Linkdump!

As pretty much expected, MMD Cup took a huge bite out of the rankings since last weekend, leaving me with not really enough on my shortlist to do a post for a while. As if that weren't enough, something else - see below - took another huge chunk out of them this week, so the overall number of songs to pick from was a little reduced to say the least. Fortunately, we've also got some hot off the presses for you.

And then I fell asleep and had to continue writing the post the next day!! Never get old, it's terrible. Someone hand me a cane... so I can beat anyone younger than me.

News

- The Project Diva twitter feed strongly hints that the Mirai demo is now out. If you've got access to the Japanese Nintendo DS store, take a look there tonight for the 'something special' the tweet mentions.

- The Engloids blog (good site, by the way) has some translated information on the intention to bring out a SeeU English database within the year. This would be interesting from a region perspective - with the English version of Miku still seemingly a non-starter, SeeU could potentially take the lead on bridging the east and west; on the other hand, with a certain amount of reactionary outcry on Youtube over the whole Save Miku furore, it's anyone's guess as to how she'd be received.

- Gonna repimp the Save Miku Wikia, as I've been keeping up with it and am very pleased to see it both getting used and getting used effectively.

- Kind of off-topic, but hachi, under the name of Kenshi Yonezu, is putting out a full-length album entirely of his own work: singing, animation, and music, the works. You can check out the headliner song, Go Go Ghost Ship, here.

- Of course, Kaito's birthday happened, but... one look at the tag sorted by view will confirm what I'd already started to suspect - with the top 6 all coming from MMD Cup, I think he's been usurped a little.

Videos


【ミク リン レン ルカ KAITO MEIKO GUMI がくぽ】ゆめのかたち【オリジナル】
Dream Form (fuwari, Ensemble, Ballad)
Oh no, right in the feelings! Well, what else could I put up at the top of the post? The Crypton and Internet all-stars team up for a soft and super-gentle pop ballad number, with traditional understated fuwari music and a vocal tour-de-force. Seriously heartwarming, and if somehow that wasn't enough there's a full animation from nekomura, one of the more famed PV makers around.


【GUMI】 イカサマライフゲイム 【オリジナル・PV付】
Ikasama Life Game (kemu, Gumi, Rock)
a.k.a. 'Fake Life Game'. Not the first Gumi song that I narrowly avoided linking last post, thinking the next one would be along within the week - but easily the biggest and most striking of the lot. A tremendous marriage between fast rock, scorching piano and chiptune stylings, kemu's latest grandstands in fine fashion, topping it all off with an excellent Gumi and an absolutely excellent video. If you somehow haven't seen this yet, make absolutely sure to now.


【初音ミク】二次元ドリームフィーバー【オリジナル】
2D Dream Fever (Polyphonic Branch, Miku, Rock)
The video for this track was quite a surprise, I have to admit - it seems odd to see hie working with anyone but kous, especially on a track that isn't even vaguely kous-like; a frenetic mix of chiptunes and eager rock, married to a video that's half electronics and half kinetic typography. The style changes in the music are a little too abrupt for me at times, but it's hardly about to stop me enjoying what is all in all a very impressive production.


【KAITO誕生祭2012】Reach for the Bluesky【オリジナル】
Reach for the Blue Sky (crystal, Kaito, Pop)
One of KarenT's headliners for Kaito's birthday, this is cutesy anthemic pop with a twist - possibly the single most unique and striking set of Kaito encodes I've ever heard. A super unlifting song, I'd heartily recommend a click for Kaito's birthday alone.


【KAITO】石碑のうた【オリジナル】
Monument Song (仕事して, Kaito, !!)
Alternatively, let's bring back an old favorite to blow away the rest of the competition, even if she is a little late; shigotoshite's Kaito is just as staggeringly good as he ever has been from one of the masters of Vocaloid 1 coding. I dare you - I dare you - to listen to the track behind it without grinning your face off. Almost a country waltz in style, the bagpipes-and-flutes motif is the perfect accompaniment for a seriously joyous song.


【初音ミク】SPIKE【オリジナル曲PV付】
SPIKE (SHO, Miku, RAWWWWWWWWK)
Ahahahah! It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that this amazingly cheesy and over the top rock song, with its grandstanding riffs and angst-tastic video, was actually the prequel to famous SHO/nekomura song Well-Rounded, a tale of post-apocalyptic cats living in roly-poly harmony. After I figured that much out, well, my hands were pretty much tied.


[IAオリジナル曲] The Embedded Blue
The Embedded Blue (millstones, IA, wub wub wub wub wub)
I have what could be considered an unhealthy amount of love for millstones' work. Coincidentally, I have a similarly unhealthy amount of love for wub wub wub wub wub oontz oontz oontz wub wub wub dooooooooooooooooo.


【初音ミク】世界の中心で中指を立てた馬鹿者【オリジナル曲】
The Idiot Who Flipped Off The Rest Of The World (shomi, Miku, Rock)
Oh dear, it's gotten all political up in here.


【GUMI power】　手紙　（オリジナル曲）
Letter (conti4x, Gumi, Pop)
Down the post a ways, you'll find an example of a Gumi Power encode I don't like that much - this, however, is a prime example of one I do. Crystal clear and relentlessly powerful, Gumi's voice shines over the music and is an absolute joy to listen to in the midst of a satisfying and triumphant pop/rock number. It loses a little speed near the end, and starts to stumble over itself, but recovers in time for a gentle finish that can't be beat.


【鏡音レン】常連パティシエー【オリジナル曲PV】
Regular's Patisserie (voiceberg, Len, R... R+B Pop?)
You could be forgiven for thinking this track was entirely done by halyosy, such is his name plastered all over the credits of the video, for everything from backing music to the final encode - but you'd be wrong for all the important reasons - sobomen's illustrations make the video, while osamuraisan's guitar cuts right through the rest of the music to sound as stellar as you'd expect it to. A very smooth and pretty damn delightful track.


