in the same game). Both song versions' pure-1/16 charting are heavily based on the works of veteran notecharter Kohara (こはらー), with the original version more Kat-leaning than the 2005 one, which instead sports more Don-based clusters under the same pace.
So yeah, this ending week we can add another new oddity of the Hamtaro Tokotto Ura legacy: a once-removed arcade license coming back to consoles... eventually coming back with its own Ura Oni setting- top difficulty at that! Other than stuffing it with more and more notes, be prepared to some fiendish 1/24 hybrid cluster action when the harp in the base song is getting harmonoiusly pinched. Watch out for that ending too, from the hybrid Don clusters to the giant x2-scrolling Kat note!
