User blog comment:Ajkpinky/Let's talk like civil people about Ruby's design/@comment-53539-20150706172149

Unfortunately you can't really tell "race" by Vocal alone and the avatar itself doesn't always tell all. Again I point out White Leon, he is the example of the situation with this and reflection of that this isn't isolated to just Ruby. When given the choice, fans aren't much better... And worst neither is the music industry, often despite black singers being more influenceon many entertainment, its always a struggle to get credit where credit is due. There is a multiple of reasons why, spawning from slavery links to "superior white race" belief. All of which are annoying.

Don't think I'm saying PowerFX are not in the wrong, but this goes beyond PowerFX and highlights a greater problem. If this is aimed at EDM musicans, as theorized, then this design is to a tee, what they would more go for. I call BS since Avanna owed popularity to Sad Machine and she had a cartoon design. But I know that since V2, PowerFX have always preferred styles and had given into the fans during V3. Now maybe they don't want to do this and they feel they want to try again and see if they can get their own Sad Machine song to propel their vocals forward? Who knows...

It took a long time for Syo and co to get the design together and it wasn't even ready for that show. This design was ready for the show. Neither design is more then a generic girl and neither is fantastic or better. As I pointed out with regards to the first design used by PFX, a deeper tone voice often implies maturity and is likely the reason they went with that design. You honestly can't tell how old Ruby is by her voice nor her race. :-/

Despite the reaction, the design FITS the voice regardless... We have a young, but mature female pop-ish singer. As I said befored, everyone has their heart in their head because of Syo's connection. This is all boiling down to the fact Syo is a victim of change of heart by a company... As I siad before had he gone with most other studios, he'd have had a worst situation. He was going to be screwed regardless in most cases... CFM would have taken the project out of his hands over time, and forced a design of their own... For example.

As I said before, as far as the artist of the PFX design may be concerned... They likely had a limited brief given to them. If they heard a sample, given that age and race are almost impossible to tell by voice alone, they would have had a tough time doing things. We can't presume that the artist of the PFX design knew all that was in front of them. They could be as much of a victim here as Syo is. So the "whitewash" as it was, may not have been 100% their fault.

I think aside from the drama, the thing bugging me is that everyone is doing stuff like calling Ruby's PFX art "ugly". I take this as an offensive slur, having been bullied and branded as "ugly" as a teenager myself. This is a serious insult and is a misguided attempt to put the design down, when in due results the person who is using the term just can't do better to describe why they dislike the design. They don't like the facial structure, they don't like a young woman being used over a teen, they don't like the hairstyle because its crazy or something... Anything is better then just branded a otherwise pretty woman "ugly" because you don't like the design and you wanna support Syo's design.

And I can't understand what is so special about that design either. Its no more better then the other design. I wouldn't mind if the design was "wow", because then I'd have support for PFX's rejection of it and be with Syo. But it has no more appeal then the other design. And with the hair, sesh, look; no other Vocaloid has the PFX hairstyle, she stands out as a shape and design. To be fair, I think this is the only thing that really makes it more valued as a design because everything on Syo's design has been used by another Vocaloid thus far, maybe not in the same way, but I value designs that make a character stand out.

Name 1 single trait of the Syo design we've NOT had before thats major. Be it the rest of the PFX design, has traits that are shared by other vocaloids, so thats where the whole thing ends after the hair.

This whole ugly thing goes back to the irony of the Sweet Ann design, Lena Holne was not a ugly woman, yet how come Sweet Ann is "ugly" when she has just a recoloured version of the singer as her own face. If Lena is beautiful so is Ann...

This whole "branding" of the PFX design is what has me not on the fans side, as I side I take "ugly" really personnel. Those who've experienced bullying because one is not "attractive" enough will relate to me. There were other things like wearing glasses, but "ugly" is one of the lowest forms of insult you can brand someone, because it really shows a lot about you yourself and how you judge people. In this case, it shows the fans will go so far as to go against a company, showing no loyality towards it, misdirecting their protesting, and siding with Syo just because of his bad experiences. If the design had been much better then Syo's, would we still see protests? Yes, because the personnel element speaks more then the group element (piowerFX_) and thats what bites in all of this.

To top it off, despite the protests, how many are going to buy Ruby at tthe end of the day? I've seen only a few say they would have considered it. As I said elsewhere, if PowerFX loose a few fan sales and fgain a hundred EDM producer sales, they'lll win, especially if just 1 produces a song which hits 1 million views. I still think PowerFX approach is wrong, as I said Avanna did it anyway.