What's going on, Miku-chan? (2024)

Project Mirai DX, a North American port of Project Mirai 2, is doing very well so far. I got my copy the very first day it hit GameStop, actually getting the first copy out of the shipment box. The AR cards not only unlock little poses, it's like allowing you the chance to interact with the Vocaloids in real life! Aside from tapping away with the beat of the songs, you feed, dress and play with the Vocaloids, giving them an occasional allowance, helping them decorate their rooms and bonding with them. It's sort of like parenting them, what with the Chibi designs and all, which is probably why I'm so disturbed seeing Chibi Miku sing "Romeo and Cinderella" while Chibi Rin and Len are dancing to "Adolescence" which both are about first-time sex, or KAiTO and Miku singing "Cendrillon" which is a song about Miku stabbing KAiTO. (She got a shorter allowance for that.)

More stores are carrying the Project DiVA Weiss Schwarz cards, while the Vocaloid concerts are doing well in the United States. And art galleries based on Miku Hatsune are popping up in newspapers as they are set up.

And the funny thing is..... the fans made this happen.

In 2008, Vocaloid started creeping up onto Facebook, sort of like an underground secret. And now it's become a part of our culture! We did this. We turned what was a Japan-only, seldom spoken-of project, and turned it into a standard staple of entertainment. Vocaloid's concerts by themselves have inspired companies to do "hologram" Pepper's Ghost concerts for 2Pac, Michael Jackson, and soon, more celebrities.

How long will this last? Who can say. It's lasted much longer than a "fad" and it's clear we are responsible for that. The best thing to do is to keep supporting it.

Well folks, it's time to get uncomfortable. We've already gone over how the Vocaloid community relegates grown women, and we've covered the abundance of Blonde Vocaloids, so now it's time to stare at the pink elephant in the room. The one you've been telling yourself "doesn't exist" even though it seems to creep up on Facebook when you least ask for it.

So here we are. 2015 is half over with already and summer's heat has made it's usual presence weeks and weeks ahead of summer solstice, just like clockwork, and the internet is rife with colorful images of new Vocaloids and new appends.

Okay, so maybe we haven't used the word "Append" since Miku Soft was new, but I like using that word. It helps me separate the original voice banks from the new ones, and most longtime fans still use it anyways. Moving forward.

Every year, we fans all ask the exact same question.

Why are there NO new BLACK Vocaloids?

Well this year, I may get a reprieve from asking that tired old question. Take a gander at the upcoming voices for summer:

Now hold your horses. Nobody knows if this will be her box art, although we know who drew her. But take another look. Not only is Ruby Black, she also has really CUTE pink hair!!

I've seen two more sketches of Ruby, and so far, I'm not seeing any of the usual stereotypes that are known to dominate anime, manga, video game and cartoon depictions of African Americans.

But of course, she already has detractors saying she isn't "Black enough" and that her skin tone is a last-minute change to appease those of us who are angry we never seem to be represented in the Vocaloid world. Her sound is close to other Japanese and White Vocaloids and a bit nasal. Others feel this is nit-picking and think she is absolutely charming as is.

The reason why she sounds just like Miku and Aoki, is because she originally was going to be a Japanese Vocaloid, but her undisclosed voice provider is labeled as a "colored female" so Ruby became a new Engloid. If she sells well, Ruby will have a Japanese voicebank as originally planned.

But everyone is asking, is this enough?

(Image fromhttp://yazzystar.tumblr.com/) The last time we came close to another Black Vocaloid was Merli, who has a deep, ethnic voice and a rich skin tone to match. But then, she's Aoki's big sister, and Aoki looks very much a cross of Japanese and Caucasian. Merli's large, blue-green eyes mimic her little sister's so much, that the question did arise. Are they mixed race?

The answer? Merli and Aoki are fairies....... because fairies can have the same mom and dad and come out with varying skin tones I gather. Not sure if the same logic applies to Tinkerbell, but then Tink isn't (yet) a Vocaloid, so it hardly counts. Merli and Aoki's race has yet to come up again, so most buy the excuse that they are a breed of fairy that can have different colors in the same gene family. It must be working, because nobody is talking about it anymore.

But Merli wasn't by herself for very long. The ZOLA Project was released just a ways different from Merli. ZOLA featured three male Vocaloids, the most amount of characters for one box to date. And among the three was Wil, accepted by many to be 100% Black.

But Wil created a bit of an uproar. In the first place, Wil is rarely pictured alone. He always needs Yuu and Kyo by his side, and Wil must always be featured in the back. Also, Wil has been called "light skinned" and the tired old question pops up yet again, is Wil really Black enough?

Wil was also quietly released as part of the ZOLA project package and not as a stand alone. This split the Vocaloid fan base 50/50. Half of all Vocaloid fans saw him as a welcome change. He is included with other Vocaloids in promotional art, and is treated as being the same as other characters. He is also the only Black male to be released for Vocaloid 3, which leads into the other half of the fan base being more angry about his short announcement. There were no other Black males released during Vocaloid 3's reign, and again, he was released as a package with a White and a Japanese Vocaloid, as if he wasn't deemed fit enough to be released on his own.

