(かねこちはる) The story behind this trend in Social Media today
03-10-2026
The name trending today is かねこちはる (Kaneko Chiharu), a Japanese composer in the arcade rhythm-game scene. He is a man, though the name often leads people to assume otherwise. He debuted around 2013, first under the credit “ちはる ver.9.1.7,” after hearing a contest track from Sound Voltex and starting to write his own music. His pieces are known for piano-centered writing, melancholy or cold imagery (snow, water, wind), frequent key changes, and a mix of progressive, rock, folk, and faster artcore-style material. Songs of his have appeared in Taiko no Tatsujin, Sound Voltex, maimai, Chunithm, Ongeki, Arcaea, and similar games; a few early credits also include anime-related work. Alternate names include Ellim Gnirps and 星野音楽工房.He was fairly active in the mid-2010s, then largely went quiet after June 2017. Fans and wiki write-ups link that drop-off to heavy hostile comments on his posts at the time; the harassment became so routine in parts of the Japanese doujin-music circle that it was sometimes treated as a joke. Releases after that were irregular, often songs finished earlier, and he stayed mostly offline for long stretches. Activity has picked up again in the last couple of years, including collaborations such as tracks with t+pazolite for maimai and work with cosMo (暴走P) for Taiko no Tatsujin. His public posts are still often eccentric, which longtime listeners treat as part of the persona.The spike today comes from Project Sekai’s Championship 2026, held during the game’s 6th-anniversary festival. Official announcements named the Group A fourth challenge chart as “レグルス (REMIX)” (“Regulus (REMIX)”), credited to him as a remix of ゆうゆ’s well-known song Regulus. He also posted that he had been asked to remix it for the event and tried to keep the original’s melody. The track is scheduled to be added to the game later. Rhythm-game players reacted because an arcade-scene composer associated with hard charts, long absences, and odd online behavior is now on a major mobile Vocaloid title’s tournament setlist, often mentioned in the same breath as other high-difficulty writers on the same event.