Weekly (ha ha ha) Roundup
So I got ill again. All of you about to say something about my creaking old bones can just shut up.
This is a pretty big update this week, what with it covering last Monday to this week's Thursday. We've got a bumper collection of songs, an astounding lack of Miku in the top-three picks, and a host of fun covers and animations for you down the bottom, including a number of looks at the new effects engine for MMD. It'll also be one of those occasional weeks where my descriptions are even more half-assed than usual.
Also, we've had a shedload of new members recently so I'd like to say hello to you all and point you to a few things. The rules are in the profile - we are incredibly lazy at actually upkeeping them and love commenters. If you're wondering just what the hell we're all on, we've got a bunch of primers over at this tag. And if you happen to find anything else around nicovideo you want to share, we've got you covered with the nicospam community. Which could use some loving, plug plug.
オリジナル曲・月翅 【VY1】
(Tsukihane (Seiko), Mizki, Pop)
Seiko gives us what is almost certainly the most inspiring out of all of VY1's initial barrage of tracks, mostly by applying her hyper god time skills to Mizki's already fairly clear and crisp voice. Tsukihane honestly sounds fantastic, and it's a real shame that I'm not entirely certain VY1's going to get much coverage with the Appends and Iroha just around the corner.
【鏡音リン】アンチクロロベンゼン【浄罪系洗脳ソング】
(Antichlorobenzene (owata), Rin, Earworm, PV)
If you hadn't guessed already, this is intended to be a companion and comparison to Paradichlorobenzene - flaunting much of the same sound and style, it manages to be more melodic and less outright grating, with Rin's voice making the whole thing a little softer. Even the piano is toned down somewhat and it makes the track considerably more listenable. Unfortunately, I got tired of it the same day thanks to everyone on nicovideo deciding to overlay the two songs together.
【巡音ルカ】 HOLIDAY 【オリジナル】【ＶＯＣＡＬＯＩＤ】
(HOLIDAY (Tes.), Luka, Pop, PV)
This was woefully underappreciated by Nicovideo this past week, because I think it's absolutely wonderful. Okay, it's playing to my strengths, a gorgeous and soft croony pop song from Luka full of violin and piano, and there's often problems with Luka's voice getting lost, but I honestly can't bring myself to care: I just utterly love the sound, the backing singing, the crescendos, it's all lovely.
【GUMI】 COIN 【オリジナル！】
(COIN (buzzG), Gumi, Slightly Thrash Rock, PV)
Even I'm forced to admit this track is a cut above the rest. While I'm not exactly the greatest fan of distorted screamy deep-throat rock, this track's full of lighter moments and some fantastic slower and melodic sections, sending you back and forth between styles at a rapid rate. The solo combines the two beautifully, and at that point I'm forced to give in. An extremely solid Gumi track.
【初音ミク】○＋●【オリジナル】PV
(○＋● (kous), Miku, Acoustic Rock, PV)
Good luck finding a decent filename to save this mp3 as. Kous is back with signature floaty Miku, requisite video from hie, and a whole lot of twangy angsty guitar. The acoustic portions of the song might actually be a little too twangy - between those and Miku's high voice the song nearly put me off altogether - then it all came together into a strangely dark and emo piece that was pretty cool, all told.
【GUMI】 その色彩を 【オリジナル】
(That Colour (uz), Gumi, Rock, PV)
Sort-of hot off the presses, here's Gumi and uz with a second shot at angsty, angsty rock. There's not a lot to make this stand out above the rest of uz's work - it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect - but it still holds up to high standards.
【鏡音リン】わすれんぼう【オリジナル】
(Forgetful Person (agoaniki), Rin, Rock)
A stellar success story on Nicovideo, this made it into the last week's ranking despite being put up a day before it went up, and has since garnered over 130,000 views in 5 days. And... to be honest, I wish I knew why. Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly decent song with some good riffs to it, but it's also tinny and kind of standard and I'm just not feeling it.
