Do not forget preorders start May 27th! So, if [...]]]> Today, Mikatan has released images of the upcoming  Black★Rock Shooter – Anime Version. As always the quality is amazing; the base and the “★Rock Cannon” is extravagantly detailed. Personally, this is my favorite one but enough talk time to look at the figure and all its glory!

Do not forget preorders start May 27th! So, if you want this amazing figure you should rush in and preorder!

Picture gallery after the break!

Sources: Mikatan

The all powerful Mika-tan has posted on their site that a promotional B★RS charm will be given to anyone who purchases the August edition of “Monthly Hobby Japan.” This charm is a product of the Good Smile Company, so you do not have to worry about the quality. The charm will be approximately 30mm [...]]]>

The all powerful Mika-tan has posted on their site that a promotional B★RS charm will be given to anyone who purchases the August edition of “Monthly Hobby Japan.” This charm is a product of the Good Smile Company, so you do not have to worry about the quality. The charm will be approximately 30mm in height and have a chain so you can fasten it to your cell phone!

Just in case you are finding the design familiar, that’s because it’s also done by CHAN×CO, the person who created the cute facial expression for the B★RS Nendoroid as well.

This week’s Weekend Spotlight is filled with robots. Robot girls and robots who love girls. Wait… That didn’t sound right. Well, you’ll see what I really mean after the break.

Hey everyone, red2 back in the weekend saddle. I didn’t get any info from JM as to what he wanted [...]]]>

Source: 狐尾_徹

This week’s Weekend Spotlight is filled with robots. Robot girls and robots who love girls. Wait… That didn’t sound right. Well, you’ll see what I really mean after the break.

Hey everyone, red2 back in the weekend saddle. I didn’t get any info from JM as to what he wanted this week, so I’ll be stepping into his shoes once again. As promised we’ll start it off with a bang. A gorgeous cover by Kettaro that’s been long-awaited by the fans:

That vid gets me every time. *sniff* And with that outbreak of emotion, let’s move on. Now, before we go anywhere, let’s talk about true popularity of a song. Say… Yowamushi Montblanc. Though it dropped down to 6 in the countdown last week, the popularity has not necessarily done so. Look at the amount of Utatte Mita on Youtube and NND. 290 search results on NND, most of them from Nico Singers who love the song. That is true popularity, folks. And uploaded just today is the first official Nico Chorus. One of many I hope:

I’ve been waiting for one of these since the original was released. I’m happy.
What? Oh right, robots! We’re supposed to be talking about robots here. I keep forgetting. Then let’s talk robots. If you dial the wayback machine to… okay I don’t really remember when, there was this little song called SPiCa. It didn’t stay up on the countdown for long, but left enough of an impression to make this:

Now if you’ve recognized the style, I’m not surprised. Because that is essentially the prequel to what will most likely be our #1 for the week. With that said, I’ll leave you with ARiA, the sequel. Hope to see you all next week! Sarabada!

Winter is birthday season in the Vocaloid world.  2/3 of the current roster (12 of 18) celebrate in December, January, or February, with the most relevant to this week’s column being the birthday of KAITO.  The character made whole by Naoto Fuuta’s voice is celebrating his 4th anniversary this week.  He’s a [...]]]>

カッコイイ年長組！ by Renta

Winter is birthday season in the Vocaloid world.  2/3 of the current roster (12 of 18) celebrate in December, January, or February, with the most relevant to this week’s column being the birthday of KAITO.  The character made whole by Naoto Fuuta’s voice is celebrating his 4th anniversary this week.  He’s a real classic, so let’s celebrate with Kaito singing the classics.

We begin with a couple of big band standards, appropriately done by BluenoteP.

I’m still not sure how “Sing, Sing, Sing” ends up being an instrumental hit. Next up is a couple of classic hits from the world of pop.

Finally, while we could do a list of all the songs Kaito’s spoofed over the years, we’ll save that for a future column and instead, provide something that’s just as crack. x3

We continue the KAITO love as we move on to the Rankings watch. You may have seen this somewhere else.

But on the junior circuit, it’s been an uneventful week. So, here’s Defoko and Teto’s take on Sokonuke AIR-LINE

Guess the M stood for Manzai.

Though my time with Vocaloidism has so far been very short, I’ve been very busy analyzing the rankings each week, making charts to compare and contrast the methodology of the countdown.  With the addition of the new multiplier for the Mylist points, a lot of questions come out about how it will affect [...]]]>

Source: sakurapanda

Though my time with Vocaloidism has so far been very short, I’ve been very busy analyzing the rankings each week, making charts to compare and contrast the methodology of the countdown.  With the addition of the new multiplier for the Mylist points, a lot of questions come out about how it will affect the ranking.  See what I’ve found out, after the break.

