#senbonzakura the musical

[timetravellingshinigami]

Do ever wonder if Ichigo gets mild PTSD during cherry blossom season?

*sound on btw

Also, still can't get over someone on Twitter said she "be running through that topless" 😭😭😭 I completely understand btw.

[all-hail-trudos]

All the greyed out songs in your spotify playlists are reminders that you're only paying for unlimited access, not unlimited ownership. If you love the songs you listen to, buy them. Otherwise one day you'll wake up, and you'll realize they aren't there for you when you need them most.

[seireiteihellbutterfly]

Headcanons: Zanpakuto Inconveniences

Sure, everyone’s zanpakuto looks badass when they’re fighting, but realistically, shouldn’t they all have drawbacks?

Jushiro Ukitake: Sogyo no Kotowari

The twin blades constantly argue with themselves, causing Ukitake to have split-second mood swings as he tries to mediate between the conflicting personalities. This often leads to awkward situations where he's caught agreeing and disagreeing with himself. And let’s not forget that rope with the charms. How many times has he tripped over that?

Byakuya Kuchiki:  Senbonzakura

Its thousands of tiny blades can get stuck in Byakuya's clothes at the most inconvenient times, making it look like he's covered in cherry blossom confetti and struggling to pull petals out from under his collar after fights. When he tries to pull them out, they leave little rips in his clothes, much to his ire. 

Ichigo Kurosaki: Zangetsu 

is a bit of a rebellious dramatic zanpakuto. It occasionally refuses to manifest because it doesn’t feel ‘fashionable’ enough or claims Ichigo has been neglecting it. This results in awkward sessions where Ichigo has to find a place to sit down and have a heart to heart with his zanpakuto, reassuring it that he most definitely does not think Senbonzakura is cooler. 

Renji Abarai: Zabimaru 

Zabimaru's extended segmented form occasionally gets tangled in Renji's own clothes, causing him to trip over the coiling snake-like segments while attempting flashy combat moves, resulting in moments of unintentional slapstick. “Now how many times have we talked about this? If I go left, then you go right!”

Shinji Hirako: Sakanade

Occasionally messes with Shinji's perception of reality for the heck of it. Hell, like owner, like zanpakuto. This leads to him walking into doors, stepping into the wrong rooms, and even accidentally complimenting his enemies in the midst of battle due to the distorted vision. It made him accidentally flirt with Hiyori and she whacked him into next week with her sandal. 

Rose Otoribashi: Kinshara

It’s musical abilities sometimes backfire on Rose. Instead of intimidating enemies with his zanpakuto's melodies, it plays embarrassing tunes at the worst times, making Rose wish he could mute his sword.

Examples of Kinshara’s embarrassing playlist include “The Gummy Bear song”, “Baby Shark”, “Low” by Flo Rida, and “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-lot. 

Izuru Kira: Wabisuke

Wabisuke has the unfortunate ability to double the weight of whatever it touches. It has a tendency to sneak up onto women who are on measuring scales and make them heavier than they are. Kira shakes his head in shame whenever he catches Wabisuke in the act. “You realize this isn’t helping our image?”

Shuhei Hisagi:  Kazeshini

Kazeshini occasionally pranks Hisagi by creating small gusts of wind, causing playful havoc by ruffling Hisagi's hair at the most inappropriate moments, such as during serious conversations or formal meetings. Additionally, Kazeshini has a habit of whispering sarcastic comments or witty remarks into Hisagi's ear when he's trying to maintain a stoic demeanor, leading to amusing situations where Hisagi struggles to keep a straight face while dealing with its antics.

[pocket-deer-boy]

"naw, senbonzakura isn't hypernationalistic, like, the rising sun flag isn't bad, right? after all the music video from the miku game is only banned in [list of countries japan colonized and/or committed war crimes against]."

[tfp-miko-zine]

Hey there! I wanted to ask you if, besides Miko’s fascination with American culture (most notably metal music), does she have any interest in various Japanese bands like Wagakki Band and Maximum The Hormone?

Hiya!

Oh, I bet she would definitely be a big fan of Wagakki Band (I personally love their cover of "Senbonzakura" by Miku Hatsune)!

Oh, and Miko would most likely be a fan of Baby Metal, too!

[ptchwkstaccato]

ok i forgot to do it last night so here are my miku expo wants/needs/predictions!!

1) if they play intergalactic bound I'll be SO ANGRY i hate that song.

2) meiko's song BETTER be fraulein=bibliotheca

3) that one new Kaito song is basically guaranteed i think

4) i don't think Rin and len's set is gonna be anything interesting. they've already played all of the straight bangers in the UK like 8HIT, bring it on, romokon, etc. it's probably gonna be childish war and i fucking hate that song lol

5) we're definitely gonna get that one slow Luka song that absolutely sucks but HOPEFULLY they'll give us Vivid.

6) they probably won't play hyper reality show but they should because it's a banger

7) they will definitely play Miku (good because it's a straight banger)

8) they usually alternate between theme songs. i desperately hope we get either music like magic, decade or can't make a song!! or blue star or sharing the world or mikufiesta (im actually not that picky)

9) if they play at LEAST one utsup song I'll be happy. vivid is not my favourite but it's definitely something!

10) they will not give us Luka Luka night fever for the third miku expo in a row. I can just smell it.

11) they probably won't even play that many classic vocaloid songs. im not even expecting senbonzakura or world is mine because the USA setlist sucked ass

12) they'll have the LED screen. i have accepted it

13) we will probably get M@GICAL CURE LOVE💗SHOT! and i hope we do because it's amazing

14) we will very likely get lucky orb :3

15) theyll probably play vampire. unfortunately.

16) i honestly hope they play rabbit hole but it might be too inappropriate for miku expo. it's also never been played live before BUT they did debut hyper reality show in London 2020 so it's not impossible.