Making things worse, Wil and Merli were both time and again described by their creators as having "Husky" voices. This angered Black Vocaloid fans in America. Why can't we have any other description? Why must Black Vocaloids be husky, why not cute, bright, soft, powerful or any of the other adorable adjectives Miku, GUMI and KAiTO get to enjoy? Even Big Al was spared being called husky, and his voice actually does qualify as being husky! It seemed less empowering and more like an insult.

But maybe more insulting than the word "husky" which may not have been an insult at all, is the treatment of Wil. Racist Vocaloid fans love to re-color Wil to be White, claiming that a Black Vocaloid is "ugly" or "unnatural" relegating Blacks to being less human than Dex and Daina, who are half wolf and half fox, respectively.

Racist Vocaloid fans have also done this to LEON and LOLA, claiming the duo are more pretty or handsome when they are colored to look like Rin and Len. Blonde. White. And with green or blue eyes.

Some Vocaloid fans are even trying to hide their racism, by lying. "Um um, the box doesn't really SHOW what they look like, so um um of course their White. You're just a race-bater." This clear and obvious lie, followed by an insult usually, is not even close to accurate.

Look at the boxes for LOLA and LEON. They both feature a set of Black lips.

Actually, to be more fair, LEON is just a photo of LOLA's lips, flipped backwards and tinted in blue. Yamaha hired one Black model to pose for both LEON and LOLA and nobody ever asked questions.

Also,Zero-G and Yamaha have both been proud to time and again make it clear that LEON and LOLA are based on soul singers. And "soul" is a genre normally associated as "Black" music.

Therefore, the very first Vocaloids/Engloids were Black. Without them, we wouldn't have gotten around to Miku. So Yamaha can say proudly that they started this amazing journey off of the success of Black Vocaloids, and that since LEON and LOLA, they've enjoyed a plethora of culturally different Vocaloids, and that for a Japanese company, they didn't actually make a Japanese Vocaloid until MEiKO, who was released eleven months after LEON back in 2004.

But here we are in 2015, some eleven years after LEON and LOLA, and to the Vocaloid fans, a Black Vocaloid is a taboo thing, despite the first two being Black, American singers.

The same excuse keeps coming up. "Black Vocaloids and Black images in general will never sell as well as White images." A racist tagline we see being pulled from many social media pages time and again, and yet it's become so commonplace that most people regardless of color, accept it.

And yet, the excuse falls flat. Miku has a strictly Japanese image. So do KAiTO, Yuzuki Yukari and Luke Megurine. And yet people worldwide prefer those four over Annon, Kannon and other, more Anglo Vocaloids. In fact, of all the Caucasian-colored Vocaloids, only Rin and Len do very well, and only because most people adore twins and see them as Miku's little brother and sister instead of an alternative to her sound. So if Miku and Yuzuki sell like hotcakes, then people really don't care about the race of their favorite Vocaloid. If a Japanese character can sell as well as a Caucasian one, then surely a Black or Hispanic character can also be a big money hit, and in the case of Maika who is Hispanic and has a huge fan base, that seems to be the actual truth.

Yamaha, ZERO-G and the other Vocaloid producers don't seem to be buying that "Black doesn't sell" excuse either, which is why Ruby seems to exist at all. They must have felt a Black Vocaloid works very well, otherwise Ruby would have gone back to her original designs as a Japanese girl.

But then, the White Washing seems to be accepted. After all, Sweet Ann's original box art was ripped from a picture of Lena Horne. Here, Lena was White-washed, and then placed in Hell. The image was produced while Lena was still alive, and very much without her consent.

Humans by nature mimic what they see as acceptable. So if Vocaloid fans see that Sweet Ann is acceptable, despite being a rip off of Lena Horne, then it must also be acceptable to make LEON and LOLA look like Rin and Len.

But Yamaha doesn't seem to see it that way. While Sweet Ann's box art is still a blunder, they have done a fair job of sticking to LEON and LOLA's original art. As of yet, no official Vocaloid page has ever passed around LEON, LOLA, Merli or Wil's White Washed images as "official" or even as acceptable. So if they are adamant about those four being Black, why aren't we?

In answer to the above questions, maybe five Black Vocaloids isn't enough. We have a long way to go before we see more diversity in Vocaloid. Maybe we do need to see a new Vocaloid with rich, dark skin, bright brown eyes and a smooth voice, before we can truthfully feel the vocal melting pot of what remains a constantly evolving and incredible genre of music.

But we're getting there. Are we slow? Maybe. But Vocaloid's founders are leading the charge, and they don't seem to want to stop anytime soon.

We have British, Celtic, Caucasian, Black, Mexican, Chinese, Korean and Japanese Vocaloids now, and more than one in each category. We now have two half-human furry Vocaloids and even a few androids kicking around. We also have mixed-race Fairy sisters, Merli and Aoki.

Typically, Yamaha, Crypton, Zero-G, AHS and the other Vocaloid producers have been good about responding to their fans. They listen. They beckon us to their Facebook pages and ask us how we intend to use these voices.

