Samurai Drummer

Samurai Drummer (ドラムサムライ) is a character in Rhythm Tengoku, as well as the first character to appear in the Rhythm Heaven Series.

Story
Samurai Drummer is a samurai who devotes his life to drumming. Despite his appearance, his playing is really tight and technical. In the depths of his blazing pupils, the players' sense of rhythm is determined.

He appears when the player first turns on Rhythm Tengoku, greeting them before and after the Rhythm-kan Check. He can be seen on the screen when getting a Perfect. He also greets them at the beginning of Staff. The Bandleader, Marshal, Cam, and Miss Ribbon serve the same role in later games.

Samurai Drummer also hosts the Drum Lesson and is playable in Live, as part of the Drum Samurai's Band. He appears on the "CONGRATULATIONS!" screen after clearing a Stage in the arcade version of Rhythm Tengoku. He makes a cameo appearance in Rhythm Heaven Fever on the Extra Games icon, and in Rhythm Heaven Megamix as the 20th (and final) Mascot.

Appearences

 * Game GBA B-4.png Drum Lesson
 * Game GBA B-6.png Live

Trivia

 * Samurai Drummer is a caricature of series producer Tsunku♂, created as the developers were worried that simply using Tsunku♂'s name would be meaningless, and that having him appear as himself would imply that his involvement with Rhythm Tengoku was merely that of supervisor. To avoid this, he appears in the game as Samurai Drummer to highlight his deep involvement with the game. Samurai Drummer's eyebrows are shaped like Tsunku♂'s own because of this "つんく♂さんには、『リズム天国』のプロデューサーとして、本作に深く関わっていただいていますが、任天堂にとっても、つんく♂さんにとっても、ただ、お名前だけ拝借させていただくのでは意味がないだろうと考えていました. もちろん、つんく♂さんのお名前を使用させていただくのは、プラスになるのですが、場合によっては誤解を生んでしまう可能性もあります. かたちだけの監修ということではなく、ゲームの内容に、しっかりと関わっていただきたいと私たちは思っていました. でも、お忙しい方ですから、どうだろうかと心配していたのですが、つんく♂さんは、はじめからそのつもりでいてくださったようで音楽制作はもちろん、内容についてもさまざまな意見を出してくださいました. つんく♂さんは、頭が良くて、気さくで、なんといっても非常に真面目な方なんですよね. モノ作りに対しても、すごくストイックにいろいろとよく考えて行動される方なんです. せっかくしっかりと関わってくださったのですから、たんなる監修ソフトと誤解されないように、あえて、つんく♂さんのお名前を前面に出さなかったんです. 「つんく♂さんが『リズム天国の』開発に関わっている」ということを、一番いいカタチで、みなさんに知っていただくため、ゲーム内につんく♂さんを登場させるにしても、どのように登場させるかということに気を配りました. そこでゲーム内では、つんく♂さんだとは言っていませんが、仮の姿である、「ドラム侍」として登場していただくことになったんです. 実際、つんく♂さんに「ドラム侍として登場していただいてもいいですか？」とうかがったところ快く、「いいですよ！」とおっしゃってくださいました. よーく、ドラム侍を見ていただければわかるのですが、眉毛のカタチをつんく♂さんに似せてあるんですよ. " (Tsunku♂-san is deeply involved in this work as the producer of Rhythm Tengoku but we thought it would be meaningless for both Nintendo and Tsunku♂-san if we just borrowed his name. Of course, using Tsunku♂-san's name is a plus, but in some cases, it may cause misunderstandings. We wanted him to be involved in the content of the game, rather than just supervising the shape of the game. But he is a busy man, so I was worried about how it would go, but Tsunku♂-san seemed to have had that in mind from the start and gave us a variety of opinions on the content as well as the music production. Tsunku♂-san is a smart, friendly and, above all, very serious person. He's very stoic and thinks things through when it comes to making things. Since he was so involved in the project, we dared not to put his name in the foreground, so that it wouldn't be misunderstood as just a software supervisor. In order to let everyone know in the best possible way that Tsunku♂ was involved in the development of Rhythm Tengoku, we paid attention to how we wanted him to appear in the game. So in the game, we didn't say it was Tsunku♂, but we decided to have him appear as "Drum Samurai", which is a temporary form of Tsunku♂. In fact, when I asked Tsunku♂-san, "Is it okay if you appear as Drum Samurai?", he kindly said, "Yes!" If you look carefully at Drum Samurai, you'll notice that the shape of his eyebrows resembles that of Mr. Tsunku♂.) ~ Yoshio Sakamoto, ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞 - 樹の上の秘密基地. (Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun - A secret base on a tree.).