From iNiS, the creators of Gitaroo Man, comes this rather clever Rhythm Game for the Nintendo DS. Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan ("Hey! Fight! Cheer Squad") revolves around a group of male cheerleaders who go around rooting on people all across Tokyo in a variety of tasks to a variety of Japanese pop and rock music. Their clients include Tsuyoshi Hanada, a ronin student trying to get into Tokyo University; Yasushi Tanaka, owner of a ramen shop trying to drum up more business; and Ichiro Tamura, a Salaryman who... grows to fifty feet tall in order to save his daughter (and the city) from a giant blue mouse on the rampage.Then there's the stage where they get pulled through time and space to cheer on Cleopatra's royal construction crew so she can lose weight via pyramid power...And for the Grand Finale, they cheer on the whole world to create a Combined Energy Attack big enough to save the planet from impact with a giant asteroid.It's a weird game, but that's part of the appeal — it seemingly crams as many familiar anime, manga and Japanese Culture tropes in as it can to make it as Japanese as possible. The game mechanics make good use of the DS stylus, as they involve tapping markers that appear on the screen in time to the music.The original game was a hit with import gamers. It was such a hit, in fact, that it was followed by an Americanized counterpart, Elite Beat Agents. In May of 2007, it also got a full-fledged sequel with the unwieldy title of Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 ("Get Fired Up! Hot Blooded Rhythm Spirit: Hey! Fight! Cheer Squad!"), which featured new music, new scenarios, and a team of friendly rival cheerleaders from the upscale side of town. In addition, there is also a free PC clone called osu!, featuring user-created stages.You can find a translation of the manga panels from the first game here and the translation for the second here.And just for fun: Computer desktop backgrounds for the first game and the second game. There's a wiki for the games (and other games made by iNiS), but you won't find much there.See also osu!
This series provides examples of:
Abhorrent Admirers: JIN2's fangirls are this in the bad ending of "Music Hour".
All There in the Manual: Some character info can be found on the official websites for the games, and some roughly translated versions can be found if you're willing to Archive Binge through the GameFAQs forums.
Large Ham Announcer: The announcer is probably one of the larger hams in the game, despite only appearing in select levels.
Anime Theme Song: Every level is backed by a different song, which has varying amounts of relevance to the action.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: What the girls in Hiroshi's class do if you fail "Atsuki Kodou no Hate". They call him a lewd old man, a pervert teacher, a person who doesn't wash his clothes... and an idiot.
Art Evolution: The sequel features somewhat less cartoony proportions.
Anti-Frustration Features: In the sequel, if you run out of health on Easy mode, the Hard mode cheerleader for the team you are currently playing as shows up and revives you with about 3/4 of your health so that you can continue the song. Run out of health again in the same song though, and it's Game Over. Of course, it won't work on the final levels, so you're on your own for that.
Beast and Beauty: No matter what you do, Goro Okami's girlfriend will eventually find out he's a werewolf. Fortunately, she thinks he's adorable like that.
Though it might imply she's actually into furries if the player gets the good ending.
Big Eater: Anna has a brief stint as one in "Okoru Kotoba" judging by how large her bowl is compared to Aoi's and Sayaka's. Also, in the same song, when Kai notices that he and the others have to start cheering while they're in the middle of eating, he wolfs down the entire pot.
Big OMG: Dan and Joe yell "Oh! My God!" when you fail the first two sections of "Shanghai Honey".
Big Rock Ending: No better way to close out the final song of the second game.
Hayato Saionji could count as well, due to his waist-length hair and somewhat calmer-looking disposition. Shinta could also count if you don't think he looks too girly.
Biting the Handkerchief: Junior does when you pass the second part of "Bang! Bang! Vacances!"
The three fangirls in "Music Hour" also do this in the opening cutscene.
Bland Name Product: In the second failure scene of "Ready Steady Go", the MHK channel replaces the NHK. There's also a soccer tournament called the "Wild Cup".