So play along with them. If you want more Black Vocaloids, vote with your wallet. It does work.

Hispanic fans wanted more Spanish Vocaloids than just Bruno and Clara. So they voted with their wallets. They encouraged their friends and families to buy the duo legally. They were rewarded with Maika, one of the most beautiful and clear-sounding Vocaloids ever produced.

Chinese Vocaloid fans wanted more singers than justLuo Tianyi. So they voted with their wallets, by supporting Luo. They bought her Vocaloid software and her key-chains. They were rewarded with Yan He,Xin Hua and now have more Vocaloids in development.

Korean fans wanted someone to duet with SeeU. Uni is now on her way.

America and England's Vocaloid fans wanted more to choose from than just LEON, LOLA and Miriam. So they bought the first Engloids and encouraged others to support Vocaloid. Now? We have Big Al, Sweet Ann, Oliver, Avanna,YOHIOloid,Macne Nana, CYBER DIVA, Dex, Daina, Ruby, and as a bonus, Luka, Miku, Gumi, Gakupo, MEiKO and KAiTO all have English voice banks, and soon, Rin and Len will follow.

There really is no better or faster option. When Ruby becomes available, make your voice heard by using hers. Draw her as a Black Vocaloid, interacting with other Vocaloids. Make her sing on YouTube. Cosplay as her. Get your friends to grab her, Merli and Wil.

Make your message clear. With enough support, you can make other Black Vocaloids a reality.

Below are a few Vocaloid related Miis I made for Tomodachi Life. Please note, for Miku Hatsune, Yuzuki Yukari, KAiTO, Gachapin and Rana, you may need hair color spray for their hair, which so far I can only obtain from answering the scribble bubbles on all the Miis and tending to them. It's a once in a while item, and if they every take a bath, it will wash out, prompting you to use another spray, but it's well worth it.

So far, I have Black Rock Shooter, Miku, KAiTO, MEiKO, Oliver, Rin, Len, Gachapin, Rana, Yuzuki, CYBER DIVA and Yuki Kaai. Feel free to edit them, especially Len, as I couldn't do a thing with his hair. Click on each QR Code, and then scan with your game.

Typically speaking, your Miis will fall in love in Tomodachi Life, and often whether you like it or not. I got my copy of the Nintendo 3DS game at the beginning of April, and since then, MEiKO has run off and married Super Mario's Luigi and had a baby boy named Luis with him, while KAiTO has started going out with Rin Kagamine. I didn't plan on either relationship starting up, (I actually ship Miku x KAiTO) they both just happened, and no amount of Mii editing could make a difference. It's true love both times, and they're stuck together no matter what I do. The only way to undo the relationships would be to erase the Miis from the game, but where is the fun in that?

But I found a sneaky way to force a relationship together. It takes time, but here is your How-To guide, sure to squeeze the couple you ship together.

1. Make sure your chosen Mii's are friends. This is one of the harder parts of the game, and requires sheer luck. If the couple you want to hook up do not meet each other, there's nothing you can do about it, unless another Mii offers to introduce one to the other. After that, you really have to hope that the two never ever fight. The minute they're rocky and on the outs, you're pretty much assured the relationship will not start. But if they are friends or best friends, then the next steps won't be too difficult.

2 a. Make all of the other single Miis kids, and your hook-up Miis the ONLY adults. This is where you start bending the rules and playing God a little bit. By default, if everyone is all kid or all adult, then that leaves a giant margin of error, in which your hook-up Miis can fall for other people ~ or worse ~ they can have someone step in and sweep them off their feet during a love confession! So to negate this, edit all the other Miis to be kids and the two you want to hook up as adults. The reason why? Simple. The game is programmed so that only kids fall in love with kids and adults with other adults. But an adult will never fall in love with a kid and vice versa.

2 b. DO NOT USE THE KID-O-MATIC OR AGE-O-MATIC TO DO THIS!!!Those items are not always common, and you may not have enough to go around. Many single Miis often will ask for the sprays, so jut leave them alone. Use the Mii editor for each and every Mii. There's no limit on how often you can edit your single Miis this way. Erase thebirth yearwhen you change them, otherwise the gamemay refuse to let you make the change.

2 c. Copy and delete all other single Miis. Do this ONLY if your hook-up Miis have a crush on another Mii or if the Kid-O-Matic or Age-O-Matic sprays have been used. Copy them to the Mii Maker first, and then delete them. This way, after your hook-up Miis have gotten married, you can always bring the others back. The only downside is that once you delete them, they will lose all points, items, clothes and hair dye you initially gave them, and you may need to re-input their birthdays, full names and redo their voices and personalities.

2 d. Take advantage of curious Miis. Luigi, one of my other Miis, kept saying Gachapin needed a sweetheart. Anytime he suggested someone NOT Rana, I would decline. When he suggested Rana, it led me to a cut-scene where Luigi watches the two go on a date. Now granted, the first time they went on a date, they decided to stay just friends. But a week later, Luigi brought them up again, and this time, the date worked and they became sweethearts.

