3 Reasons you should be listening to Vocaloid

So I was meeting my friend the other day, and I had Meltdown (Kagamine Rin) blaring out of my headphones. He asked me what was the "high-pitched screaming" he heard, and I proceed to tell him about Vocaloid, its music, and what it has spawned. My friend quickly dismissed it as a fleeting trend, I was a little upset, but I wasn't surprised.

Vocaloid music certainly isn't a short-lived thing for me, since my Vocaloid playlist has about tripled since I last posted it. Besides letting him know that Vocaloid music has been doing better than ever just after Miku's 5th birthday, I told him that -

1. Vocaloid music presents a whole new range of vocals

You know how Adele's powerful voice, Adam Levine's pitch, and Eminem's rap speed managed to win over millions? Miku is able to do all that at the same time, and more. Being a program allows her exceed the limits of a human, and a whole new range of pitch and speed allows a whole new range of possibilities, that would be unique to Vocaloids.

Pitch and speed:


2. Vocaloids are able to utilize talent from thousands of people, all over the globe

Strictly speaking, we haven't reach the "all over the globe" part, only because it's made for Japanese audience so far and it haven't been able to really attract talent from outside Japan. But there's definitely a possibility, seeing that an English version of Hatsune Miku is underway. But just within Japan itself, there are literally thousands of people are profiting from the music made and some of the albums are known to out-sell top J-Pop stars. Being a brand known as (insert singer) only allows you to work with so many people. Producers like David Guetta are (probably) able to work with more, but you simply can't beat the fact that you can simply buy Miku off the shelf and create a song for her. The brand known as "Miku" worked with so much talent with so many different genres, and some of them even gain mainstream popularity that way.

Trance and jazz:


3. Familiarity

Here's a point that I felt was little overlooked, and it's also a little hard to explain. If you've been a long time fan of RHCP, won't it be much easier to pick up their new album, even if you have no idea how any of the tracks sounds like? With hundreds of thousands of songs created for Miku in just a couple of years, she easily has hundreds of famous and well-received titles to prove her capability and potential. Being a familiar face and huge fanbase within and outside of Japan not only exponentially increase the rate where people accept Vocaloid music, but also where even more talent pours in, due to the potential to create and potential to sell.

Classics where it all began:


Now shut up and listen to some vocaloid.

P.S. I do listen to other vocaloid other than Miku. It just happens that Miku provided the best examples. Aaaand... it helps to show how the same voice is being used on songs of different genres.

Series Review: Black Rock Shooter (8/10)

Instant summary: The emotional stress of middle schoolers are carried forward into another world, where their counter-parts turns it into combat prowess.

Since the creation of Black Rock Shooter (character), I feel there's very little more to it other than the character design. I feel that it's never really about the song; Black Rock Shooter (song) might be one of the earliest tracks that propel Hatsune Miku to fame, but I feel that it's one of the weaker tracks in Ryo's first album. I'm betting that it's really huke's rendition of the character that gave it the kind of popularity it receives, and well, I even own a couple of Black Rock Shooter figurines myself. Still, no one could really say what kind of universe BRS belongs in, and even the game had a vastly different setting than that of the anime. So, in all fairness, the anime version of the BRS world is probably unique to that of the writer, and not exactly the correct one.

So... while the OVA really failed to impress, the TV series won me over in the end. It didn't seem like it, but the concept used in the OVA worked out pretty well to portray what kind of character the writer wants BRS and the other "avatars" to be. It seemed ridiculous that middle schoolers' problems would cause this much pain, but I bet in our younger days this is exactly how we thought it felt like. All that violence turns out to be an excellent way to translate the angst in the girls' minds, and seeing Mato resolving a conflict in tandem with Black Rock Shooter winning a battle makes things really interesting.

The story itself is nothing to write home about, but it does work well with the rather low episode count and serves to bring out the concept brilliantly. Aside from the supernatural elements in the end, the girls' problems are nothing too different from that of reality, but it sells the BRS characters well with a bit of exaggeration. Personally, I thought it would have worked out really well as a movie with a bit of trimming; the story is short and simple enough, yet there was never really a boring moment; it seems like the premises gave an excellent excuse to merge gruesome action with dramatic real life problems, and we're about to enjoy both without really feeling the disconnection between the two contrasting genres.