Brutal Bonus Level: "Samurai Blue", while not quite nearly as hard as the last level, definitely qualifies when 90% of the beatmap is made of eighth notes spaced like quarter notes.
The Cameo: The announcer, the cops Joe and Dan, and "Junior" from Koi no Dance Site are the only characters in every game, including Elite Beat Agents.
The Elite Beat Agents and Tang Yao's cat also appear cheering in place of the Ouendan in OTO 2.
There's also a slight chance that Tsuyoshi Hanada is in EBA, although there are some slight visual differences.
Cherry Blossoms: At the end of every stage in OTO 2, and the end of the teacher's stage in OTO 1.
Also, the menu tree and the trees along the river bloom into these when you finish all four difficulties.
Also in the song "Glamorous Sky" in the second game, there is a girl actually namedSakura. And to make it meaningful, she's the person that the (10-year old) target has a crush on who is being transferred to another school. In the second section of the song, the kid personally takes her to a (fake) blooming cherry blossom tree.
Christmas in Japan: "Samurai Blue" takes place during Christmas, and opens with the Asahi team selling Christmas Cake.
Circle of Friendship: Both games end with the inhabitants of Earth singing and dancing together to fire a giant hadoken of love and music at whatever was going to destroy the world.
The Cover Changes The Gender: "Bang! Bang! Vacances" was originally done by boy-band SMAP. The game used female singers, likely to fit the scenario better.
A similar thing happens for "Shounen Heart", but they make the singer an old man instead, for a similar effect.
Dark Horse Victory: "Guts da ze!" Later having said darkhorse chase after a thief.
Determinator: Forget everyone else, Tsuyoshi Hanada practically tops all of them. He's failed his entrance exams and been rejected by employers 99 times each. Not only that, his family normally treats him like crap. No wonder why he's so desperate in the beginning of the game.
Detached Sleeves: The Cheer Girls' uniforms upgrade to this in the sequel.
Dissonant Serenity: The game overs for the last level involve the team(s) you cheered with smiling. You know, after completely freaking out over the fact that the world is going to end and you couldn't do a damn thing about it.
Dojikko: Aoi's Expy in the sequel, Honoka Kawai, faceplants in the menu screen.
Do Well, But Not Perfect: If you don't succeed in a mission completely, but still survive, you get unique cinemas. More is explained on the other page.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Sakura exhibits this in the beginning of "Glamorous Sky" because of her being required to move.
Early Installment Weirdness: The second game has a lot more in common with Elite Beat Agents than the original engine-wise. No single-cart multiplayer or saving replays, for one.
Eiffel Tower Effect: Both games use this to show the all the world's people cheering together during their respective final levels. The Statue of Liberty in particular shows up in both.
Epic Hail: Can you shout "Ou-en-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"?
Everything's Better with Monkeys: And what better way to illustrate this trope than the song "Monkey Magic," featuring a plush monkey that wants to get back to its owner?
"Go My Way" has some monkeys in the opening scene, with the most appearing near Sayaka.
Expository Theme Tune: The tutorial theme basically translates to "Cheer, cheer, cheer! Put your fighting spirit into it! Cheer, cheer, cheer! We are the Ouendan!
Fanboy: Takuya from the same game seems to really like Ebi-yama, a sumo that you help cheer on. Not only does a dream version of him appear in the stage Takuya is in, the kid even has an Ebi-yama T-shirt and poster in his room.
Fangirl: The three middle-aged fangirls of JIN 2 in OTO 2. And apparently, Honoka and Reika: the supporting rival cheerleader squad) may also be his fangirls, since they appear carrying a fan with his name: Honoka) and a Hachimaki with his name written: Reika).
Fire-Forged Friends: The squads couldn't exactly handle the heat death of the sun alone, now could they? One bonus pic later reveals the squad members all got together for a picnic, with the Normal mode leaders in a heated match of... arm wrestling?
Funny Afro: J-Yama in the "Taisetsu na Mono" stage of OTO 1. He has a special sort of hairspray that can give people these with a side order of becoming Brainwashed.
