About 2 years ago, after many years of service, my beloved PS2 DDR pad finally died on me, I couldn't find a good replacement, and so I reluctantly entered the world of Stepmania. About a week later I was making my own charts. I think I may have been subconsciously avoiding Stepmania because I knew that would happen. Anyway! I've been honing my skill since then, with the idea of putting out some pad packs, but haven't really published much. What I wanted to do was to take my time and put out a pack of 100 perfectly polished charts with 4 difficulties per song, when I was good and ready. And my plan since Cohost came along was to publish here first. Well, about that...
...without further ado I am proud to present my first pad pack, 83 mostly polished anime charts, with mostly the highest-quality videos available for the music, mostly correct song information, mostly lossless audio, mostly consistent volume...entirely hot shit if I do say so myself.
The charts in this pack are designed for DDR players of all skill levels, designed for no-bar play, and designed with ergonomic flow in mind. I want to encourage a style of play where you move ya body, y'know? Not trynna blow up knees or write impossible stuff - all of these charts have been extensively tested by yours truly.
Each song has 4 difficulties, and while not every song's beginner chart is going to be suitable for absolute beginners, there's plenty in here you can try on day 1. I have taken a cue from classic DDR, and limited crossovers and 180s to hard charts only. You'll see a number of songs where the step count in the normal chart is virtually identical to the hard chart - in those cases you can expect that the hard chart is much more technical. Some examples below (pardon the scuffed videos, I don't have time to edit them).
Anyway I am excited to share all of this with you! the denizens of Cohost! For a very limited time! After this is all good and ready I'll probably publish on zIv, some time around the end of the year I imagine. Any feedback on any aspect of this is welcome.
If I have the time, I'll write up some notes on the individual charts - It's a wide range of material ranging from the early 80s to 2024's summer season. I've included a fair amount of music that makes for "bad" charts - I think that sort of thing can be very interesting and love teasing out fun charts from songs that don't seem to lend themselves to the format.
Please do note that a few of the videos are risque - for full release I'll mark those ones so people can avoid them if they're streaming/don't want to see it/etc. No time to do that now, so just consider yourself warned.
Enjoy!
Each chart has 4 difficulties, but if I don't specify, I'm talking about the hard charts, which I always draft first. I don't ever want to be in the position of putting extra stuff in a chart just to make it harder, so I draft a chart that I think is ideal as the hard chart, then simplify the core idea in stages to create the other three.
All The Way: OP for the older Kino's Travels anime. Love this song so I figured I'd do a chart for it. It was a struggle for a couple reasons. In general I always wanna write charts where the steps bounce between following different lines; I enjoy the challenge of interpreting multiple parts in the singularly low-bandwidth format of "two feet, connected at the waist, hitting 4 positions in some sequence" and finding something that both reflects what's good and unique in the music and is also, y'know, fun to stomp around to? can be a challenge. Here, there's a piano line that has a lot of the rhythm that feels good to dance to, but it's buried underneath the vocals. It couldn't be heard as clearly as I'd initially written, so it took a lot of editing to find the proper balance between that and following the vocals. The second issue was with lower-difficulty charts, and this comes up a lot and you can't really solve it: it has sections with a bunch of notes in a row that are off the beat. Beginner charts you really want to avoid anything off the beat, and when you have a measure or two where nothing's on the beat it's a mess.
Anata ni Aitakute - Missing You (Millenium Dance Version): This is the second ED for Trouble Chocolate, which is one of those anime from very, very early in the transition to digital. I would not say it's good but it's a fascinating product of its times, like 3D games with tank controls. The song, on the other hand, is an all-timer. It's actually a remix of a sweet, sad ballad, totally transformed. Both versions are excellent. Anyway this is one of the tougher charts I wrote. My work process is: write the Hard chart first, figure out what the theme of the chart's gonna be, finish editing it, then write the Medium chart and make it one iteration simpler. So if I write a Hard chart that is on the difficult side, that generally carries over to the other difficulties. So to all the Trouble Chocolate fans getting into DDR in the year of our lord 2024: sorry.
p.s. I edited the video for this because I ended up wanting to use a longer version of the song than the actual ending credits (it's about 2:00 vs the ordinary 1:30). I'm a video editing chump, so it was quite an educational process, but I got the looping animations to work right and re-timed the cuts to match the music.
