Behind the Drums: Tatsuya Shimizu @ Zeami

One of the many enigmatous faces in the Taiko Team, Zeami (世阿弥) does not refer to the 14th century Japanese playwright/actor, but is used as a covert alias for Tatsuya Shimizu (清水達也), a prominent composer from Bemani, whose portfolio includes famous rhythm games such as beatmania IIDX, Pop'n Music and many, many other rhythm games.

Zeami is the brainchild of two Namco Original song series, the no Mai series and subsequently the five songs of the Rose series, both of which garnered huge popularity for its blockbuster impact, great-sounding songs, and very difficult Oni charts (Zeami himself charts many of the songs he composed). For a very long time, Zeami had refused to give away even a small hint about his true identity. Not even his face is shown in public!

Since the beginning when he composed Ryougen no Mai, fans were busy speculating his true identity, and all the small bits of evidence gathered from tweets, music style (Blue Rose Ruin) and charts (such as White Rose Insanity Ura's balloon note scrolling at 5.73x speed) points to a certain other composer from a certain other rhythm games-making group.

The ball is finally dropped on June 2014 during the finals of the Taiko Tournament 2013, five long years after he first started making songs for Taiko, when Zeami finally, officially steps out onto the stage revealing himself to be Tatsuya Shimizu, to introduce everyone to his latest Taiko creation, Yuugen no Ran (幽玄ノ乱), confirming all fan speculation, and mentions that a future composition of his would use his Bemani alias Tatsh.

Tatsh's history in the rhythm giant Bemani is long and full of great songs, and they are out of the scope of this blog. A full bio and his song portfolio on Konami's rhythm games can be found here.

Besides Taiko no Tatsujin, this composer also made some compositions for Taito's Music GunGun! 2 and Groove Coaster using the alias Zeami, with some of which also appearing on Taiko games thanks to arcade collaboration events. Tatsuya Shimizu also made songs for Capcom's CROSSxBEATS series, as well as for Rayark's mobile music games Cytus (as Persona) and Deemo.

Website
Twitter

Namco Original

• Ryougen no Mai (燎原ノ舞) (also charter) (*)
• Senpuu no Mai (旋風ノ舞)
• Tenyou no Mai (天妖ノ舞)
• Black Rose Apostle (also charter for Ura)
• White Rose Insanity
• Red Rose Evangel
• Blue Rose Ruin
• Purple Rose Fusion
• Yuugen no Ran (幽玄ノ乱) (also charter)
• Xa
• Souryuu no Ran (双竜ノ乱)
• Shikou no Ran (紫煌ノ乱)
• Amaterasu (天照)

Game Music

• Music Revolver ( ミュージック・リボルバー)
• Day of the future

Other Music Games Songs

beatmania IIDX

• CARRY ON NIGHT (English version)
• PLATONIC-XXX
• Don't be afraid myself
• Sphere
• RED ZONE
• GENOCIDE
• Love Again...
• Twelfth Style
• Under the Sky
• Gekkou (月光)
• Scripted Connection⇒
• Xepher
• Mei (冥)
• The Dirty of Loudness
• Double♡♡Loving Heart
• Tashikanamono (タシカナモノ)
• D.C.fish
• Zenius -I- vanisher
• DEEP ROAR
• Kachoufusetsu (華蝶風雪)
• Bleeding Luv ～Immorality act～
• reunion
• ANTHEM LANDING
• 24th Century BOY
• Change the World
• SHADE
• The Limbo
• Trust -MATERIAL ver-
• Light and Cyber...
• SYNCH-ANTHEM
• Kasoukuukan no Tabibitotachi (仮想空間の旅人たち)

DanceDanceRevolution

• Lesson by DJ
• Trust -DanceDanceRevolution mix-
• Uranus
• Lesson2 by DJ
• WILD SIDE

Guitarfreaks & Drummania / GITADORA

• Venus
• Ryusei JUMP! (流星☆JUMP!)
• Like&Love

jubeat

• HEAVENLY MOON
• Souten (蒼天)

pop'n music

• Tougen Emaki (桃源絵巻)
• Mahjong Fight Club Tokubetsu Setsuzokukyoku (麻雀格闘倶楽部特別接続曲)
• Tabidachi no Uta (旅立ちの唄)
• BREAK THROUGH THE DREAM
• Sweets Dream (スイーツ・ドリーム)

Reflec Beat

• Toumei na Emotion (透明なエモーション)
• Kirakira Station (キラキラ☆ステーション)
• IMAGE -MATERIAL-
• Wizard

CROSSxBEATS

• Impact
• Cross + Angel
• CrossShooter
• I.D.
• Chase the WAVE
• Devil's Classic
• Chase the WAVE
• THE SUN
• S.T.E
• EVERYTHING
• Impact
• Awake,Speedy