17) PLEASE PLAY ON THE ROCKS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ILL DO ANYTHING

[itstimetojellyfish]

White Sakura ( Ayato x reader)

…. I couldn’t help myself, I had to .

Senbonzakura(English cover)

Thousands of cherry blossoms ,

Dwindling in the light….

You heard that song from your father , who was stuck in Inazuma thanks to the degree , locking down all islands and keeping your father there , luckily though , he was allowed to ship items and send letters so he shipped over a music box , elegantly decorated with flowers .

Now , the degree has been lifted and you can finally visit you Inazuma , you’ve heard many things about Inazuma , from the excellent clans to the beautiful city and flowers .

Though , what you wanted to see most , was the White Sakura tree he told you about in his letters , as white as the snow in Snezhaya…

He told you that they were beautiful and could lift your spirit immediately, for the way the light bounces off the petals made them look ethereal.

He wished you could see them ,

(You wish you could see him one last time )

Your father died during the war , he was forced to become one of the shogun’s soldiers as repayment for something .

He was one of the servants of the Kamisato clan , you’ve heard many good things about Lady Ayaka and Lord Ayato , but you were still surprised when you say the Kamisato symbol on the letter you received.

You read that the Lord sent his condolences to you and since your father was loyal , the Lord has decided to pay for your travel plans and give you a tour of Inazuma.

So here you are , in front of the Kamisato estate in the most traditional clothes you could get from Inazuma .

You nervously walked up to the grand , dark brown doors , carved with the Kamisato clan’s symbol before timidly knocking on the entrance asking ,” Hello? It’s Y/N L/N? Is anybody there?”

You shifted your weight around as you waited , recalling all the rules of proper etiquette in order to not offend the head of the Kamisato clan.

It was only 10 minutes before the giant doors opened and you saw a soldier at the door , looking you up and down before letting you enter , but not before he checked your invitation.

When you walked in you felt the stares of people who didn’t know you , judging you , whether it was a good or bad definition, you didn’t care .

The guard escorted you towards the entrance into the house before knocking on the door and announcing your presence here.

When you looked around , you didn’t see the so called , white sakura anywhere , was it all a hoax just to keep your hopes up and to give you something to look forward to?

You were dragged out of your thoughts and brought back to reality when the door creaked open and a servant stood at the door and was ready to guide you to the head.

“ Hi! You must be the new guest , I’m Thoma , the house keeper and I’ll be here to introduce you to lady and lord kamisato!” He smiles at you like the sun and you smile back .

“ Hello , my name is Y/N ….” Your words got caught in your throat as you remembered your father .

Thoma looks at you sympathetically and then asks” Was your father Mr.L/N ? “

You nod and you stuffed a sob back into your throat ,” He … told me about how wonderful it was deriving the Kamisato Clan ….”

Thoma’s smile droops down as he pats your back and then leads you through the house towards Lord and Lady Kamisato.

He opens the door and behold , the pale blue haired male , Ayato , the head of the Kamisato Clan , was revealed dutifully signing documents.

As soon as he heard the door open , he looked up and smiled at both of you , thanking Thoma for guiding you.

Thoma left you alone in the room as he closed the door , Ayato decided to start the conversation.

“ Hello ,Y/N , your father has told me many things about you .” His smiled softened , “ I’m sorry for your loss.”

You stare at him before shoving a sob down your throat and telling him,” Thank you for your concern.”

He nods before pushing his chair back and standing up to walk towards you ,” I’ve finished the documents I needed to place , now , shall we?”

He slowly raised his arm and held his hand out for you to take , you didn’t refuse the offer and held his hand as you walked out of the house and estate , the people working staring at you .

He brought you to the grand Narikumi Shrine , but you didn’t see the white Sakura trees…

He brought you to restaurants , islands , and villages , all a great place to visit and just as beautiful as your father described it .

But you never once saw the so called White Sakura trees he mentioned.

Ayato noticed how glum you looked when he brought you to a restaurant, so he asked what’s wrong.

You replied with ,” In my father’s letters , he would tell me about the Sakura trees that would bloom beautiful white petals and reflect the light . I haven’t seen them anywhere…”

His eyes softens and then he replies ,” I know a spot , would you like to see?”

You stare at him in disbelief before nodding .

Soon enough , he’s leading you down a tunnel , when you turn the corner , you see a wonderful , pearl white Sakura tree with Wisteria trees surrounding it , a hole in the ceiling had sunlight pour down from above making it look ethereal .

You rush to stand under it , and unknown to you , to Ayato , you look like an angel who fell down from heavens .

As you stare in wonder , you don’t hear him say .

“ As pure as the petals , aren’t you?”

Yes white Sakura and wisteria exist

[mikufigureoftheday]

people have asked you plenty of questions about your favourite miku figures, but what’s your favourite miku song? i’m personally a big fan of 39 music and electric angel :)

Oooooh excellent picks. Electric Angel is a classic 10/10

For me, I'd say it's probably, another classic, Senbonzakura. It has a special place in this kokoro of mine and it's a straight jam. 🌸

[nanjokei]

same anon here, incredibly interested in the history from someone who lived through it

ok!

here's my own rundown on why the vocaloid bubble burst in the mid 2010s!

