炎歌 -ほむらうた- (Homura Uta) is one of the most unusual tracks in the maimai library: a Showa-era style enka ballad written for a rhythm game. Composed by Hiro (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), known for his work on the Space Harrier, Hang-On, and Sonic series, the song grew out of a long-held personal ambition to write an enka piece. Hiro had felt that most video games had no natural place for the genre, but maimai's eclectic tracklist gave him the freedom to try something outside typical game music boundaries. The result is a deliberate hybrid: traditional enka instrumentation, koto and shamisen-like sounds in the intro, emotive string writing, and heart-wrenching vocal melodies, is underpinned by a four-on-the-floor kick drum and synth-heavy arrangement, keeping the track playable as a rhythm game chart. Hiro brought in arranger Takeshi Kaneko, who had previously worked on Sega's SegaSaga soundtrack and, crucially, came from an enka background himself, to ensure the arrangement carried authentic enka flavor in the guitar and string obbligato parts. Vocals were handled by Aiko Moriyama (森山愛子), described in the game's soundtrack booklet as "the hope of the enka world," whose powerful delivery and controlled melisma define the song's emotional core. 炎歌 -ほむらうた- debuted in maimai PLUS in April 2013 as a STANDARD-chart-only track. Over the ensuing decade its Master chart was gradually re-rated upward from level 10 to 13+ as the game's difficulty landscape evolved. In June 2024, more than eleven years after its original release, the song received DX charts as part of maimai でらっくす BUDDiES PLUS, initially unlockable through Friend Matching Season 17 before becoming available by default later that year. The DX refresh also introduced a new jacket illustration, replacing the original visual, and the in-game video was updated to a still of that new jacket.