Controversy Concerns

Since Vocaloid was first released, there have been some controversial issues that have sprung up in regards to it. While Vocaloid is not without its criticism, these issus have become subject to much attention or outcry. The issues discussed by this page are particularly upsetting for Vocaloid fans at times as they are often used to question the validity of Vocaloids or the software itself.

Singing Vocal Clones
According to Crypton, because professional female singers refused to provide voice samples, in fear that the software might create their singing voice's clones, Crypton changed their focus from imitating certain singers to creating characteristic vocals. This change of focus led to sampling the vocals of voice actors and the Japanese voice acting agency Arts Vision supported the development. Similar concerns have been expressed throughout the other studios using Vocaloid, with Zero-G refusing to release the names of their providers (Miriam Stockley - who provided the voice for Miriam - remains the only known Zero-G voice provider.)

For more, see this page on wikia answers.

Validity of Work
GazettE’s Aoi accidentally stirred up trouble for himself on Twitter after making comments about whether or not Miku was a valid music star, questioning the attention given to her. During his tweets he questioned if Vocaloid and such virtual singers should be compared on the same level, when producers and bands such as his own exist.

The Vocaloid software is regarded as a virtual instrument in Japan, therefore this is a controversal issue amongst the Vocaloid fandom. Overseas (outside of Japan and its neighbouring Asian countries) Vocaloids are sold as virtual singers. This small classification also brings about the question on how far one can go to call Miku a "singer" when she is just a synethised vocal or an "instrument". Regardless of the classification, the controversial issues related to Vocaloid "singers" has led some music fans to ask if it is real music if nothing is real to begin with and if the software is even on par with real singers. The vocaloid 2 software was often commented to be far from perfect and was noted to be far from being a top rate singer due to its limitations.

Regardless, as Aoi found out, criticising the Vocaloid songs and questioning if they were even real music can led to fan outburst. Generally, Vocaloid producers often regard their work as "real". Many famous song writers have already gone onto greater works beyond Vocaloid. However, while Aoi is not alone in his remarks, there is in fact a muchgreater concern as well to consider that can result in Vocaloid works being judged unfairly or failing to be understood.

At times media will often also fail to report Vocaloid correctly, leding a general confusion as to what Vocaloid is. Some reports label it as a "game" based on Project Diva, others a "band" based on the concerts, some mistake the PVs for part of an anime. All these attributes as well as anti-Vocaloid points of view, often leave further questions open on if the Vocaloid songs are really legit songs. Furthermore, because of Miku's fame there is also a tendacey for some reports to presume all Vocaloids sing in a similar tone or pitch of voice to Miku. This renders all Vocaloids judged based souly on one vocal.

Illegal Versions
Ilegal Vocaloid software has two main concerns.

The first is "illegal downloads".

See Pocaloid for more details

The second is the act of literally creating a new voicebank from existing ones or claiming to create a new product without creating a licensing agreement with Yamaha in the process. This latter issue being reltively much rarer then illegal downloads.

Influence of Miku's design
The design was common place in early Vocaloid days and owes its birth to the numerous derivatives of Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Future Media Vocaloids; it was not found assiocated with Vocaloid prior to Miku's release. The design became so familiar that in 2008, when other studios such as Internet Co., Ltd started producing their own Vocaloids, there was some uncertainity as to whether they were offical Vocaloids or not. Furthermore, Meiko and Kaito were not always identified as offical Vocaloids by overseas fans in the early days due to the lack of common knowledge on them and their different designs to the Character Vocal series. The design itself was more easily accepted between 2007 and 2009 because there were so few Vocaloids producers often attempted to fill the gaps by creating variations on Miku's design to create "new" characters, as well as use the new creation as a form of self promotion.

Since the design was so common, it was owed to the success of the April Fools' joke behind Kasane Teto's origins, in which her creators attempted to pass her off as a upcoming Crypton Future Media Vocaloid. Teto's success to pass as a vocaloid came from the fact that she borrowed some of Miku's design aspects and applied them to herself. This was repeated with other Vipperloid releases although with decreasing amounts of success over time. The impact of Miku's design increased the chances of similar designs in the same field appearing.

