Southern Cross
Southern Cross
Song Information
Artist: BlackY
Composition/Arrangement: BlackY
BPM: 155
Length: 1:54
pop'n music Genre: STARRY †RANCE (スターリートランス)
pop'n music Character: NOVA [20]
pop'n CG designer: ちっひ
First Music Game Appearance: pop'n music 20 fantasia
Other Music Game Appearances: None.
Lyrics
None.
Song Connections / Remixes
- A sequel to Southern Cross, titled False Cross, appears in SOUND VOLTEX III GRAVITY WARS.
- Another sequel, titled Northern Cross, appears in ノスタルジア Op.3.
- BlackY's Asterism Stream, from the pop'n music-themed compilation merci BOX, is related to Southern Cross.
- A long version of Southern Cross, titled Southern Cross -Long Version 2015-, appears in BlackY's first piano album, AsterhYthm.
- A remix of Southern Cross, titled Southern Cross -θ2 Crucis RMX-, appears in BlackY's first major album, ΑΩ.
Trivia
- Southern Cross is one of the winner songs of the Boku mo watashi mo★ pop'n artist! (ボクもワタシも★ポップンアーティスト!) contest, along with Like a pop'n music. It can be unlocked in pop'n music 20 fantasia from August 6th, 2012, by playing it once it randomly appears in NORMAL MODE.
- On the preliminary phase of the Boku mo watashi mo★ pop'n artist! contest, Southern Cross was misspelled as Southren Cross.
- Southern Cross marks BlackY's debut in BEMANI.
- Southern Cross was one of the preliminary round songs in the KONAMI Arcade Championship 2012 for pop'n music 20 fantasia.
- Southern Cross received an EASY chart in pop'n music Sunny Park, replacing its old 5-Buttons chart.
- Despite first debuting in pop'n music 20 fantasia, Southern Cross did not appear in a pop'n music soundtrack until the pop'n music Sunny Park original soundtrack vol.1 album.
- Southern Cross is available in pop'n music Lively as part of the pop'n music Lively Music Pack vol.4 (pop'n music Lively 楽曲パック vol.4).
Music Comment
A song chosen in the public contest project finally appears here! The magical piano barrage is a near knockout!
Song Production Information
Boku mo watashi mo★ pop'n artist! Official Website
wac
When I listened to this song and found out BlackY's age, I thought that a new generation has already arrived. A new era is coming.
The melody and passion perfectly suit BEMANI.
It's a song perfectly created for pop'n, BEMANI, and music games.
Many poppers, especially expert poppers, would want to play that phrase in this song! I wonder if they thought about this while voting for it.
Perhaps he's a rising star who'll carry the next 10 pop'n games.
I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of music BlackY will consume and create in the future!
PON
Among the many original songs that were submitted, in just one listen, you can recognize that this song's melody is suitable for BEMANI.
During the second screening, you were able to listen to the sample and vote, and I'm certain the users thought it was a perfect song for a music game.
The notecharts were completed with an extremely high difficulty level to match the intense piano.
Furthermore, as BlackY is extremely young, he received this award from the staffs with the expectation that he'll further grow through his own motivation.
There are expectations for him to further polish his music ideas and originality in the future, so he can excite the pop'n and entire BEMANI series!!
pop'n music 20 fantasia
BlackY
Nice to meet you all. My name is BlackY. This time, I'm extremely happy that my original song is included in "pop'n music", which is one of my favorite music games in the BEMANI series.
Before I started making this song, I happened to look at the night sky and thought that the stars were beautiful, when I briefly just saw a shooting star.
Super fantasia!! Since I thought about this, I decided that this song's theme is stars.
I consciously created this song called "Southern Cross" with a melody like that shooting star.
Of course, I also consciously created it as a song everyone can enjoy playing it in pop'n music.
I'd be extremely happy if you can enjoy playing it with a groove.
Finally, to all the associated KONAMI staff, and to those who voted for this song, thank you very much this time!
