The Darkest Song in Taiko no Tatsujin

For our second spooky / spooky rhythm game video of the month, we're going to be covering what I think is the darkest song in Taiko no Tatsujin, Joubutsu2000. (nope, not 1stpai, the secret taiko song.)

B-Roll credits :

[tzechi]

couple o things to mention, at 9:00 I wrote the script in a really weird way. yes, there *are* hihats for the notes to go to. what I meant to refer to was the note color changes not making any sense from a charting standpoint. (ka/blue notes would normally go to higher pitch, don/red notes go to lower pitch blah blah). hopefully that clears it up a little!

another thing i'd like to mention that I didn't put in the video was the loud crash at 8:06. the theory about it being either a train or the doors to the incinerator slamming shut are really interesting topics that add another layer to it that I wish i'd put in the video. thank you cool peeps who've pointed it out in the comments! (personally I think it's the incinerator door but yeah)

thanks to @littlegripper for making a few translation corrections in this comment
"Hello french person here, a couple of mistakes were done in the lyrics, at 5:31 it actually means : "Having given everything we had" 5:34" Without much anger." 5:09 The 1st part is correct however the 2nd part of that sentence means : "Should we even try" 5:15 "But most of the time, that is dictated suddenly" 5:24 "That being said" With that that is all the errors i've found . I believe tzechi has just made a rough translation of what was said, even though it is close to what it actually means, this is the correct translation."

[sorryshoegazer]

One other little piece of info: The first half of the song is at 110 BPM, and in Japan the phone number to report a crime or accident is 110.

[thechairguy]

as someone who fell into the 2000 rabbit hole, i'd also like to mention some other contenders from that series that are also pretty dark lol
- kechadon 2000 is about a mangaka desperately trying to finish his work before his editors bust down his door (overworking is a very common theme among the songs that have themes)
- yokuderu 2000 is about an overworked office worker who wants to take a well-deserved vacation to the mountains (hence the yodelling theme)
- taberuna 2000 is about a guy who eats for 3 hours straight before his heart stops
- hataraku 2000 is about a programming team going mad over the build that everybody seems to be messing up
- etc, etc, etc...

[Funko]

Well. Now I'm kinda freaked out about a song I've never heard before on a rhythm game I've never played before. Great video

[FyterMakesMusic]

honestly. with the whole "i'm hungry" and "massacre" thing i was ready to say this was about the irish potato famine

[SpaceCode]

I like to think this is part 2 of railway bento, he’s hungry and will destroy anything in his way to find something to eat lmao.

[murakwan]

Personally, I believe that スーハー2000 is also pretty dark, and is allegedly about a man turning to drugs after being dumped by his girlfriend. Even by today’s standards, スーハー2000 is still one of the hardest songs to ever be featured on Chojin (The grade before Tatsujin). If not for Laur joining the party with his outrageously hard song called Chimimoryo （魑魅魍魎）, it would still have been the hardest Chojin song.

[QuantemDeconstructor]

Taiko devs: Hey let's put the drum in samurai armor, it'll be cute!
Also Taiko devs: Let's hit them with an analogue horror type beat

[unknowncreature-]

Honestly the fact that it just repeats "I'm hungry.." over and over makes it that much more unnerving.

[littlegripper]

Hello french person here, a couple of mistakes were done in the lyrics, at 5:31 it actually means : "Having given everything we had" 5:34" Without much anger." 5:09 The 1st part is correct however the 2nd part of that sentence means : "Should we even try" 5:15 "But most of the time, that is dictated suddenly" 5:24 "That being said" With that that is all the errors i've found . I believe tzechi has just made a rough translation of what was said, even though it is close to what it actually means, this is the correct translation.

[cyanfan]

Even at the very end, it’s still dark. If you notice after the red note 37564, there are a few blue notes after it. This is to bring the total note count to 999, an unlucky number in Japan.

[DashyDesu]

apparently, at the time of creating this song, linda ai-que was rather depressed i believe, and so with his sorrow he made this song... not really sure if that is true though

and also, im a bit surprised you didnt cover the rather obvious loud "bang" before the 37564 string.
fans have been saying it could be related to a few things, related to death
(train, followed by train whistle)
(shutting doors on incinerator etc.) which is really sad to think about


very dark song, but good video! :)

[hanthonyc]

I'm more fluent in French than Japanese, and so without the 'massacre' context, I had always understood it as a somber-yet-satisfied ending to the 2000 series, to which this was SUPPOSED to be the finale of.

Someone else said the crackling sounded more like vinyl scratches to them, and I would agree that's how I always inferred it!
Then for the bang, I don't know why I always assumed it was a confetti popper. Maybe that fits the theme of a thankful parting?

Lastly, I only ever heard the one "I'm hungry" line in French while playing, but I thought it was a quiet admittance that they crave more, and don't want this to be the end. It easily goes to the realm of freaky when taken literally, I definitely enjoy exploring that aspect!

[BeijingBovine]

I agree with the incinerator theory. However after the 33 long section near the end, there is a bang, which I presume is the closing of said incinerator, however the bang (to me at least) doesn't sound like a gunshot but more like the banging of two metal pieces, presumably a door of some kind. The happy music would probably symbolize how the man has reached a state of peace, or has finally reached heaven. A happy end after all the difficulty in his life, could also be symbolized by the song's difficulty.

[EnoshimaGuertena]

When I first played this in the arcade i I initially thought it was about some childhood friends talking and it was just the playback of their memories together, with the middle being about hardship and clashes in their friendship. I didn’t know much Japanese (or any French) at that time so I couldn’t tell what they were saying. I’m surprised it goes into such dark subject matter, because I mostly only focused on this songs crazy amount of notes and hard patterns.

Good video tzechi, da don

[theunnamedjpg]

There another song in 2000 series named"Waraeru 2000"(わら得る2000), I think the audio of that song was way scarier than Jobutsu 2000. The lyrics in Waraeru 2000 is a person saying let's end everything, then laughing like a maniac and calling for help.
I would like to hear the story of that song, since I haven't see anyone explaining the story of it

[actuallyasriel]

The original 2000 tracks feel like a joke at the expense of the international fanbase -- their chaotic, dark style makes it feel like their lyrics are speaking to some hidden evil -- but in fact, it's just nonsense interspersed with random facts about Japanese geography. I didn't even know about the later ones that actually have like, coherent parables to them.
Probably one of the most interesting series of boss songs in rhythm games, honestly. Thanks for the rundown!

[すだまさきラブ]

I am Japanese. As someone who has been playing this game for a long time, I am very happy that the recognition of this game is gradually increasing overseas.

[sunny]

The lyrics for Joubutsu 2000 has two meanings, I think. One is, well, what was discussed in this video, and the other is that Joubutsu 2000 was apparently supposed to be the very last 2000 song to be released. Hence why the lyrics use the term "we" and not "I", "we" referring to the team LindaAI-CUE was working with. So the lines, "When we should put an end to things is up to us to decide, we have to be strong, " "But most of the time, that is not dictated by us, that is told to us, " and "we've given everything we've got, " make a little more sense now.

[KnightCre]

to be honest there are like 30 songs in taiko that have creepy themes you can analyze (latter half of the 2000 series bumps that number up quite a bit) but joubutsu's implications are really on a league of their own