Episode Six: In Which A Recap is Given

Well with much motivation by Aca/Blaze Girl/whatever her interwebs alias might be and Kaito, I have risen from the Animazement ashes and will now proceed to do a cruddy recap! Let's go! Urotanda! *that made no sense*

Featured Vocaloids

These past Featured Vocaloids have been:

Meiko: the tsundere big-sister-figure (oneesama?), first Japanese Vocaloid 1, sake drinker and wholly under-appreciated Vocaloid who is Option 1 of the KaiMei KaiMi ship war!

Kaito: our beloved Bakaito, somewhat of an older-brother-figure (oniisan!), second Japanese Vocaloid 1, ice cream lover with a huge potential and is the center of many shipping wars! (biased writer much? *shotded*)

Miku: the ever-popular number one princess in the whole wide world, CV01, obsessed with leeks with a chipper voice and Option 2 of the KaiMei KaiMi ship war!

Rin and Len: the infamous twins! CV02-- Rin loves oranges and Len's item is bananas, collectively they own the roadroller-- high pitched voices and often shipped with each other (run and hide, the RinLen shippers can be simply terrifying if you cross them!)

Luka: the calmer, other tsundere of the Crypton house, CV03 with a taste for tuna and bilingual capabilities, often shipped with Gakupo.

So that's that!

Featured Producers

Our Featured Producers have been:

hinayukki/Shigotoshite-P: a brilliant Kaito and Meiko producer mostly. She wrote The Song of Swift Wind and the Sky, Singing Earth, et cetera. She's also got a good sense of humor in her talkloids like "Playing a Trick on Kaito"

mothy/AkunoP: the diabolical genius, unrestricted in his Vocaloid usage but he's... well, he's getting better at tuning them. Mastermind of the Seven Deadly Sins Series, including Story of Evil.

DECO*27: pronounced "dayco-neena", known for his Miku and Gumi songs, typically about love and typically with a philosophical slant to them. Coward Montblanc, Mozaik Role, et cetera.  He can also be faintly heard singing along with his songs, adorably enough. 

sasakure.UK: another genius with a tendency for apocalyptic scenarios, however his blog entries reveal a hilarious and goofy personality. He penned Campanella, * Hello, Planet, et cetera.

Shinjou-P: a genius at Kaito's voice, and I recently found out that she was actually a girl. Whoops. Anyways, she's responsible for Hanamogera, the fictional language in Pane Dhiria and Paru Nya. She also made Unyapu and What's COLOR?, all brilliant Kaito songs.

Voca-Vocabulary!

Append/Extend: a redone version of a Vocaloid's voicebank, often more human and often awesome sounding

PV: "Picture Video" the accompanying video to a Vocaloid song

Nico Nico Douga/NND: basically Japanese Youtube, where most if not all Vocaloid songs along with the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking can be found

Bakaito: Kaito's fandom nickname, literally "stupid Kaito"

... ehhh just go look at the last episode for that whole honorifics spiel

What's on Spaz's iPod?

LOADS OF STUFF

anyways

Monochrome Dream-Eater, in which Len actually sounds like a man and is actually pretty cool

Chrono Story, in which Rin and Len release the seven sins into the world and Luka goes to collect them

Once Upon a Me, in which DECO*27 unintentionally makes Spaz cry because it's cute

Old Radio, in which Kaito is both adorable and smart-looking and the setting is interesting

RAINBOW GIRL, in which Kaito is adorable and tragic at the same time... Hush, i-it's cute!

The Classics

Ievan Polkka: rocketed Vocaloid and Hatsune Miku to meme status!

Meltdown: one of Rin's classics-- who thought jumping into a nuclear reactor would be so popular?

Two Breaths Walking: a DECO*27 classic with Miku and a cool PV!

Just Be Friends: one of Luka's most well known songs, showing off her bilungual side!

What's COLOR?: a Kaito classic in which ShinjouP is again brilliant!

Crowning Musics of Awesomeness

Double Lariat- ridiculously motivating!

Bad End Night- fantastically Halloween-esque!

Mozaik Role- epic PV!

Our 16bit Warz- apocalyptic battle!