【IA】チョコレイトの涙【オリジナル曲】
Chocolate Tears (bekkoo, IA, Pop)
Missed this one last week, but I wanted to make sure I linked it this time around - one of the best IA originals to come out of the lull after her explosive launch, this is a gorgeous soft track with a homely, gentle air and a whole lot of fantastic IA singing. I definitely raised an eyebrow at some of the vibrato, and I have to admit the 'Just Be Friends' early on sure seemed like a sideswipe to me, but all else is blown away by how delightful this track can sound. Lovely.


【IA】　エル　【オリジナル】
L (uz, IA, Soft Emo)
Mmm... I think I include this one with some reservations. It's not the only uz song that's been on my shortlist this week, but all of them have felt very dry and rather lacking in any real impact. This is a perfectly nice ballad, but it's also one in which nothing ever really happens, and I can't find myself strongly engaged. That said, IA's voice gets another workout, which is never a bad thing.


【GUMI】センセーショナル【オリジナル曲】
Sensational (YM, Gumi, Rock)
Sensational was one of the standout Gumi tracks last week, but when I was doing the last linkdump I actually ended up waffling over it pretty hard, being rather unimpressed with it at the time. Even now, I have a difficult time listening to it - it's a compelling and strange track but I can't help but feel that its conceits mar the overall sound rather than enhance it, be it a track that doesn't really ever sound like it's mixed to the right volume or else a Gumi whose voice is just a little too stark and off-kilter. It's an uncomfortable song, which isn't bad in and of itself, but critically also one where I can't tell if that's deliberate or not.


【GUMI】 投資家レコーズ 【オリジナル曲】
Investor Recourse (TOKOTOKO, Gumi, Rock)
From one end of the Gumi spectrum, right to the other? Not in terms of the music - this is still a rock track through and through, albeit a much lighter one than Sensational and one that's got a lot of little neat jazzy showoff touches throughout - but in Gumi's voice. Gumi Power is perhaps coming on a bit strong here, with a very thick tone that kind of puts me off. I do think it's a sound Gumi pulls off a lot better, though, so I leave the rest of the decision up to you lot on the final call.


初音ミクのオリジナル曲　秘密の七つ道具 -Full ver.-
Seven Tools To Catch Your Secret (deadball, Miku, Jazz)

初音ミクのオリジナル曲　午前２時の記憶喪失 -Full ver.-
Amnesia at 2am (deadball, Miku, Pop)
I'm a little astonished these didn't do that well; super-smooth, Seven Tools is a jazzy celebration ranging from brass sections to crazed bongo and piano, all of which is infused with a joyous tone and almost certainly an entirely inappropriate lyrical line. The electric piano and double-bass duet is a real treat in the middle of the song, and while Miku might be a little high she's certainly more than satisfactory. Amnesia I can understand people liking a lot less, though - it's rather high, rather lacking in power, and certainly the lesser of the two new releases if you ask me.


【猫村いろは】　夏葬詠 【オリジナルなんですｵｳｨｪ】
Summer Burial Ritual (akiba ota, Iroha, Rock)
Another week, another akiba ota song! I've held off on linking a couple of these because, um, to be honest they're getting just a little bit samey? There is a definite sense of improvement, though - akiba ota's rounding out Iroha's voice a lot more and his songs have become a lot more generally listenable, so I thought it was about time to throw another one out. In any case, you really have to respect a one-man crusade to keep Iroha up and running.


【KAITO】Possibility【オリジナル】
Possibility (icepotato, Kaito, b... britpop...?)
Oh, man. Kaito's voice can get pretty bad in this twangy, jumpy track at times, but I'm prepared to forgive all of it and more for just one more listen to that intro, or another burst of anthemic echoing guitar from the middle of the track, or Kaito's crooning at the high points. You'll be hooked in moments.

MMD / Other:


[Tda式ミク・アペンド]美し過ぎて生きるのがつらいです[モデル紹介]
Tda Miku Append
So, yeah. I was going to give MMD a miss, what with the cup just gone, but this didn't give me a choice. This is what the big fuss was about this week - a new and ridiculously detailed MMD model of Miku Append, HD-capable and already with a couple changes of clothes and a bunch of neat tricks you can do with the eyes and face - including that 80s standby of computer text behind the retina. It's no exaggeration to say this model has been more popular even than Lat's launch this last week, with multiple top-ten videos clogging up the ranking and a whole slew of reprinted songs dedicated to it. Chances are the video above - being a general look at the model's boning and design - won't interest you that much, so here's a bunch of dances under the cut.


【モデルすげえ】Tda式アペンドミク『FREELY TOMORROW』【MMD】
Freely Tomorrow is the most-watched of the Tda videos, and it isn't hard to see why - HD and super smooth, it's the most showoff in terms of Tda's capabilities. The shininess and the camera going all over the damn place, though...


【MMD】【MMD】Tda式Appendミク さんがEVERYBODY (Obligatory EVERYBODY)

【MikuMikuDance】galaxias! を躍らせて見ました (galaxias)

【MMD】 Departures ～あなたにおくるアイの歌～ 【Tda式ミク・アペンド】 (Departures aka Super Close-Up)

Tda式Appendミクを水着にしてみた (Nekomimi Switch)

crackをTda式Appendミクさんに歌ってもらった【MikuMikuDance】 (crack)

【MMD】 ミクリョシカ 【初音ミクAppend×初音ミク2020】 (Matryoshka with 7th Dragon 2020 Miku)