Nekomura Iroha

Nekomura Iroha (猫村いろは) is a character created by SANRIOWAVE CO.,LTD. in 2009. Also with a collaboration between AH-Software, she was released as a Vocaloid2 on October 22, 2010.

"Iroha" is the old Japanese variant of "ABC" (as seen in the Japanese iroha poem) and "I, Ro, Ha" means "A(La), B(Si), C(Do)" of seven-note scale.

She is illustrated by okama, a Japanese manga artist and illustrator.

History
Iroha is one of the "kittyler" characters who love the Sanrio character Hello Kitty. She also joined the "Hello Kitty to Issho!" project in early August, 2010.

In October, 2010, Vocaloid2 for her was released, offering two demo songs, and her appearance and name were also released. Her voice provider is unknown. However, it is said that she is a professional singer who passed the audition test of AH-Software.

A CD is set to be released with two songs ("Tsubasa" and "ABBEY FLY") featuring her, along with VSQ files. She owes much of her early use to being supplied as a trial version. The offer for the free trial ended on September 30th 2010.

Figurines
Since she is owned primarily by Sanrio, the Sanrio company have commissioned several figurines of this Vocaloid.

Usage for Music
Iroha has a deep, strong, and powerful voice which does not give her a "child-like" feel like that of Yuki Kaai, as Iroha's voice provider is a professional singer, and thus she is intended to have singing prowess. She is capable of singing fast-paced songs and has clear, strong consonants and good, smooth Japanese pronunciations. With a wide-ranged voice, she can sing in both a high and low tone and has the ability to sing in falsetto. Some users say editing her parameters and waveforms is much easier than with previous vocaloids.

As her default vocal setting is a low-tone voice and many users tested her in this range, many of her early songs had some listeners judging that she sounded less feminine and "tomboyish". However, some songs now feature her with a high voice and feminine voice.

Until late May 2011, works made using the AH-Software Vocaloids were banned from being published through Karen-T because permission had not been granted for their use with the website by AH-Software. However, because she was joint owned by Sanrio, Iroha remains the sole Vocaloid sold by AH-Software who cannot have her works added to Karen-T.

Demo
Her trial version did not have as many reported problems as Lily's had and was a closer representation of her final product than Lily's was. At this point in time, there are no known major bugs with her demo version.,

Reception
Iroha was well received overall by both Japanese and Western fans; the Western fans especially praised her vocal capabilities, and she was amongst the fan favorite voices of 2010's releases. This was an improved reaction from the previous Vocaloids released by AH-Software, and Iroha did not have to endure the same struggle to gain popularity as her predecessors. However, some of the Western Vocaloid fans had a difficult time matching the Vocaloid's avatar to the voice, and, due to lack of information, did not understand why this particular Kittyler was chosen over the others, possibly due to the language divide.

Trivia

 * She was originally designed by Sanrio for Comiket (Comic Market) in 2009.


 * The speakers encasing her hands are called Dynamic-Phonon Buster. The other set of speakers are called Chorus-speaker, each of these move around, supporting her. The floating microphone collects her voice and Announce Booth, which is on her head, works as an amplifier and divides the sound into three classes for the speakers, according to its range; the sound for tweeters, mid-range speakers and woofers.


 * According to her official profile on the Hello Kitty to Issho! page, she is interested in Hello Kitty and wants to become a "Platinum Kitty".


 * Since the trial version had enough vocal capabilities to function as a normal Vocaloid, hackers were reported to have found out how to turned off the limit of 30 days for both Lily and Iroha's 30 day trial versions.


 * Due to miscommunication regarding advertisement of the new collaboration happening at the same Comiket booth as another event, fans initially believed that the new Vocaloid, announced to be a collaboration between AH-software and Sanrio, would be the kittyler Rio which was illustrated by KEI, the illustrator for the Crypton Future Media CV series and the Vocaloid Lily. (It is to be noted that at the time, a "kittyler" was misunderstood to be a moe personification of Hello Kitty herself rather than someone who is simply interested in the character) This sparked a controversy, and an interview with one of the members of AH-software had to clear up the misunderstanding. Rio was used for an upcoming project by Sanrio, "Hello Kitty to Issho!" and she is one of several kittylers illustrated by multiple artists. KEI was just one of them.


 * Two MMD Models of Iroha were released from Windows 100% magazine, one in August and another in November. The first model was based upon her Kittyler attire the other is her Vocaloid attire. The creator of the models is ISAO . Her second model (Vocaloid style) was used for an official 3D movie has shown on her official page and broadcast on Youtube. In May 2011, two more models of Iroha were released, both done by the same artist, only this model was released to the public for a limited time. The models are Iroha in a more casual (dubbed idol) appearance; the first model that was released had a large bun wrap, but after much feedback ISAO edited the same model to have a side ponytail. In July 2011 a Magician model was released from Windows 100%.

Notable for...

 * Most popular AH software Vocaloid
 * First Ah software Vocaloid to gain satisfactory levels of popularity