Judgement of Corruption- villain protagonist!

Crowning Musics of Sadness

Campanella: "it just means that you went that far away..."

Servant of Evil: "You are the princess, I am the servant, destiny divided pitiful twins..."

*Hello, Planet and *Sayonara, World End: "ohayou, hayou..."

Crowning Musics of Creepy/Yandereness

Kaito's Uninstall: "masutaa, masutaa..."

Story of a Poor Blue Rabbit: i-it n-n-needs no quote...

Crowning Musics of Cuteness

Yume Yume/Dream Dream: "Wait, why do you leave after you've come true?"

My Ice-Cream is Melting: "Aaaaisu!"

Crowning Musics of Funniness

THE MOST SERIOUS DAUGHTER OF EVIL SERIES SUMMARY YOUR EARS WILL EVER GAZE UPON: "Take a chill pill woman I am feeling particularly feminine and suicidal today can I have your clothes?"

Lord of Darkness/Yami no Ou: "Haha, what a funny face!"

Crowning Music of What?!

Lost and Found, sasakure.UK and Miku's Append

Spotlight Covers

Meiko's Amazing Grace, simply amazing.

Kaito's Byakoyya No Musume, yes, that is our beloved Kaito!

Rin's Love is War, RAVE RAVE RAVE *dances*

Meiko's Mozaik Role, with Kaito in the chorus!

Kaito Append and Len Append's BRILLIANT Lost Destination-- *fangirl swoon. again*

Spotlight Duets

Kaito and Meiko in The Pair Tree Wither-er by hinayukki

TwiRight Prank with Rin and Len by mothy

Gumi and Deco in Pedal Heart (kind of? hush it's cute)

Kaito and Len in Lost Destina-- *again*

Random Recommendations  

Smiling

Cyber Thunder Cider

Nekomimi Switch

Panda Hero

Dear You

Ah, It's a Wonderful Cat's Life

Recent News

So another V3 was announced, named Galaco.

End Note

*dead*

Episode Five: In Which the Birthday Girl Fangirls A Lot

... title says it all! Hey, it's my birthday, I'm allowed to spaz out a bit. Or a lot. I have a feeling this professional aura will dissipate soon... But stuff still needs to get done! I shall cling to it as long as poss-- *twitch*-- possible. Anyways.

Featured Vocaloid

Our Featured Vocaloid is Kaito again! *stabbed by fork*  Luka Megurine! Her surname "Megurine" literally means "revolving sound", as she is the first Vocaloid to support phonemes for more than one language. She's bilingual, hypothetically-- she can sing in both Japanese and English. She's notable in that she actually has a bit of canon to her-- personality is "cool, somewhat mysterious" and she is 20 years old. (looks like Spaz's headcanon is revealed to be incorrect!) She is codenamed CV03-- distributed by Crypton Future Media. Her voice provider is Yuu Asakawa. Her most well-known roles are in Double Lariat, RIP=RELEASE, Magnet, Go Google It!, the Tailor in The Tailor Shop in Enbizaka, and "MA" or "The Sorceress of Time" in most of mothy's works. She is said to receive an Append sometime in the future with Kaito and Meiko. Her character item is a tuna. She is generally portrayed as a bit distant, collected, and more than a bit tsundere but less irritated and more stoic and sarcastic than Meiko. Her voice is actually a bit vulnerable, but it's beautiful when done well.

Featured Producer

This entry's Featured Producer is Shinjou-P, a member of a very endangered species-- decent Vocaloid1 producers! Shinjou-P is a painter that got caught up in the wave of Vocaloid popularity. Of course, in all her songs the illustrations are her own. She consistently produces (it's funny because...) awesome songs with Kaito, such as Pane Dhiria and Paru Nya. Notice something about those songs? Yes, they both feature a made-up language called "Hanamogera" that Shinjou-P created herself. What does it mean? I have no clue, I don't even think that she's fluent in it. Most of her songs are quite calm with an introspective air to them. Except for Unyapu. Anyways-- many of her songs remain untranslated. On the bright side though, all of Shinjou-P's albums can be found on iTunes! Kaito fangirls rejoice!

