Feel the Sprouting #8: DIY Sprouting in the Youtube Era
When Hatsune Miku, the first Japanese Vocaloid2 program, was released on August 31, 2007, she was like God’s gift to Sprouting-type moe fans on YouTube and Nico Video.
With “her” easy-to-use interface and cutesy vocal stylings, users could re-imagine any song they wanted, set it to some video - or even just a still image - and voila! Instant audio/video contribution to dazzle fellow otaku. You don’t have to be able to sing (though the “I tried to sing it” genre is huge on Nico Video these days), you don’t have to have much musical talent, and you don’t have to have your own recording equipment, but you can still give the world some “new” music.
Just a quick search for 初音 (the kanji for Hatsune) on YouTube pulls up around 14,000 results for Miku-mixes of all kinds of songs, from Nanoha openings to the Kefka boss fight music (the best part is at 2:37).
Meanwhile, more machinima-minded otaku have had their toy since January 2007 - the home version of THE iDOLM@STER (yes, that’s the official spelling, and yes, it makes me sad whenever I have to write it out). With its impressively expressive cel-shaded characters, a multitude of camera options, energetic dance moves, and ultra-Sprouting costume choices (I was a big fan of the Iron Mask, but I may have been the only one), it practically begged for anyone with a good video card to make music videos with it.
And they have been at it for over a year now, producing everything from brief, soulful ballads to full-length denpa dances. If you’re of a mind to blow some time at work and want to see what the minds of otaku can do when combined with decent video capture cards, you could do worse than the 6,000-plus iDOLM@STER (god, I had to write it again) videos on the ‘Tube.
Anyone have any favorite performances from the Vocaloids or the iDOLs they want to share? I’m getting pretty bored at work these days…
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