BaBang to Suizan! Bang Bravern: Actually posted this one on Reddit like half a year ago. This is the kind of song DDR exists for imo. When Bravern's like "Bravern...ZAN!" who doesn't want to land a big jump on that? Shit rules.
Back in Love: The English version of the ending credits for the first El-Hazard OVA (the Japanese version is titled Boys be Free). So in the 90s dub era, Pioneer had a habit of localizing songs like this. Some of them are a lot of fun! This one in particular really captures the spirit of the original, or so it seems to me. I love writing swing charts, love playing 'em, they get you loose, it's great. So I've written a lot of swing in this collection. This one...well I don't think it's my strongest chart - the fun stuff is all outside the vocals, but the fun stuff is also on the fast side for swing, so the effect doesn't end up being as good as in other charts, I feel.
Be a Flower: First OP for Apothecary Diaries. This song rules, that show rules, and this chart rules. I don't have a lot to say about it - it's the kind of chart that just leaped unbidden from my head to the page. In a formal sense, the chart is too right-facing, and I've considered fixing it, but whenever I play it it feels great, so I am thinking I'll just leave it as-is.
Bling-Bang-Bang-Born: This song's a little twee, but I enjoy Mashle so whatev. This is one where the vocals are so fast that the hard stepchart can basically only follow along with it. I think it turned out really good, tho, even if it's not a style I usually go for.
By Yourself: One of the Dirty Pair OVA OPs, with a Bond-inspired video. Truthfully, I did this chart only because I like the video - the song was...a challenge. So something you'll see in older anime there will be mistakes in the music that they just let slide. Here, there's an extra quarter of a beat between the intro and when the vocals come in. Not a big deal in real life but since DDR tracks quarternotes, it's a hassle. Macross' OP (which I'm working on but isn't done cooking yet) has a mistake near the end where the trumpet comes in a beat early and everyone else just rolls with it. It's the trumpet, whaddya gonna do? Kudos to everyone else for covering it up!
Chocolat ni Muchuu: I wonder if I should be attempting to localize these song titles. Anyway: OP for early 2000s Majokko anime Sugar Sugar Rune. Fun chart, very rhythmic, very easy to write. Would not sound out of place in a 50s TV show, which is why I wanted to do it, and is a reminder that Bewitched is quite directly the ancestor of the entire mahou shoujo genre.
Choose Bright!!: I was on the fence about whether to include this one since the song and the anime it's from are both on the let's say dubious side, even for late-night anime. Since I wasn't planning on sharing it around, I absolutely cooked on the chart, and it turned out too good and too unique not to share. All that said this one's maybe not gonna make the cut when I publish on zIv.
Crack-Crack-Crackle: OP for Undead Murder Farce. This was one of the first charts I wrote, and if I did it now, I think it'd come out pretty differently. I try pretty hard to craft charts that are as smooth as possible in terms of alternating feet, and if I write a part where you repeat on a single foot, it's with a lot of intentionality. This chart is a lot looser on that score, especially between phrases. Well, if anyone plays it they can let me know how they like it.
Cure: OP for The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, a mediocre anime based on a fun manga. I'm a little annoyed I didn't get more rock into this collection, but at least I have this. It was an interesting challenge writing for something with that kind of electric guitar haze.
Dai Dai Dai Dai Daisuki na Kimi e: OP for 100 Girlfriends. Another one of those charts that writes itself. Lots of fun - a joyful chart for a joyful show. For the key change in the middle I did a 4-beat hold with one foot and had the other foot hitting steps on each beat, then resolve with a double. One of the best things about playing DDR without holding onto a crossbar is that your body naturally creates tension when you're forced to twist it certain ways and you really want to release that tension, so finding places to make that happen is really rewarding. I end a lot of charts with a sharp move that transitions you into walking off the pad - so in this chart it's an eighth note pattern that ends left down left right up right down, so you end bringing your right leg from the up to down arrow by pivoting your left leg on the left arrow. it's a spin move that lets you walk away Cool-Guys-Don't-Look-At-Explosions style.