NicoNico Mega Party 2014

This year's Chokaigi (Mega Party) event was really good much of the time, with some very good and audience-grabbing DJ-ing. It was, though, the Vocaloid concert that was the highlight for many, myself included – and then I forgot to post it here!

Well, thanks to a memory jog a few minutes ago, that is remedied now. This year's concert was just half an hour long, but with so much (thirteen songs) crammed into its almost non-stop format that there is plenty for everyone, including original staging, new band arrangements, and Luka playing the harp (very accurately!)

Lots of vocaloids were featured, as is the norm at this event, including the four Crypton Character Vocals (Miku, Luka, Len and Rin), IA, Gumi, Gakupo, Lily, Teto and more.

This is best viewed full screen, and listened to via headphones if possible...

IA Rhythm Game

I have been keeping an eye on the emerging rhythm game that is obviously designed to be an alternative (or addition in one's collection) to Project DIVA. In this, we get only the one performer, though that is no less than IA (a.k.a. Aria on the Planetes) – but it looks to be quite good and fairly comprehensive, as the following promotional trailer shows.

It's a bit tough to enter the market when the various Project DIVA games are already so well established, and offer the six Crypton vocaloids as performers, as well as a few guest performers in the latest releases; but I wish IA/VT-Colorful every success. Perhaps others will follow, such as Anon and Kanon, or Lapis and Merli, or even one featuring all the BPlats-marketed vocaloids, one day. It's a thought...

Colourful IA

It had to happen sooner or later. The success of Project DIVA has shown that a vocaloid-based rhythm game for handhelds is a considerably more popular concept than it might have seemed, viewed from competitors' desks.

Thus is born this new game with distinct similarities to DIVA and its sister game Project MIRAI, featuring IA (a.k.a. Aria On The Planetes), for the PS Vita; and this one-song video gives an idea of what is in store when the game is released at the end of July this year...

Tell Your Universe

In a busy week in the Vocaloid world, we have already seen IA's second 'birthday' a couple of days ago, and now we have Luka's fifth such anniversary today (actually in preparation for the day itself, tomorrow), and also today confirmation that Miku's Wake Up, Rosetta video-and-song message will be among those to be sent out into space.

Miku only just scraped through, though, in tenth place – and that was only because another of the original ten winners was disqualified. Her voice will be telling Rosetta to wake up, and the listening universe will also be able to hear and see her.

Regarding that contest, it was supposed to have a ninety-second time limit. That was in the rules. Several of the winning entires are significantly longer in duration than the limit, one almost doubt and another over double. What is the point in having rules and then letting some participants ignore them, especially when others have stuck to the rules.

Okay, an odd second or two doesn't matter (there are technical oddities with videos than can  make the 'count' not quite match the video's actual length, overstating the length, as I have seen a number of times) but noy the ones we have in the winners' list.

As far as voting is concerned, it is notable that four of the winners, including three or the four highest voted for, are by schoools, which must have helped (all those parents, teachers and governors for a start). Nothing wrong with that, of course: it's just worth noting in passing, just in case anyone wondered why this was.

Anyway, here's a short video featuring IA, Luka and Miku together, which seems fitting...

My Soul, Your Beats

This is a song from the anime Angel Beats, sung here by IA. You should read the complimentary comments at the YouTube page, and I'm not surprised! The general view is that this is better than the original, which itself was really good.

Okay, so we don't have any English words provided here, but this is one of those experiences that transcend the words anyway. It is also a very good reminder of just how good IA's voice is, if used well with good 'tuning'. It could make for a very good demo, but would definitely benefit from having more than a static image if it were ever to be thus used...

Honey – Yukari and Friends

I haven't featured  any of those multi-performer videos for a while, but this one is actually quite well thought-out and fairly well executed. The motion isn't the most natural, but it's better than many and most of the pitfalls seem to have been successfully avoided.

Here, then, is Honey, with Yukari taking the singing solo lead, and it's switchable to High Definition too.

The performers are, left to right in the following order for most of the track (and no, I hadn't heard of the little UTAUloid on the far left either): Nana Haruka, Lapis Aoki, SeeU, Yukari Yuzuki, IA, CUL and Akikoloid...

