pikaby asks: Anything you want to see?

Pretty slow news week eh? What's that? Something about X and Y? What are those~?

It's a pretty lousy time then, for us to reach the 1000th published blog post milestone. Thank you for your support! Now, I'm going to ask for a favor from all of you.

Taiko Time as it is in its current state, are you satisfied with it? Or would you like to see more awesome? What do you think the blog is lacking that it could improve on, besides the various dead links to Taiko play videos that don't exist anymore (and I know there are a lot of them floating around, keeping track is verrry difficult)? Any extra features or lists or comparisons you would like to see? A more convenient way of contacting the editors without going through random comment lists? More insight on songs?

Make your suggestions here, and together we will make Taiko Time an even better place from the 1001th blog post onwards!

P.S. Tomorrow's the official Taiko blog update, the first in two weeks. Don't miss it!

Behind the Drums: Narahashi Miki

Narahashi Miki (ならはしみき, born January 25, 1960) is a female voice-actor and narrator from Tokyo, and is associated with the Japanese talent agency Arts Vision. Although her real face may not be instantly recognizable, her voice definitely is; she is the second person to provide the voices to both Don-chan and Kat-chan, the main characters of Taiko no Tatsujin, from the inception of the second graphics engine (Taiko PS2 Godaime onwards). The first voice actor was Fushigi Yamada (山田ふしぎ), who gave both our cute little drums a much squeakier voice before Miki took up the job.

She's quite an active worker, and has been the voice of many anime characters since 1983, most prominently Misae (and various other side characters) from Crayon Shin-chan and tons of characters from Chibi Maruko-chan. Needless to say most of her work gravitates towards anime aimed at the younger age group. Besides voicing Don and Kat, she is currently active as a speaker/lecturer for techniques in acting and voicing.

In terms of songs, all theme songs with Don-chan and Kat-chan in it from PS2 5 onwards are sung by her, all with that characteristic cute voice we have all grown accustomed to.

Namco Original

• Onpu no Uta (音符のうた)
• Kyou no Gohan wa Taiko Mori! (今日のご飯は太鼓盛り！)
• Ta ko ta i ko (タ・コ・タ・イ・コ)
• Katsu to Mariko no Ekaki Uta (かつとマリ子の絵かきうた)
• Noshi Maite, Taiko Para!(のし巻いて、太鼓っパラ！)
• Kumo Made Todoke! (くもまでとどけ！)
• Happy de Rippa! (ハッピーでリッパ！)
• Lalala Happiness (ららら☆ハッピネス)
• Popcorn Parade (ポップコーン★パレード)
• Momoiro Taiko Paradise (ももいろ♪太鼓パラダイス)
• Dokidoki Don-chan Sawagi (どきどき☆どんちゃん騒ぎ)
• Atsumare Taiko Matsuri (あつまれ☆太鼓まつり！)
• Morimori☆TokumoRhythm♪ (もりもり☆特盛リズム♪)

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New leaks about arcade Taiko's March 2013 update

Once again, thanks to crystalsuicune, we found another arcade-related website with information on pricing, description and release date of coin-ops, including the March 2013 update for Taiko (hurray for online store websites eh?).

-) The release date of this update is not vague anymore and set to March 20th, 2013. Prices are the same as already seen in the previous leak.

-) Including Day 1 unlockables, the arcade will have 280 songs (right now Katsu-Don's song total is 245), with 28 new songs made available for everyone right after the upgrade. Aside from originals, the 28 songs will include new licensed stuff (J-Pop/Anime genre) and new Vocaloid songs on Variety, but no specific names yet.

Now the question remains; when will Namco themselves announce the update? And what codename is it going to be this time?

Song of the Week! 5 January 2013

December 2012 was the final month for the release of new downloadable song packs for one of the biggest Taiko games of all time; Taiko no Tatsujin Portable Deluxe. Namco kept its flame alive for 18 months after it was released, and made a grand send-off for it last month.

So, we've decided to make this month a tribute to PSP DX! January 2013's Songs of the Week will all be picked from the immense list of DLC songs on the game, and will be more focused on the exclusive songs on the system (barring Go Go Yuureisen which was covered two weeks back). Certainly, a great way to start is to feature the two songs introduced by the very first DLC pack.

Reviver lyrics

Composer: mirawi (みらゐ)
Lyrics: Satou-gin (在藤銀) (luv-kraft)
Vocals: Chata

pikaby asks: Expectations in the new year?

Last year was a high-riding year for Taiko, wasn't it? Two new console Taiko games, both of which were very substantial, a major HD arcade update with more than just a facelift, and continued support for downloadable songs for PSP all the way to a bang at the end of the year...and so much other stuff happened we're still reeling from all of it!

So, what can we expect in Taiko from this year? The HD arcade is going to have another major firmware patch in March 2013, but the details regarding that are still sketchy...as is the case for the console Taiko games of this year. What would we see for Taiko no Tatsujin in this year? More collabs? Games on new consoles? More online support?

A Taiko no Tatsujin for the Nintendo Wii U could be on the cards as the domain name was registered last year, and the saga is almost guaranteed to continue along the 3DS, but Namco could surprise us and release something for either PS3 or Vita as well. As for collabs, with Namco being close to Sega in 2011 and last year, who knows, we might be able to see a collab with Sega's new rhythm game, Maimai, and see Maimai original songs on Taiko and vice versa (dancing to Saitama 2000 in front of Sega's washing machine, anyone?)

What do you think?

Feature: 2012 - The year in hindsight

With the 2011 Anniversary celebrations finally coming to a end, almost everyone thought that 2012 would be a calmer year for Taiko news, but instead it became one of the most exciting times next to the 10th anniversary itself!

So let's recap the major events in Taiko of last year.