Controversal Design Issue
By 2010, the design of Miku's mascot itself is the subject of controversial outcry in all areas of the fandom resulting in the influence of Miku's design or possible influnece being a subject of controversy. Since Hatsune Miku borrowed her design aspect from Japanese culture and character design, it is fairly common for Vocaloids to share some design aspects both intentionally and unintentionally with her. She herself had become the most famous Vocaloid and was already seeing natural cultural references to her design in Japan outside of the Vocaloid circle. Furthermore, mascots of other music related software and hardware had been created based on the popularity of Miku's own design, such as FL Chan who owes her character creation to Hatsune Miku's popularity. However, some designs that share too many similairites to Miku's overall design are often accused of copying her design, usually (but not always) as a source of negativity towards a new Vocaloid. In these cases the design aspects which make it unique may be ignored and the focus often remains souly on the fact that the Vocaloid shares too many similarities with Hatsune Miku.

Yet, while it remains a controversial issue amongst Vocaloid fans, it cannot be denied that borrowing popular design aspects of Hatsune Miku and the other Crypton Future Media Vocaloids has occured already. Cyber-style clothes, as seen on the Crypton Future Media Vocaloids, were implimented onto Gakupo's design in accordance with their belief that this was a popular element of the current Vocaloid design. Similar behaviour already occured in popular culture from other character designs in other media based areas, so the subject of the design controversy is not unique to Vocaloid. For example, the One Piece character Emporio Ivankov's design is based on Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. KEI himself has been fully aware of Miku's popularity to the point that he has parodied his own artwork of Miku from time to time.

Some fans have accused many Vocaloids of borrowing aspects of Miku and amongst the Vocaloids included in this are ;Sonika, SeeU, Utatane Piko, Ring Suzune, Yuzuki Yukari, Luo Tianyi, Gumi, Lily, Aoki Lapis and Tone Rion.

Some appearances can be explained.

Since Miku's design takes influence from particular aspects of Japanese anime-otaku culture that are popular, its easy for characters to resemble Miku even when the characters might not have any influence from Miku at all. Imaichi-tan, whose origin came from a badly drawn random magazine ad character, became an Internet Meme success when fans of the her noticed the biazzare ad. Since the advertisment asked why this character was not "Moe", fans of her even went so far to improve her design in an attempt to make her moe, the result was a demonstration of what otaku define "moe" as with many familair traits shared by Miku being applied to some of the artwork. Black★Rock Shooter, whose design was developed at about the same time as Miku's release and is often mistaken for Miku or a derivative of hers, is yet another example similar designs to Miku. Despite this, fans often do not like seeing characters that resemble Miku and it can often invite unwanted attention from them. In 2012, a chinese virtual singer concert hit a particular point by Miku fans for a "Miku-esque" appearance of the main singer Dong Fang Zhi Zi. The reaction from fans of Hatsune Miku were negative and videos of the singer recieved several thousand "dislikes", proving that even virtual singers who may suggest any essence of Miku can be met with controversial outcry. Fans even jump to conclusions on designs older then Miku's, for example, Runo from Bakugan first appeared in the series when Episode 1 aired on April the 5th 2007; Miku herself was not unvealed until the 25th of June 2007 over two months after Runo. However, some fans still draw comparisons between the two due to the colour of the pigtails and the design some mistake her as copying the design of Miku.

This is not to say that Vocaloids do not get subjected to accusations of copying other Vocaloids besides Hatsune Miku. In a bizarre twist Cul not only shares the same release date as Big Al, but as fans have noted, a sense of familiarity between his design and hers. Cul and Big Al are not alone; Sonika/Gumi as well as SF-A2 miki/Utatane Piko have also been noted by fans to bare similarities. In such cases, the designs may become a subject of jokes. As Vocaloid becomes increasingly more popular and more Vocaloids are made, finding new and unique designs will become more difficult for studios. Therefore, the creation of Vocaloids whose designs resemble other Vocaloids will occur more often.

Formula of Success


Given to the fact that Miku's design has been proven to have already influenced related products and popular modern Japanese culture, there is considered a "formula" built around her design which defines what a generic Vocaloid-like design is or one that shows clear signs of her influence. However, this varies per interpretation based on what are considered the clear signs of borrowing influence from Crypton Future Media Vocaloids. As previously explained, many of these design elements are common in Japanese Otaku culture already anyway. Miku's design or how much it has influneced other Vocaloids, or even if a formula even exists to begin with, is often not well met by a percentage of Vocaloid fans.