3 a. Be patient. This is the second hardest part. Just because they're friends and the ONLY adults on the island, doesn't mean they're going to start playing tonsil hockey right away. Sometimes, they'll start dating within a day or two. In my case, my chosen Miis took almost three weeks to get to that level, so the results will vary. Each Mii has two personality sides, so if your chosen hook-up Miis have at least one personality trait in common, you may have better luck.

3 b. Make your hook-up Miis rock out together. The first time Rana and Gachapin leveled up, I taught them a Techno song. This way, when I went to the concert hall, I could make them sing duets. Each time they leveled up meant one more song they can sing together. I also made them take couple photos together at the studio. The more I forced them together, the faster they became best friends. Getting them to be a couple became easier after that, when Rana started asking at the Cafe if Gachapin was seeing anybody.

3 c. Give your hook-up Mii's the same items. Each time they level up, you get a few options. You can redecorate their apartments, give them money, teach a catchphrase, teach a song or give them a new item, such as a Nintendo or makeup. After your Mii hits level 20, you can give them hats or clothes and in turn, they'll give you a special gold or silver coin. After I taught Rana and Gachapin every song I could, I started giving them the same items. If Rana got a WiiU, so did Gachapin. If Gachapin got a kite, so did Rana, etc. What happened is after a few hours of game-play, the two started going to each other's apartments and to the beach, to play together. Now, I can watch them hula dance together, or take turns on WiiU. And of course, every visit brought them closer together, and made little music notes appear all over the screen.

4. Ignore the Compatibility section. This just causes undue stress. Even the game itself tells you it's a pretty useless and hardly accurate calculator, so just ignore that game mechanic.

5. When the hook-up Miis of your choice asks about the other, BE POSITIVE!!! Eventually, my one Mii Rana, asked me how I felt about her being compatible with Gachapin. I selected "Great Match" and two days later, she asked him to be her sweetheart. You need to be diligent about this. If the Mii's A.I. knows you think he or she is great with the other Mii, they will automatically spend more time with that Mii.

6. Use travel tickets as soon as the Mii name turns dark green. Next time you talk to your Mii, press the R button on the back of the 3DS. It'll pop up a chart of all the other Miis this one knows personally. If the name of the other hook-up Mii is in green or dark green, you are in luck, that means they are as close as can be. Give them travel tickets, and they will usually travel together. The first few times, they may go alone or as part of a group, but if you keep at it, they will eventually go just with the other hook-up Mii. These trips speed up their relationship and make it more likely that they will marry. If the other Mii is in the same apartment, whip the ticket out, to ensure they do go together!!

7. When you see the pink heart, SAVE THE GAME!!! Do this BEFORE going inside that apartment. This way, if your hook-up Mii gets rejected in their bid for love, you can restart the game where you left off, and keep trying until we get it right.

8. When the first hook-up Mii wants to confess their love, ALWAYS pick "Be Romantic" I've tried all of the other choices, and this is the one that works most often, especially on Miis that are softies, dreamers and anything else in the pink and yellow categories. It's sincere, and has a higher chance of working than you may expect.

9. If they get rejected, keep tapping the bubble of the face who rejected them. Rejection doesn't happen often, but if it does, instead of trying real quick to cheer them up, tap the face a few times. Sometimes, the Mii will try again with better results.

10. When it's time to propose, send them to the amusem*nt park. Now if you did steps 2 a to 2 d, this might sound optional, but trust me when I say this, even Miis in relationships can sometimes interfere and confess their love to one of your hook-up Miis. Secluding them in a tiny pink box, high above the sky, can help negate unwanted single and meddling Miis from screwing up your hard work.

11. DON'T make any single Mii an adult, until there's a baby!! This is HIGHLY crucial. Miis CAN break up and even get divorced, and again, having your Miis cheat is a rare problem, but a problem nonetheless. You need to make sure this relationship is stable before relaxing the other Miis. To do this, you have to wait until your hook-up ~ now married Miis ~ have a baby. For some reason, having a child solidifies this as a permanent couple in most copies of the game. So once a baby is born, you're in the clear.

Now again, it took me quite a while to get this right, so here's the exact timeline of events:

EDIT: On May 3rd, little Rana gave birth to a baby girl named Lana. She's growing up tomorrow afternoon. I'll post some pictures of her after she moves into her apartment.

That's a funny thing. If your married Miis really love each other, they'll have a baby, and then six days later, that baby is a child, and somehow deemed adult enough to live on their own or travel the world alone. What does this say about Nintendo's programmers??

Since this guide got posted, I've wound up with a few more desired couples on the island, and I can already tell another wedding is coming up fast. Keep using this guide and help your Miis marry the right people.

Two weeks ago, I started playing Tomodachi Life on the Nintendo 3DS, and right away, I started trying to challenge myself to make Vocaloids.

Now let me be clear, you need to get hair spray for the bright colors like teal and blue. And so far, the only way I can find to earn any is to answer all those little scribble balloons the apartment dwellers have, and hope that instead of another box of cold medicine, I get hair spray. It's a little on the rare side, but worth obtaining. Be aware though, if they take a bath, it'll wash out, and then you'll have to spray them all over again.