【Lily】 +REVERSE 【オリジナル曲】
(+REVERSE (niki), Lily, Rock)
Amazing guitars on this thumping, pounding Lily rock track. She might sound nigh-on identical to Luka in places, but this is a fine, fine effort by Niki and a damn sight better than any other Lily song I've heard. Instantly grabbed me, and almost as good is the companion piece -ERROR.
【MEIKO・KAITO】二つの物語【オリジナル】
(A Tale of Two (仕事して), Meiko + Kaito, Pop)
So Meiko's voice could cut glass at points in this song, it's true. But I don't care; it's been so long since a good song came along for the both of them that I'm totally abusing my rights to stick this one near the top. It's a damn sight better than many we've heard for either of them recently, and they both sound very good together, Kaito especially.
【初音ミク】 The Beast. 【オリジナル】
(The Beast (supekutakuru), Miku, Piano Pop, PV)
Confession time - flying in the face of all possible established wisdom on the subject, I actually don't like this track much. I don't know why! By rights, I should adore it, but something about a super-fast Miku and a lack of other instrumentation just makes it all kind of fall apart for me. Certainly, I feel it's an acquired taste of a song - maybe I just haven't acquired it yet.
【初音ミク】そらのサカナ【オリジナルPV付き】
(Sky Fish (powapowa), Miku, Ambient Trance Pop, PV)
I say 'ambient trance' because, quite honestly, 90% of this track sounds to me like it was ripped straight from a level of Rez. (If you haven't played it, you really should.) Lots of staccato tones, lots of quick snatches and bursts of drums, and Miku gently crooning over it without worrying too much about a coherent song coming out of the whole equation. Very trippy, but that's not a bad thing.
【GUMIオリジナルPV】 檸檬 【フェイP×Junky×こみね×とれパン】
(Lemon (huei + Junky), Gumi, Easy Listening, PV)
Definitely not the sort of song I was expecting these two to come up with, Junky's usual soaring pop dance style is swapped out for a soft and gentle ballad that kind of gives off a summer countryside romance feel, should that make any sense at all. The piano's gorgeous, Gumi's voice is careful and fits wonderfully, and Junky can't help but shine through with a bit of well-placed guitar.
【巡音ルカ】ラストソング
(Last Song (fatman), Luka, Rock)
This is still laden with some of fatman's recent problems - Luka's too easily long under the whining, wailing guitar and frequently goes high enough to make my teeth hurt - but I like it a lot more than I have some of fatman's other recent stuff, and I sincerely hope this is the start of a recovery for him.
【巡音ルカ】_theBlue【オリジナルPV】
(_theBlue (fukakuboryou), Luka, Rock, PV)
Mmm. I couldn't get into this nearly as much as Nicovideo could - what could be a very good if slightly generic Luka rock track got marred a little by a slightly wonky voice in places - but it's certainly far better than many tracks out there this week, and worth a good listen.
「ARPK」 song by 巡音ルカ（ENG）
(ARPK (baker), Luka, Electronica Earworm, PV)
This is a completely ridiculous song about alpacas. It will get stuck in your head forever and ever and ever thanks to a thumping beat and a rhythm you can tap your toes to. Aaaaaaaargh.
【初音ミク】鈍灯欠眼生物群【オリジナルPV付】
(Dim Light, Lack of Experience, Living Things (kyoton), Miku, Rock, PV)
Ugggh, I'm taking a pass on the translation for this one. I can't quite mangle the kanji into a decent title or sentence, so if someone wants to have a go, go for it. The song itself is golden, however, fantastic plucky guitar that instantly made my brain dial back twenty years to Knight Rider (shut up), and some great driving bass sections.