almost irreversibly! (don't worry— this story has a happy ending)

if anyone is wondering, yes, you can reblog this! i only say this because this took a lot of work to write so if anyone feels compelled, yes, stroke my ego a bit, i allow such a thing. now, i might get snippy here and there, but i'm not serious at all. my sense of humor is pretty tsukkomi-ish and it shows up in how i describe things. <-disclaimer for if this post breaks containment because i know fandom types don't like my sense of humor if they're not given the context that i LOVE what i'm talking about and rib on it out of utmost adoration

as a disclaimer, i do lightly look things up to check on stuff timeline wise and its validity, but this is from my own point of view and memory and a personal retelling, so if you have a different take on it then i'm sure our viewpoints can co-exist. also, i speak about utaite from the point of view of someone who respects their existence but does not participate. so if a few facts are off... i am speaking only from the aspect of what relates to what i'm talking about. also if there are any typos i stopped being thorough with my checking and editing like 4k words in since i am not being paid to write this, it is just for fun. anyways~

so where we wanna start here is before the big bubble era. i think most people would agree that it was in full swing around mid 2012, but i'll set the date at september 23, 2011. the posting of the song kagerou daze (by the way, as a testament to how much of a boomer i am, despite being an kagepro fan from the start i find myself still using the "kagerou days" romanization by accident every time). by the way, senbonzakura, one of the biggest vocaloid songs ever for the longest time, was posted only a few days earlier. just to paint a picture. but that's not the only thing... i think what we want to look at especially is the end of the vocaloid2 era and what was going on during and before. the final vocaloid2 product, vy2, was released on april 25th, 2011. in this timeline, there are a few angles i wanna focus on. the state of the culture, its spread, utaite and producers. by the way, if i had to date when i met vocaloid, it was around 2008. right before gakupo came out, maybe.

around this time, the culture of vocaloid-ke (vocaloid family) type secondary works were falling out of fashion. 2010 and before, i feel that vocaloid had a strong image of nico nico douga especially— not that it didn't during the bubble era. but i mean the people participating. when miku came out, people viewed her as a novelty while still thinking to themselves they had stumbled across something special. there was no subculture like that before, and the closest counterpart to this was idolmaster. now, many know this is the origin of the -P suffix came from. it's a tossed around factoid now but people should know that it was certainly a phenomena back then. and a LOT of early miku adopters (like 80% were either already in the doujin music scene, the DTM (desktop music) scene, trained musicians or even some industry pros. and a lot of these people were nerdy and geeky and loved anime and games and manga so of course their first point of reference for building vocaloid's identity was idolmaster. touhou, idolmaster's next door neighbor, also had a lot of influence given many of the music people in its scene dabbled in vocaloid early on. so naturally the fans that were attracted to vocaloid were also nerds. at first there were only cryptonloids, but gakupo quickly followed (and continuing in the trend of heavy nnd association— kentaro miura (RIP), a big fan of nnd and especially idolmaster— designed and drew his art 100% pro bono out of love for the site and its culture). luka came out... i think gumi was the first shift. gumi just felt, different. i personally owe it to her being modeled after ranka lee, the iconic role of her voice provider, megumi nakajima— ranka lee was the underdog character in her source macross frontier's love triangle. so i feel like that image somewhat imprinted itself on gumi. gumi was not popular at first at all. her release came and went with not much fanfare. ironically the aspect of rivalry would come back under stuff like the miku vs gumi debate. this is probably the first real demonstration of "it doesn't matter how good the voice is, it matters who uses it and how that propagates the voice".

and so i arrive at the producers of the time, maybe late 2008 early to mid 2009, the newcomers. the ones that weren't necessarily otaku through and through, but more on the "teenagers who like vocaloid and/or don't have a singer to sing for them, and want to make music". i will be specific and say it is people like wowaka (RIP), deco*27 and hachi/kenshi yonezu specifically. wowaka for example had a very fresh take— his pvs deemphasized the vocaloid, but it also inspired many fan pvs because of it. i will not go into how it became ironic that he quit due to the attribution to the voice. but his moody lyrics captured a lot of hearts and his style carried a youth to it. hachi did a lot of his own artsy pvs. deco*27 was very unpolished and amateur but his music was VERY of the times. the synths, the guitar, very youthful. aside from wowaka, whose comeup immediately led to him getting signed quickly (and the guy himself just walked and i don't blame him) i think what made these guys (deco and hachi) stand out from the rest in the end is one thing: they picked up gumi. and this set them apart from the old and dusted otaku who didn't pick gumi up, or those who picked her up thinking of her only as ranka lee. mozaik role (still deco's most viewed song on nnd btw, with no sign of stopping. and he is clearly PISSED about it). matryoshka. all that kibs of noise. by the way, matryoshka's stint in the vocaloid rankings went unchallenged until it was finally killed by senbonzakura. that's a good two years of dominance!! a lot of the breakout stars or people who got more popular during 2010 used gumi, i'm talking your 40mPs, your sasakure.UKs, your buzzGs. incidentally, a lot of these people got signed... most for their vocaloid stuff. 40mP, sasakure, deco, kous and others were signed under label split-offs like U/M/A/A. wowaka and hachi... were signed for themselves. specifically, wowaka and his band hitorie, and hachi as himself kenshi yonezu.

but producers were not the only ones being signed. utaite, who had been a thing before even vocaloid was a thing, found themselves growing rapidly due to them increasingly participating in the culture as both fans and beneficiaries. personally, i split off utaites eras as "before piko and akiakane" and "after piko and akiakane". the before era included people who either started very early on when vocaloid became a thing on nnd, or started before it (participating in chorus medleys or posting utattemita videos of anison for example, like gero). it was all amateur and everyone was doing it for fun... but the record companies doth lurk around the vocaloid scene at this rate. akiakane and piko i pick specifically because they were the first utaite who were very publically signed. piko was signed under sony's ki/oon records! akiakane had two or three big albums under the subsidary of VAP, toy's factory (if you wanna have fun take a look at the list of talent they rep). piko is especially important— as he had a vocaloid made of him. this marked first big interest of corporations and large record companies to actually enter the vocaloid space— in the most direct way possible. btw, the reason piko the vocaloid is dead is because piko the person is no longer signed under sony. it's not outright confirmed, but piko the guy stopped tweeting about utatane piko the second he transferred labels. he is stuck in a weird catch 22 he probably will never be free of, though yamaha is doing some insane moves lately, i wonder if they'd ever try to buy the character out and revive him as a stunt. (they are doing many funny stunts lately. but a subject for another time.)

