Megurine Luka (巡音ルカ), codenamed CV03, is a Japanese VOCALOID developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc., and was initially released in January 2009 for the VOCALOID2 engine. She is the third release of Crypton's Character Vocal Series and is a Character Voice VOCALOID. In March 2015, additional voicebanks and an upgrade to the VOCALOID4 engine were released.
Her voice is provided by the Japanese voice actress and singer, Yū Asakawa (浅川悠 / Asakawa Yū), who was recorded in Japanese and English for the voicebank.[2][3]
As of August 31, 2019, there will be no further installments with the VOCALOID program. Instead Crypton is focusing on their own program, Piapro Studio.[4][5]
Concept
Megurine Luka was the first VOCALOID designed to fully support producing vocals in both Japanese and English, and the first addition to the Character Vocal Series software line characterized as an adult.[6]
Etymology
Her surname combines "Meguri" (巡, circulate or around) and "Ne" (音, sound), while the name "Luka" invokes the homophonous pronunciations of 流 (ru, flow), 歌 (ka, song) and 香 (ka, scent), thus making: "songs to all around the world as scent spreads."
Her name is based on her concept, which is "travelling sound", meaning words which are translated from one language to another.[7]
Her codename of "CV03" means "Character Voice 03".
Appearance
VOCALOID fans tried to assign an item to Luka as they had done with past VOCALOIDs, sparking heated debate over the choice. Tako Luka marked the end of the "Item Wars" system where items were assigned to VOCALOIDs based on 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" (maguro) with her last name.
According to KEI, who was asked by Crypton to illustrate her, her design was made to be asymmetrical due to her bilingual software so she would look different in various angles. Unlike previous mascots in the series, her costume is not based on a school uniform. She is based on the "Yamaha VL1 VL-1". Her dress was designed to look old-fashioned to make her represent the past. As a form of contrast, the "∞" on her neck area represents "sound around".[8]
Her design incorporates woodwind and brass instruments. The gold curl design on her chest mimics brass instruments and a circulatory organ. The blue jewel near her throat represents moisture in the air and water drops.[9]INFORMATION PENDING
Relations
For more on VOCALOID relationships, see the FAQ.
- Hatsune Miku - Fellow member of the Character Vocal Series.
- Kagamine Rin & Len - Fellow members of the Character Vocal Series.
History
Marketing
Despite the inclusion of English, Megurine Luka was not aimed at a worldwide audience. Instead, she was focused primarily at Japanese producers. Her VOCALOID2 software and promotions therefore were restricted for a long time to within Japan and not even software support was offered in English.
Crypton Future Media applied for trademark for Luka on January 29, 2015.[10]
On August 11, 2021 at the "Hatsune Miku Chronicle" (初音ミク・クロニクル) art exhibition event, merchandise featuring Megurine Luka's original concept artwork now known as Megurine Luka if. (巡音ルカ if) were revealed with a finalized illustration of the original design by KEI.[11][12]
Voicebanks
The following covers the VOCALOID software, for future releases see Piapro Studio releases.
- Megurine Luka - Japanese
- The original voicebank for Japanese voicebank. Luka was intended to be a moody sounding vocal with a soft sound and was voice acted, though represents a more experienced singer.
- This vocal has since been retired. In the later V4x version the only way to recreate this vocal was via the use of E.V.E.C. colour "Native", as further releases favoured a more realistic vocal for Luka over a voice acted one, though there are significant differences between the original and E.V.E.C.s "Native" colour.
- Megurine Luka (VOCALOID2), January 30, 2009
- Megurine Luka - Soft
- A more realistic version of the Megurine Luka vocal designed to sound more like Yū Asakawa, this version has softer sounds for more precise pronunciations.
- Megurine Luka V4X (VOCALOID4, Piapro Studio2), March 19, 2015
- Megurine Luka - Hard
- A more realistic version of the Megurine Luka vocal designed to sound more like Yū Asakawa, this version has harder sounds for more precise pronunciations.
- Megurine Luka V4X (VOCALOID4, Piapro Studio2), March 19, 2015
- Megurine Luka - English Straight
- The English version of the Megurine Luka vocal, intended to have the same vocal tone as the Japanese version.
- Megurine Luka (VOCALOID2), January 30, 2009
- Megurine Luka V4X (VOCALOID4, Piapro Studio2), March 19, 2015
- Megurine Luka - English Soft
- The "English Straight " vocal adjusted to have a softer tone.
- Megurine Luka V4X (VOCALOID4, Piapro Studio2), March 19, 2015
- Other voicebanks
- She was due an Append in VOCALOID2 and a example of this was heard on the VOCALOID3 promotional album "The VOCALOIDs", but due to the switch from VOCALOID2 to VOCALOID3 production was changed in favour of VOCALOID3. In VOCALOID3 the production was also impacted by the switch to VOCALOID4.
- Details of voicebanks remain vague on these versions.