On ranking #119, the new multiplier of ((Mylist/Views)*100)*2 <= 40, the Mylist points are effectively reduced, however it still consists for more than a majority of the points in most cases.  This week’s top three had at least 64% of its points from Mylists with the new operator.  As I mentioned in the 119 ranking, the “Last Week’s Points” and “Percentage” fields, new for this year, was not accurate because instead of converting last week’s points to the new scale.  Because it reflects the old point scale, I’ve done some calculations where I’ve converted week 118’s results into the new scale and week 119’s results into the old scale for twelve videos on my tracker list.  Here are the results, side by side in chart form.

Calculations Using Old and New Multipliers

As you can see, it’s a big change between the two.  Not only does it reduce the total amount of points, it makes the rank race very close.  Unfragment, Battle of Flowers, and JBF were bouncing off each other for 119’s ranks on the new scale, while it wouldn’t have even come close on the old.  Now, graphics are great and all, but let’s see some actual side-by-side comparison of the data of the 119 results:

As you can see, there’s one change in the actual ranking of these tracked videos, and an overall reduction.  Also there’s a shift in where the competition on the countdown is.  The new calculation makes the top 30 more competitive for the top spots.  If you notice, Yandere Luka was 30 this week, and CLW was 31, with a margin of only 32 points.  If the 2009 ranking had been used, CLW would have taken the spot by nearly 2000 points.  Both videos are interesting and have things going for them beyond my personal preference, so I won’t comment on how one can get ahead of another.

Even though this new version is much more competitive, the formula is not perfect.  To reach the multiplier cap of 40, you would have to have one in every five views become a Mylist entry, a virtually impossible feat to make.  However, as you saw in this week’s top three, they blew the old cap of 20 completely off by nearly 2.5, the #1 gaining nearly 300,000 Mylist Points, a ludicrous figure.  If the multiplier cap were 20 instead of 40, a more realistic 1/10^th of all views would become Mylists.  If it was capped off at that point, it would increase competition between the top lists to get the most views, a true test of a video’s popularity.

The new points system increases competition in the top 30, but it isn’t perfect.  The multiplier cap is set too high to be of any realistic use.  Only time will tell what this new system will do to the countdown, and I can’t wait to see.

…the article I wrote, that got deleted, got me and everyone else a bunch of flak, and the article for which I have written this very apology.

Here’s the short version: I wrote something that was haphazard, over [...]]]> (Portions have been edited for cleanliness.  Also, I didn’t know this was vetted so quickly.)

…the article I wrote, that got deleted, got me and everyone else a bunch of flak, and the article for which I have written this very apology.

Here’s the short version: I wrote something that was haphazard, over the top, and over the line and I was appropriately called out on it at every level.  For that, and for being a burden on everybody (especially the people who have stuck out their necks on my behalf, even though they did not have to) I apologize.  I will try to use more discretion in the future, provided I have one with this blog, but that’s not a topic for here.

If you are satisfied with this statement, then I hope we can move on and pick up where we all left off.  If you aren’t, there’s the long version.

The following is not a justification, per se.  It is merely an explanation of how things came to be and a bit of personal deconstruction.  This may or may not improve my position, but full disclosure is the primary goal here.  Also note that this is being edited by my peers and superiors.

The timeline

Here were my feelings/observations about the comic that inspired the article questions.

• The comic was amusing
• Poor Gumi
• Did they flip the panels for the Japanese version?
• They did.  They normally don’t do that.
• Come to think of it, that looks really bad.
• And lazy.
• Especially compared to their earlier works.

With that mindset, I wrote what I wrote, and while writing about a comic about a character putting her foot in her mouth, I ironically did the same.  Big time.  Again, sorry about that.

On Sunday, I was on a train for most of the day.  When I got home, I saw a message saying the article was taken down.  I gave no objection.  Monday was a dentist appointment and recovery.  After that, I was notified of the backlash and started putting things in motion.  So if you are wondering why it took me so long, there’s a reason; I was afk for the better parts of 2 days.  I’m sorry I didn’t react sooner, but life got in the way at the most inopportune time.

About the author

Here’s the “personal deconstruction” part, some of which I’m thinking you won’t appreciate.

I got in to Vocaloids because of the tech aspect.  The characters, nationalities or any of that don’t come into play; what I found interesting is that if you found the proper casing for the software, you have the world’s coolest digital piano.  That’s it.  I don’t arbitrarily favor any Vocaloid character over the other, and I certainly don’t hate one over the other.  I honestly find Zero-G’s marketing of Sonika quite compelling, which is why I keep writing about it.  It’s actually really cool that the company is investing so much time and energy in making this character come to life, something that no one else has done.  I alluded to this in the deleted article (take my word for it), but I would absolutely love to do something like an interview with Sonika for the Vocaloidism blog, even though I now have no chance.