finally, my last point in this preamble is the interest in telling stories through vocaloid had only continued to grow. i think the two biggest early examples were the prisoner series by shujinP and the ever so infamous evillious chronicles by mothy. their explosive popularity is wholeheartedly owed to rin and len— ok this is a tangent but this is the genius of the rin and len package, that to this day was never replicated, they come together as you know and since they are male and female with no set setting, they are an easy buy and you can make a story because you can do two points of view across several songs... like literally. its paperplane vs prisoner. daughter of evil vs servant of evil. and their fans were and continue to be super passionate. it's great, we would be missing a huge chunk of what makes vocaloid subculture what it is without them. of course, shujinP's series (plural because they had several) is less known these days but it was probably the first series to get plays and novels and all that. quickly followed by EC. later came series like sasakure's doomsday series, stuck in a limbo between old and new era (most of the songs released in the old era but the novelization and such came out during the new), and a few "outsider" series like numtack05/putinP's series (the reasons this never got popular is because it was absurdist and shitpost-y and involved too much political imagery, not only that but also because putinP used a lot of copyright samples (most famously ronald mcdonald and sazae-san clips)— the freely distributed album vers omit these samples entirely and i can confirm the songs are worse for it)

so to give a summary of the above section

the tastes of fans were maturing

there was a shift in how vocaloid was perceived

the growing influence of utaite

the growing interest of big corpos in the scene

the growing interest in storytelling using vocaloid as a medium

anyway, here comes the real deal. and... it's gonna be a mess. just like the era itself was. i hope you're ready, at least.

even the very first echo of vocaloid3 felt kinda corpo-y. it wasn't, but.. looking back. it kind of felt like it. the first time we ever found out about v3 was through a leak of seeU's demo— but it was a work in progress leak, so it had the voice of her provider dahee kim singing along. people had no idea so they assumed this was the capability of the software. it was exciting! kpop was just starting to get popular, and we were getting a new vocaloid software, with korean capability!!!

anyway. we're not talking about the can of worms that was seeU.

not just because of dahee kim. but because it's not related beyond this. also the fact that korean fans were heavily and horribly mistreated by the majority japanese fandom for obvious reasons. i do not have the depths to speak on that stuff, but it says a lot that the software's first big swing ended up like that.

but i wanted to illustrate the mood of the fans going into this era. it was full of hopes and dreams. now, i don't want any wannabe know-it-alls wagging their fingers at me and checking the wikia going "b-but cullen, mew also came out!! at the same time!!" the seeU leak came out first. i remember there were fights over whether or not that demo was real. it was a cultural shift like no other. who the fuck cares about mew? literally her only legacy is one really amazing ezfg song. i will not debate anyone on this btw. i try to be objective but i'm allowed to inject a bit of my own opinion here too. you know who were also full of hopes and dreams? the companies. not your internetcos and your ahsofts, no, i'm talking publicly traded shits and record companies. look... i'm coming off harsh. i actually don't hold that much animosity, but you're gonna see why this was the first huge misstep of the era.

nice picture, right? this was the kind of optimism we started off this era on. but, i'll break down the picture for you in a way that helps illustrate a point somewhat:

your girlies from V2 like gumi (who was this era's it girl), lily, galaco (even if her shitty V2 version is contest only)

your earnest newcomers mew (look, even yamaha girlies count), cul, aoki lapis, seeU (one could argue.), IA (one could argue...)

tone rion of dear stage (who represented dempagumi inc., the group her voice provider came from, though this was a myth for years until it was proven... also it was clear they wanted to make the rest of dempagumi into vocaloids but rion flopped at the time. there was even a picture of her friends floating around. astoundingly embarrassing confidence. one billion dead vocaloids.)

akikoloid-chan of lawsons (yes, the convenience store! she is a vocaloidification of their mascot and i would argue the poster child of the modern brand private vocaloid. she was retired in uh.. 2019 i wanna say? though she was dormant for a long time anyway)

ring suzune, the aborted failure of minna no vocalo keikaku (everyone's vocalo-project)... this one involves a lot of otona no jijou AKA adult circumstances (japanese corpo's favorite excuse. you will now notice this phrase every time you hear it oooo). just unfortunate all around

yuzuki yukari of vocalomakets, i put her in a separate category because she really is a girlie of her own. a vocal born from producers being dissatisfied that their wants weren't being answered and no company was taking them up, they just went "fuck it" and produced yukari on their own. a huge outlier in this era of vanity projects and companies using the scene for their own crap.

not pictured, but i have to mention her due to her complicated position in this era, but mayu of exit tunes. exit tunes is a record label that heavily supported vocaloid and utaite during this era, signing both producers and utaite, and making compilation cds of popular vocaloid hits. and probably saw to it that due to their dominance in the area of compilation cds (and they still dominate, even if their releases are sparse these days their cds still top oricon without effort), them sneaking mayu into the tracklists would work... my thoughts on this? my position has softened a lot over the years. and i've always thought "they gave up right before she organically caught on, they should have kept pushing. so what a shame".

now you may notice i bolded a few of these and made special mention of the companies behind them. you probably already figured it out, but this era had heavy investment from parties who had only to gain from a rapidly growing niche subculture. see, unlike the other two of nnd's big three idolmaster and touhou, who are IPs where you need some kind of cooperation to officially get in on, vocaloid... is incredibly free, so laissez faire in comparison. you buy a 9,000 dollar dev kit and get to work making your mascot. it was... so easy. so free. so sweet. but real life is not so easy, or free, or sweet. you actually had to be accepted by the fans, and like i said before... the voice does not matter. what matters is who uses it, and how that propagate the voice. this is true time and time again. it is the ultimate "how many times do i have to teach you this lesson, old man?!" of the scene from a commercial standpoint. no matter how many years pass. ergo, one billion dead vocaloids. corpo vocaloids were releasing and they flopped immediately. earnest products from newcomers were dropping and struggling, though def doing better than the corpo ones (like lapis, lapis did ok). existing "in crowd" companies were vomiting out new vocals and not even promoting them. it was a disgusting era of excess and death and bile and plague and war and and and. it's astounding that it is hard carried by the art that came out of it. because if you only look at the commercial side of things, it is fucking disgusting.