Groove Coaster

• Groove Revolver (グルーヴ・リボルバー)
• Seija no Kodou (聖者の鼓動)
• Seija no Ibuki (聖者の息吹)
• Weave Detonator
• FOUR SEASONS OF LONELINESS verβ feat. Sariya-jin (FOUR SEASONS OF LONELINESS verβ feat.サリヤ人)
• STARLIGHT TWILIGHT -GC edit- 
• CYBER Sparks
• Reishiki   (零式)
• Cruel Moon NuMIX
• Messiah no Kaigo (メシアの邂逅)
• FREE CONNECTION 2 -G.C. Special Edit Ver.- (FREE CONNECTION 2 -G.C.スペシャルエディットVer.-)
• BlazeConductor
• FullMoon
• White World

Pump It Up

• Creed -1st Desire- feat. Yu Oda (信仰 -1st Desire- feat. 小田ユウ)
• Sora no Shirabe (空の調べ)
• Ai, Yurete... (哀、揺れて…)
• PRIME

Cytus

• Green Eyes
• Area184
• Realize
• Red Eyes
• Blue Eyes
• Molto Allegro
• Area184 -Platinum Mix-
• ARMA

Deemo

• Daylight
• From RestedPoint
• Rise Up
• Rebellion
• Raise Your Luv

maimai

• GEMINI -M-

Chunithm

• GEMINI -C-

(*): The long version of this song is known as Shin Ryougen no Mai (真・燎原ノ舞).

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Namco Original Showcase: 'no Mai' Songs

This Namco Original series started off with a bang as the first song in the series, Ryougen no Mai, became a god-tier Oni chart almost immediately, bringing everyone's attention to it. All songs in this series have the letters 'no Mai' (ノ舞) tacked onto the end, which is 'dance of' in English. Note that the 'no' letter is always in katakana form, and not the hiragana form の.

Ryougen is the odd one out, despite being the most famous of the three. The basic theme of the rest of the no Mai songs are based on a love for someone who lives far, far away and the power of dreams which can connect the minds of the lovers even if they are distant, appear on a console version of Taiko first before being carted off to the arcade, and have not left the standard difficulty of 9* on Oni. The three 'No Mai' songs always end with a big Don note.

The composer and artist are the same across the entire series, who is a mysterious unnamed character using the pseudonym 'Zeami' (世阿弥) who will also go on to make the Rose series of songs. Many fans have speculated on his real identity. One of the clues was a Morse Code message in Soroban 2000 (Taiko 13, Kantan difficulty) which says:

'This time the Morse Code 2000 feels a bit chaotic. About the question of Zeami's identity which everyone is talking about, it's actually "Shi". Much speculation has been going on as to what 'Shi' refers to, but popular opinion puts it as part of the name Tatsuya Shimizu, popularly known as Tatsh, a prominent composer for Bemani, Konami's gigantic rhythm game division.

Five long years after Zeami first contributed to Taiko no Tatsujin through this series of songs, he finally steps out onto the stage of the final round of the Taiko Tournament 2013 (which took plane in June 2014) to meet everyone, and officially reveals himself to be just the man everyone speculated him to be; Tatsuya Shimizu (清水達也) of Bemani fame! Thus this confirms the collaboration between the rhythm giant Bemani and Taiko no Tatsujin, which has been going on in the shadows for so long.

	-no Mai series-

	Ryougen no Mai Senpuu no Mai (Earth) Senpuu no Mai (Heaven) Tenyou no Mai

Ryougen no Mai (燎原ノ舞)

Version
Taiko 12.5 to 14, Wii 2, 4	x5 (194)	x7 (262)	x8 (395)	x10 (822)
Taiko 0, Taiko Wii U, Taiko +	x4 (194)	x6 (262)	x7 (395)	x10 (822)

Taiko 12.5 to 14, Taiko 0, Taiko Wii 2, 4, Taiko Wii U, Taiko +
104~208
none
 ryogen


Literally translated as "Dance of the Burning Field", it feels like traditional Japanese music, and has no lyrics. During a word with the composer, Zeami, by the Taiko Team, he said that he was aiming for a fast-paced, Japanese-styled song that players could master with magnificence when playing.

Magnificent indeed. After the first eight stanzas with a slow speed and easy notes, Ryougen shows its true colors when the BPM is doubled for the rest of the song, and what results is a genuine surprise. Ryougen no Mai quickly gained status as one of the toughest songs ever, rivaling Kita Saitama 2000 and Rotter Tarmination (Ura), due to the long note streams at a high BPM. At Taiko 13, Ryougen was a safe bet for one of the four Taiko god songs together with the aforementioned two songs and Hataraku 2000, and it still is a genuine obstacle for budding Taiko professionals now.