【ルカ GUMI ミク】 マイルームディスコナイト 【オリジナル曲】
(My Room Disco Night (BETTI), Miku + Luka + Gumi, Club Pop)
Not much to say about this one - if you liked Cheap Time Disco, you are almost guaranteed to like this bouncy poppy club track from Easypop, because it sounds almost exactly the same. If you hated it with a fiery passion, you should perhaps give this trio a miss.
【初音ミクAppend】dreams and visions【オリジナル曲】
(Dreams and Visions (okame), Miku, Emo Rock)
As I said above, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of this type of genre, but this track just tickled me. You'll no doubt be able to guess the main reasons it passed muster for me when you listen to it, but even the screaming rock sections seemed quite pleasant after a few listens, and I ended up generally taken by the whole thing.
【初音ミク】ライムライトガール【オリジナル曲】
(Limelight Girl (糞田舎), Miku, Rock)
A perfectly servicable if rather throwaway Miku song, there's some flashes of brilliance in some of the instrumental sections, especially the guitar riffs, but the track as a whole didn't really punch through to me enough to really pay attention to it and the Miku was kind of scratchy.
【鏡音リン(とく)】 Hands 【うたってもらった】
(Hands (toku), Rin, Trance Pop)
Shock and horror! Stel's gratuitous pick at the end of the update isn't a Miku song. Next, the world will likely crack open and Armageddon will begin - before that, though, listen to Toku trying something a bit more ambient than his usual pop hits as he does a straight up trance track with Rin's help. She's a bit iffy in places, but compliments the music well enough.
Other:
【MMD】Gee【MME】
【MMD】 *ハロー、プラネット。【DIVAっぽいど】
Nicovideo's been going nuts this week over MikuMikuEffect, a new dll file for MMD that adds on a ton of filtering, particle and camera options - and the ability to extend them - to the standard bank of tools. By all accounts it's incredibly impressive work, and you can see some examples of the things on offer in this preview video. Meanwhile, Lat Miku and Rin will show off the lighting, and Diva Miku will show off Hello Planet done incredibly smoothly.
【MikuMikuDance】ネギトロキッチン-アニメＯＰ風味
(Negitoro Kitchen (Anime OP) (meganemiku), Miku + Luka, MMD PV)
A rewording of OSTER Project sets the scene for a success story revolving around Luka and Miku combining their culinary talents to provide the best food around for such celebrities as Boromir and the Lederhosen Guy. Then they waltz together, with sparkles all over the place. And why not.
【初音ミク】トリノコシティ PV
(Torinoko City (40m), Miku, PV)
Another week, another Torinoko City PV!
初音ミク - モノクロ∞ブルースカイ MMDPV
(Monochro Blue Sky (noboru), Lat Miku, MMD PV)
One seriously shiny MMD PV for noboru's hit Miku track. While I enjoy it greatly, I have a message for all those people who make super-high-res Lat!Miku movies: Guys. You are not all Chaining Intention. You can stop making Miku dance jerkily or out of speed with the music. You can make her move naturally. I know, it's a weird idea, but just try it, guys, it might work out. It happens in most of the movies I've seen for Lat, MMD Cup especially.
【UTAU】重音テト・波音リツでマトリョシカ【カバー＆PV】
(Matryoshka UTAU Cover (hachi), Teto + Ritsu, MMD PV)
Yes, that says MMD PV up there on the right. This is something of a common occurence ever since a couple of tracks tried it during MMD Cup - videos made up of still images or 2d animation, but actually animated with text effects via MMD. Why not? The UTAUs sound pretty solid here, and you do get a marked smoothness of scrolling by using MMD.
【MMD】Neverに合わせて踊ってもらった【バストアムーブ２】
(Never (DATEKEN), Entire Group, MMD PV)
A fitting close to this post, this video to accompany DATEKEN and the twins' ode to natto made me smile so hard. It's not technically impressive, it's not a res high enough to break your browser, it's just all the vocaloids grabbing props and breaking it the hell down in the best way they can. Surprisingly smooth movement and it's worth it just to see Kaito don shades and be highly manly as he busts a move.