now, onto the fan aspect. remember when i said this era truly kicked off when kagerou daze came out? yup. here it comes. so, anyone lived through this era remembers the cambrian explosion of original projects that did not make use of vocaloid mascots— arguably the final death knell of vocaloid-ke secondary works being the mainstream.

now, i'm planting my flag in the ground here very firmly— i do not ride the bandwagon of the people who erroneously attribute the near death of the scene to kagepro. it's just not true. personally i have a very complicated (bordering on near sort of but not quite negative, depending on how nostalgic i feel that day) relationship with the series, but to blame it is incredibly narrowminded and ignorant of the actual reasons the bubble burst, and not to mention unfair. if you find it annoying, fine. but just say you don't like the series and move on. and really, for better or for worse, mekakucity days and mekakucity records are unironically god tier vocaloid albums that will be remembered for years to come. i just have to say this because i see a lot of people blame jin for very flimsy reasons... SHUT UP!!! anyway.

i think one of the issues with the whole project culture that flourished during this era was simply the fact that since they were multimedia projects (whether by accident like kagepro or intentionally from the get), fans were coming from all angles, and even those who got into it through vocaloid eventually became super mega invested in them as separate IPs. which is... unfortunately an issue. so when these properties eventually spun off into manga, light novels, covers with real seiyuu, merch and ultimately some even netting anime projects... once those projects either abruptly ended (lol, lmao, this will come back later) or reached their natural conclusion, inevitably a lot of those fans either leave with it or found themselves burned out on vocaloid itself, or perhaps even think they've outgrown it.

next, utaite. now i mentioned a bit earlier about how the first batch of utaite were amateurs who didn't expect anything out of it and did it just cause, and how exit tunes signed a lot of them in this era. now, comes the time i speak about utaite "after piko and akiakane". i believe due to a generational gap and subconsciously perhaps due to the signing of a few utaite from the old guard at this point, the nu utaite of the 2010s had a sort of individuality to them... this isn't an insult, and a large part of their popularity actually came from them always collaborating and a lot of them ending up befriending each other. again, i'm an outsider, but i understand this much. but this era for utaite was the beginning of the idea that an utaite can become a superstar. in the end, very few of them did become superstars.

a lot of them naturally returned to a normal level of popularity after the bubble. there aren't a lot of your AtRs or your amatsukis and such. the smart ones became vtubers before being a vtuber was cool. to give an example: un:c and hashiyan who are arguably oldheads more than nu era became anjo and kosaka of monsterz mate. this isn't a doxx btw, this is publically available information, and un:c often credits himself as a mixer under projects he does as anjo. also, a certain duo of female utaite whose names i will not mention went on to form the super popular vtuber duo himehima. there are other early adopters like kano and god knows who else that i don't feel like mentioning. anyway, if your utaite did it after 2018 and under their own identity it is a desperate plea for attention. sorry but it's just the objective truth. tangent over... did you think i wasn't gonna shoehorn vtubers into this somehow?! anyway.

even sutopuri who got mega popular, only really formed after the vocaloid bubble burst, perhaps even as a result of it. utaite had a positive effect on the vocaloid scene and still do. but at the time, i think it was at its strongest. utaite NEEDED vocaloid, and vocaloid benefitted greatly from their continued patronage and love for it. i for one will not be caught slandering utaite and their relationship with vocaloid even if i will always prefer the vocaloid versions. the issue here comes from the fact that way too many were signed without much star factor (i'm not disparaging them, i'm just saying they did not hold their audience across the mediums), and even at that their fans splintered off into many tribes and many weren't really into vocaloid in the first place and were more into the livestreams and twitter banter. that's just how things shook out. you even have your reols and such, as reol was the face but in a sense her, gigaP and okiku were a set and gigaP left the scene to focus on commercial work with those two. too many of them got signed and splintered off into their own little fandoms before THOSE fandoms kind of died out. so this is another part where fans disappear and lose interest. you're starting to see the pattern here, right?

there's so much stuff i thought i would touch on, like how gumi was the undisputed it girl of the scene at this time, and how kagepro rose IA to prominence (all because jin wanted to buy gumi but didn't find her in the store) and how IA's people 1st place locked certain producers in their basement (like jin, yasuhiro, ishifuro etc) and... now this is a conspiracy on my part but prevented them from working on anything else, so that drew more talent away from the scene... but i realized it's tangential and belongs to other parts in this conversation. i want to reiterate here though before we go on to the biggest elephant in the room of all which would be the point of no return... there is more to the vocaloid bubble era of 2012-2015 than projects, than corpo and record company bullshit, than utaite fans. and there is more to the era before that than the top brass producers i mentioned earlier. i really... really lament how so much of early vocaloid reuploads are gone from youtube. there's a whole world just gone. so, anyway, are you ready?

the final block in this weird jenga of a story.

the producer, suzumu, and his unfortunate associates.

i will cut to the chase because it's easier to explain who was involved once i say what happened. to put it shortly... suzumu "stole" his songs. this is weird and vague and i always hated the way people used polite euphemisms to explain it because it made the situation way more confusing than it had to be— he used his producer friends as ghostwriters to compose songs for him, basically. and was very not nice about it according to one of the people involved. now i will probably adopt a somewhat sympathetic angle that people who have previously heard of this case may have not encountered before. not because i feel bad for that fuck, but because it seems like at least one of the people impacted has forgiven him, and others have moved on in less obvious ways. he's also professionally making music in the industry now. as much as i want to keep up the act of disliking him, i don't care anymore. i still dislike what he did immensely because it impacts producers i love to this day. but the man came forth about it himself and those involved forgave him. it's been almost a decade now... man!

