User blog:OtterJiang/The Lost Ones (Unreleased V3 Review)

Inspired by comment from Yoshimikufan 

While they were either dropped and/or shifted to another vocal program, these three ex-VOCALOID3's should get a review just like all the others. Because one of them at least has a design, and the other two still have their designs. So, I figured, since there's only three days left until the end of the year, and since I wanted to redeem myself from my heavily biased review of SeeU (obviously one of my favorites, always wanted to do well), I thought it'd be interesting to give these three darlings their own, exclusive, reviews.

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Suzune Ring - When I heard she was going to be created, based off of the fans, I was seriously excited. And when I saw her first design on an obscure YouTube video, which I can't find anymore, I was extremely excited. Probably because of the long, white hair. And at first, I thought she was going to be a Korean VOCALOID because the video featured SeeU, too. Then I researched, found out she was going to be Japanese, and couldn't have been more excited.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't really see her as a Miku clone, but that was probably because the demo they released featured a picture of her next to Miku, and she had green pigtails instead of the green-blue/teal we're used to. The voice sort of disappointed me, mostly because I wasn't expecting it to be as high pitched as it was. But I wasn't unimpressed, because a majority of her demos were fairly well executed. I found it hard to listen to some of them, though. The ones where they lowered her voice seemed strange, because first of all, I had already grown accustomed to her higher pitched voice, (first time hearing "Sweet Pain", bass broke my ears ), and I thought she had a nice quality to her voicebank. Release of other demos proved otherwise, and I lost interest in her fairly quickly.

Then, they changed her design.

I find it ironic how she was made for the fans, and then the fans completely despised her new design. While the new design is fairly Miku-esque, I didn't see what the big deal was. I hated that the new design looked 0%  like the old one, save for the necktie ribbon (reason number 2 why I thought she was going to be a Korean VOCALOID, the original design was more SeeU-esque in the shirt, skirt and ribbon regard, as well as the stockings). The extreme backlash was a blow to her popularity and overall reception, though again, I find it funny how after everyone found out she wasn't going to be released, they were all upset.

First we complain about how she looks too much like Miku, how high her voice is, and then we all get mad about her not getting released. While it's always disappointing to see a VOCALOID not get released, I think in this regard, it's sort of fortunate they couldn't fund production, because there wouldn't be as much risk as her not getting received well and not making much money in sales.

But there's always that "what if" factor; What if she had gotten released, and like CUL, garnered more popularity as time went on? Of course, there's that possibility of Ring and Hibiki getting picked up by other companies, but at this point, it's basically the real-life equivalent of finding a Unicorn in space. And with VOCALOID4 coming out soon, I highly doubt a news update of any kind will be happening. She's dead, and I at least wish her old design should RIP. 4/10

--can't help but feel like Ring would have an oddly similar Tone Rion-like situation with her release.

Hibiki Lui - While we all know that design is far from everything in defining a VOCALOID's success, it's unfortunately all we have to go on with this review. And let me just start with; The first time I saw his design, I thought he was a'' girl. ''Real talk. A ''female VOCALOID. ''I even pointed him/her out to my lovely friend at school, who, when she read the rest of the review on the design, showed me that Lui was, indeed, a boy.

And we thought Utatane Piko's design was feminine.

Seriously! The booty shorts, the ribbon, the boots and the stockings? It's like they wanted to make both Rin and Len, but then make it a guy in order to give them balance with both a male and female contestant victory. In which case, I'd say they picked the perfect one. However, the lack of originality in his design, and the fact that he looked extremely feminine (the boy has longer eyelashes than many female VOCALOIDs), and the fact that his new design received a brilliant amount of backlash from the fandom, as well, it's safe to assume we were all less than impressed with the boy. Though it seems like many of the female fans were very excited with hearing his voice. Which, unfortunately, may never happen. 3.5/10

Anri Rune - The fuzzy, low quality demo video, and the unexpected high pitched voice I could barely hear in said video, didn't give me high hopes for this VOCALOID. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out she was going to be privately owned, because otherwise I doubt she would've done well in sales following to release. An odd design, with elements that don't quite match up (there's a reason why you don't see female VOCALOIDs with thigh-high stockings and shorts), and the strange design elements theygave her, just don't add up the way they were intended. The neck ribbon that doesn't match the bow on the back, the collar detached from a boat dip shirt with an opening at the navel, and then the wide shorts, strange, contrasting hat and bland headphone design (think kokone), and weak element of the glowing diamonds dotted along the ensemble, don't make me scream "UNIQUE! BEAUTIFUL! PERFECT! COSPLAY ASAP!" in the slightest. Not a great voice, bland/weak design, and poor reception from the fandom, add up for a bit of a disaster-loid. 2/10

ALYS - I was excited when she was announced. I went out of my way to design my own concept for ALYS (although I ended up making her way too French for their liking), and despite losing/not standing a chance, I was ecstatic for her official design release. And then all my hopes and dreams were crushed for the first French/Japanese VOCALOID when they said she'd be moved to CeVIO. As if this wasn't already a crushing blow to her popularity and reception, moving her to a much lesser known voice synthesizing program out of nowhere definitely won't help.

Her design is the only one that I think works the shorts/stockings combo, though even then I'm not very impressed. The use of color is lovely, however the purple eyes don't quite match up, nor the darker blue of her hair. The braid's nice, only because there aren't that many VOCALOIDs/CeVIO's out there that wear them. And I'm a sucker for braids. The disproportioned body is  off-putting, too (I'd be fine with the chest, if the waist matched up. While it's normal for most Shounen anime characters, it's not for VOCALOID, where we can at least expect proportionate body types to match the breast size(s)). The strange, transparent cape/coattails she has going on attached to her middle doesn't do much for me, either. I feel like they needed some sort of flowing element, and tacked it on. I feel she'd look just fine without them.

Her voice, I have mixed feelings about. This is mainly because, as I am now studying French, I find it hard to understand when she speaks. The voice is a strange mixture of high pitch and low, because when she goes up, so does the pitch of her voice, and then the lower, the lower the pitch. It's a bit off-putting, but in her second demo, it's a bit more under control. It's a nice pitch for her, and I think it fits her design quite well. While I'm not a fan of the nasalness of the vocal, it's nothing that would take away from her voice overall. In the end, I'm cautiously optimistic for her release in CeVIO. Especially considering both her demos have 100,000+ views each. Not a hopeless case at all, I think! 6/10

Meaw (Bonus) - I was interested in the idea of Meaw, mostly because their first demo was interesting to me. I liked the video direction, and I loved the models they used for the dance. While the designs are bland, they're still original, at least, to a point. The colors are unique, and their hair is long and curly, opposites of each other. The gloves and frills, while not original, are certainly cute, as well as the headphones. Not too many VOCALOIDs have that animal theme, as Meaw, Yuzuki Yukari and SeeU have (Rana, too). The design is simple for both of them -one of them is essentially an inverted version of the other-, it still has more interesting and unique elements to it.

The voices, however, are a different story. The vocals don't quite match their designs, as well as the lack of demos that really flatter the vocals to begin with, make for a rather disappointing show. Neither of the voices really sound high quality, nor do they sound like much effort has been put into their development. And seeing as both Mei and Uu have faded into confusing obscurity, it's no wonder they weren't particularly appealing to the fandom. 3/10

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I hope you enjoyed this little extra review, and I hope I did a little better to control my bias! ^^ Thanks for reading!