So, I recently decided to go and cut my hair short. I didn't realize until afterwards that there were already several people at my school with a similar haircut...

...and that there were actually anime characters that had that kind of haircut too. My parents joked that I looked like someone out of an anime right after I got the haircut. I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not, because I certainly don't want to imitate anime characters (well, except for if I ever cosplay, but I'm not going to be cosplaying everyday, now am I? :\ ). As much of an otaku as I am, I don't expect to ever come near to the awesomeness of an anime character. But it has been kind of funny having a different haircut. I've been told by two people already that I look "KAWAII DESUUU", both of whom said it in a very bad accent on purpose.

Anyways, although Miku Hatsune is not an anime character, she seems to have gotten a haircut as well. Check out the song "Fleeting Reality":



I like this song pretty well, actually. And it kind of gives me a Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica vibe at times (starting around 2:32, when she whips out the sword...Miki Sayaka anyone?) And speaking of which, I just heard that all the Madoka girls have had recent victories in the Saimoe competition...Well, except for Akemi Homura. Sadly she was eliminated early on because she faced off against Misaka Mikoto.

Back to the Vocaloid songs. Here's a Gakupo song that snagged the #10 spot on the most recent Vocaran. Miku always dominates the Vocaran, but it's nice to see the other Vocaloids getting some attention too. (VY1's song "Cyber Thunder Cider" just popped up again on the Vocaran. I think it's because the song was revealed to be the demo for VY1 in Vocaloid3)



And here's a Luka song. How could I resist? I've always been a fan of Luka voice-wise :p



I should not neglect to mention two Vocaloid songs that have been very popular recently. The puny amount of Japanese I know has unfortunately grown rusty from disuse, so I'm afraid I don't know the English name of this song. All that I do know is that I don't like it very much. Sorry to those of you do, but I can't manage to love this song. :\



What I do like is this song: "Senbonzakura" or "Thousand Cherry Trees" or whatever you want to call it. And there was a big surge of Nico Nico utaite singing it a while back (mostly guys, even those this is a Miku song... o_o;; ).



Well, let's end with the last, but definitely not least: #1 on the vocaran! This is what I believe would be called "Talkloids": having the Vocaloids "speak" rather than sing. I can't understand that much of what they are saying (blame it on my lack of Japanese knowledge again) but it looks amusing anyhow.

Labels: 211, fleeting reality, gakupo, hatsune miku, luka megurine, music, ranking, senbon zakura, songs, talkloid, vocaloid, vocaran, カゲロウデイズ, 千本桜, 御手繋ぎ

For most of the past Saturday, I was swamped in Vocaloid. I already dip my toes in it most days of the week, but that day happened to have a lot more Vocaloid in it than usual. And it's all because of Stanford Splash that I've really gotten drenched.

One of my friends told me that there were Touhou and Vocaloid classes offered at Stanford Splash, Read more »

Labels: artist, classes, dye, japanese, kat-tun, live, luka megurine, magnet, mikumikudance, mmd, neverxover, nico nico douga, nicovideo, otaku, plagiarism, splash, stanford, touhou, vocaloid, yunomi

Some covers of Vocaloid songs that I found on Youtube and liked. Do listen to them if you have the time.
Read more »

Labels: aimou, akahitoha, cover, dancer in the dark, electric love, gumi, hatsune miku, hirari hirari, luka megurine, meltdown, mozaik role, music, sing my love, singing, songs, sweet devil, tori no hito

My neighborhood almost always appears to be a peaceful place. I've never heard gunshots, seen people beat each other up, or any of the stuff that I've seen in movies happen around here. But there's one crime in particular that happens often and goes unpunished: theft.