I wasn't too positive about Yamakan's new studio Ordet or his involvement in the anime, but the production values also surprises me. The action with all the use of CG turns out to be really good, compared to most of the action series out there. They didn't disappoint with the character designs either; BRS still looks as cool as ever, and it look even more so awesome animated. I didn't know what they did with the opening song Black Rock Shooter because it sounded way different from the original, but at least it's something I wanted them to use for the anime. The only thing that I was a little disappointed with is that they didn't manage to cast Saki Fujita (VA of Hatsune Miku) as BRS.

I hope I didn't fail to highlight how gruesome the action is. It's lucky that the girls were pretty much mute; if they were to start screaming in pain, this would have been a horror show.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. Enough to make me look forward to what the next project of Ordet would be.

Plot/Concept: Excellent!
Story Style: Good
Audio/Visual: Great!
Value: 8

12 Moments of Anime #12: Vocaloid Concert (and Merry Christmas!)

If you think about it, Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid actually has nothing to do with anime at all. But you just can't deny the huge impact it has in the otaku fandom and it's influence. It can already be said that Hatsune Miku is a prominent figure in the anime industry, despite never having a single anime produced for her. This is why the Mikupa Concert in AFA11 this year is the most memorable, and most important memory of 2011.

I don't wanna get pulled out of the concert, which is why I didn't take any pictures of the concert itself. But now that I think about it, the possibility of that happen is near impossible, right? Must be the heat of the moment. Anyway, check out this and this for more coverage and pics.

I regret not knowing the newer songs before I went to the concert, because it was so awesome, it made me a Vocaloid fanboy all over again. I used to only bother with Supercell; now my playlist expanded to 74 songs from different composers, like kz, Deco*27, samfree, wowaka, and more.

...I'm so obsessed, I could go on rambling forever, really. I'm sorry this isn't a very interesting post, but I really just wanna save the best for the last, and maybe other Vocaloid fans would feel the same way. But I'll end this here, because today is a important day for friends, family and lovers, right?

Merry Christmas!

Hatsune Miku Concert Singapore, Afterthoughts

FYI, the concert ended ~7hrs ago.

Sorry I couldn't get a better pic. I found myself a pretty good spot among the standing area, and I don't wanna risk getting pulled out by taking a picture lol... although I doubt anyone could get to me anyway. In the pic above, I'm just slightly to the left of the camera guys in the center.

Some info and afterthoughts:

First song is Hajimete no Koi ga Owaru Toki. The second one is Rollin' Girl.

Last song before the encore was Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru. Last song overall was Melt, like in Sapporo.

Much like Sapporo, the concert is actually one and half hours, as it started approx. 7.15 pm and ended approx 8.45 pm.

The song list is very similar to the one in Sapporo (Sapporo started with Kochi Muite Baby I think, Singapore's came much later). The AFA's concert features more songs that I'm familiar with, like Kokoro, Double Lariat, Migikata no Chou, etc...

The concert is 90% Miku (not that I'm complaining). Luka, Rin and Len average only about 3 songs each. The only duet is Miku & Rin... there's no Len & Rin (wtf?).

Len and Luka doesn't have alternate outfits.

There's a song (if anyone can help me identify it) where Miku wears a kimono and hold a paper fan... In the song Hold, Release; Raksasha and Carcasses, there's a part where Miku would hold out the mic to the fans to sing it for her. This worked extremely well in Sapporo, but sadly, it seems that a bunch of girls towards the left of the hall are the only ones who know those lyrics.

Miku introduced the band and herself in English (Engrish) before Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru, which technology seems to still be in testing stages. It feels like no one know what she's saying, but everyone cheered when the spotlight shone on the band. When Miku asked the crowd to introduce herself, well... it got really awkward when it seems like I'm the only one who screamed her name. No one understood, I guess.

The band 39 seems to have 5 members this time. Not sure about the previous concerts, but I think the first concert only had 4.

edit: Song list in comment below!

Anyway, my only real gripe is that the two steel support columns behind the screen are distracting. They reflected the light really well, and when Miku stands in front of either columns, you can't see her. I thought they could have covered them up or something.

This is all based on my limited knowledge, so don't curse me for getting anything wrong.

So, in conclusion, how was the concert?... It's fucking awesome. So awesome, that I feel like drowning myself in the music afterwards. I've always been a fan, but now I'm getting dangerously addicted...

See you at AFA11 tomorrow.

edit: I got the song order of the Sapporo concert wrong I guess.... but check out this link to see the Sapporo Concert Song List. I've tried in vain to find a proper one on Google, but thank god for Mikubook (which link I found in the concert hall, lol)