Beat patterns continue without respite and constantly force you to switch hands, with only minimal time to rest after the beginning portion. There are two very common spots where players tend to mess up- a god-forsaken 1/24 red-blue-red-blue-red-blue chain which is effectively above BPM 300 and requires lightning-quick hands to hit, and the end part, comprising of chain after chain after chain of 8 and 10 note clusters, which are both confusing and difficult to hit, and this part is one of the most frantic in the entire series.

An updated version with an extended intro and more drum beats, called Shin Ryougen no Mai (真・燎原ノ舞) was released on the 2011 Full Combo! Taiko soundtrack CD. This version of the song is not playable.

Senpuu no Mai- Earth (旋風ノ舞 【地】)

Version
Taiko 14, Wii 2, 4	x5 (207)	x7 (317)	x7 (492)	x9 (693)
Taiko 0.5, +	x4 (207)	x6 (317)	x7 (492)	x9 (693)

Taiko 14, 0.5, Taiko Wii 2, 4, Taiko +, CD Full Combo
160
none
 senpcs


Translated as "Dance of the Whirlwind", this song appeared as an unlockable song in Taiko Wii 2, before the alternate version appeared in Taiko 13 just a few months later. At Oni 9*, it's definitely not as hard, but Senpuu steps it up a notch during the end part where most of the song's note clusters are. Senpuu's song ID is senpcs, where cs is for Console. The song is sung by Ayane (彩音), and represents love in a winter blizzard.

Released together with every other no Mai song on the 2012 Full Combo! Taiko soundtrack CD, it gains an extra suffix to its title, and is now known as Senpuu no Mai 'Earth'.

Senpuu no Mai- Heaven (旋風ノ舞【天】)

Version
Taiko 13, 14, Wii 4	x4 (146)	x6 (212)	x8 (434)	x10 (616)
Taiko 0.5, Taiko +	x4 (146)	x5 (212)	x8 (434)	x10 (616)
Taiko 13, 14, Taiko 0.5, Wii 4 (2P)				x10 (599/599) (video)

Taiko 13, 14, 0.5, Taiko Wii 4, Taiko +, CD Full Combo
160
none
 senbac


Appearing in Taiko 13 it puzzled people as to why it was different from the Taiko Wii 2 version and to further add to the confusion in Taiko 14, regular console Senpuu appeared as the Ura Oni difficulty of this one (which would also make it one of the few songs with an easier Ura Oni than the regular Oni). Before making alternate versions of songs separate from one another, this was the Ura Oni of console Taiko, and regular Oni of arcade Taiko.

The song IDs of both versions of Senpuu no Mai show their relationship: the arcade's version is senpac (where ac is obviously for Arcade, as opposed to the console version's senpcs). Neither version can be truly called the 'full version' of Senpuu- they're about the same length and have different lyrics throughout. 'Full version' is a term probably best used if the two pieces were somehow put together into one song. The arcade version also has multiplayer specific notes with a few minor changes.

This version of Senpuu no Mai has different beat patterns and lyrics from the console version, still referring to the same love story, but this time in a spring breeze with flying sakura petals instead of a cold winter. The irony here is that it has fewer notes than the Wii version, but is much harder, due to four long deathstreams of notes- two in the beginning, two near the end - which elevates its difficulty range to 10*, though again, Ryougen trumps it ten times out of ten.

On the soundtrack CD, this rendition is known as Senpuu no Mai 'Heaven'. It is the only no Mai song to be expelled from Taiko 0 (both Earth and Heaven) due to initial discrepancies on how alternate version songs should be handled on the new interface, but after sorting Heaven and Earth, both versions of Senpuu were reintroduced in Taiko 0.5 as the DonChare reward songs on December 2012. Senpuu Heaven maintains ita 10* rating.

Tenyou no Mai (天妖ノ舞)

Version
Taiko 14, Taiko DS 3, Taiko Wii 4	x4 (146)	x6 (226)	x8 (439)	x9 (687)
Taiko 0, Taiko 3DS 2	x3 (146)	x6 (226)	x8 (439)	x9 (687)

Taiko 14, Taiko 0, Taiko DS 3, Taiko Wii 4, Taiko 3DS 2, CD Full Combo
174
none
 tenyou


The latest member of the 'no Mai' family. Tenyou no Mai, or 'Dance of the Sky Beast' made its first appearance on Taiko DS3 and also has vocals, which makes vocal-based songs the majority on this series.

With the same love-based theme of Senpuu, the song has a much faster beat and typical beat patterns of a 9* Oni song with very little space for rest; without ample focus it's very easy to lose track of the long chains in Tenyou and mess up. In this way it's reminiscent of Kita Saitama 2000, mint tears and Punishment, emphasizing a faster pace with simple note patterns, however it's neither as hard nor as fast as either of the 10* juggernauts.

The song is sung by Imai Asami (今井麻美), the same vocalist for Taiko DS2's theme song, Nanairo Harmony. Plus, the song is used during the battle against the lady Rokurokubi in Taiko DS 3's Story mode.

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