Vocaloid Vocabulary of the Week

Today's "Vocabulary" shall deal with some honorifics! 

-san is the typical honorific, used with acquaintances et cetera.

-chan is a typically female honorific, associated with cuteness and used with female close friends, generally

-kun is a typically male honorific, used with male peers especially friends and ones younger than you are

-sempai is "upperclassman" or "mentor" denoting respect

-sensei is "teacher" or again "mentor"

-sama is a honorific noting respect and humility on the speaker's part

-dono is another honorific noting respect but without the self-humbleness (Gakupo uses it in some talkloids)

-nii/niisan is literally referring to an older brother, also used for people who are like older brothers (i.e. the twins calling Kaito "Kaito-nii"). It's female counterpart is "nee/neesan". For extra respect add an "o" as in "oniisan"

*this is where the fangirl side of Spaz takes over* askdsja diogjawe9trua903nao d 

What's on Spaz's iPod?

RAINBOW GIRL sung by Kaito and the uploader didn't provide a name.. so. Yeah. It's a truly tragic story of a Vocaloid  dating game character. ... B-be quiet, it's cute.

The Classics

What's COLOR? by the Featured Producer, Shinjou-P is a intriguingly vague song about... colors? Hmmmm... *speculates color of fingernails*

Crowning Music of Awesome

Though he's more than a lot of a Villain Protagonist/Tragic Hero in Judgment of Corruption, the music remains crowning and awesome. I mean really. 

Crowning Music of Adorable

My Icecream is Melting is one of many parodies sung by Kaito, changing the lyrics to something about ice cream. It's a mix of Kaito being absolutely adorkable, a klutz, and a bit silly. Oh, and ice cream. There is a lot of ice cream in this. 

Crowning Music of Terror-Inducing Yandereness

"Story of a Poor Blue Rabbit" is so yandere and odd that I can't even really bring myself to find the link to it... 

Also, did you know that in the wild, when a rabbit is threatened in her nest she will actually eat her young? True story. Um... so yeah. 

Spotlight Cover (plus Duet!)

Okay, so Lost Destination by 150P is a cynical yet amazing song with Len's Act 1, Append Power, Cold, and Serious... times three. That means it's basically a twelve-Len chorus. So that's pretty awesome. 

What could make it even more awesome, you ask? Here's the answer: Kaito's (still in development!) Append Power and Whisper (!). Oh yes please. Plus a PV? Awesome xOVER 9000 COMBO. Here it is! Kaito and Len's Appends etc dueting in this superbly epic song. It is awesome. The whole way through. But especially around 4:20... Kaito's Whisper is the best~ *fangirl swoon*

Random Recommendation

... from me to you! Dear You is the best Happy-Birthday song ever. And it's by shigotoshiteP/hinayukki. And it's Kaito singing a Happy Birthday song..! Is that not the most adorable thing ever? I'm listening to it on repeat now...! Happy Birthday to me~

BONUS CATEGORY: MORE APPEND

Even though Kaito's Append isn't finished yet, some producers have received a beta version of it, and it. is. awesome. 

Original "A Thousand Year Solo" (yanagiP) ---> Append Version

Original "What's COLOR" above ---> Append Version (not as awesome, but sounds very real...)

Original "Pane Dhiria" above ---> SPTM Mix and Leap remix

FLOWER TAIL, a Kaito-chorus much like Len in Lost Destination above. 

 But wait! a! moment!

As you can see...

only two of the above songs are clearly labelled "Append Version"

which means that Spaz is being a tricky fangirl...

FLOWER TAIL and the different mixes of Pane Dhiria are all with Kaito's current, nonAppend voicebank!

Did I get you there? Did you think that they were brilliant Appends? or did you see right through it...? 

Nevertheless...

This proves Spaz's fangirliness, doesn't it ? Is it indeed fangirling if it is completely justified? Hm... Something to ponder...

End Note

Append-related tomfoolery aside, hopefully you all could enjoy it as much as I did through all that! I'm afraid next week will also be a bit of a unaverage post, as AZ is right around the corner!

