As a pre-emptive disclaimer, the subjects of today's weekly feature have not been influenced by the writer's latest gaming distraction to nover.
Nuh-uh.
Pinky-swear.
NEW KAWAII
FRUITS ZIPPER
| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y6) |  | ★3 74 | ★5 198 | ★5 357 | ★8 452 | - |
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fzipkw (FRUITS ZIPPER - NEW KAWAII)So when you launch the freshly-released Rhythm Heaven Groove music game for the Nintendo Switch (even its free demo will do!), you'll be quickly greeted by a minigame bearing the slight-ominous title of Feeding the Beast, only to be met with an upbeat pop song performed by Yui Sakurai, the 'Mint-Green' idol of the very recent FRUITS ZIPPER act. We've already come across this unit a few months back on these shores (more about it here), but a second look might be more topical than what can be given credit to... Personal flights of fancy aside, the upcoming console debut of another of their songs was mistakenly leaked at this June's end, after all!
NEW KAWAII is FRUIT ZIPPER's second physical single release, following Watashi no Ichiban Kawaii Tokoro. Also composed by Yamamoto Sho (ヤマモトショウ), the song's single debut was dated September 18th, 2024, coupling the following song Fruits Basket (フルーツバスケット) in a message for their listeners to embrace their own individuality. This album release came in standard/regular limited variants, as well as "favorite member" limited versions with a retractible slip cover of one of the seven FRUITS ZIPPER members to showcase their own album release with! NEW KAWAII as a single song also managed to peak high, scoring 3rd peaks in both Oricon and Billboard Japan.
This is the only one among FRUITS ZIPPER songs to stay an arcade-exclusive (as of the original date's writing), and does it so with quite the tricky 7-star challenge for Oni habituées. Kat-leaning cluster antics with creative handswitching await, with a dash for small drumrolls to ease the pressure at the Go-Go Time's start!
Shinjidai Ado / From "Uta no uta ONE PIECE FILM RED"
新時代／「ウタの歌 ONE PIECE FILM RED」より
新時代／「ウタの歌 ONE PIECE FILM RED」より
| Game | Genre | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y3) NS2 (MP) PTB RC |  | ★2 101 | ★4 236 | ★5 327 | ★7 542 | - |
86.86-175 1pssjd / 1pssj2 (One Piece - Shinjidai)The news that made the biggest splash at the launch of Rhythm Heaven Groove, however, was the undisclosed discovery of yet another popular singer's contribution for another of the game's original songs, used for the Remix 8 stage from its later stretches. It also happens to be someone of a certain pull on the Internet as a whole, considering the singer in question raking millions of views while streaming her first playthrough of the same game and the later reveal of over 500k physical copies sold in Japan alone. That's even without mentioning the easter egg added in the game to pay homage to MVs of her most popular works!
The singer I'm talking about is the nicknamed Ado, a talent with a knack for songwriting and Vocaloid culture online, up to following the established cultural facet of Vocaloid producers/singers and never show her face in public, even for live performances! While her online debut as a singer was made with 2020's Ussewa (also available across Taiko games), what arguably has been Ado's major turning point in fame was her involment as the lead singer for the long-running One Piece series' Summer 2022 blockbuster release: ONE PIECE FILM: RED, originally revealed in commemoration of the anime series' 1000th episode release and still standing tall as the franchise's most-popular movie to date.
The Staw Hats' latest silver-screen adventure is set in the land of Elegia, with the captain Monkey D. Luffy looking forward to meet the singer Uta in one of her concerts, seeing as she's the known daughter of the same "Red-Haired" Shanks who saved Luffy's very life as a kid, at the price of one of his arms. The songstress in question, however, in her demands for Luffy and his crew to stop their pirate lives, tries to trap them in her (seemingly) never-ending concert, only for Luffy to manage to escape and learn the truth about Uta's power. The Devil Fruit ingested by Uta, the Sing-Sing Fruit, allows her to trap her audience in an alternate dimention as long as she's awake; however, the same Uta's reluctance of ending her own concert via drugs due to her hatred of pirates is shortening her lifespan to the point of death which -in case the singing Devil Fruit user dies- would result in all its trapped victims to stay trapped in that dimension forever. The race is on for Luffy to try change her mind before it's too late, with the added hinderance brought by the Marine Fleet and the Four Emperors drawn for avoiding the prospect of nearly 3/4s of the world population to never return the real world.
Premiering in Tokyo on July 22nd with a global release in the following month, ONE PIECE FILM: RED ultimately grossed nearly 246 million dollars at the box office, counting eleven consecutive weeks as the highest earner as few other movies in the country have fared beforehand! Not only the highest-grossing Toei Animation movie (let alone the highest-grossing from the One Piece series!), it currently sits as the 8th-placed all times earner right below The First Slam Dunk from the same year.
Shinjidai (lit. "New Order"), OPR's opening theme, has been one of the many license to grace Taiko games in both original and cover fashion, with the former reserved for the ongoing Nijiiro Version arcade line and the latter's change also being denoted with the different 1pssj2 SongID. Subtitle and slight BPM shifts in the beginning aside, there's little difference between the two versions on the gameplay side, still showcasing a speedy blend of Don-leading small clusters with 'charting-by-repetition' increments all the way.
