Line #10 Trivia/Bemani


1	!!General Trivia
2	* Some of the BEMANI musicians play their own games, with varying degrees of success. ''REFLEC BEAT'' sound director DJ YOSHITAKA has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1ANh5bzCfQ shown himself to be able to play his own game very well]], and DJ TOTTO is a Kaiden[[note]]highest ''[[KyuAndDanRanks dan]]'' rank[[/note]]-level ''beatmania IIDX'' player. Meanwhile, ''pop'n music'' sound director wac is somewhat notorious for his appearance at JAEPO 2013, where he shows that his ''pop'n'' abilities...have a lot of room for improvement. (To be fair, he ''did'' play Ongaku [EX], one of the hardest charts in the entire ''pop'n'' series.)
3
4	!!Tropes
5	* BadExportForYou:
6	** Arcade BEMANI games are released not only in Japan, but also other Asian regions, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, only the Korean versions are translated; players in other non-Japanese [=eAMUSEMENT=] regions don't get translated versions. The sole exception is Dance Dance Revolution, which gets a decent amount of English-language arcade releases here and there.
7	** BEMANI cabinets at Round 1 US locations are Japan-region, and thus come with all the perks of playing with PASELI and drawbacks of playing with regular credits. The problem: ''no Round 1 location in the US has PASELI enabled'', meaning that, among other things, you can't get extra stages in ''IIDX'' or anti-GameOver insurance on games that offer it.
8	* CashCowFranchise: ''BEMANI'' games routinely top "highest-grossing arcade game" charts in Japan, solidifying them as Konami Amusement's biggest franchise.
9	* DenialOfDigitalDistribution:
10	** A little of Kanako Hoshino's music is on Spotify and iTunes, but ''EIGHT ELEMENTS OF THE STAR'', ''EIGHT ELEMENTS OF THE STAR ~ANOTHER SENSE~'', ''Prism'', ''Starry ~the way to the SIRIUS~'', ''Articulation'' and ''Sky Arium'' are missing.
11	** TËЯRA. Their first album ''RЁVOLUTIФN'' was not released digitally at all. Their second album ''ЁVOLUTIФN'' was... but not for Europe.
12	* DuelingGames: With ''VideoGame/{{Performai}}'', another set of rhythm games for arcades that has gained a foothold in the market. Other game developers have tried their hand at arcade rhythm games but so far only Sega has been able to really approach Konami in terms of commercial success in that genre.
13	* ExecutiveMeddling: Though not hit as badly during the Konami scandals that began in 2015 compared to Konami Digital Entertainment's (the branch in charge of console, PC, and mobile Konami games) properties, ''BEMANI'' still suffers from shades of this:
14	** "Brain Power" was removed from ''VideoGame/SoundVoltex'' and ''VideoGame/{{MUSECA}}'' [[https://twitter.com/noma113/status/844211648566984705 beacuse NOMA chose not to have the song's contract renewed]]. The reason was that [[https://twitter.com/noma113/status/844211994198650880 the contract gave Konami the rights to "Brain Power"]], and as such it could not be used in non-Konami media or gigs, not even NOMA's own, without having to ask Konami, and NOMA wanted to be able to have control over his own song. That said, NOMA has stated that it's not the ''permanent'' end to "Brain Power" as a music game track; [[https://twitter.com/noma113/status/844213993719832576 there's the option to modify and renew the contract at a future date]]. In fact, right after it vanished from ''Sound Voltex'', it re-appeared on the non-Bemani music game ''Neon FM'' (which also [[AscendedMeme ascended]] the meme associated with the song) and then spread to a wide variety of other rhythm games such as ''VideoGame/GrooveCoaster'', the ''VideoGame/{{Performai}}'' trilogy, ''VideoGame/MuseDash'', and ''VideoGame/CytusII''.
15	** In October 2017, it was increasingly speculated that the Bemani division -- specifically, the staff musicians -- was facing internal issues [[HistoryRepeats not unlike]] what had happened to Creator/HideoKojima prior to the release of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV''. A telltale sign that something was amiss was the sudden [[UnPerson removal]] of references to artists from promotional material and artwork in certain locations. Then, the song information page for "GERBERA" on the ''Sound Voltex'' website removed the reference to TAG and credited it to "BEMANI Sound Team" instead. Several new songs added to various Bemani games (including the aforementioned "GERBERA") in early-November were similarly credited to "BEMANI Sound Team" rather than an individual artist. However, one of them -- "Mychronicle" on ''Pop'n music'' -- has an EasterEgg keysound at the end with various voices saying "[=Des-ROW!=]"; it's not known if this was in the song from the beginning or was snuck in as a subtle acknowledgement that something was wrong. As of 12/20/2017, it seems that both parties have come to a compromise. While the Bemani Sound Team labeling is still in effect, this is now followed by the actual in-house artist. [[https://twitter.com/pmdream/status/943101876911751168 Example]] This unfortunately has the side effect of breaking the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief when it comes to KayfabeMusic by BEMANI Sound Team; for example, the artist of "[[https://remywiki.com/Piano_dokusou_mugonka_%22Kaijin%22 ピアノ独奏無言歌 "灰燼"]]" is credited as ''BEMANI Sound Team "Virkato Wakhmaninov"'' (Virkato being an alias of Jun Wakita that he's used since 2004), despite the fact that the fictional Virkato died in 1974, 23 years before the very first ''BEMANI'' game.