Anyways, I'm off to bed~ *actually still listening to "Dear You"*

Episode Four Point Five: Pronunciation and Fair Warnings

A Not-So-Quick Guide to Pronunciation in Vocaloid

A good rule of thumb is to pronounce all the vowels individually and you'll be fine. But here's just some quick stuff for correct (as far as I know) pronunciation of names.

Meiko: "may-koh". Pretty straightforward.

Kaito: "ky-toh". Technically the "a" and "i" are pronounced individually but when blurred together it sounds like that. Avoid long "a" sounds. Please?

Miku Hatsune: "mee-koo haht-soo-neh". Aren't my phonetic guides lovely? The "ne" is not license to pronounce a long preceding vowel. This isn't the English language anymore, kids! 

Rin: "rihn". Please don't mispronounce it? 

Len: "lehn". Again, very very easy.

Kagamine: "kah-gah-mee-neh". It is not a kaga-mine, whatever kind of mine that might be. 

Luka Megurine: "loo-kah meh-goo-ree-neh". Last names are a mouthful. For her first name thing "Luke" with an "a" at the end.

Gackupo Kamui: "gah-koo-poh kah-moo-ee". Not so sure but I'm pretty confident that's correct.

Gumi: "goo-mee". She is not a type of squishy sugary sweet. 

Lily: ... No. Just... like the flower.

Ryuto: "ree-oo-toh"

Piko Utatane: "pii-koh oo-tah-tah-neh"

Haku Yowane: "hah-koo yoh-wah-neh"

Neru Akita: "neh-roo ah-kee-tah"

Miki: "mee-kee"

Yuki Kaai: "yoo-kee kah-ah-ee"

Kiyoteru Hiyama: "kee-yoh-teh-roo hee-yah-mah"

Iroha Nekomura: "ee-roh-hah neh-koh-moo-rah"

Yukari Yuzuki: "yoo-kah-ree yoo-zoo-kee"

Mizki: "mihz-kee"

Yuuma: "yoo-mah"

So there ya go! 

Fair Warning

One of my characters informed me that if I did not give you guys a fair warning, she would be quite displeased with me, so here goes.

This weekend is my birthday, thus I am giving myself some more freedom in regard to the contents of this blog. Translation: FANGIRL TIME (Translation: KAITO KAITO EVERYWHERE)

End Note

So there you go. 

Episode Four: Do The Twins Dream of Apocalyptic Scenarios?

Hey, looks like it's been around a month since I've started this! *throws confetti* Whoo~
Looks like we've got a jam-packed issue this week!

Featured Vocaloid

This week it's the famous Kagamine twins-- they're a package deal! Rin and Len Kagamine are our Featured Vocaloids. Their names are a pun on "Right" and "Left". Crypton at first described them as "two sides of a mirror" but due to internet backdraft changed it to them being twins, and then finally gave up and left it to interpretation. Their name "Kagamine" is literally "mirrored sound". They are both voiced by Asami Shimoda. They are codenamed CV02. Their most well-known roles are the Fourth Alices in Alice Human Sacrifice, the titular Daughter and Servant of Evil, Trick and Treat, Len being the protagonist in SPICE! and Fire Flower, and Rin in Butterfly on Your Right Shoulder and I Like You, I Love You. They are also known for Kokoro and Kokoro Kiseki. An "ACT2" version of their voicebanks was released shortly after their debut, which may or may not be seen as an improvement.  They also received Append voicebanks-- Len with Power, Cold, and Serious and Rin with Power, Warm, and Sweet. Their portrayals vary, but Rin is generally energetic and mischievous and Len is generally quieter yet equally mischievous. Len is also referred to as a "shota" in many instances and memetically dies in many songs. Even though Rin dies in more. They both have very high-pitched voices, though Len's is deeper and marginally more masculine. Ish. They are very popular in duets because they are sold as one product. As a whole, whenever they're not sounding screechy they can sing very good songs (especially tragedies...)