suzumu, before getting into posting songs (who knows how many were actually his and which were ghostwritten), was a prolific lyric writer who worked with some of the trendiest vocaloid producers around. i'll cross gigaP out, since he was not involved in the incident, but almost every single person involved in this had worked with him in a lyric or story writing capacity (for 150P and komine specifically). here are the involved parties as i recall, bolded are people who he "stole" from

mafumafu, the person who spoke the most about it post suzumu's confession and the most vocal, and likely the person who was used as a ghostwriter the most (i don't recall if he actually alludes to this or not but people commonly think this). mafumafu had a series of vocaloid songs that told a story, but stopped using vocaloid after the incident for a while and songs that were going to get pvs from his first vocaloid album were not posted. he contributed a song called machigai sagashi for the vocaloid flavored moba #compass in 2015, but it seems like that song was probably in the works since before the incident for reasons i will highlight in a moment. suzumu wrote the lyrics for only one of the songs. iirc, mafumafu's song berserk is about suzumu. don't remember if this is confirmed or not. btw, the album of those songs, meikyou shisui, is really underrated and you should check it out. im not a mafu guy but that album is great

kemu, the person who is arguably closest to suzumu and the one who most publicly supported suzumu (albeit wordlessly) in later years by working with him professionally. when i mention someone forgiving suzumu, i mean him. suzumu wrote the lyrics for most of his kemu voxx songs, a famous multimedia project kemu was on the helm of along with hatsuko as the main illustrator. since kemu no longer had a lyricist, the project stalled for years until he posted a song suddenly in 2017 (with self written lyrics). it seems like the series is continuing still, but with a different direction

150P, who worked with suzumu heavily for his shuuen no shiori (bookmark of demise) project, a project that was conceived from the start to be a story. this part makes me really mad, guys!! i'll try to keep calm about it. 150P wrote over 50 songs (idk if this is an actual number but he wrote a lot. at least 40.) for the series, with suzumu writing the story and lyrics. the character designs were done by saine (who dodged a bullet all things considered.) and the art was done by komine. 150P was already doing crazy things before shuuenpro, his most popular song is still his insane 12-len classical metal chorus song lost destination. now shuuenpro caught on slower than its peers and was an underdog. i LOVE shuuenpro to this day. you know what? right when it was finally getting its first W, when the album that had seiyuu covers at come out on oricon in third place, suzumu dropped his confession. what a slap to the fucking face!! the manga of the series hastily wrapped up after that. 150P and komine disappeared and no longer did stuff ever. 150P recently appeared for a mafumafu anniversary thing so i'm glad he's still alive. but, komine...

komine, the only non-producer, an artist with the worst luck. she was slowly rising to prominence doing pv art for a lot of popular producers, and was the main artist of shuuenpro most prominently. during the initial release of the first few shuuenpro songs, she was accused of tracing, and the art of the pv of sarumane isutori game had to be done by someone else. komine stopped using social media at that point, but continued to make art for the project quietly and quite prolifically. so she was already on some kind of fraught standing even though the tracing allegations were disproven. fast forward to the suzumu blowup, komine packed up her bags and disappeared forever. if she had become disillusioned, i do not blame her. her final public contribution was the design of jeanne d'arc from #compass, the character who was paired with the mafumafu song. all subsequent artworks of jeanne were done by different artists. i suspect the reason the vocaloid version of machigai sagashi did not have a proper pv was due to komine quitting. i can only imagine what that pv looked like! if you're wondering why i mention a pv, it's cuz compass fans got mad at mafu for having a fancy pv for his self cover but not for the original. but otona no jijou, you know? and where is that energy for eve who still hasn't released a pv for mistletoe publicly and only put it on his kuso app and with 0 compass association? who let that wishy washy fuck do an anniversary song? ...im not gonna go on a compass tangent. anyway.

so... why does this matter?

it matters because people became disillusioned due to this drama. it matters because suzumu took out some very popular and prolific people from the scene during what one could argue was a transitional phase. the fans of all those people, including suzumu's... gone. if you weren't there, you may not understand the cult of personality suzumu had. he had his name on everything and was friends with all the right people. when i heard about this incident... i just closed my eyes and sighed lol. it hurt and it hit when the scene was at its weakest. and was the final blow, almost. and it impacted the way people saw and talked about vocaloid for years. miku became "owakon" for a time. people thought kizuna ai was gonna replace her as a cultural touchstone (lol, lmao, it is proven time and time again that the big three cannot die). kenshi yonezu, in all his detached glory, came down from his jeweled encrusted throne to compose a song for miku's 10th birthday that he smugly thought was the death knell of nico nico douga.... which even at the time of its release was contested by even people who were on the same miku anniversary project and, whether you wanna acknowledge it or not, is still mocked to this day by several producers. magical mirai's theme this year even does it. there is no respect for sand planet or anything kenshi yonezu stood for in that song. what an asshole move no matter how you see it. argue with the wall if you don't agree, i don't want to hear it. the scene survived because there were producers and artists and fans who still loved it. not because of some sardonic fuckoff song by a guy so detached he'd write a funeral march for a birthday.

these days, i feel like the community is incredibly conscious of what happened. there are wanton community led events that encourage not only the creation of songs, covers, art and secondary creations but also the discovery of new producers— the biggest of which being vocaloid collection, which happens three times a year and has many categories, but most importantly the top ranking (producers active for 3+ years) and the rookie ranking. i once read a japanese article that said proseka brought new fans hungry for something beyond the music presented in the game, and vocacolle and other community led events and song posting festivals supplied the works. the average age of the new vocaloid producer is— and this is my own estimate based on how many heart attacks i've been given the past 3 or 4 years— 17~19 years old. they say things like "i know of kagepro but i wasn't there"!! should i get my cane out!! who's driving me to the retirement home?!

even companies involved in the product end are more savvy these days.... (holding my tongue about a certain company of a popular synth software and its ceo because i have nothing nice to say). i think they realized that you can't clap with one hand and that appealing to the end user and fans is a necessity. honestly, i can only be excited for what comes next. we're never going back to that dark age, i can say this with utmost confidence. do i miss the past of the times before the bubble, back when vocaloid was a smidge more geeky? sure. but we can only really move forward, so why not enjoy it

[matcha-mintea]

100 miku songs/albums!!