Yuki Kaai was my first one, as she's the second most simple to make behind MEiKO. But I learned fast with Yuki-chan that once you create a Tomodachi Mii, what happens to them is out of your control.

I tried my hand at making Helios from the Sailormoon SuperS anime, and apparently this time, he wasn't interested at my weak attempt to make a Chibiusa. He went straight for Yuki-chan, forced her to grow up with an Age-O-Matic, married her, and then this morning, she had a baby girl!!!

I guess this means Yuki won't be going to school for Kiyoteru anymore. *Sniff*. Our little girl!! Helios made a woman out of her. The baby's name is Isabella. Yuki chose it all by herself.

The second one I made was MEiKO, who since has married Luigi from Super Mario Brothers.

She's threatening to have a baby with him soon. I can't wait. Yuki's baby had to have her mouth pulled out from her nose in Mii Maker.

Oliver was next, and he's since married Black Rock Shooter. Then Yuzuki, Miku, Rana, Rin, Len, Gachapin and KAITO came along, but I'm not happy with Len's hair quite just yet.

Rana got hit on by Pee Wee Herman. It was weird. She doesn't hang around him anymore, mostly because she's seeing Gachapin. KAITO is eternally a kid, but sometimes asks for an Age-O-Matic. I usually don't let him have it very long, because he keeps getting into trouble. Rin and Len are feisty, but haven't really met each other yet. Yuzuki keeps to herself.

It's a game you will find yourself getting addicted to. I'm really glad I got it. You can get it on sale on Amazon a little cheaper than in stores.

Hey everybody, you deserve to know the truth about me.

I'm sorry the page was gone for a few days. I just NOW got it back online, but I'm not taking any more chances, I'll be archiving the page in case this happens again.

Damesukekun, self-proclaimed "Translator and protector" of the internet, wrongfully filed a fake DMCA notice on me, over my Teto edit. He lied to everyone, claiming it was Nanami.

It was not. It was a MayumiChan model, and here's the proof:

Here's the link too, in case anybody doubts me. I got it from his fan made Wiki!

Oh and here's the best part. Here, Damesukekun LIES to everyone, claiming you can never ever edit her, but look at MayumiChan's official DA post above, and she clearly states "
Free to edit! No need for permission!"

So if MayumiChan is fine with us editing Teto, then why is Damesukekun making up FAKE drama?

Of course, so he can rule the internet, play King of MMD and force you to obey him, right?

But you guys deserve to know everything. So here we go, I am coming clean!

Yes, I am Koriander AKA the evil Codename Sailor Earth. I know, I deserve to die, right? Well for those who don't know, here's the truth:

Back in 2010, before I knew anything about these fan made rules, I made the stupid and sorry mistake of editing a Saboten model and making her dance. I have since stopped using Saboten, Nanami and all the other "rule" models due to trolling. Check my files, I'm only using safe to edit models, and I'm doing my best to post credits as soon as I can. I do not use Saboten anymore, haven't since that evil day in 2010. Do the math people, that was FIVE years ago.

The Wikia pages painted me as an evil woman. I was hacked and had rape and death threats sent daily. I've had total strangers claim they will "expose me" and yet they never even met me or emailed me before any of this. I had strange men threatening my grandmother. Damesukekun said publicly on Wikia I deserved it.

Really Damesukekun? I deserve to have my grandmother stalked because YOU, a total stranger, imagined reasons to hate me? I deserve to be raped, killed and threatened because YOU aren't adult enough yet to handle a video I TOOK DOWN??

The Wikia pages have since hidden the worst of their "I will expose you" messages, and most of his rants, and again, I only use Animasa, Lat and anything safe to edit and redistribute.

Damesukekun doesn't care.

He still thinks I deserve to be raped and killed over a model I TOOK DOWN FIVE YEARS AGO!!

He still emails me every April and September, and false flags everything I do.

I have two FBI agents and several police officers notified. He knows when he's being watched because he usually shuts up during the school seasons.

School you say? Yes. Because he is a nearly 40 year old math teacher.

When not teaching, he loves to convince Vocaloid and UTAU fans that he is their "ONLY" translator ever in Japan. He swears that without him, you will "never ever"make friends with anybody Japanese or even deal with one who is. Because Google Translate, Japanese Dictionaries and other fan translators like Miss Dream don't exists. Nope, it's all Damesukekun, nobody else in the whole wide world will ever translate Vocaloid songs for you, ever. This is the way he convinces people to make him an admin for their pages.

He likes to police the internet, claiming he's a "Legal representative" for Nanami, TDA, ISAO and Saboten. He recently started claiming he's the owner of UTAUloids Teto and Momo and is an "ambassador" to Piapro and Crypton.

Turns out, he isn't. He's just a fan. That's all.

I called Piapro and Crypton's offices. They've never heard of him before.

Here's a tip. You have to be a lawyer to be a "legal representative" for anybody. Any "teacher" should know this.

