Camui Gackpo

Kamui Gakupo
Musician and actor Gackt lent his voice and stage name for the creation of the newest Vocaloid, Kamui Gakupo (神威がくぽ). Yamaha wanted to utilize the voice of a musician but felt it would be difficult to acquire cooperation. They consulted Dwango (new owner of Vocaloid publisher Internet Co. Ltd.), who suggested Gackt, as Gackt had previously provided his voice for Dwango's cell phone services. Referred to alternately as Gakupoid or Gackpoid, the most recent release includes a new program, OPUS Express, for mixing vocal parts with accompaniment and phoneme data. The new software will be available for download for users with registered copies of previous Vocaloids. Besides the new program, Gackpoid will include two of Gackt's songs and three example songs.

The product was originally intended to be released in June 2008, but although Gackt existed as a model for the Vocaloid, it lacked an illustrated avatar to match the previous Vocaloids. Popular manga author Kentarō Miura, famous for his dark fantasy epic Berserk, was approached. Due to Miura's affection for Nico Nico Douga, he agreed to offer his services as character designer for free. As a fan of Berserk, Gackt was more than happy with this arrangement, and requested Miura's sketches be faxed to him as well as the developers, even though he was on location for the filming of Guy Moshe's Bunraku. Gackpoid was released on July 31 2008.