Megurine Luka


 * For the octopus-chibi derivative, see Tako Luka

Megurine Luka (巡音ルカ / Megurine Ruka) was the third Japanese Vocaloid2 from Crypton and released on January 30, 2009. Yū Asakawa (浅川 悠 / Asakawa Yū) provided the "cool, somewhat mysterious" character vocals.

Vocaloid 2
Her introduction was firstly by code (CV03) and her existence was made known during the Kagamine original release promotions and was intended to be the last of the CV series vocals. On 05/01/2009 the first letter of her surname was revealed with the promise of more information to come. On the 06/01/2009, Megurine Luka was revealed. Crypton advertised Luka's vocal database as "Japanese," like Kagamine Rin and Len's..

However, a second voicebank was shown shortly before her release that gave her capabilities to sing in English. This was revealed on the 14/11/2008. At the time of Luka's release, there was a growing interest in English speaking Vocaloids. Luka offered both languages for the price of one, giving Japanese Vocaloid users the chance to test their skills on English capable Vocaloids. Her English voicebank was produced in a series of experimental recordings, and her vocal provider Yū herself was not involved in the recording process, which took eight months.

Crypton Future Media chose Megurine Luka's name to express its hope that she would transcend borders and cultural barriers. Her surname literally means "sound that goes around." Luka was designed by the Japanese illustrator Kei, who had previously created the designs for Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin and Len. Demo .VSQ files for "UP" were made able to be downloaded from the Crypton Future Media blog as part of promotion for her release.

Append;2010
Luka is the next member of the character Vocal series to receive an append.

In December 2010, tests were run on Luka's alpha expression voice, however, it was not as sexy as Wat had hoped. Wat was also surveying the quality of the vocal.

Confirmation of production order was Meiko> Megurine Luka >> Kaito.

The first commercial use of the Luka Append is on the album "VOCALOID民族調曲集", she sings the song "星空と雪の舞踏会 (Zeal mix) / このり". The VOCALO APPEND album later used beta voicebanks of Luka's Append.

Append;2011
In July, Wat reported that Meiko and Luka's progress was coming along quietly.

In a twitter on the 12th July 2011, Wat mentioned doing test in relation to a Luka "Soft" append.

Wat tweeted on the 1st Dec 2011, noting that all previous demos had originally been rendered with the Vocaloid2 engine, and things were being redone for the Vocaloid3 engine.

A video with samples from the VOCALO APPEND album was uploaded on December 17th, 2011.

Voice Sample

Append;2012
Crypton is going to add Japanese and English Voicebanks to her V3 append although are still trying to work out how to make them cost effective.

Append;2013
Currently, Luka and Meiko are planned for release on Vocaloid3, but no estimated release can be set at this moment.

Concept
According to KEI, who was asked to illustrate her by Crypton, due to her bilingual software, her design was made to be asymmetrical, so from different angles she would look different.

Her design incorporates woodwind and brass instruments. The gold curl design on her chest mimics brass instruments and a circulatory organ. The jewel on her throat represents moisture in the air and water drops.

Vocaloid fans tried to assign an item to Luka like they had done with past Vocaloids and there was a heated debate on what Luka's item would be. Tako Luka is marked as the end of the "Item War" system where as items were assigned to Vocaloids based on Internet Memes. Despite the Internet Meme's popularity, she is often seen with a tuna fish. This is a result of comparing the Japanese word for "tuna" with her last name.

Etymology
Her surname combines Meguri (巡, circulate or around) and Ne (音, sound), while the name Luka invokes the homonymous Japanese words of "nagare" (流, flow) and "ka" (歌, song) or "ka" (香, scent); thus making "songs to all around the world as scent spreads."

Marketing
Unlike previous mascots in the series, her costume is not based on a school uniform. Despite the inclusion of English, Megurine Luka was not aimed at a world wide audience and was aimed at the Japanese producers.

US Debut
Along with Miku's US debut, other Vocaloids from the Character Vocal series made their debuts alongside her. Megurine Luka appeared alongside Miku in the Los Angeles concert.

Megurine Luka 3D
A 3D data pack for the software Shade 12 Basic was announced as Megurine Luka 3D. The software pack contained data and a 3D model for the 3D animation "Corruption Garden" made using the software. The pack is now available in English. A Blu-Ray featuring the PV was also made for sale on the 8th of June 2011, the video was created by IKEDA. This is the only such pack for the 3D software package so far for a Vocaloid character It includes four complete sets of clothing, pre-set poses and more.

Figurines


Luka has several figurines based on her. Exclusively figurines were sold during the 2009 Treasure festa event of Megurine Luka. During the 2009 and 2010 seasons she appeared in the Good smile racing figurine sets. A special "Toeto" figurine was also made based on the PV "Toeto".


 * For more see Figurines

Clothing
She has appeared on T-shirt designs, often to promote Luka herself or particular albums by Producers.

In 2011, Piapro held a contest with members to design Goth Lolita clothing for Vocaloids, the designs were produced by the company Putumayo. Amongst the winners were designs based on Luka's own attaire.