He isn't a lawyer and he doesn't work in law at all.

Ergo, he isn't a legal anything.

When fans call him out on DA for false-flagging, he's quick to play the victim card and act like he's being bullied, when in reality, he's gone after underage teenage girls and called them "Frankensteiners". How cold is that?

He's constantly false-flagging people, calling Americans horrible names, such as "ignorant" and trying to claim that we in America can't understand "Japanese ways". Yet most of the fans who call him out as a racist ARE Japanese. There's nothing wrong with Japan or it's people at all, but this troll tries to take as many people down with him as possible.

But yes, I admit to what I did five years ago. I never hid it. But it's insane to imagine I deserve to be raped and killed over a YouTube video. Why should I die over a model I don't use anymore?

No. I refuse to take this abuse. Nobody ever should.

If you hate me, love me or really don't care, it's cool either way. I have a husband that loves me, friends that teach me, and really, I don't need to succumb to this drama.

I love Vocaloid. I love safe to edit Animasa and Lat models.

And you know who else loves me?

VOCALOID ~ Check out them using MY hand drawn art for Easter 2015it's my greatest redemption:

UPDATE FOR APRIL 29, 2015: Damesukekun is lying to people on his DeviantArt page, claiming he's an "employee" of Piapro.

Turns out, he just has a fan account on the website. You can get your own account on Piapro.jp just like you can for Facebook. I now have one myself.

He does NOT work for Piapro. All he has is a fan account where he randomly posts English translations ~ some of them aren't even accurate. So much for him being a "native" translator. Have you guys seen the actual SEGA subtitles for the songs in the Project DiVA games? Check 'em out on YouTube, you'll notice some changes.

He didn't even bother changing out the icon either, he's using the default KAITO graphic as his profile picture. I guess it's a step up. He usually hides behind cartoon drawings of little girls, so at least this is his first adult-aged pic.

On the upswing, today is April 29, 2015, and the official Vocaloid Facebook is STILL using the cartoon I hand drew for them. :D

The odds are good that if your parents read this, they may think twice about getting you that Project DiVA game. So let me preface this article with the following:

Parents: NOT ALL OF THE SONGS IN THE GAME are about suicide and sex. Three quarters of the songs are actually pretty tame by kid standards. But honestly, be warned, the T rated game is aimed at ages 13+ and odds are good that if your teen still freaks out over Facebook/Twitter/DeviantArt comments, then you probably will want to read on BEFORE getting them this game.

Everything, MEiKO-chan. There is EVERY reason NOT to kill yourself, and the folks at this number:
1 (800) 273-8255 will tell you that.

Parents are always whining about what their kids listen to, but always, they pick on the WRONG songs to whine about.

For example, in the 1990's, parents complained to high heaven about Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" which is actually a song that is satirizing so-called "preppy" or "popular" kids, who bully others if they are different. Here are the lyrics:

"The Beautiful People"

And I don't want you and I don't need you
Don't bother to resist, or I'll beat you
It's not your fault that you're always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong

The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest for the trees
You can't smell your own sh*t on your knees

There's no time to discriminate,
Hate every motherf*cker
That's in your way

[Chorus:]
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful, something free?
Hey you, are you trying to be mean?
If you live with apes man, it's hard to be clean

The worms will live in every host
It's hard to pick which one they eat most

The horrible people, the horrible people
It's as anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalism has made it this way,
Old-fashioned fascism will take it away

[Chorus]

There's no time to discriminate,
Hate every motherf*cker
That's in your way

The beautiful people
The beautiful people (aahh) [x4]

[Chorus x2]

The beautiful people [x8]

So what was the complaint? The F word. Of course. Heaven forbid parents teach their kids about that word. Education? Why that makes kids DO things! <_<

In all honesty, this was NOT a song to be that worried about. (The radio edit censors the cursing.) If you were ever picked on by a popular group of kids ~ especially in high school ~ you can relate to this song, and see the satirical nature of the lyrics.

But one form of music that parents never pay attention to is pop. And that really shows just how ignorant they can be. They ignore pop songs, because of the light, catchy tune playing in the background. The high synth beats remind them of the jolly good 80's and 90's, and they view the acts of the day as "harmless" and will even go so far as to let their infants listen to it.

Marketers take advantage of your parents being stupid all the time.

Pop songs are always more edgy. They frequently talk openly about sex, how to obtain it, whether or not you should do it, and the guilt that comes with sex after you're done. Or the shameless partying that is freely associated with sex. And of course drinking, wearing slu*tty clothes and clubbing. And of course, this is nothing new either. Before Justin Bieber was turning heads with "Yellowbone" The puss*cat Dolls were teasing sex with the songs "Buttons" and "Don't cha". Maroon 5 is constantly whining about sex, complicated sexual relationships and murder, and while she's more of a rapper, Nikki Minaj is... well I don't have to finish that sentence, now do I? Your parents shouldn't even get on you about this. They listened to Madonna. Nuff said.

And Vocaloid jumped right in from the start with sexy songs. But outside of seeing an underage Rin or Miku sing Romeo and Cinderella, very little is as disturbing as hearing pop stars make suicide look like a fun and viable option.