Featured Producer

Our Featured Producer is sasakure.UK. He wrote Campanella that was mentioned previously. Sasakure.UK is well-known for his apocalyptic scenarios, especially in his album Do Vocaloids Dream of Doomsday Bird? (don't ask). This album strung together a handful of songs apparently detailing a walk through the apocalypse. He has a very unique way of tuning the Vocaloids. As mentioned before, his first series is the Do Vocaloids Dream of Doomsday Bird. Now, with the song The Heap Princess and Apostrophe (watch out, it's a tearjerker)  and it's recent sequel Non-World Harmonize it seems that he's building another scenario of sorts. So you'd think that since he's so great at building these settings and such, he's be some sort of philosophical genius with insight dripping off his every word, right? Right? ... Take a look at some of his blog posts on this translator's tumblr. Here they are, there are three of them currently translated. Um. So yeah. I find this hilarious. 

Vocaloid Vocabulary 

Today's word shall be Kaito's fandom nickname as "Bakaito". So basically the Japanese word for "stupid", "idiot", or "moron" is "Baka". And then combined with Kaito's name is "Bakaito". So it's basically "stupid Kaito" for when he's just being oblivious or whatever.

What's on Spaz's iPod?

Old Radio , sung by Kaito and by the producer マカーP. 

It's interesting, even though not much is said about the setting you have to wonder....

The Classics

Just Be Friends, sung by Luka and by Dixie Flatline. 

Crowning Music of Awesome

Our 16bit Wars, in which Gumi levels up in awesomeness. It's by sasakure.UK, our Featured Producer. Note that in the beginning there is some language. It's a bit vague...

Crowning Music of Sad

If * Hello, Planet didn't get you, how about it's more melancholy twin, *Sayonara, World End? *sniff* especially when... it's like... "ohayo, hayo"... 

Crowning Music of What?!

Lost and Found sung by Miku and by our Featured Producer. ... Yeah, it's a bit... odd...

Spotlight Cover

Meiko's cover of Mozaik Role (ignore the awkward picture OTL) with Kaito joining in on the background is very good. 

Random Recommendation

Panda Hero sung by Gumi and by the producer Hachi, who also penned Matryoshka. I don't know. But it's awesome. 

Recent News

Nothing much to report asides from the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE: Bonus Category

So here's sasakure.UK's series Do Vocaloids Dream of Doomsday Bird.

Campanella sung by Gumi

The (Week)End's Coming! sung by Rin

Our 16bit Warz sung by Gumi

WANDERLAST sung by Luka

* Hello, Planet and * Sayonara, World End sung by Miku

So there.

End Note

So there ya go! *falls asleep*

Episode Three Point Five: It's a Stable Time Loop x2 Combo!

Well, really it's a scenario hosting two coexisting yet competing stable time loops along with a silent witness that may or may not actually be perpetuating the temporal oddities... eh, timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly stuff. *Spaz shot for referencing Doctor Who in a Vocaloid fandom*

What? Ah, yes. The reason I'm posting here is to show you guys an up-and-coming producer called Jin and his series called the "Kagerou Project". It's getting a novelization and a manga (that we probably won't be able to see). Apparently there will be an album called "Blindfold City Days/Daze" out the 30th of May (that hopefully we'll be able to get) These six songs (of thirteen, the rest will be in the album i guess) are part of that series. Of course, I'll have to preface it with an overlong story...

Once upon a time, there was a Vocafan named Spaz. Spaz was a... dedicated... let's say, a very obsessed dedicated Vocafan who braved the depths of NicoNicoDouga et cetera, but one day she was watching the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking as usual.

Of course, yet another song was trending, stubbornly sticking onto the Vocaran for several weeks. Something that Google translate called "Heat-Haze Days" or something. It didn't even have much of a PV, just a confusing picture with what looked like street signs and blood spatters and some guy.

Anyways, Spaz dismissed it and just went on with life. Of course the song popped up again in one of her Youtube perusals, so she clicked on it. Add in Spaz's fascination with temporal oddities such as stable time loops... she couldn't stop listening to it. And then she found the PV to it and it was amazing. So there was that, and then there was a period of relative inactivity in the Vocafandom for Spaz. Then she got back into Vocaloid, again finding the song + PV and enjoying it-- and, what's this?! Two other songs she enjoyed... and some more... and the song she just found... they were all connected?! How delightfully mothy-esque!