Music featuring Megurine Luka
![[nn]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/vocaloid/images/1/16/Favicon-nn.png/revision/latest?cb=20131115031623){kind=small}
| Translation | Luka Luka★Night Fever |
|---|---|
| Featuring | Megurine Luka
|
| Producers | |
| Categories | Original song |
| Translation | Just Be Friends |
|---|---|
| Featuring | Megurine Luka
|
| Producers | |
| Categories | Original song |
"VOCALOID Megurine Luka" on Niconico Video- "VOCALOID Megurine Luka" on YouTube
- "VOCALOID Megurine Luka" on bilibili
- "VOCALOID Megurine Luka" on SoundCloud
- "VOCALOID 巡音ルカ" on Niconico Video
- "VOCALOID 巡音ルカ" on YouTube
- "VOCALOID 巡音ルカ" on bilibili
- "VOCALOID 巡音ルカ" on SoundCloud
- "VOCALOID 巡音流歌" on Niconico Video
- "VOCALOID 巡音流歌" on YouTube
- "VOCALOID 巡音流歌" on bilibili
- "VOCALOID 巡音流歌" on SoundCloud
- "VOCALOID 巡音露卡" on Niconico Video
- "VOCALOID 巡音露卡" on YouTube
- "VOCALOID 巡音露卡" on bilibili
- "VOCALOID 巡音露卡" on SoundCloud
Reputation
Status
| Google Trends |
| Sales |
  Crypton's product list, 12/10/2011, Megurine Luka is in 3rd place In 2010, Luka was ranked as the 3rd most popular VOCALOID product Crypton sold.[13] In October 2013, Luka's VOCALOID2 software disappeared off the top 10 products charts as the Hatsune Miku V3 and its bundle package disrupted the chart rankings.[14] Luka had already fallen to 6th place during the 2013 period as a result of the KAITO V3 release, but this was the first time Luka had disappeared from the charts. After the charts began to settle down again, Luka began to occupy the same spot on the charts that KAITO's original vocal previously occupied (6th-8th place), putting the popularity of the product on par with the older product. After MEIKO V3's release, Luka became the only member of the VOCALOID2 Character Vocal Series vocals to have a product on the charts, leaving her in 5th place. However, VOCALOID2 vocals were mostly absent from the rankings in April 2014. By mid-2014, both she and the VOCALOID2 Kagamine Rin/Len package no longer held constant places in the rankings and were constantly on and off Crypton Future Media sales charts. In March 2015, the Megurine Luka V4x package got the no.1 spot for the sales of all digital instruments on Big Fish Audio.[15] Soon after the V4x package release, she grabbed the Crypton top sales rankings and remained there for April 2015. On May 1, the site updated to reveal the package in 3rd place behind Hatsune Miku V3. This was approximately the same length of time that MEIKO V3 had spent at the same position in 2014 after its release before the Hatsune Miku V3 package pushed it back down again. In 2014, Crypton's download store, Sonicwire, reported that the VOCALOID2 version had managed to get to 6th place on the list of sold products.[16] In 2015, her V4x version sold enough to top the charts at no.1 position.[17] |
| Reaction |
|
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 songs featuring Luka appeared in the Top 3. This event knocked the popular song "Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru" and songs produced by ryo (with the exception of "Melt") 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. Overall Luka remains the 3rd most popular Crypton VOCALOID. At times she claims Kagamine Rin's 2nd position, though Luka does not always maintain that position. Some of this is caused by Kagamine Rin's popularity sometimes being contributed to by Kagamine Len's popularity. |
| Misc |
|
An independent search on Nico Nico Douga revealed most VOCALOIDs had less than 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in 2011 between July 1 and December 15. Luka, however, had managed to gain enough views to not fall into this category. Luka had the 4th highest number of uploads with 2,103 videos to Nico Nico Douga. Luka, who had 3,855,998 views and 301,640 mylists in total, was the 5th most popular viewed VOCALOID on the site. 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 VOCALOID's popularity) Luka did not make the top six.[18] In 2015, a survey was made based on the popularity of VOCALOIDs on the website Nico Video. For the year 2014, Megurine Luka was the 7th most popular VOCALOID.[19] |
| Trivia |
|
| Achievements |
|
References
- ↑ https://ec.crypton.co.jp/pages/prod/virtualsinger/cv03
- ↑ Yū Asakawa's Official Profile
- ↑ Yū Asakawa's Blog
- ↑ https://blog.crypton.co.jp/l/2019/08/n1908311/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/labopton/status/1167698329389551616?s=19
- ↑ http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0902/10/news036.html
- ↑ https://blog.sonicwire.com/2009/01/post-95.html
- ↑ http://sekiseblog.blog51.fc2.com/blog-entry-150.html
- ↑ IT Media News - 「巡音ルカ」は「ミク」「リン・レン」とどう違う？ (How is Luka different from Miku and Rin/Len?)
- ↑ http://www.trademarkia.com/megurine-luka-79159406.html
- ↑ https://piapro.net/39chronicle/ex.html
- ↑ https://www.hmv.co.jp/artist_%E5%88%9D%E9%9F%B3%E3%83%9F%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AB_000000000875231/
- ↑ https://blog.sonicwire.com/2010/12/2010-vocaloid-1.html
- ↑ http://vocaloid.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-17165.html
- ↑ http://blog.bigfishaudio.com/archives/4990
- ↑ http://blog.sonicwire.com/2014/12/sonicwire-2014-5.html
- ↑ http://blog.sonicwire.com/2015/12/sonicwire-2015-4.html
- ↑ http://www.vocaloidism.com/2012/01/04/the-harsh-realities-of-vocaloid-on-nico/
- ↑ http://ch.nicovideo.jp/kadotanimitsuru/blomaga/ar699704
- ↑ Tweets - Append - the Future of Luka? - 8:32 PM Dec 10th, 2010
- ↑ Homestuck - Arisen Anew
External links
| Language | Description | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | Crypton Future Media Inc. official homepage | Link |
| Japanese | VOCALOID2 Megurine Luka product page for CV03 | Link |
| Japanese | Megurine Luka Piapro product page for LV3 | Link |
| Japanese | Megurine Luka V4X product page for V4X | Link |
| English | deviantArt , art and media community | Link |
| Japanese | Pixiv , art and media community | Link |
| Japanese | Piapro , art and media community | Link |
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