It's one type of thing that is very commonly stolen, and that would be fruit. I've known for a long time that the usual thieves are squirrels, birds, ants, and all the backyard fauna. Nothing I can do about that, since they have as much right to the land as I do...Well, my old afterschool/summer math teacher said you could hang up these spinning things that would scare away birds (it's hard to describe them...they sort of give you an optical illusion when the wind blows at them), though I have no idea if it's working anymore. Surely even with their bird brains they could figure out that the spinning things wouldn't really attack them. :p

Actually, though, I've seen people become poachers lately. There was one time on the weekend where I was taking a walk and I overheard the conversation of two people. A woman was sneakily taking a fruit (I believe it was an orange) from a plant growing out of someone's front yard. A man scolded her for taking it, but she insisted it was fair game because it was on the other side of the fence and technically no longer on the owner's property. (Well, I guess there's no harm done, I highly doubt the owner of the fruit tree would notice it missing.)

I'm pretty sure I saw someone else who took a fruit too, quite recently. He was walking with his arms behind his back, and I kept wondering why until I saw that he was holding an orange. He also had his hood covering his head, so I couldn't see his face unless I was facing the front of him. Very suspicious! I later saw another old man coming along from the other direction, his hands also behind his back, and once I passed him I whirled around to see if he was stealing fruit. (But that was just me being paranoid, the second old man was innocent. XD)

If you'd expected to hear about something more major, sorry to disappoint you. The more serious stuff that I've caught wind of is in the school environment, what with the copying of homework, ditching of class (though I'd only heard people consider it, I don't know if they actually have), and...smoking. I actually saw a couple of my fellow students smoking one day at lunch when I was walking off campus. They weren't really trying to hide it. It wouldn't trouble me too much except that I figure I'll end up dying of lung cancer while they go along their merry way...

I've always wondered what made people want to smoke. I'd heard that it was done to lose weight (since your sense of taste gets ruined and you won't want to eat as much), or to look cool (no idea if this is true, enlighten me?), or just a mistake - you try it once and get hooked. I have no experience in the matter nor do I intend to have any, but feel free to tell me why you smoke or why someone you know does, if you feel like it.

Well, this is unrelated, but I like to share pictures of similar-looking characters when I see them. I watched the Tales of the Abyss anime quite a while ago and had forgotten about it up until I saw some pictures a few days ago. Tear Grants always reminded me of a Vocaloid, Luka Megurine. (If I remember correctly, Tear sings too. Talk about a weird coincidence, unless it isn't one.) Their bangs and hair colors are different, and Luka's hair is generally wavier, but I thought their outfits were similar.

TEAR GRANTS
click or click


LUKA MEGURINE
click or click

Labels: birds, cigarette, crime, criminal, fruit, luka megurine, neighborhood, people, reasons, scare, smoking, squirrels, suspicious, tales of the abyss, tear grants, theft, thief, vocaloid

I think that the song Soundless Voice is originally sung by the Vocaloid Len Kagamine, but this song is better known as being sung by Valshe, a Japanese singer who I believe debuted on Nico Nico Douga. I got into Valshe's music after hearing Soundless Voice.



I'm a big fan of her because she can sound female or male depending on how she sings. For instance, she sings the female (Luka) and male (Len) parts in Symmetric Target.



Anyways, here's more of her singing.













In Yume Sakura, Valshe does the male part (Len) while Choco does the female part (Rin).



And here is a song called Imitation Black, sung by Clear, Dasoku, and Valshe (Valshe does Len's part, she's the highest voice out of the three). It's mostly Clear that you hear in this song; I think he did a good job with this one.



Sorry, I'll stop video-spamming now (the videos weren't uploaded by me, anyhow D: ). I needed an outlet for my fangirling.

I really wish I had a larger voice range, I can only sing at medium-ish pitches (hard for me to go high or low, and I have to use a higher, quieter, weirder-sounding voice to hit higher notes; I think it's called a head voice?). And even then my voice doesn't sound like I thought it did (tried recording it with my cell phone and I am not pleased with the way my voice sounds x_x). I hope that I'll be able to expand my range by practicing at home in the shower, but somehow I get the feeling that my voice is going to be my like my height, something I wish I could change...but can't.

Labels: japan, japanese, kagamine, len kagamine, luka, luka megurine, megurine, music, nico nico douga, nicovideo, range, rin, rin kagamine, singer, songs, soundless voice, valshe, vocaloid, vocaloids, voice

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