Anyways, the actual songs:

In semi-chronological-order-by-the-order-they-were-posted-ish, here are Jin's songs. If you can't tell how they're connected, don't worry, the last song makes it a bit less vague. 

Artificial Enemy, sung by Miku. The meaning is vague... and it's a bit high-pitched... but hang on. 

Blindfold Code, sung by Miku. Still, it's obscure, but hold onto where it mentions red eyes... and coming in from the cold, maybe...

Headphone Actor, sung by IA. This one actually was pretty popular for a while after. How odd, the "Actor" has red eyes... file that for later. And headphones, where was that...? And an artificial town...

Kagerou Days, also known as Heat Haze Days, sung by Miku. This is the song that launched itself in front for all to see... what is this? Certainly a tragedy! Fascinating...

Imagination Forest, sung by IA. It's oddly calming compared to the others, also taking place in a forest instead of a city... Red eyes? Sh, stop crying, you're okay. Someone coming in... and at the end, is that the girl from Blindfold Code? Puzzling... 

Konoha's State of the World, sung by IA and Miku. Some bits are tantalizingly close to Kagerou Days... and there they are... this Konoha character has red eyes and white hair like... another cityscape (the same?) Hm... and at the end! Those eyes! That's definitely them, and-- who are those others?!

Theorizing, Questions, et cetera

Coherency Warning, Only Theory Warning, Nonsense Warning, etc. You don't have to read this. 

Okay. So the characters with red eyes are the Actor, Mari from Imagination Forest, and Konoha. Konoha and Mari look very much alike, but Konoha looks almost robotic, so... 

All of the red eyed characters are aware of their situation-- the Actor and Konoha learn/know of a sort of fabrication to the city they live in, and Mari knows her problems and accepts them at the end. Are they related? Similar DNA? 

Imagination Forest is really very different from the rest of them. It's calm and in a forest. Could it be the first song chronologically, in the story? So where did the other red eye characters come from? They're in the city. People in I.F. seemed to either be scared of Mari or wanted to kidnap her for some reason... State of the World mentioned experimentation and Headphone Actor has scientists at the end. Could the other red eye characters be clones? But Actor has black hair. Maybe Konoha's a clone? He was hooked up to something in the PV. 

So the city in State of the World seems to be synthetic. Same with H.A. They could be the same. And it seems similar to setting in all the others save for I.F. 

They could be connected by that artificial city... 

And what did it mean when Konoha talked about rewriting the future, but those eyes? Looked like Mari's mom's eyes when she did the Medusa thing... Could there be something powerful in these red eye characters? Maybe it wasn't really a turn-to-stone thing, maybe it was stop-in-time thing, so scientists experimented with that factor in Kagerou Days? Or something? I don't know?

Maybe Artificial Enemy, Blindfold Code, and Imagination Forest take place closer to each other in chronology? Theory: A.E. is about the scientists in some way, or something? B.C. is how the boy found Mari, and before B.C. is when the scientists learned about the weird red eye power? And I.F. details the life of Mari before the scientists remembered her existence...? At the end of State of the World she's got blood on her and she's crying, poor thing... what happened?

Let's move to Kagerou Days now. Keeping in mind my theories above, this could be a sort of experiment by the scientists. It could even be the main experiment, depending if that lyric from State of the World was about this or about Konoha. So it's two stable time loops-- the girl's and the boy's. They're trying to break their time loops by saving the other by getting killed. Like Inception. Kind of. But then, when the boy saves the girl it triggers the girl's time loop... So. It seems like the boy's time loop is August 15 and the girl's is August 14, because the two times it said it was the 14th-- the girl got impaled and the boy thought she was smiling (= she saved him by running out under the pole) and when she woke up after the boy saved her, saying that she failed again. The 15th is perhaps the first of the boy's time loop. Did they happen at the same time? How did it happen? It almost seems as if the Heat-Haze, the dark version of the boy in the PV, is somewhat in control of something, along with the girl's Heat-Haze... but he was crying when the boy saved the girl? It could have just been the first time and the shock of it... Is there a way out of the stable time loops for them? 