16	* FanworkBan: From 2011 to 2015, the online service ''Programmed World'' allowed players on current BEMANI cabinets in [[NoExportForYou countries not served by the eAMUSEMENT network]] to enjoy functions and features that are otherwise exclusive to [=eA=]-connected machines. Unfortunately, in March 2015, Konami sent a cease-and-desist order to arcades running PW-connected cabinets as well as the PW staff, forcing the service to go offline. It is speculated that Konami is planning to expand [=eAMUSEMENT=] service to outside of Eastern and Southeast Asia, as on the same weekend, the [=eAMUSEMENT=] website [[https://twitter.com/polyphonicroom/status/574415118366175232 announced plans to provide global website service to players outside of Japan]], although whether this will actually lead to global [=eAMUSEMENT=] service has yet to be seen. (Hint: it won't... [[spoiler:that is until DDR A came along in 2016]].)
17	* GenreTurningPoint: This series, particularly the early games like ''beatmania'' and ''DDR'', set a lot of standards for the genre, particularly in arcades. Songs are tweaked to be about 2 minutes each, there's three stages per credit by default, there's a "combo" counter (i.e. how many notes since you last missed one). ''VideoGame/ParappaTheRapper'' may have invented the RhythmGame, but Konami then took it and set the gold standard for it.
18	* HeAlsoDid:
19	** Naoki Maeda:
20	*** ...once went by another identity, ''Ensoniq Maeda'', and composed music for other Konami games, such as ''[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Salamander 2]]''.
21	*** ...was the producer of the ''VideoGame/CrossBeats'' series and is currently one of the executive staff for ''VideoGame/SevensCode''.
22	** kors k composed music for ''VideoGame/{{DJMAX}}'', under the alias ''Oriental [=ST8=]''.
23	** Tatsh, best known for "Xepher", has produced songs for ''VideoGame/{{Cytus}}'', under the alias ''Persona''. In Taito's music games ''Music [=GunGun=]!'' and ''VideoGame/GrooveCoaster'', he produces songs under the alias ''Xeami'', although he also makes songs under his usual "Tatsh" handle.
24	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: At least ''[=DanceEvolution=] Arcade'' gets offline kits. As for ''Miraidagakki''? There's no legal way to play it anymore, and ''[=BeatStream=]'' fell to the same fate on September 1, 2017.
25	* NoExportForYou:
26	** If you were to make a pie chart of the number of BEMANI games released in Eastern and Southeast Asia and the number of BEMANI games released overseas, the result would be Pac-Man with a nearly-closed mouth. It got worse in 2012 when Konami started requiring BEMANI games to be connected to the [=eAMUSEMENT=] network, as well as making their games lease-only as part of the [=eAMUSEMENT=] Participation program rather than outright purchasable. Because of the often Asia-only nature of ''BEMANI'' games, many people in the West are unaware that Konami ''does'' still make ''BEMANI'' games.
27	** [[Music/{{VOCALOID}} "Senbonzakura"]] is available on five different BEMANI games...but that number drops to ''one'' if you're playing in South Korea.
28	* NoPortForYou: There was a long period of time (from about 2009 or so) when the usual subjects of console ''BEMANI'' ports stopped receiving new console versions, with the next half-decade and then some only seeing mobile ports like those of ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'', ''VideoGame/ReflecBeat'' and the occasional mobile spinoff of ''VideoGame/{{GITADORA}}'', ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'', and ''VideoGame/PopNMusic'' that don't quite play like their arcade counterparts. Eventually, Konami started producing PC ports of ''IIDX'', ''pop'n'', ''DDR'', ''VideoGame/SoundVoltex'', and ''[[VideoGame/NostalgiaBEMANI Nostalgia]]''.
29	* PromotedFanboy:
30	** Music/PorterRobinson is a fan of the series and drew some of his inspirations from ''BEMANI'' musicians. A few of his tracks would later make it into the series, most notably "Particle Arts".
31	** The late Akira Complex drew inspiration from several ''BEMANI'' musicians as well, most notably kors k, L.E.D., and Sota Fujimori, and would later contribute songs to the series.
32	* UncreditedRole:
33	** In late 2017, multiple original songs starting being credited to "BEMANI Sound Team" rather than the actual contributing artist. This was later sorta-reversed, with artists now being credited as "BEMANI Sound Team [='=]''(artist)''[='=]".
34	** In early 2018, the same treatment was applied to the visual arts team as well, creding their contributions to "BEMANI Designers".
35	* {{Vaporware}}:
36	** ''RAP FREAKS'' is only known to have had one location test, then quietly disappeared.
37	** ''Otoiroha'' was shown at JAEPO 2016 but ended up being quietly cancelled nearly a year later.

Context Trivia / Bemani