(sorry if it's blurry! )

imma try list the songs/albums:

award strobe hello - siinamota

because you're here - pinocchio-p

shinkai shoujo - yuuyu

kikuo miku 2 - kikuo

kikuo miku 6 - kikuo

DARLING SYNDROME - kairikibear

pinky night - glue

orange irreal - glue

denki youhou - inabakumori

eight - hachioji-p

melomeloid - kairikibear

journey's prequels, journey's traces - iyowa

after epoch - sasakure.uk

bug - kairikibear

anonymous m - pinocchio-p

propaganda! - crusher-p

nayutan sei kara no buttai y - natyualien

hatsune miku is going to beat you to death - amity-p

(not) a devil - deco*27 and pinocchio-p

SIU - maretu

hananikaze - balloon

samsa - teniwoha

MACHINEGUN POEM DOLL - cosmo@bousouP

what's up? pop! - capchii

nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! - daniwellp

twilight melody - circus-p

the peachy key - iyowa

the vampire - deco*27

the intense voice of hatsune miku - cosmo@bousouP

fake meme - pinocchio-p

greatest idol - mitchie m

GHOST - deco*27

electric angel - yasuo

obscure questions - pinocchio-p

romeo and cinderella - doriko

miku - anamanaguchi

coin locker baby - maretu

this is the happiness and peace of mind committee! - utata-p

okusuri nonde neyo - mochitsune

HATSUNE MIKU 10th ANNIVERSARY SONGS -ミラクルミライ-

初音ミク「マジカルミライ」 10th Anniversary OFFICIAL ALBUM

miku miku ni shiteageru - ika_mo

sayonara princess - kai

konton boogie - jon-yakitory

suna no wakusei - hachi

circus panic! - 32ki

rakuraku annrakushi - pepoyo

imperial girl - r sound design

jishoumushoku - nekobolo

flos - r sound design

champion - kanaria

battle! hatsune miku - cosmo@bousou-P

mochimochi - TAK

apricot - iyowa

zombie - deco*27

umiyuri kaiteitan - n-buna

entomologists - ghost and pals

intergalactic bound - yunosuke and circus-p

chimera - deco*27

tell your world - livetune

senbonzakura - kurousa-p

melt - ryo (supercell)

when the first love ends - ryo (supercell)

all i need are things i like - pinocchio-p

hello planet - sasakure.uk

a gift from the princess who brought sleep - mothy

toosenbo - wowaka

ore ghost type - syudou

musunde hiraite rasetsu to mukuro - hachi

ai kotoba - deco*27

paris cinema girl - apfel note

two faced lovers - wowaka

flashback sound - kuwagata-p

shoujo rei - mikito-p

chain girl - noboru-p

the snow white princess is.. - noboru-p

hello, how are you? - nazou

kocchi muite baby - ryo (supercell)

magical girl and chocolate - pinocchio-p

mekakucity actors - jin

easy going forest girl - ishifuro

hitorinbo envy - koyori

torinoko city - 40mp

orange - tohma

hao - deco*27

delusion tax - deco*27

eve vocaloid 01 - eve

streaming heart - deco*27

rolling girl - wowaka

love! snow! really magic - mitchie m

love trial - 40mp

tsugihagi staccato - toa

花と水飴、最終電車 - n-buna

this messed-up wonderful world exists for me - n.k

cinderella - deco*27

music like magic! - oster

circus detail - 32ki

39 - deco*27 and sasakure.uk

carnival happy - kairikibear

M@GICAL☆CURE! LOVE SHOT! - SAWTOWNE

a hundred miku songs and albums. :3

also link if you want the clearer one: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGPZjdldLQ/aIqDF-udi5YtEiDBK0w-BQ/edit?utm_content=DAGPZjdldLQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

[mikunology]

I was thinking about it, so here's some random stuff about media in the VA universe:

Senbonzakura is a WWII-set period drama that airs weekly on TV.

Some animes seen in the verse are Raspberry Monster, Black Rock Shooter, and SOS From the Maid Star. Rin in particular is a fan of all three, and Miku was invited to sing a new OP theme for Raspberry.

Haruno Sora is a popular movie star who started in theater. She's most famous for a role she had as a musketeer.

Yumemi Nemu runs a webcast called Sweet Dreams Radio where she talks about various topics, mostly video games, music, and recent happenings (like superhero stuff). She's got a pretty sizable follower count.

Kyomachi Seika runs a popular talk show on TV called "Today's Kyomachi" where she discusses food, culture and interviews celebrities. Miku and friends have been on her show more than once.

ZOLA PROJECT is a up-and-coming boy band that's started getting popular in the city. Rin and Miku love their music. (Len doesn't see what's so great about them.)

[projectdivapolls]

Round 3 results are in!

