Board Thread:Japanese VOCALOID discussion/@comment-7882956-20171130075946/@comment-53539-20171218165530

First Sound Future wrote: It's disappointing to me that she will be a V4... I really wanted her to be a surprise V5 release or something like that (but in some way I'm not surprised that's she's not, Yamaha would probably prefer to announce the next generation with VY1).

Anyway, even if she is a V4, she still sounds really nice but that's to be expected from AHS since their Vocaloids always sound great. Her voice kinda reminds of another Vocaloid but I can't exactly point out which one... Maybe like a younger sounding Yukari?

Her design is awesome and Akari looks super cute. I think Akari's design is much better than Yukari's original design if I'm being honest, it just seems to make better use of colors in some way? Yukari has too much purple. ><

Also, some people (me included) are saying she looks like Yukari's and IA's love child and as a shipper of the two, I love it when people point that out :v Honestly with the fact V4 only added XSY and GWL, I'm wondering if it is also because there is no big differences between V4 and the awaited V5. Either that or she was too close to finish.

v5 could come late 2018 anyway or early 2019... Knowing something is just around the corner doesn't mean its literally coming out next month. V4 was actually being worked upon 2 years before its release. Thus we know at this point at least its being worked upon... But when it will come is what we don't know. ITs due within the next 2 years.

Studios often can't wait that long, they need to release new vocals and it may not be worth delaying a Vocaloid 1 year to wait for V5. Often also if a project is too far into a voicebank, there is no reason to delay. However, I'm honestly feeling its better not to rush a project... To me the Luka V3 project likely dropped when CFM found out V4 was about to be released and they rushed to make changes. We got the mess that is EVEC as a result. A rushed project is kinda a sucky thing to be honest. I'd rather have had the 5 voicebanks she was going to have in V3 then what we got which was EVEC. If we do get V5 within the next year I hope they handle it more gently...

Part of me wonders if in some point in time, the vocaloid software will just end up going down the path of some other software wherein you buy the engine once or subscribe monthly to it and they just keep releasing new voicebanks. IT would be the end of the generation thing per say though.

I will note with Akari here, releasing her as a v4 may be good idea, as they can then re-release her with more content in V5 like they did with Yukari in V3 and V4.