NicoNico Party 2013

Six months ago, almost to the day, I brought you last year's so-called MMD multi-Vocaloid concert, (the 'MMD' standing for MikuMikuDance, the famous character animation software).

This year's has been up on YouTube for over two months, so there appears to be no problem with having it there, and embedding is allowed. Therefore I feel I can safely place it here.

It is much the same concept as last year's such event, and its full title is NicoNico Cho Party – by now you can no doubt suss out where the 'NicoNico' part originates, as I've mentioned that website a few times in recent months.

The very start is slightly unorthodox(!) but leads onto the trade mark (for these partyicular events) Miku sitting on a crescent moon supported on two ropes, like a swing. The sixteen songs this time come one immediately after another in most cases, and we have twelve Vocaloids and UTAUloids this year – one up on last year's eleven. Alphabetically they are: Gakupo, GUMI, IA, Len, Lily, Luka, Meiko, Miku, Ritsu, Teto and two others I haven't yet been able to identify, though I am fairly sure that one of them is the UTAUloid Yowane Haku.

There are good solos for Teto and IA (and watch the latter's eyes, by the way) and an interesting version of World's End Dancehall, with different choreography and some other variations, by the Kagamine duo.

As before, because the character motions are produced in MMD, which is designed for display on computer screens and PlayStations rather than for life-size projection, the quality isn't as good as the SEGA in-house professional software used for the what are usually referred to as the 'official' concerts. It's still good, though, and some is very good indeed, including the motion quality (which is variable, but never poor). The stage is superb too!

Anyway, this is a good way to spend forty minutes, probably best once the sun has gone down...

Bird's Poem

Actually, literally 'Bird's Song', but when this song Tori no Uta was first recorded by 15-year-old Lia, some thirteen years ago, it was destined to become known as the 'poem' version of the title.

Some years later, the now grown-up – and very successful in the music business – Lia became the voice artist for Vocaloid IA's voicebank. IA (pronounced "Ee-Ah"), also known as Aria on the Planetes (yes, that is the correct spelling, 'planetes' being our version of how the Greeks spelled the original word for planets, or wanderers) also sang this song, and here it is in a nicely made video, lasting under three minutes. Her excellent voice (IA is known as 'The Diva with the Crystal Voice') is here expertly used to convey the feel of the song very well.

There are no English words provided, but this is worth just listening to as is the first time anyway, I have found. Later, if it turns out to be popular, I'll see if I can find either a version with subtitles/captions or the English lyrics separately...

Tears of Chocolate

Really just to show how good Vocaloid IA's voice is, here is a quite attractive song, Tears of Chocolate, complete with English subtitles.

Although the IA-featured concert excerpt I posted here some weeks ago was good, the 'tuning' of IA in that was relatively poor (something that is apparently well known when it comes to Jin, who produced that event). The lady deserves a better opportunity to shine, and here it is, good enough for 'Aria of the Planetes' to give IA her full alternative title.

No 3-D character this time, just a fixed image with snow animation and scrolling Japanese language. We, though, shall no doubt be concentrating more on the subtitles...

IA First Live Concert

A few months ago, on 28 November 2012, the vocaloid named IA (taken from her voice provider's name, Lia) had her first live concert, with a rather small audience. Her 'sub-name' (for want of a better term) is Aria on the Planetes.

Other performers were featured at this event as well, but the following eleven-minute clip is of just her three songs: Children's Record, Headphone Actor, and World Calling. Sadly the subtitles are in Japanese and Chinese only, but the performance is very good, I think, and merits watching at least the first song.

The lady's very good live, with her own vocal and visual style and stage presence. Her second outfit is really quite sweet, and it's worth sticking with this: trust me!

Overall, I was impressed with this effort, and am pleased that more vocaloids are appearing on stage nowadays.

Oh, and I don't think that was really Darth Vader on the dark side of the stage, on guitar...

Imagination Forest

This intriguing story, told in song by the Vocaloid generally known simply as 'IA' (but also known to some as Aria of the Planetes), relates the tale of a young lady who lives alone in a house in the forest but dare not venture further afield for reasons that shall become clear...