IT ISN'T!!!

But just read the lyrics that not only are sung by Vocaloids, but they are featured in all the Project DiVA games:

HOLY CRAP!! Why is this an acceptable thing?

It's one thing when you have a Vocaloid fan make up a song like this on YouTube. It's bound to happen. Someone wants to tell a story, or have Rin-chan sing about the darkness they're experiencing. You see it every day, and if you care about the person making the video, make sure they know that life really is worth it.

But it's an entirely different story when SEGA on purpose adds these songs to a series of games pitched to teenagers. Now it's a video game corporation selling suicide to teens, and that is WRONG. But then, SEGA has been doing this for ages. After all, they've let Shadow The Hedgehog lust after 11 year old Maria, who was shot and killed while trying to save him.

I just got my copy of Unofficial Hatsune Mix by KEI, which is a real bargain. It comprises all three of his original manga tankobon into one, giant book, and adds tons of color pages.

Now the book is comprised of tons of short stories, with each having nothing to do with the last. Each story plays upon fan made stories and ideas. For example, one story has Rin and Len as siblings. The next? They're not related, but they are boyfriend and girlfriend. And there's even one where it's addressed that Len is a clone or mirror image of Rin, and the two look to Miku as their adopted Oneechan (Big Sister) and there's a ton of hijinks here and there.

There's also serious stories, like one that could count almost as a Creepypasta, where Miku was once a gorgeous human girl, who dies, and then her soul is uploaded years later as Vocaloid software.

MEIKO and KAITO appear in almost every story, but I suppose due to a licensing issue, their names are absent from the English manga. KAITO is just "Oniisan" (Big Brother) and MEIKO is a producer. Miku is the main focus of the book, with Rin and Len playing side characters. Teto is a mascot for a type of liquor, and Gakupo, Luka, Haku and Neru can also be spotted.

.... And this is where I start seeing something unsettling.

While most stories have nothing in common, a few things keep coming back for MEIKO.

MEIKO at age 25 is now considered "ewww gross, OLD" and is treated like an old mother. In some cases, a grandma. AT 25??

MEIKO because she is older than Miku (Miku is 16) is seen as a sad and sorry sight. So in almost every issue, MEIKO has to be drawn as a blazing drunkard, reminiscing about a pop idol life she was denied.

Because she is older, she's seen as more violent, and is usually beating the hell out of KAITO, even when he's being innocent and minding his own ice cream. She can also be very pushy, and when she isn't beating up KAITO will occasionally flirt with him.

Luka at age 22 fares a little better. At first, she is seen as a replacement for the twins or Miku, but once her age comes up, she becomes more of a flirty, buxom Onechan. And that seems to be her lot in the book. If she's not flashing her boobs, or getting creepy close to Miku, she's seen as another background character, and again, old.

Then there's Haku, who is given MEIKO's same treatment, but in fewer panels and without the flirting part. Haku is also 25, and is also an old, raving drunk.

But what about KAITO and Gakupo? Both are also over the age of college, how do they fair?

Well KAITO is seen as a simple, childish, youthful 20-something, who just wants to have his ice cream. In some stories, he's actually male sex symbol #1, and only MEIKO objects to his antics, outside of one "hormonal" spell with Rin. He's only referred to as "older" one time, though in the Japanese print, it's joked he may be middle aged. But the rest of the book, he's a happy go lucky 20-something that lives his life devoid of any "old" jokes.

As for Gakupo? Outside of being seen briefly as a little of a bad boy, this 20+ year old is also seen as a sex symbol, to the point the other characters are weary of little Miku-chan getting near him.

Disturbingly enough, 16 year old Miku and 14 year old Rin and Len are seen as the main sex symbols, prior to Luka's debut.

So what can a dried up old 25 year old like MEIKO do to compete?

Easy. Exist in one story as 16 year old "Meiko Sakine" in a school girl uniform.

This is how MEIKO temporarily avoids the old drunk stereotype. In fact, Sakine-san is a popular fan adaptation of MEIKO, so much so that she is offered as a starter MMD model, and appears in more fan videos and in more Project DiVA ads than when MEIKO is being herself. Sakine-san is seen with a slightly smaller bust, tiny Rin waist, flouncy, lace skirt, lace-fur boots with tiny bows, and usually with a hint of makeup, to look more youthful, like a plucky high schooler.

What does this say about women? That we all must be underage school children in order to be considered "hot"? That unless we drown out the screen with giant bewbs and a near-pedolesbo adoration for younger girls, we must be the creepy old drunk, while our male twins can still bask in the glory of being a sex object??

But is it fair to blame KEI? Hardly. His only "crime" was doing what everyone wanted him to do. And that is draw a manga based on what fans drum up.

If the fans want to live in a world where a woman is best dead before the age of 18, and men stay sexy forever, is it fair to blame him for obeying and drawing it? He did as he was told, and added in his own stories in between fan ideas.

Sure, KEI could have made a stand, and chosen not to make MEIKO and the other 20+ women look like skan*s, but he was given a job and he did it.