ACOS have also produced an official cosplay outfit + wig.

LincEnglish
LincEnglish is currently collaborating to make use of Megurine Luka and Hatsune Miku's abilities to do English and their voicebanks will be used to teach Japanese kids "English". The lessons are "coming [sic] soon" according to the advertisement.

Calendar
Crypton Future Media vocaloids have also appeared in 2013 calendars.

4th Anniversary
Crypton Future Media are celebrating the Kagamine's 5th Anniversary, along with Megurine Luka's 4th, with a number of goodies.

Voicebank Libraries

 * Megurine Luka has songs in the Nico Nico Douga Hall of Fame
 * Comparison between the Vocaloid and voice provider
 * Comparison between her Japanese and English voicebank
 * A tutorial for Luka can be found here

Vocaloid 2

 * Megurine Luka

V3 Megurine Luka (CV03)
Unreleased


 * -|Megurine Luka; Japanese =
 * -|Megurine Luka; English =

V3 Megurine Luka (CV03);Append
Unreleased

Append voicebank will add additional Japanese vocals, with the possibility of also including English ones (still in planning stages). Like the previous Hatsune Miku Append and Kagamine Rin/Len Append, Luka's append will be designed to add a "expression of colors" to her voice and will contain several vocals in different "colors" or moods. The will not be based on natural tones and like the original Luka vocals, based on vocal character performance.

Examples of Usage
To our readers and editors, for section notes please read; Notes; Examples sections.


 * -|Megurine Luka =

Popularity

 * Google Trends, "Megurine Luka"



Luka was the first Vocaloid to impact Hatsune Miku's popularity. Only a few days after her release, many songs were produced. On the 70th Weekly Vocaloid Ranking (February 2, 2009), many of Luka's songs appeared in the Top 30, knocking the very popular "Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru" and songs produced by ryo (with the exception of "Melt") right out of the Top 30. "RIP=RELEASE" had taken the #1 spot, and had earned a total of 843,233 points, making it the song with the highest one-week score.

In 2010, Luka was ranked as the 3rd most popularVocaloid product they sold.

A independent Vocaloid search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most Vocaloids had less then 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in between July 1 and December 15 2011. Luka, however had managed to gain enough views not to fall into this problem. Luka had the 4th highest number of uploads at 2103 videos onto the website. Luka, who had 3855998 views and 301640 mylists in total was the 5th most popular viewed Vocaloid on the site as well. Luka’s 1837.94/143.78 average views placed her as the bottom of the top 6 Vocaloids based on average view counts. However, when the lists of top 6 Vocaloids were sorted based on the mean number, a more accurate reflection of the Vocaloids popularity, Luka did not make the top six.

Trivia

 * While the software was in the alpha stage of development, Crypton were hoping for a voice that sounded sexy, however, due to the level of softness in the results the vocals were unable to sound sexy.
 * Some call her "Ruka" or "Luca" however this is incorrect. Though the romanized version of the word could be either, the English version has been confirmed as "Luka" and since there is no dubbed version to content with, this name remains the only official name in existence for the Vocaloid.
 * Luka can be heard in the original musical score "Arisen Anew" from a Homestuck album called AlterniaBound.
 * An old trick within the Western vocaloid fandom is to have Luka's Vocaloid2 English voicebank and Sonika sing together. If correctly done both voices will blend together, the advantage of this is both Vocaloids effectively hide each others flaws since both Vocaloids have similair vocal ranges.
 * There has been some noticeable concerns with the information on her from the Mikunopolis website;
 * On the Mikunopolis website Luka's profile contains the statement; "In the past, creating songs with English lyrics had always been somewhat awkward, but Luka is able to sing both in Japanese, English or a mix of the two - a worldwide virtual singer". While it is true it had always been awkward to use a Japanese Vocaloid for English, it only applies to Japanese Vocaloids as there had always existed English capable Vocaloids so the English language had always been easy to access.
 * As mentioned in "Usage for Music", she has a number of issues with her English voicebank that leave some English speakers questioning her English capabilities overall. So ironically while she has the best English level of any Japanese based Vocaloid, just how much lack of awkwardness there is to her vocal results is questionable.
 * Lastly, she was aimed at the Japanese speaking market and was originally not intended to be a world wide release (hence the lack of an English interface).
 * Despite the inclusion of a English voicebank that can more accurately mimic the English language, some Japanese producers still like to use her Japanese voicebank to mimic English. This is because it is often easier for a native Japanese speaker to work with Japanese phonetics they are familiar with, rather then with the English ones they are not despite the lesser quality results. Also this ensures her tone stays consistent throughout the song.
 * In Project DIVA games,her skirt was short while her original design is long,this was later brought in Project DIVA f.

Notable for...

 * First bilingual Vocaloid
 * First Japanese/English bilingual Vocaloid
 * First female bilingual Vocaloid
 * First English voicebank produced by a Japanese company
 * First English voicebank provided by a Japanese provider
 * First newly released Vocaloid to impact Miku's rankings in the Vocaloid ranking charts

Gallery
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