The following is, however, considered the basis of what is often considered the "generic" or "formula of success" for Vocaloid character design.

The base of this formula is usually these common traits that are identified in most versions, most of which came from Hatsune Miku:
 * Pigtails/twintails
 * Unusually long hair also fits in with this formula too as an alternative to pigtails; but only when supported by other aspects of the formula (alone it is not part of the formula).
 * Detached/semi-detached sleeves with sleevless shirts
 * Usually the detached sleeves are black or dark grey
 * Depending on the shape of the shirt, sleeveless shirts can also fit in with the formula alone without needing to be partnered with detached sleeves
 * Equally, the shape of the sleeve itself, even if not detached, can comply with the formula if it is much wider at the opening where the hand comes out like Miku's.
 * Long Stockings (or boots) in proportion with the skirt, similar or the same as Miku's. This means with a stocking's length is over the knee, and depending on the length, will expose the thighs. The terminology for this is called Zettai Ryōiki (絶対領域)
 * These are usually black or grey.

The formula will also use one or more of these traits shared by Miku;
 * Tie/Bow around the neck.
 * Writing on the left arm near the shoulder
 * Addition of electronic devices and synthesizer-like patterns, specially in the area of the sleeves or arms.
 * May also use the same pose as Miku's boxart or a similar pose on their own.
 * Hanging belts around the waist, or similar accessories.
 * A bichrome color scheme is quite often present.
 * In line with this, the dominance of black or grey in the color scheme

In addition, the name of the Vocaloid follows Crypton Future Media's style with a description of the voice as the surname of the Vocaloid. The name itself often has a hidden second meaning such as "Hatsune Miku" meaning "first sound of the future". Commonly the surname contains the 音(Ne, 'sound') kanji, copying further more the style of Crypton's Vocaloids. In the most extreme cases seen in UTAU and fanmade designs, the mascot designs in question will also go so far as to copy KEI's art style.

Legal Implications
The potential conflict with Crypton Future Media's copyright license on Miku and the Character Vocal series is also why the design is more closely followed by fanmades and derivatives than official Vocaloids produced by other studios. At the most the Vocaloids said to be following the design of their Vocaloids will take basic parts of them and then proceed to build a unique design on top of those basic elements. With the exception of Zero G's Sonika and Internet Co., Ltd's "Gakupo" mascot, no studio has admitted to any influence from Miku.

In design contests for Vocaloids, a strong percentage of designs will remarkably copy this formula directly. This makes the contest more difficult to pick a winning design while dodging the potential legal issues surrounding the design between the hosts of the contest and Crypton Future Media. This issue arose with the winning entry of Vocaloid: China, Yayin Gongyu (now renamed Luo Tianyi and given a new design that still recieves some criticism), who was the only one of the top 5 entries who followed the formula, even using the Crypton Future Media name design which was problematic for a Chinese Vocaloid. It was also witnessed even in Sonika's design contest, where a few entries had clear Crypton influences.

Why use it?
Some developers use it for its familiarity, based on Miku's own success, but fans may lose interest in a particular design out of boredom - feeling there is a lack of originality. In the opposite direction, going against the formula and creating a design that does not use any of the elements of the formula is said to create a product that stands out and becomes more easily distinguished from others. However, doing this can have the disadvantage of alienating fans from what they are familiar with or have a product that does not fit in with the other Vocaloid designs, as seen with Sweet Ann and Big Al's original designs. Thus there are some grounds for borrowing aspects of the design, so long as the developer does not create a literal clone of any existing design.

Formulas for success are already found outside of Vocaloid software in books, movies, games and television already and are also often applied to something to allow the developers time to focus on other aspects of the end product without have to worry about the consquences of experimenting with unknown or complex elements. Thus, use of one in Vocaloid mascot character design is nothing new, in fact many common stereotyping of characters, designs and storyline elements seen in modern culture is built upon established or pre-set formulas from existing works.

In the case of Ring and Lui, their designs were chosen from many different designs in the contest by Japanese fans themselves via voting. The fact that Japanese fans choose these characters despite their controversial designs does indicate that fans themselves find designs similar to Miku's own appealing.

