Hello everyone. This is Funasen, the CSM representative.
This weekend, we will finally start shipping out the "CSM Garren Buckle"! Have fun playing with it this weekend!

In today's blog, we will take a closer look at the background music included in CSM EXA Belt.
Before that, we would like to inform you about some changes to Equalizer's special moves.

In the Terebi-kun Hyper Battle DVD, he unleashed a Final Rising Blast without a kick.
Thank you to everyone who responded to my Twitter post last week!
So, I will change the specifications as below.
① Release the trigger while the "Final Rising Blast" sound is playing ⇒ It will become the "Special Move Sound with Kick". (Last week's content)
② Keep the trigger pressed while the "Final Rising Blast" sound is playing ⇒ It will branch off halfway through and become the "special move sound without the kick."

thank you.


Now, let's talk about the main topic, the background music included in Ixa Knuckle.


The unique feature of this product, the distinction between "modern mode" and "past mode," also extends to the background music.
I think "Fight for justice" and "Ixa-cise" are songs that are specifically for Mr. Nago, and it feels strange when they are played by Otoya Ixa. That's why I separated them.
The concept behind CSM's music recording is to select songs that are played especially during transformations and battles in the series.
I'll prioritize them, so I tend not to include opening themes from works that don't play during battle scenes (though I did include Garren and OOO as exceptions).
However, we have included the full version of "Exercise," which has never been shown on TV!!
After the news of the commercialization of the EXABELT was announced, there was huge anticipation on social media for the recording of EXERCISE, and we had to respond to that excitement.
(Though I had planned to include it from the start, the truth is that I felt relieved to see that there was indeed a request for it.)

Like recent CSM releases, this release also includes different variations of the same song, increasing the actual number of songs.
The recording configuration is as follows:

<Modern Mode>
① Ikusa Transformation
② Individual-System (Edit A ver.)
③ Individual-System (Edit B ver.)
④ Fight for Justice
⑤ Fight for Justice (intro & outro ver.)
⑥ Fight for Justice (Ikusa Explosion ver.)
⑦ Ixa-cise

"Ikusa Transformation" is the memorable main theme of Ikusa. I think the most NARIKIRI part of this product is transforming while playing this song.

"Individual-System" is available in two different edits that were shown in the film!
② “Edit A” is structured as “Intro ⇒ B-melody ⇒ Chorus ⇒ Outro”.
③ “Edit B” is structured as “Intro ⇒ Chorus ⇒ ⇒ Outro”.
It may be a trivial difference, but I think it would be fun to change the steps and content of the role-playing game NARIKIRI into account the differences in the episodes.

"Fight for Justice" includes three variations!
④ is the most commonly used edit in the film, with an intro ⇒ chorus ⇒ outro structure.
⑤ was also used frequently, but this is the "intro ⇒ outro" version when he transforms into Rising EXA and the subsequent battle scenes are short.

By the way, some of you may be thinking, "I don't need detailed arrangements like the "Intro & Outro ver.", I just want a different song," so I will answer that question here first: even if you delete the variation songs, you won't free up enough space to add another song.
When there are variations of the same song, the audio file is actually cut into small pieces and then programmed to play them in order.
Therefore, the "Intro & Outro version" was recorded without taking up even a second of storage space.
The BGM IC has the largest capacity of any model that can be installed this time, and since it is all used up just by the above songs, this is the limit.
And by working within these limitations, we have come up with a variety of variations.
(Past CSMs have also made it possible to record songs with variations using a similar method.)

Next up!
<Past mode>
① Point in time
② Packed House
③ Ikusa Transformation
④ Individual-System (Edited Aver.)
⑤ Individual-System (Edited B ver.)

The biggest thing to note here is that it includes songs not included on the soundtrack!​
I'm sure that 98% of people wouldn't understand the titles of the two songs, "Point in Time" and "Packed House" at all...
That's because these two songs are not included in the MASKED RIDER KIVA soundtrack.
What's more, the song was not created specifically for MASKED RIDER KIVA, but is a commercially available, free sound source whose rights are held by an overseas music company and which is used in a variety of video media.
(Please note that "free" here does not mean that there is no cost.)
These two songs were played during Otoya Ikusa and Jiro Ikusa's first transformation and the battle scene between the two Ikusas.
Come to think of it, it was also playing during the Ikusa battle scene on the Hyper Battle DVD which I checked the other day.

I speculate that in past Ikusa, the developers wanted to use background music with a different atmosphere to differentiate it from modern Ikusa, and therefore used background music from free sources.
(From the middle of the game, the "Ikusa Transformation" sound was also heard in past Ikusa.)

At first, I listened to the CD box over and over and thought, "There's no soundtrack. That's it." However, I didn't give up and searched for various words, and found that there were other people online who had researched and compiled these songs that weren't included in the soundtrack. Thanks to that information, I was able to contact the rights holder, who gave me permission to include the songs in the toy.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the rider fans who researched this!

So, if there's a work that makes you think, "That song isn't included in the soundtrack! Why?!", it might be because it's using free sound sources from another company.
So there's nothing wrong with the soundtrack.
With this mysterious message, I will put down my pen for today.

The next update will be on Monday, June 29th.
Well then!