Paradoxically, she went from a (real) virtual idol into (fictional) real idol I've just done writing a kid's birthday entry yesterday and I realize that today, another kid was also created. I didn't even think of having my kids’ birthday being this close to one another (sans Hondou twins), so this is purely coincidental. 2010—2015, and then 2018. Quite subtly changed during her short, yet seemingly long, retirement(?). Build up story and notesEveryone surely went into a phase. Whether it is embarrassing or not, that depends to the person itself. Although undoubtedly, there is a phase that gives a lot of memories—yet at the same time it is super cringey—that inevitably happened at some point. While I didn't consider my time when I was immersed about UTAU as something embarrassing, I do admit that probably, that was my peak weeaboo time and a lot of drama. Yes. Just like mobile games, gacha-based games, and idols that are becoming more and more ubiquitous and popular nowadays, I think I was there when Vocaloid era was on its glory. I like Luka Megurine, btw. From Vocaloid, I got myself know about UTAU and seeing it as something fun, I decided to join the bandwagon and making one myself, since some friends around me were doing so. Aside from Canvas-rangeR, I think… my time in UTAU community gave me a lot of change, though I wasn’t the main player and would rather be a lowkey bystander. I made friends, I became more active in drawing, et cetera, et cetera. Good things, true, but I didn’t want to recall the memories due to reasons. When I created Kai, since her voice source came from me, it's somehow… funny, and weird, having to hear her singing. But then, part of me was somehow proud of that, because she was the only kid that has genuine voice, unlike others who are basically voiced only in my head-canon. Maybe because I used to listen her singing a lot, now I have resistance in listening to my own recorded singing voice. Still, I hate listening to my recorded speaking voice, however. I like playing with her a lot back then. I did a lot of her drawing, I made her do a lot of cover songs, heck I even set-up website and put her on the database, together with my circle partner. But then, time goes by, a lot of things happened, I got busy, and I barely have time to pay attention to her anymore. Thoughts to revamp her design and giving her new voicebank actually always crosses my mind. I even did it last year. But I gave up half-way because, I don't know, when I looked up at the community, it didn't seem like the place I used to be. People I used to know weren't there anymore, moving on with their lives, so yeah. And really, I was too lazy tweaking with oto.ini and stuff... and I'm not catching up into Vocaloid or latest news anymore. In short, it wasn't my momentum anymore. However, recently, it crossed my mind to revamp her along with other kids as a whole. So I did that and there she is, a brand new Kai for a brand new project, which is STKR. Design was never my forte, so for her first one, somehow it reminds me of cheerleader hahaha. I got a headache, too, when revamping her but I think that's way better than the initial one. More UTAU-ish. What is UTAU-ish anyway. Kai's very initial design and revamped one, in her UTAU version. Perhaps, due to designing her, too, somehow, I have a tendency to draw girls with curly, drill hair now; without I’m realizing it myself (laughs). IIRC, because of her, too, a soft and gentle oneesan character archetype become a staple thing in every verse I have, bonus point if said characters have ample mammary, yeah. When being revamped for STKR, Kai is still the same Kai, the UTAU that I created. However, I retconned her UTAU phase into her backstory as a teen-idol. Which means, yes, she is now older than she was. I stretched her age from 17 to 22… Like Fleu, it was done to mirror my growth, I guess. Aside from changing her age, I gave her a new look, too! Now it's much more casual, since well, this is a slice-of-life AU, not idol soap drama. I always think of her as an idol… or well, someone popular on her college (probably because of her past, but eh, her curvaceous figure is also can be one of the factor), so I want to dress her up in something casual, but also chic, and doesn’t trying much (hahaha). Her current design is actually based from one of the arts I did back then for an UTAU cover. Yet, I really like her on that, so I revamped it here and there. As opposed to let her hair down, I make her somehow always styled in a bun? Purely because drawing long hair is bothersome, hahaha, so I kinda want to save myself. Name & BirthdayShe is the first one that I named as Kai, among the other four haha. It was shrunk from Kairi, though. But since they are on the same verse now, I opt to call them Kai and Hii-chan respectively, to differentiate one to another. Yes, I was called Kairi back then, hence that's the name of my mascot, but my friends usually cut it short into Kai and now it's kind of stuck, so, yeah. For her name as a whole, it means ripple. Shindoune(振動音)means rhyming/vibrating sound and Kai(海)means sea. Hence, the rhyming sound of the sea is, well… ripple. That was the idea. Her name is still the same in the STKR, but I changed the kanji. So now Kai(哇)means laughing voice, referring to her past as an idol/UTAU; where Shindoune(神童恵)means blessed prodigy, referring to her talent. I just altered the kanji to a common one for surname, since the initial one was following the Vocaloid pattern. Hey, come to think of it, maybe Kai was the first child that name I started to think seriously, despite being Kai. Hmm. July 13 was her release date as an UTAU, seven years ago. I convert it to her birthday now, as simple as that. Personality & RelationshipKai always has this… warm and motherly aura on my mind, even from her very initial concept. So, it still remains in the revamped version. However, she is somehow a bit of an airhead, a bit pushy, but she has good intention. She's… in a way more levelheaded than Kei, yet at the same time, she is much naiver than him. She’s cheery and nice in default, in contrast with Kei that is only cheery when he wants something hahahaa. I think she’s still sees the best from things and people, as opposed to Kei, who is very much jaded and low-key now. Oh, she's also luckier than him in love life department, since she is regarded as Madonna in the university, hahaha... So, well, let's see how it goes. Since she was always being linked with Kei as a sibling and such in the old UTAU covers, I made them as a real sibling here. Really, I can’t see them in romantic way??? so, yeah. For her relationship with others, I haven’t managed to write much as for now, since my attention is focused more to Kei and Hiichan. Welps. However!! I'm already excited to have her and settle her conception to final! End noteKai is… in a way, the child that I think as someone more ‘real’ than the other kids I have at the time back then. I mean, when working on the children, I usually regarded them as fragments of imagination that I have, then I depict them in a drawing. But as for Kai, it was like… she has the physical appearance, she has the genuine voice, she was moving through the MMD or PVs, and she was… probably the first kid that going through different kind of medium, haha. It was really fun developing her back then. She’s… probably not as ‘tangible’ as she was back then, now that I write better than I was. Still, she does hold a special place in my mind. [Last updated on June 2020]
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