This is a pretty big update this week, what with it covering last Monday to this week's Thursday. We've got a bumper collection of songs, an astounding lack of Miku in the top-three picks, and a host of fun covers and animations for you down the bottom, including a number of looks at the new effects engine for MMD. It'll also be one of those occasional weeks where my descriptions are even more half-assed than usual.
Also, we've had a shedload of new members recently so I'd like to say hello to you all and point you to a few things. The rules are in the profile - we are incredibly lazy at actually upkeeping them and love commenters. If you're wondering just what the hell we're all on, we've got a bunch of primers over at this tag. And if you happen to find anything else around nicovideo you want to share, we've got you covered with the nicospam community. Which could use some loving, plug plug.
オリジナル曲・月翅 【VY1】
(Tsukihane (Seiko), Mizki, Pop)
Seiko gives us what is almost certainly the most inspiring out of all of VY1's initial barrage of tracks, mostly by applying her hyper god time skills to Mizki's already fairly clear and crisp voice. Tsukihane honestly sounds fantastic, and it's a real shame that I'm not entirely certain VY1's going to get much coverage with the Appends and Iroha just around the corner.
【鏡音リン】アンチクロロベンゼン【浄罪系洗脳ソング】
(Antichlorobenzene (owata), Rin, Earworm, PV)
If you hadn't guessed already, this is intended to be a companion and comparison to Paradichlorobenzene - flaunting much of the same sound and style, it manages to be more melodic and less outright grating, with Rin's voice making the whole thing a little softer. Even the piano is toned down somewhat and it makes the track considerably more listenable. Unfortunately, I got tired of it the same day thanks to everyone on nicovideo deciding to overlay the two songs together.
【巡音ルカ】 HOLIDAY 【オリジナル】【ＶＯＣＡＬＯＩＤ】
(HOLIDAY (Tes.), Luka, Pop, PV)
This was woefully underappreciated by Nicovideo this past week, because I think it's absolutely wonderful. Okay, it's playing to my strengths, a gorgeous and soft croony pop song from Luka full of violin and piano, and there's often problems with Luka's voice getting lost, but I honestly can't bring myself to care: I just utterly love the sound, the backing singing, the crescendos, it's all lovely.
【GUMI】 COIN 【オリジナル！】
(COIN (buzzG), Gumi, Slightly Thrash Rock, PV)
Even I'm forced to admit this track is a cut above the rest. While I'm not exactly the greatest fan of distorted screamy deep-throat rock, this track's full of lighter moments and some fantastic slower and melodic sections, sending you back and forth between styles at a rapid rate. The solo combines the two beautifully, and at that point I'm forced to give in. An extremely solid Gumi track.
【初音ミク】○＋●【オリジナル】PV
(○＋● (kous), Miku, Acoustic Rock, PV)
Good luck finding a decent filename to save this mp3 as. Kous is back with signature floaty Miku, requisite video from hie, and a whole lot of twangy angsty guitar. The acoustic portions of the song might actually be a little too twangy - between those and Miku's high voice the song nearly put me off altogether - then it all came together into a strangely dark and emo piece that was pretty cool, all told.
【GUMI】 その色彩を 【オリジナル】
(That Colour (uz), Gumi, Rock, PV)
Sort-of hot off the presses, here's Gumi and uz with a second shot at angsty, angsty rock. There's not a lot to make this stand out above the rest of uz's work - it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect - but it still holds up to high standards.
【鏡音リン】わすれんぼう【オリジナル】
(Forgetful Person (agoaniki), Rin, Rock)
A stellar success story on Nicovideo, this made it into the last week's ranking despite being put up a day before it went up, and has since garnered over 130,000 views in 5 days. And... to be honest, I wish I knew why. Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly decent song with some good riffs to it, but it's also tinny and kind of standard and I'm just not feeling it.