Also, the lyric from State of the World: something like "backing up a life" or something-- could Konoha be unintentionally perpetuating the stable time loops? He's forced to watch them. Is there a possibility Konoha is the Heat-Haze? Or maybe Konoha is the boy from Kagerou Days...? Or maybe he has his memories? Or maybe he's experiencing it from his perspective and mind? 

and... and... and... I'm going to stop theorizing before I drop dead from lack of sleep.

Episode Three: Nee-na and Mi-ku

I'm just going to put a coherency warning on this because I'm already starting this a bit tired... BUT! The show must go on! and on and on and on and on and on and on... 

So, let's go!

Featured Vocaloid

The one, the only, the diva Miku Hatsune! Her voice provider is Saki Fujita, the third Crypton Vocaloid, the second for the Vocaloid2 engine-- the first in Japan, though-- and code-named CV01. Her most well-known roles are everything everywhere in Melt, Love is War, the Third Alice in Alice Human Sacrifice, the Green Girl/Spirit of ELD in Story of Evil, the Cinderella-wannabe in Cendrillon, and the girl in Cantarella, and... a lot of other songs. She's the one who brought Vocaloid into the spotlight with her cover of Ievan Polkka that skyrocket to meme status on NND. Later she also saved Kaito from obscurity. She is by far the most popular Vocaloid there is, and Crypton Future Media's mascot. Coincidentally, the number 39 can be pronounced "mi-ku", so it is treated as a number associated with her and, more generally, Vocaloid as a whole.She was the first to receive an Append version due to complaints that her cheery voice was not suited to some songs. Miku is generally portrayed as a cheerful girl, if a bit of a diva. Her voice is upbeat and very soprano, though it often lacks depth. However, most producers find her voice very user-friendly, so she sings many, many, many songs. 

Featured Producer

Our featured producer is the beloved DECO*27, with 27 pronounced as "nee-na" and the asterisk left silent. DECO*27 became popular in Japan for his songs with Miku, but Coward Montblanc sung by Gumi brought him into fame overseas. He is known for his vaguely philosophical love songs, that often appear to have some tangential relationship to each other. Mostly Miku and Gumi sing the songs he writes. He has catchy instrumentals and is decent in terms of editing voices. If you listen closely, you can hear him singing along in some bits of songs... He's quiet but he's there. An interview with him can be found here from about a year ago. Most of his work can be found on iTunes. Again, kind of a producer you have to know especially because of spaz's weird headcanon of weird.

Vocaloid Vocabulary

"Nico Nico Douga" is basically Japanese Youtube except a bit different. The comments appear as scrolling across the video, and you have to have an account to watch the videos. It is often shortened to NND for convenience. NND is the source of most Vocaloid songs, human covers, et cetera. It also is the place of the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking, but at Vocaloidism.com you can watch it without an account. 

What's on Spaz's iPod?

Once Upon a Me by our featured producer, sung by our featured Vocaloid... it's cute. And motivating. Even though the PV's art style is a bit weird.

The Classics

Two Breaths Walking again by DECO*27 and sung by Miku. I can't find the best translation of it but there. The PV is cool too. 

Crowning Music of Awesome

Mozaik Role, sung by Gumi and produced by that guy up there. The PV is awesome, the instrumental is catchy, and it's just an awesome song. Also spelled Mosaik Roll, Mozaic Role, Mozaik Roll, etc... and is speculated to be a sequel to Coward Montblanc. Again, there's a better translation out there but I can't find it at the current time.

Crowning Music of Creepy

Kaito's cover of Uninstall, with a PV and altered lyrics to convey... something else. This is one of his yandere (sweet on the outside but serial-killer-insane on the insane) songs... There is ketchup in this video. Yeah. It's ketchup. Just ketchup, that's all. That's all it is, just some... ketchup... yeah... right... all it is... And he's singing really high-pitched, which just adds to everything... um... sweet dreams? it's just ketchup it's just ketchup it's just ketchup 

Crowning Music of Cute

Yume Yume/Dream-Dream by... oh forget it, just look up a bit. A charming and cute song with an adorable PV that may or may not employ a stable time loop. 

Spotlight Cover

Rin's dance/rave cover of Love is War is freaking amazing. Go listen to it. It will be stuck in your head all day. 