So who do we really blame?

Maybe it's time we take a good, hard look at ourselves. What are we becoming?

When we grow up, we don't want people to stare at our faces post-college, and call us "old", so why then is it fine when we do it to other people, or insist older characters get treated this way?

Why do we want to see teens ~ some not even old enough to drive ~ as sex objects, when it's much safer to look at a KAITO or a MEIKO without becoming PedoBears?

I'd like to think that we could all do so much better as a society, and maybe MEIKO's manga debut in the United States can be that wake up call we needed.

MEIKO's voice is somewhere between Luka and Miku's range. She doesn't look like an old woman, and at 25 has reached an age where the average woman has reached her prime. She's at least at the age where a woman knows what she wants at McDonald's, while Miku would still be staring at the menu over and over, deciding if she wants a pie or not. (Sorry Miku-chan!!) Maybe instead of bashing MEIKO, we can add her to more videos, and make her just as elegant and desirable as the other Vocaloids... or better... as elegant as we want ourselves, male and female to be.

Prima came out in January of 2008 and Tonio in July of 2010. Tonio is supposed to be a classical singer and Prima a Soprano. Both are considered by many to be the world's first Opera Vocaloid singers, and yet both are quite often forgotten.

I have a soft spot lately for Forgottenloids, especially the "flash in the pan" types like Tonio, who just seemed to have so much hate thrown at him. I feel so badly that people hate on him so much! So I decided to try and fix some of that.

First thing I did was whip up some model edits. Not very hard. I couldn't quite get Tonio's facial hair right, so I gave him a soul patch. :P

Next, I decided to make a new cover of Magnet, using Vocaloid 3. THAT was a bit challenging, as Tonio (like v Flower) has a hard time pronouncing anything. It's like he has marbles in his mouth, especially when he tries to sing in Japanese. (Poor Engloid...) But I was determined to fix this. I upped his Clearness, Dynamics, Brightness and dropped his Gender a bit, and re-worked the song around his pronunciations. I messed up when he says "Daijobu" since I couldn't figure out how to make him pronounce the soft "J" sound, and I screwed up a few "n"'s and "tsu's" here and there, but for the most part, you can make out the lyrics pretty well.

Prima was less of a bother. She has a deep, Greta Garbo voice, so it isn't hard to bring her Clearness up. I'm used to Iroha and Lily, so this wasn't a challenge. Still, I did lower her Dynamics a bit, just so you can hear Tonio harmonize with her better.

Then of course there is the big decision, who sings first? I thought about it, and decided to let Tonio sing first. The song "Magnet" starts off with Miku, singing from the perspective of a less experienced lover, and then leads into the more experienced Luka. For the video, Tonio's story begins as the boy who found his dream girl, so it made more sense to have him lead.

The story wrote itself. In contrast to the steamy song, we have a more innocent tale of boy meeting girl. I felt a softer story would fit the two better, as Tonio and Prima are both seen as regal, more refined characters. But they are still human, so Prima starts off as the typical girl who is sick of school. I wanted the payoff to be sweet and light, an actual feel good story.

Kiyoteru makes a cameo here as the music teacher. It's a redemption from the last time I used him... and um... my apology to the Kiyoteru fans.... I'm sorry.

I want to make these two lovable, just as I'd like for every Vocaloid to not go forgotten again. I think we all need a sweet story once in a while too. They both deserve a second chance, and maybe an upgraded voicebank in Japanese and Italian, the latter because of their classical and operatic roots. We need more songs to fit them as well.

Most of the videos that are on YouTube for Rin and Len deal with very dark subject matter. For every one "normal" or "romantic" video these days, there's a good five or six that deal with one or the other being molested, killed, abused, or with them performing of singing about self-torture. But only a handful let them have any semblance of vengeance, and most end tragically.

I chose to do something different.

I got the idea for this video after reading about the many meanings the song has.

Iroha (not the Vocaloid) claims the song was written from the perspective of Rin "killing off" her inner "young" self in order to purge herself of the past and finally grow up. Sort of a cleansing of past sins.

Other fans say the song is about self-harm and use it as a cry for help. Others say it's a song from the perspective of a girl dealing with heartbreak, after a man has done her wrong, or in this case, abused her.

We have tons of Vocaloid songs about abuse, but not many videos where the victim gets revenge. So here, Rin fights back, in doing so, she saves Luka's life from a similar fate, but Rin also deals with the fear this has caused her. Fear of her attacker (played by Kiyoteru) and fear of the consequences of taking him out.

The song is very dark by itself, but the video I feel is darker. That's why I have age restricted it for now, because I am not comfortable with this being shown to younger YouTubers. But I wanted to show also that this DOES happen, and too often, we offer no solutions to the victims, much like how we offer no salvation in these songs for the Kagamines.

For those who are Kiyoteru fans, I do apologize that once again, I've played into the fan-made cliche of him being PedoBear, but he's a very versatile character. This is more or less an animated play, whereby Luka, Rin and Kiyoteru are actors, telling the story with movement.