Another thing you might want to know about me (and this could very well be the core problem) is that when I started writing for Vocaloidism, I went in with a blogger mindset, not a reporter mindset.  Anyone can relay the news–we certainly aren’t the only Vocaloid blog or forum or wiki out there–but the reason this site is different than any other site (and any other site is different from similar sites)  is the collection of personalities involved.  I wanted to imprint my personal style and tone to my works, just like anyone else who writes.  It just so happens that mine tends to be very pronounced and in this instance, it went too far and got me into trouble.

Possible solutions

Well, here’s the obvious one, and the one I’d like to pursue: everyone moves forward and I try to tread more lightly.  The other obvious option is that I get let go at year’s end.  I’d be disappointed, but I’m okay with that.  DT, Kevin, Krystal, and everyone else have been handling the fallout to this to the best of their abilities, and I appreciate that.  They certainly didn’t have to do that, and they certainly don’t have to put up with me further if they don’t want to.  If they decide this was a fireable offense, then that’s what it is and I have to live with it.

There’s also sort of a 3rd option that has seemed to have a bit of a foothold, and that’s to mute subjectivity.  Well, that means I go (for obvious reasons), and WVR goes, since that’s a review column (and all reviews are subjective).  To a further extent, reporting is a subjective process – editors choose what events are or aren’t reported, and to what extent they’re reported.  Granted, some bits seem obvious to cover, but some are more nebulous.  So what would Vocaloidism cover?  The only choices would be everything, which I think would be totally unwieldy and would water down the site, or nothing.

Pardon me while I get off my soapbox.  I guess what I wanted to say that the issues I created are the issues I created.  As mentioned elsewhere, my work is primarily independent from the other editors, so I feel that you don’t need to hassle them or the forum moderators anymore.  If you want to discuss, I’d like for you discuss it with me in private.  There’s the PM messaging system in the forum and an e-mail of joe[hyphen]mello[at sign]comcast[period]net.  Public discussion shouldn’t be necessary and there’s no need to spread flames to other places.

So again, I apologize for my abject stupidity, and I’ll try not to screw up again.  If you still have problems, talk to me.  If not, then let’s move on. Please.

- – - – -

DK says:

Oh, no-no-no, we’re not letting you get off that easily. You’ll still be allowed to make articles, but stay away from anything that can rub on the Engloid community the wrong way.

Also, I have ABSOLUTELY no intention of stopping my WVR review articles. That is my pet project and no amount of criticism (from VO or anyone else) can convince me otherwise. Besides, I’ll be careful not to say anything out-of-bounds in any of my articles from now on.

DT’s words on this:

Yes, you are not going to leave as far as we are concerned. I will be discussing more with Kevin and DK on the new rules about posting articles on the blog to act as a safeguard that such an incident will not happen a second time. Everyone, hopefully with the apologies from all of us we can finally get this matter to rest.

After AH-Software announced the upcoming arrival of the three new Vocaloid, it seems they aren’t completely done yet. Information from their official website has pointed out that they are also planning the release of a new speech synthesizer software called VOICEROID which will be out on December 4th, the same day [...]]]>

VOICEROID - Tsukuyomi Ai

After AH-Software announced the upcoming arrival of the three new Vocaloid, it seems they aren’t completely done yet. Information from their official website has pointed out that they are also planning the release of a new speech synthesizer software called VOICEROID which will be out on December 4th, the same day as their Vocaloid software. For more information just continue reading after the break~

VOICEROID - Tsukuyomi Shouta

The VOICEROID consists of a 5-year old Tsukuyomi Ai and her elder brother 7-year old Tsukuyomi Shouta. Basically what the program does is that you type in a word or phrase and hear either Ai or Shouta playing it back for you. Here’s a few videos below to show how they sound like.

The VOICEROID software will be on sale on December 4th for 9,800 yen each and 17,800 yen if you buy them both as a package. You can also head over to AH-Software as well for more information about Tsukuyomi Ai and Shouta.

We don’t have a shiny logo yet, but several of our forum patrons have provided some very nice options.  Go to this thread and choose [...]]]> Oh hi.  Thanks for donating, but we’re not done with you yet.  Vocaloidism, as with most blogs, is always a work in process.  This time, we’re working on our image.  Literally.

We don’t have a shiny logo yet, but several of our forum patrons have provided some very nice options.  Go to this thread and choose your favorite.  The winner’s images will be used as our official Vocaloidism Network logo(s) from hereon in, or until some cyber-squatter comes in and buys our address.

EDIT: The voting has finally concluded. It was a little bumpy near the end, but fortunately everything turned out fine. We would like to thank all those who registered in the forums to vote!