【Lily】 +REVERSE 【オリジナル曲】
(+REVERSE (niki), Lily, Rock)
Amazing guitars on this thumping, pounding Lily rock track. She might sound nigh-on identical to Luka in places, but this is a fine, fine effort by Niki and a damn sight better than any other Lily song I've heard. Instantly grabbed me, and almost as good is the companion piece -ERROR.
【MEIKO・KAITO】二つの物語【オリジナル】
(A Tale of Two (仕事して), Meiko + Kaito, Pop)
So Meiko's voice could cut glass at points in this song, it's true. But I don't care; it's been so long since a good song came along for the both of them that I'm totally abusing my rights to stick this one near the top. It's a damn sight better than many we've heard for either of them recently, and they both sound very good together, Kaito especially.
【初音ミク】 The Beast. 【オリジナル】
(The Beast (supekutakuru), Miku, Piano Pop, PV)
Confession time - flying in the face of all possible established wisdom on the subject, I actually don't like this track much. I don't know why! By rights, I should adore it, but something about a super-fast Miku and a lack of other instrumentation just makes it all kind of fall apart for me. Certainly, I feel it's an acquired taste of a song - maybe I just haven't acquired it yet.
【初音ミク】そらのサカナ【オリジナルPV付き】
(Sky Fish (powapowa), Miku, Ambient Trance Pop, PV)
I say 'ambient trance' because, quite honestly, 90% of this track sounds to me like it was ripped straight from a level of Rez. (If you haven't played it, you really should.) Lots of staccato tones, lots of quick snatches and bursts of drums, and Miku gently crooning over it without worrying too much about a coherent song coming out of the whole equation. Very trippy, but that's not a bad thing.
【GUMIオリジナルPV】 檸檬 【フェイP×Junky×こみね×とれパン】
(Lemon (huei + Junky), Gumi, Easy Listening, PV)
Definitely not the sort of song I was expecting these two to come up with, Junky's usual soaring pop dance style is swapped out for a soft and gentle ballad that kind of gives off a summer countryside romance feel, should that make any sense at all. The piano's gorgeous, Gumi's voice is careful and fits wonderfully, and Junky can't help but shine through with a bit of well-placed guitar.
【巡音ルカ】ラストソング
(Last Song (fatman), Luka, Rock)
This is still laden with some of fatman's recent problems - Luka's too easily long under the whining, wailing guitar and frequently goes high enough to make my teeth hurt - but I like it a lot more than I have some of fatman's other recent stuff, and I sincerely hope this is the start of a recovery for him.
【巡音ルカ】_theBlue【オリジナルPV】
(_theBlue (fukakuboryou), Luka, Rock, PV)
Mmm. I couldn't get into this nearly as much as Nicovideo could - what could be a very good if slightly generic Luka rock track got marred a little by a slightly wonky voice in places - but it's certainly far better than many tracks out there this week, and worth a good listen.
「ARPK」 song by 巡音ルカ（ENG）
(ARPK (baker), Luka, Electronica Earworm, PV)
This is a completely ridiculous song about alpacas. It will get stuck in your head forever and ever and ever thanks to a thumping beat and a rhythm you can tap your toes to. Aaaaaaaargh.
【初音ミク】鈍灯欠眼生物群【オリジナルPV付】
(Dim Light, Lack of Experience, Living Things (kyoton), Miku, Rock, PV)
Ugggh, I'm taking a pass on the translation for this one. I can't quite mangle the kanji into a decent title or sentence, so if someone wants to have a go, go for it. The song itself is golden, however, fantastic plucky guitar that instantly made my brain dial back twenty years to Knight Rider (shut up), and some great driving bass sections.
【ルカ GUMI ミク】 マイルームディスコナイト 【オリジナル曲】
(My Room Disco Night (BETTI), Miku + Luka + Gumi, Club Pop)
Not much to say about this one - if you liked Cheap Time Disco, you are almost guaranteed to like this bouncy poppy club track from Easypop, because it sounds almost exactly the same. If you hated it with a fiery passion, you should perhaps give this trio a miss.