I'll work hard in the future, so please support me! Well then, see you again someday!
Character Information
Boku mo watashi mo★ pop'n artist! Official Website
Chihi
BlackY, congratulations on winning the award!!
It was cool and elegant when I listened to it, and emits an explosive shine... and it feels like it has a super high difficulty level. I tried to pack all this into the character.
Since the song title is Southern Cross, the setting of the character in charge is "a great space composer, racing through space"!! That's right.
The brand-new opening movement that he releases, wraps around outer space... it's, it's like this!
Phew, I somehow instantly made a great poem. It seems to be used as a character comment.
It's wonderful that music without lyrics (↑ like this) can stimulate your imagination, so what kinds of worlds or characters came to your mind when you listened to this song?
I don't think I'd win against your wonderful ideas if we also did a "public character contest" for this song, but I tried my best in my own way.
The shining light he noticeably unleashes in the night sky as his FEVER animation is said to be the "Ultimate Southern Cross", a supernova explosion which is similar to a dazzling shine wrapped around the galaxy.
Please race across this continuously expanding space with NOVA in STARRY †RANCE♪
pop'n music 20 fantasia
A great space composer who races through space.
It's nearly impossible to encounter him in the vast outer space, which is why he's said to be a miraculous musician.
Chihi
This was the first commemorative original song to be released, and even without knowing the title, it directly conveyed an image of sparkling and falling stars.
It's very difficult when you think about what form you want to convey.
I'm sure there's unseen effort in the shadows of beautiful things, but I felt a professionalism which consumes players without them feeling it.
I had a slightly late start in coming up with character ideas, but before I participated, tokky and shio just created a super special move called "Ultimate!! Southern Cross!!".
Like stars in the night sky connecting to form constellations, I created a character in the image of connecting this brilliant song which feels like racing around space, with a super special move.
Finally, this move can't be used until the beautiful cross and character perfectly overlaps, so a slender silhouette is inevitable.
This song has the opposite image of the simultaneously released "Like a pop'n music", so even though the characters are in the same pop'n world, I wanted this character to be in the limit point, that if I did more than this, it wouldn't be pop'n.
Congratulations BlackY, I'm very excited!
Staff Comments
TAMA
This time, we received a very large number of applications in the public song contest category of "Minna de tsukutte 20". Thank you very much.
We listened to all the submitted songs. From there, the first 25 songs were carefully selected. We further narrowed them down to 15 songs, and had everyone vote for them.
After further discussion of the results, this song was chosen.
I'd be happy if everyone can play it for a long time.
Well, this is a pleasant song with a speedy feeling, right? This song received votes because it was easy to imagine its image, especially when its added to the game.
BlackY sent us his other songs, and I can feel his hot passion. I'm also looking forward to his future activities~
masaru
This song has a fully speedy feeling where you can experience space.
Although there were many instrumental song applications, this song was very popular.
Mameshiba
This song is unique to music simulation games, and one of the reasons for applying/voting in the unique pop'n public contest plan was because "seems interesting to include in a game".
Actually, its EX Lv is 42, and its HYPER chart is fairly difficult too, so I'm tearing up because I'm unskilled at scales.
I said "since it's Southern Cross, it's nice to have cross-shaped notecharts", but they were already included.
But I imagined red barrage → white green green white → red barrage patterns.
I thought the character's name was surely "Shigeharu Minami".
Ga~su~
It's cool and stylish! And difficult!
I couldn't use my hands and feet in front of the "Ultimate Southern Cross".
Otsu
That's Southern Cross!?
Yuria....
eimy
When everyone listens to this song, they can see the notecharts! So, I listened to it and also saw the scale charts, which I'm unskilled at!
But when I actually played it, it was refreshing~. Of course, I can clear it up to HYPER, but.