Gun Kata: Joe does this if you do well enough in the first two parts of "Shanghai Honey".
Hemisphere Bias: The results screen of the final level in both games is a globe centered on Asia and Japan. In Elite Beat Agents, it's on North America.
Her Code Name Was Mary Sue: The protagonist of Christine Kamogawa's novel in the "Bang! Bang! Vacances" stage is obviously supposed to be an idealized version of Ms. Kamogawa herself.
Historical Beauty Update: Literally done with Cleopatra. She starts off as a fat Gonk, then uses pyramid power, miracle dances and the support of Japanese cheerleaders to make herself beautiful in order to impress Antony.
Hot Blooded: We see the clients regaining their fighting spirit at the start of every stage,and you get some when you keep up the combo. It's also in the title of the sequel.
Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Look at the game's cover art. Those things could pierce a battleship. And Ryuuta's not alone when it comes to this trope either. Kai has them too.
Hot Springs Episode: There's one in the second game, complete with shirtless scenes of all the(non-rival) leaders.
To the point where the second to last line in the credits is "Thanks for your love and support!" In Japanese, the word for both "support" and "cheer" is ouen.
Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The official names for the difficulties: Rather than Easy, Normal, Hard and Insane) are Light-Hearted Cheering, Bold Cheering, Fierce Cheering and Magnificent Cheering.
Incendiary Exponent: Seeing the series' main aesthetic, it's not all that surprising when fire starts popping up in the background. Even the logos light on fire in the sequel.
Involuntary Shapeshifting: Poor Goro Okami has been cursed to transform in a wolf whenever he sees something round, white, shiny, or some combination of the three, which gets in the way constantly on a date with his girlfriend.
Japanese Pronouns: The first cutscene of "Countdown" changes the (plural) pronoun depending on the leader, with "boku-ra" on Easy, "ore-tachi" on Normal, "wareware" on Hard and "watashi-tachi" on Insane. The keigo used is slightly different as well.
Also shed by the entire Encouraging Nobility team at the end of "Believe" from OTO 2.
And the opening of "Sekai wa Sore wo Ai to Yobundaze" has even more tears from the Nobility!
And in the same stage, in a recreation of the scene from the first game's final stage, the backup cheerleaders from both teams shed the waterworks. Whether it's Tears of Joy or not.
Martial Arts Headband: Some of the leaders wear this, but Hajime switched his for a Nice Hat in between the first and second games.
Meaningful Name: There are more than a few. Most notably, the Noble team in OTO 2 have names that mirror their rival's, and Goro Okami had the misfortune to have a surname that could also mean "Wolf".
More than that: each difficulty's leaders have a theme in their forenames. Easy has names that refer to inexperience, Normal has animal themes and Hard is basically a representative of what their team is like. Insane kinda breaks the trend though.
Aoi Kanda's name is retroactively meaningful. As the cheergirls didn't get profiles in the first game, the fact that she could speak multiple languages could reference the fact that Kanda is a place in Tokyo known for its large supply of books.
Mega Neko: Nyaragon, from one stage in OTO 2. Possibly created as a counter to the giant blue mouse in OTO 1, and likely as a Shout Out to Elite Beat Agents.
Moment Killer: Tan Yao can be a huge cockblock on certain levels.
Mondegreen: The loud drum beats can seriously distort what some of the singers are saying, but even without them, people mistake "Can you master baby?" from One Night Carnival for... something else. There's also "I wanna be a Pop Tart" for "I wanna be a Pop Star."
Moral Dissonance: Cleopatra stage: You cheer on Cleopatra so she can order her slaves around greatly!? Well, at least they get as fired up as she does...
But what happens if you play the stage poorly? A hilarious bit of physical comedy, as with every other stage? No, the slaves die. Cue the uncomfortable laugh.
Mukokuseki: Averted. Although it becomes somewhat less so in the second game, all the characters at least maintain realistic eye colours. You know they're doing a good job when the Japanese guy with blonde hair and blue eyes◊ still looks Japanese. Even the Americans have a few brunettes among them like Dan and Joe.