Child portrayals
As noted by Crypton Future Media in regards to their Project If..., releases presented as young children risk becoming subject to sexual or pedophiliic portrayals. In particular Ah Software's first few Vocaloids and voiceroid products caught attention and were accused of serving to fulfill the lolicon fandom.

Vocaloid + Politics
Miku was also the subject of one of the most controversial uses of the legal agreements of any Vocaloid producing studio from the Democratic Party of Japan, whose running candidate, Kenzo Fujisue, attempted to secure the use of Miku's image in the Japanese House of Councillors election of July 11, 2010. The hope was that the party could use her image to appeal to younger voters. Although Crypton Future Media rejected the party's use of her image or name for political purposes, Fujisue released the song "We Are the One" using her voice on Youtube, by simply replacing her image with the party's character in the music video.

Plagiarism and Copyright Violations
Plagiarism and other forms of copyright infringement have caused both drama and serious consequences for those involved. Plagiarism and copyright infringement often overlap each other and as serious as the act either can be, it is particularly innocent as it affects only the naive individuals who are unaware of what they or anyone else has done. A example of direct violation of this level issue being the numerous Lady Gaga covers that use the background music of her song "Bad Romance". This is one of the most common ocurances of this level of act, and even when granted that the uploader acknolwedges the owner, some labels such as Sony Entertainment have know to defend their property and pull the video. Karen-T, Crypton Future Media's own label, tends to only pull PVs and videos that have been re-uploaded from their original source.

Usually, when fans commit acts such as use of illegal Vocaloids, other Vocaloid fans may drop the license holder an alert of what videos the user has uploaded. The result may be that the entire uploaders account ends up being removed or closed. Cover songs, therefore, are dangerous grounds that easily violate copyright without care and even experienced users such as Giuseppe have been a target for such acts. However, not all copyright claims have proven to be genuine with some false claims made every so often. For example, SEGA has been known to claim copyright on certain songs such as "World is Mine" even though their copyright of the song is only via the Project Diva games. This does not mean that the uploader was not in the clear, as Japanese producers rarely give premission for their works to be re-submitted outside of their own account and the vast majority find it upsetting.

Some specific cases of plagiarism or direct copyright violation, hwoever have become particularly famous. The song known to Vocaloids fans as "Secret" is an example. Originally it was stolen from the account of Ryuuuu by aRth (who stole many other songs from Ryuuuu and other Producers). Yunomi-P was subjected to hate after being forced to admit plagiarism when Vocaloid fans began to notice works by the artist were often from other sources. The stress and drama surrounding the event caused the artist to retire from Vocaloid illustrations. Songs where Yunomi had done the illustrations were targeted by trolls and anti-Yunomi messages. Karen-T also was forced to remove some songs from their listings such as Magnet while the issue was resolved. In January 2011, Japanese boyband KAT-TUN were forced to admit plagiarism against their song "Never×Over~「-」Is Your Part~", after the producer of the song admitted it was influenced by the Vocaloid song "Dye" produced by AVTechNO, after fans expressed their outrage over the similarities of the two songs. AVTechNO went down on record as stating that the band was not at fault and it was the producer of the song who committed the plagiarism.

However, in all 3 cases, the fandom met the accusation with angry replies, resulting in the fore mentioned drama surrounding these individuals involved in each case. Often, the drama was uncalled for and unecessary. Yunomi's plagiarism, for example, was not a direct violation of copyright material as the images were used mostly as source material or were already from stock images, the use of which is common in the art world already. KAT-TUN's indirect violation resulted in both the songs "Dye" and "Never×Over~「-」Is Your Part~" receiveing a particularly large amount of attention, with "Dye" itself recieving a previously unseen amount of views on Nico Nico Douga and Youtube. In the case of the song "Secret", aRth's act of stealing the song results in Ryuuuu's otherwise previously unknown song receiving much fame and attention on a song that otherwise may not have had the attention it had.

Some Youtube re-uploaders also claim their re-submission, usually done without premission, help promote the Vocaloid artists despite upsetting them in the process. Regardles of circumstances, the main issue has always been a result of the fact Vocaloid itself is a commerical product and open for anyone to use as they please and despite there being licensing agreements in place there is little studios can do to prevent this from occuring.

External links & See also

 * Zettai Ryouiki - Pixivpedia's Article (English)
 * TVTropes: Zettai Ryouiki
 * VOCALOIDs Unofficial illustrations