Rather then keep repeating myself, I'm going to write this blog and link to this in future.
I'm going to update this as I remember what to note.
The initial Reaction[]
I'm going to describe the aura of the time Piko came out;
Basically in 2011 a large number of fans began to compare Vocaloids that were coming out and it got silly. As a consquences, there were knee-jerk reactions to this. When people said things like VY1 sounded like Miku Dark, people took it as an excuse the poster was trying to say VY1 wasn't special and they got a bit stubborn about the issue. There was also a sense of this towards everything; design, name, you name it they would react to comparisons being made of it with a grudge.
People didn't want the newer Vocaloids to be put down and believed when people started to compare vocaloids, their reaction was almost like they felt you were calling the original superior to the newer vocal. Or unoriginal because it was like the previous Vocaloid. We know now in V5 that Vocaloids can sound alike, can have look alike elements, etc. But this was also the start of people get really excited for a Vocaloid release... And 6 months later they "forgot they existed". This is a very real issue as of V4, but it was beginning to form in V2 already. In fact it formed the moment the Ah software Vocaloids were released, with them being them taking a while to get anywhere but although managing it in the end.
So the atmosphere at the time of Piko was almost stubborn, refusal to accept a lot of things and a lot of things causing fans to be OTT with their reactions. So when we talk about the inital reactin from the western fandom, we describe almost like the fandom was a bunch of children saying "na-uh, VY1 isn't like Miku you dumb-dumb!" and then things become rather sad. Refusal to accept certain realities is a problem the western Fandom has, telling them that a Vocaloid can sound like another Vocaloid is hard.
The Avatar[]
When the avatar came it was considered "ugly" and a "rip off" of SF-A2 miki and had elements of CFM design. I see it and don't see the comparison here at the same time. IT mostly refers to the arm and legs looking like the design as meant to be based on the CFM design. Its likely someone did the same as with SeeU's design and said "take Miku's design and base a new Vocaloid on it, but make it unique looking".
The greys and the dead expression on the face was off putting and even VO didn't seem interested when we had a lot of bright or vivid designs going on. The only thing the design came to give is the idea that maybe he was good with miki. I agree Piko looks souless, its not like with Flower wherein the expression is suppose to convey attitude I guess or Luka, maturity. I also was one of those who found Piko's design ugly... But I also find Miku's v2 outfit ugly too and her overall design boring.
The voice[]
So the singer Piko was a decent enough singer to get a licensing deal for his vocal. For those who don't know, Piko had one of those male vocals that was fairly flexible and he could do female vocal ranges, aka the "boy soprano". These vocalists do loose this ability like most males, but they do so much later in life rather then the mid-late teens like most males. So based on the singer either way... The expectation was for something along the lines of a male who could do male and female roles, or just a lot of different roles in general. Think along the lines of Nekomura Iroha.
Then the vocal came along and... Well... It was just a teenage boy and only a teenage boy. It wasn't what people were expecting, they were expecting either a more girlie male or a gender neutral one more like Flower but higher pitched.
People just were expecting better. At the time it was Piko or the Kagamines, with the 3 HQ Len vocals pitching themselves against the MQ Piko vocal and the Kagamines were much bigger vocals. Bare in mind most buy the Kagamines even now for Rin, so they were not ness. buying it for Len, but it came with her 3 vocals anyway. And the Kagamines did between them more successfully what everyone was expecting Piko to do. The demos were okay and there was a trial version put up. The provider was capable of doing vocals that sounded both male and female, so they were expecting a Vocaloid that basically had that same liquid ability, and it kinda didn't. In fact Piko had a fraction of what the skills Piko the singer showed, so even 1 or 2 VO forums were disappointed.
It was unique enough compared to the other Vocaloids, so he didn't get that much in the way of reaction when it came to comparisons. So he was fortunate; the special snowflake vocal didn't rear its ugly head.