【初音ミクAppend】dreams and visions【オリジナル曲】
(Dreams and Visions (okame), Miku, Emo Rock)
As I said above, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of this type of genre, but this track just tickled me. You'll no doubt be able to guess the main reasons it passed muster for me when you listen to it, but even the screaming rock sections seemed quite pleasant after a few listens, and I ended up generally taken by the whole thing.
【初音ミク】ライムライトガール【オリジナル曲】
(Limelight Girl (糞田舎), Miku, Rock)
A perfectly servicable if rather throwaway Miku song, there's some flashes of brilliance in some of the instrumental sections, especially the guitar riffs, but the track as a whole didn't really punch through to me enough to really pay attention to it and the Miku was kind of scratchy.
【鏡音リン(とく)】 Hands 【うたってもらった】
(Hands (toku), Rin, Trance Pop)
Shock and horror! Stel's gratuitous pick at the end of the update isn't a Miku song. Next, the world will likely crack open and Armageddon will begin - before that, though, listen to Toku trying something a bit more ambient than his usual pop hits as he does a straight up trance track with Rin's help. She's a bit iffy in places, but compliments the music well enough.
Other:
【MMD】Gee【MME】
【MMD】 *ハロー、プラネット。【DIVAっぽいど】
Nicovideo's been going nuts this week over MikuMikuEffect, a new dll file for MMD that adds on a ton of filtering, particle and camera options - and the ability to extend them - to the standard bank of tools. By all accounts it's incredibly impressive work, and you can see some examples of the things on offer in this preview video. Meanwhile, Lat Miku and Rin will show off the lighting, and Diva Miku will show off Hello Planet done incredibly smoothly.
【MikuMikuDance】ネギトロキッチン-アニメＯＰ風味
(Negitoro Kitchen (Anime OP) (meganemiku), Miku + Luka, MMD PV)
A rewording of OSTER Project sets the scene for a success story revolving around Luka and Miku combining their culinary talents to provide the best food around for such celebrities as Boromir and the Lederhosen Guy. Then they waltz together, with sparkles all over the place. And why not.
【初音ミク】トリノコシティ PV
(Torinoko City (40m), Miku, PV)
Another week, another Torinoko City PV!
初音ミク - モノクロ∞ブルースカイ MMDPV
(Monochro Blue Sky (noboru), Lat Miku, MMD PV)
One seriously shiny MMD PV for noboru's hit Miku track. While I enjoy it greatly, I have a message for all those people who make super-high-res Lat!Miku movies: Guys. You are not all Chaining Intention. You can stop making Miku dance jerkily or out of speed with the music. You can make her move naturally. I know, it's a weird idea, but just try it, guys, it might work out. It happens in most of the movies I've seen for Lat, MMD Cup especially.
【UTAU】重音テト・波音リツでマトリョシカ【カバー＆PV】
(Matryoshka UTAU Cover (hachi), Teto + Ritsu, MMD PV)
Yes, that says MMD PV up there on the right. This is something of a common occurence ever since a couple of tracks tried it during MMD Cup - videos made up of still images or 2d animation, but actually animated with text effects via MMD. Why not? The UTAUs sound pretty solid here, and you do get a marked smoothness of scrolling by using MMD.
【MMD】Neverに合わせて踊ってもらった【バストアムーブ２】
(Never (DATEKEN), Entire Group, MMD PV)
A fitting close to this post, this video to accompany DATEKEN and the twins' ode to natto made me smile so hard. It's not technically impressive, it's not a res high enough to break your browser, it's just all the vocaloids grabbing props and breaking it the hell down in the best way they can. Surprisingly smooth movement and it's worth it just to see Kaito don shades and be highly manly as he busts a move.