However, Hajime briefly takes his off in "Julia ni Heartbreak", while Kai stares at you menacingly in the same song. It seems anyone attempting to take off his hat is a Berserk Button.
Nintendo Hard: The final songs in both games are enough to make you break your DS.
"Believe" from Ouendan 2 on Expert is also hard enough to count as That One Level because it requires absurd levels of precision to keep your life bar high enough in between the slow notes.
The last 14 notes in "Countdown" on Hard and Insane are near-impossible to get all 300s on, especially when the song is so fast-paced.
Nostalgia Level: The second game's first level is almost exactly like the first game's, except with job applications instead of entrance exams. The target even looks the same despite Art Evolution.
Office Lady: Sachiko in the "Koi no Dance Site" stage of OTO 1.
Old Superhero: Momotaro in the "Shonen Heart" stage of OTO 2.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Dr. Shintarou Kuroiwa, the young genius physician from OTO 2, who can cure male pattern baldness. And give farm animals therapeutic massages. And repair microwave ovens. And make an entire island's inhabitants so healthy they burst with muscles, even the women and the elderly.
Open Heart Dentistry: In the second game, a doctor is called to "operate" on a man's bald head, a horse, and a malfunctioning microwave oven.
Pettanko: Aoi seems to have the smallest chest out of all the cheergirls. This wouldn't be too notable, except that by the sequel they should all be in their 20s at the very least and she looks like this◊.
The Power of Love: The last level of the second game is literally set to a song called "This Is What The World Calls True Love!" The ending even has a guy yelling "LOVE AND PEACE" like crazy.
Shout Out: Considering how the games were made to lampoon as many Japanese Media Tropes as possible in what is considered an E rating in Japan, some references were inevitable.
The Stoic: In contrast with the Yuuhi Ouendan and even with his own squad, Kaoru is rather mild mannered throughout the sequel. Of course, like the rest of the Nobility, he has his Not So Stoic moments at the end of "Believe" as well as in the last two songs of the game.
Stealth Pun: The opening of "Zoku" on the hardest difficulty, featuring the cheergirls packing boxes. You could say that Anna is the most stacked.
Stripperiffic: Not so much for the cheergirls in OTO 1, but in OTO 2, it becomes obvious since they get more revealing costumes.
Super Robot: One of the songs has the team cheering on a mechanics team trying to rebuild their Humongous Mecha. To defeat the giant Kaiju cat rampaging the city, the robot must defeat it in a footrace, arm wrestling, and Hundred-Square Calculations.
Urine Trouble: On some levels, notably Linda Linda, a kitty tends to do his business near the target, especially if the Ouendan aren't doing well.
Unstable Equilibrium: The scoring system. Your score multiplier for each note hit is directly proportional to your current combo. Break combo at the beginning or end? No big deal. Break combo in the middle? Rage Quit!
Unusual Eyebrows: Mainly of the Fiery variety, although Ryuuta sports some impressive Lightning brows.
Verbal Tic: Tan Yao says "aru" a lot after sentences, which is usually an indicator of a Chinese person.
Monkey-kun's toy soldier partner has "de arimasu," which is a very military way of speaking. Or maybe a "Shout Out" to a certain sergeant too.
Weaksauce Weakness: The robots from "Shanghai Honey" are weak to water. And decide to invade a planet that's two-thirds made of it. And start their invasion on an island nation.
Wolf Man: Gorou Ookami in the "Kibun Joujou" stage of OTO 2.
Wolverine Publicity: Ippongi Ryuta is only playable on the normal difficulty and thus only in that difficulty level's storyline. However, he is the one featured on all the promotional material and the game box. The same goes for his Blue team counterpart, Saionji Hayato, in the second game.
To be fair, if all of the head cheerleaders were on the front of the box it'd be a little crowded.
, featuring user-created stages.You can find a translation of the manga panels from the first game here
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