The name[]
The reaction to the name was "meh" because "ne" was used as this was considered a "CFM thing". We were used to rip-off and copy cat UTAUs and OCs that used "ne" meaning "sound" and when the full name of the Vocaloid happened it read "sound of singer Piko". This was considered at the time one of the mot uncreative names.
As I said, it was the era of throwing toys out of the pram and scream "no its not like them!".
When it comes to names, I will say that you have to consider that naming a Vocaloid after their provider... Is not that creative. But bare in mind, people were claiming that the Engloids had pathetic names in comparison to Japanese vocaloids, when you just have to note "Lola" means "sorrows" and thus her name has meaning. The whole issue was just that CFM made a bunch of Vocaloids with names that had meaning. In this era, they'd have picked on anything like that.
What Sony did[]
So we'd had had a couple of trial versions before, such as Lily. But Piko's demo was 5 days, barely enough time to get used to the vocal. On top of that, Sony removed any song put on Nico Nico Douga at the time. Sony was a PR disaster, their page to advertise the vocal was considered inferior, it was difficult to get the vocal and they were ticking off the Japanese producers.
At the time the Vocaloid fandom was held up purely by the Japanese fandom and he, being a Japanese Vocaloid, was purely aimed at Japan. At the time VOCALOID2 had a split market, the English vocals were aimed at the English speaking market and no foreigner was expected to go after any Japanese Vocaloid. They were aimed only at Japanese and built souly for Japanese. So to tick off the Japanese producers in any way was bad. And a number bailed.
Being male, well, males don't sell in Japan unless their Len or Kaito, this was very true at the time. They didn't even always buy into Gackpo.
He was download only at a time as well, when most had a hard version, thus limiting things further. This only made things harder for foreigners, but that at the time wasn't a big deal.
The first year[]
The most important years of a products life, the majority of products on a market (expect resources such as iron, steel, etc) is that precious first or second year. The majority of consumers only buy on those two years. Piko got among the least popular Vocaloids and didn't seem to do well.
It wasn't just he was releasing alongside the Kagamines, nor that the Japanese fans weren't into males. We had within months VY2 with us, the best male vocal V2 had to offer. At this point it was made clear that Len and Ryuto were not true male vocals, even though they were sold, and if you wanted a truly good male, you bought VY2. Bye-bye Piko in short.
And then came the ultimate kicker; VOCALOID3.
VOCALOID3 kinda impacted the sales of most V2's, unless their CFM ones we're talking about. Why buy this now LQ product when VOCALOID3 vocals were just better. And they all were. Even the English ones were an improvement at this stage over what came before. With a lot of new female vocaloids entering the scene, females being much more likely to sell, there was a scramble to release new Vocaloids. The price was they ate into each other's sales. But most of all they eat into V2 sales by far.
Vocaloid3 has a lot of promotion and there was actually an event related to it. So Piko just got forgotten and nobody seemed to care. There were very few fans and very little interest.
So the State of things[]
If we get a Piko update, we get a Piko update.
Until then, its too late to save Piko and nothing a bunch of foreigners can do will change that. The one thing that came of V3 was that there suddenly was a "idea" that there can be clear winners and loosers among Vocaloid. You see during V2, most Vocaloids were overall popular, getting a lot of sales and a lot of interest. During the late V3 era we got CeVIO enter the scene, and while UTAU died a death due to things ending in 2013, there was now a decent commercial product on the market to compete with Vocaloid in Japan. And its been with us since, eating slowly into the Japanese fanbase and there is nothing we can do.
Vocaloids no longer trending in Japan and while its popular its now just like the trolls - "oh you still are into Vocaloid?". Their over it. Thus Vocaloid is now growing globally much faster then Japan, which I said would happen. One good thing thats come out of this is that its a lot easier to get hold of all Vocaloids.