Spotlight Duet

Pedal Heart, in which Gumi sings for all of it and DECO*27 sings for most of it-- what, that doesn't count? Oh yes it does. Hush, it's adorable. 

Random Recommendation

Nekomimi Switch/Cat-Ears Switch sung by Rin and Len and produced by daniwell, I think. *dies of cute*

Recent News

Nothing much to report, but the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking can be found at Vocaloidism.com!

End Note

Wow, lots of Miku and Gumi here. Oh well. At least I shoehorned Kaito in there somewhere--

*spaz uninstalled*

Episode Two Point Seven Five: Covers and Conundrums

The Question

Where do these covers come from? Who sings them? They're not Vocaloids, are they?

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, about a year and a half ago (roughly), Spaz became a Vocaloid Fan. Actually, let's go ahead and call her a Vocafan. This young vocafan began a nightly perusal of Vocaloid songs on Youtube, so she began to get a feel of how these Vocaloids sounded, their quirks and flaws and perfections... 

And then she found this. Kaito's cover of a song from a Japanese movie called Paprika. That couldn't be Kaito, she thought, it's too... it's too... human. Vibrato. Broadness of voice. And the usual electronic tonality disappeared! It was almost aria-like... It couldn't be Kaito.

But, that was clearly Rin in the beginning, and why would there be a Vocaloid singing with a human, that wouldn't make sense in that context... and near the end, at like 2:43,  that's definitely him, when he's singing normally... but... but... 

And then Spaz listened. Really listened. She still wasn't sure... but something about the timbre of the voice... the fact that he was for sure singing at that one part... It was him! Indubitably! And there was much rejoicing.

So the point of that story is to say that sometimes, it's hard to tell a human voice from a Vocaloid's. This will come up later. 

Now let's go to a classic of Vocaloid tragedy and creepiness: Hitobashira Alice, or Alice Human Sacrifice. Think back to when you heard it. Now that you know what Meiko, Kaito, Miku, Rin and Len sound like in a few different songs... were those singers those Vocaloids? If it was this version of it, then sadly no, those are real people covering the song. The actual Vocaloid's original of the song is... well, it's rough, to say the least. 

So basically-- the covers are real people, usually on Nico Nico Douga. While sometimes it's hard to tell, I can show you a few ways to discern if that's a human singing or not. But I'm rambling!

The Good News

The good news is that these covers are awesome. I mean, Alice Human Sacrifice would not have been as famous without that cover, you know? 

Nico Nico Choruses can be found of just about anything. They are often mind-blowingly amazing. Take the Classical Nico Nico Chorus of Servant of Evil, for instance. Tears to my eyes, every. single. time. 

They even did one of The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku-DEAD END. Seriously. Super fast lyrics included. 

I could link you to all these brilliant Nico Nico Choruses, but that would take a while. 

So you can see it, right? These covers are amazing. 

The Bad News

The bad news is that young vocafans can mistake a Vocaloid for a real person, and it is very hard for another vocafan to say that no, that human-sounding voice is actually a human.

So, here's some tips on distinguishing a cover from a Vocaloid:

1. Know how the Vocaloid sounds.

A bit elementary, but the more you know the sound of their voice, the better you can tell when it's not them.

2. Look at the title. 

Sure, there is the off chance that they won't put the fact that it's a real person in the title... But generally it will be called [Cover] or something. Some people that cover Vocaloid songs will put their name in the title, like Razzy or (maybe) rockleetist. 

3. Look at the description.

It's always a good idea to read video descriptions. That's where they put all the useful description and information, like if that's a human or a Vocaloid. 

4. Look at the comments.

Okay, not as credible as the above... but still. If there's someone asking the same question you are, pay some attention to the answer. 

5. Disregard the pictures.

The cover singer will usually not put a picture of themselves on the video. Generally, it will be a Vocaloid. Like how in the Nico Choruses the singers are represented by pictures of Vocaloids, but they are not Vocaloids themselves.

Conclusion

Vocaloids are awesome and can sound ridiculously human.

Real people covers are awesome and can be mistaken for Vocaloids. 

But, they are both awesome.