ACUTE vs Akatsuki Arrival

Amatsu Kitsune vs Black★Rock Shooter

Break It, Break It! vs Cantarella ~ Grace Edition ~

Close and Open, Demons and The Dead vs Colorful×Sexy

Deep Sea City Underground vs Deep Sea Girl

Doubleganger vs Envy Cat Walk

Erase or Zero vs Gaikotsu Gakudan to Riria

Ghost Rule vs Grumpy Waltz

Hello, Worker vs HIBANA

I'll Miku-Miku You♪ (For Reals) vs Interviewer

Iroha Uta vs Kagerou Daze

Knife vs Kokoro

LOL - lots of laugh - vs Lover's Suicide Oblivion

Luka Luka★Night Fever vs Meiteki Cybernetics

Melancholic vs Meteor

Negaposi✽Continues vs Nice to Meet You, Mr. Earthling

ODDS&ENDS vs on the rocks

Out of Eden vs Piano×Forte×Scandal

Pinky Swear vs Remote Controller

Rin-chan Now! vs Rolling Girl

Sadistic.Music∞Factory vs Secret Police

Senbonzakura vs Solitude's End

Soundless Voice vs Stardust Utopia

Summer Idol vs Systematic Love

Tengaku vs The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku

The MMORPG Addict's Anthem vs This is The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

Time Machine vs Tokyo Teddy Bear

Two-Sided Lovers vs VOiCE -DIVA MIX-

Weekender Girl vs World's End Dancehall -F Edition-

World's End Umbrella vs 1925

39 Music! vs Kagamine Hachi Hachi Flower Fight

Unhappy Refrain vs Ashes to Ashes

All songs highlighted in blue will move on to round four! It's been tough that a lot of great videos have ended up against each other, and cool to see which prevails. I look forward to seeing the results of the next round. Have fun and happy voting! 🩵

[mitchie-m]

"Ohedo Julia-Night ~ Senbonzakura" in Hatsune Miku Symphony 2022 is available on music streaming services!!

[hihi-heart]

Been a while (I think?) but, do you often or sometimes listen to j-rock/band music on Spotify if you feel bored?

Ex.: Alice Schach & the Magic Orchestra, pitcher56, any CHAINSAW MAN related rock OSTs, etc.,

/genq

To my knowledge, I haven't gotten into much j-rock. I do sometimes listen to modern Japanese music. Listened to BABYMETAL during its earlier years, though only out of curiosity.

The only j-rock song I can think of is Senbonzakura or "One Thousand Cherry Trees", a vocaloid song about Japan's westernization and militarization during the Meiji restoration and Taisho Era.

(From here, I infodump about the song's intricacies and go over other Japanese songs I enjoy. Couldn't help myself. Keep reading for my analyses and overviews!)

The song's actually pretty fascinating. It uses a lot of idioms and indirect meaning, typical for older-styled Japanese songs. The idioms include references to weaponry, religion, and period imagery.

The song's visuals use an over-the-top pop portrayal of the time periods. To simplify, the time had a mix of Japanese tradition and western sensibility.

Miku's outfit is based on a army uniform but includes furisode kimono sleeves, a miniskirt, and shoes that combine loafers with geta sandals. Really leaning into the song's historical and anachronistic themes.

All of these aspects have caused some localization problems. Some English translators have put in a pro-war message that isn't explicitly stated. I will say, war propaganda songs then were incredibly subtle at the time, more than Senbonzakura. Both because that was the style at the time and probably to have more effective propaganda.

I'd say, one should expect anything made in modern Japan to be anti-war. They generally don't want a repeat of WWII.

-

Other Vocaloid Songs I Listen To

"Ah, It's a Wonderful Cat Life" is just a cute song about two cats in love. The boy cat wants the girl to join his life as a stray. The girl, however, is a house cat and doesn't want to leave her pamper life or her owner. Both yet still want to be together. This one is just nostalgic, grew up loving this one.

"The Tailor of Enbizaka" is about a kimono tailor who kills a man's family out of a jealous delusion that he's her lover. Like Senbonzakura, the lyrics never states this explicitly but the tone and visuals make it obvious.

Fun fact: The red, green, and black pattern on the side is based on kabuki curtains.

"Feathers Across the Seasons" follows an old folktale called Tsuru no Ongaeshi or "Crane's Return of a Favor".

On a snowy mountain lives a happy couple. The man eventually becomes ill, leaving the woman to provide for both and earn money for medicine. The woman is hinted to actually be a shapeshifting crane that the man once saved. She then returned to him as a woman to marry him. As favor for saving her, the wife weaves and sell cloth made of her own feathers, sacrificing her own wellbeing for her husband's life. It's implied the husband dies, leaving the crane wife a grieving widow.

Some think the wife also dies, after using her last feather. I don't think that's the case though. But, like poetry, it's inappropriate to reference death directly, so without visuals, both deaths are ambiguous.

-

Other Japanese Songs

Easy Breezy by Chelmico. I just heard the song from the anime Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! It's a fun song about creating and having fun regardless of what other people will think of you. Very appropriate for Eizouken, funny considering I don't think it was made for the show.

Nippon Egao Hyakkei or "Hundreds of Japanese Smiles" by Momoiro Clover Z. This song is mainly based in Rakugo, a traditional form of comedy. A single storyteller tells a long tale to build up to a big punchline. These stories rely on wordplay and delivery, so it's a bit hard to get into without a innate understanding of Japanese. The music video also uses elements of kabuki and festivals.

It has a simple message of enjoyment, to just laugh regardless of what strife comes along your way.

Through these songs, I realized that there's a common sentiment to enjoy life regardless of social expectations.

-

Pacfiic Overtures

I wouldn't be me if I didn't mention Pacific Overtures. This musical is American-made. But it's based in Japan before the Arrival of the Black Ships and then before the Meiji Restoration. The original production is styled mainly after kabuki with a gradual westernization in visuals and instrumentation.

Pretty much every song here is great, my top three being The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea (the song above), There is No Other Way, and Someone in a Tree.

I recommend watching the original version then the 2003 Japanese prodution. That one removed the explicit kabuki elements, opting to use the more subtle parts of Japanese culture with a modern taste. (Using the 2004 Broadway revival since that was based on the Japanese one.)

-

As you can tell, I prefer songs based on traditional music and history, something a little more that I can sink my teeth into. Also musicals but that's a topic for another day. Sorry for rambling, had to take the opportunity.