However, no one cared about Piko. Until the V2 retirement. Literally you can go over our comment section and see most interest is recent. And as I said to someone days before writing this, 500 foreigners will not get back Piko. 500 Japanese producers will not get back Piko (you need 1000 at least and thats V1 standards). Piko is by all means "gone" and at this stage we're talking a big miracle/surprise if he gets an update.
Nobody cares about the 8 Engloids we're left behind, but lets put it this way... When V3 goes, there are a lot of Japanese Vocaloids going with it. They have never gotten an update, may never get one. Thats... Fine. It validates older engines and its nice to have vocals we'll never get in modern engines.
As I've also said before, we've also got a number of "young male" vocals to replace him; Yohioloid, Yuu and the other Zola boys, Arsloid, VY2, Len (who isn't a "male" vocal in truth), Fukase.
Male Vocaloids just don't do well anyway, so even an update wouldn't get a lot of sales. Which is why I don't see it happening readily. And don't... Really want it. The vocal for V2 disappointed and it would need more to the package, an update would need a extra vocal at least to warrant it. And given most modern Vocaloids have bigger vocals ranges, I don't also want to see more Rana and LUMi vocals, with aspects of the V2 era at a time when everyone else does more and can do more. Its as simple as that. Why buy Piko with his minute V2 range, when there is Fukase who, while also having a small range, has 2 vocals and a English one. He can do more that what Piko can right now and is better.
Usually, whenever foreigners such as ourselves try and "save" a Vocaloid, its like Galaco... We actually had no influence on the fact she stayed, though people will still claim credit for that. She was confirmed their "working on it" before the petition went up. The biggest issue is, even though many of the Japanese Vocaloids can now be purchased, their not even now aimed at us. Their still being aimed at Japanese producers with us always being the cheap change. We don't contribute enough back into Japanese vocaloids and most producers don't know how to make them sing right or are not professional enough being too amateurish. We tend to see Vocaloids as a toy more still then a serious product.
The thing is as well, its no good asking for a product if you don't actually buy it. In fact companies expect a amount of "I want" from fans at times, knowing full dam well they wont' buy it. So if Piko gets an update and no one buys it, sure, you've got your update... But that can often be far more fatal to a product to give fans what they want then see them not buy it. In fact... If Piko was released and the same response happened, it would kill Piko dead from any further updates. So bare that in mind. If you want Piko, thats fine but you'd have to buy him to make it worth Sony's time. And Sony is a bit cooperate greedy, their notorious for it as they work by the "sales income" idea. Meaning the product can be 5% profitable compared to another product that earsn 54%, but if the 5% one gets in $5,000,000 a year and the 54% gets in $5,000, their going to invest more into the 5% product over the 54% one. No, I don't understand why companies do this either, but thats how a lot of big cooperates work. ^_^'
So, the odds are stacked up and honestly? I'd rather have Big Al, Sweet Ann, Prima, Leon, Lola and Tonio get an update over Piko. We have no replacements for them. We have for Piko.
TL;DR?[]
The main issue is mostly put things down to is;
- Sony's PR handling pre-release
- The lack of interest in males
- The end of the V2 era with the beginning of the V3 era.
Those 3 things are basically the death of Piko, with basically the Kagamines Append and VY2 being the only 2 things I consider a minor issue and not a major one. Basically, they just didn't help.
Its 2019, not 2011 when it was important to him he succeed, its a miracle if he gets a release at this point. No amount of "aww poor Piko" from a bunch of westerners is going to impact a Japanese Vocaloid either, remember Japanese Vocaloids are released for Japanese to use. Not saying you should give up, saying you should not get your hopes high at this point. And even if a update ever comes, a second failure would be a disaster.
Version edits;[]
- 2nd April 2019; I tweaked a sentence I wasn't happy with, and expanded a tad bit on the voice reaction.
- "Too Long - Didn't Read" section added for the sake of those who don't want to read an essay.
- 19th of may - bit of re-organisation and some tweaks to make it flow more