NOVA's character setting is rarer than usual, and I don't know BlackY's age, who's noted for his freshness, but I wonder if NOVA is young, who's said to be great and miraculous~.
tokky
An amazing and cool song is here!
The Ultimate Southern Cross is a joke! While the staff said this, when I posed with a bang (spread your arms horizontally and do a cross pose!), NOVA really has an ultimate action! Southern Cross! Am I glad you did it? I almost asked.
But as expected, NOVA is an authentic Southern Cross user, so it was very cool. He's dazzling!
shio
BlackY, congratulations~. It's really a BEMANI product! That's right. This was by far the most popular song. When poppers listened to this song, they seemed to be able to see the notecharts. Their skills are too high...!
The melody is scattered with many sparkling sounds, and from the title Southern Cross, a sparkling human traveling through space came to my mind. Furthermore, the Southern Cross is an important star which guided adventurers during the Age of Discovery. Wasn't it a reassuring presence when people didn't know where to go while in the ocean?
During this project, we've received many more wonderful songs than we predicted. Furthermore, there were many passionate thoughts in the comments section such as "I started studying music because of pop'n" and "I learned about various musical worlds from pop'n", which just encouraged me. I'm really glad to help make pop'n.
It's really exciting to imagine lots of young talents embarking to the ocean. BlackY will probably quickly continue to lead the way~. I'm looking forward to his future announcements.
This character's name, NOVA, also means "new star" and it's perfect! Good job, TAMA.
I hope brand-new stars will make BEMANI and the Japanese music world sparkling and exciting in the future.
PON
While carrying all players' expectations? After all, we need to make this song difficult! So, we made it difficult.
Overall, since there was a 16th note piano section, it was difficult to create simple notecharts.
Since the theme is "Southern Cross", I thought about making "cross charts", but when I tried it, I noticed that it ended up having vertical barrages and full presses, and I stopped as they were boring.
Those traces appear as X patterns in the EX chart. Hey, if you slightly tilt your head, perhaps it looks like a cross??
If you want better cross notecharts, let's have BlackY make another cross-star song! Just kidding.
wac
If "POP'N POP" is pop'n-styled, I think this song is somehow "BEMANI-styled" or "music game-styled".
This song condenses the performance and exalting feeling found when playing a music game, especially when you become an expert player.
The composer's "I want you to hit here like this" feeling was conveyed and easy to understand.
This is a cool song to listen to, but as expected, the most important aspect of a music game song should be wanting to play it in a game.
Also, there were many aims for this public song contest.
One of them was wanting to have more young people participate in it.
Of course, there are great songs conceived while we increase in age, but there are less unrefined and powerful songs recently.
After all, pop'n seems to have both.
We decided to use his song before I found out his age, but I felt power, I mean lively qualities from this song, which were recognizable in a blind test.
Perhaps it's too much of an exaggeration to say that the future of pop'n is here as expected, but I somewhat quickly wondered if this Southern Cross was some kind of stopping point for the future forecast of pop'n.
BlackY wasn't even an elementary school student yet when pop'n was born.
I wonder when the day will come when children who grew up listening and playing BlackY's songs will create songs for pop'n in the future.
And I hope they'll pass it down.
Until such day comes, I'll try my best in pop'n. Everyone, let's create.
Difficulty & Notecounts
pop'n music difficulty rated from 1 to 43 through pop'n music 20 fantasia, and 1 to 50 from Sunny Park onwards.
| Game | Normal Mode | Battle Mode | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EASY | NORMAL | HYPER | EX | NORMAL | HYPER | |
| Notecounts | 168 | 469 | 812 | 1311 | 247 | 442 |
| pop'n music 20 fantasia | ※16 | 22 | 35 | 42 | 15 | 27 |
| pop'n music Sunny Park→Present | 13 | 28 | 41 | 48 | 15 | 27 |
| pop'n music Lively | 13 | 28 | 41 | 48 | - | - |
※ Denotes that the notecount of this chart is different from the later EASY chart (total notes: 247).