Support Tohoku Itako’s VOICEROID Crowdfunding Project!

marumain November 23, 2017 News

On Monday, November 13th, the Tohoku Itako VOICEROID project’s crowdfunding page opened, and started taking donations for Tohoku Itako‘s long-awaited official VOICEROID bank. The money collected would help fund development of her VOICEROID2 bank, and help her join her sisters, Tohoku Zunko and Tohoku Kiritan, as part of AHS Co.‘s official VOICEROID series lineup.

And within just 23 minutes of commencing, the crowdfunding campaign had already reached its original ￥4,500,000 JPY goal (about $39,975 USD)!

Thank you so much ＼(?ず・ω・だ?)／ We’ve reached our goal after just 24 minutes…ヽ(´∀｀*)ﾉﾜｰｨヽ(*´∀｀)ﾉﾜｰｨ

Correction. It took closer to 23 minutes for us to reach 100% of our goal ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ

It didn’t take long for the crowdfunding organizers to then create more stretch goals, all of which were also reached within the campaign’s first week. At the time of this writing, they have raised an unprecedented ￥22,355,000 JPY (about $200,916 USD) for Itako’s VOICEROID development, nearly 5 times its initial goal!

Itako Crowdfunding Figure

But while the project is now fully funded, it has not yet officially concluded, and there are still some nice rewards up for grabs for those who would still like to donate. Read on for details!

About Tohoku Itako

Tohoku Itako is described as a 19-year-old shaman (which is what “itako” literally means) who graduated at the top of her class in shamanism school, and is the eldest of the Tohoku sisters. She is contracted to a fox spirit who lives inside her body, and transformed her ears into fox ears. Her voice provider is the famed voice actress, Ibuki Kido.

Back in 2014, a successful crowdfunding effort was held on GREEN FUNDING to get UTAU voice banks developed for both Itako and her sister, Tohoku Kiritan. See below for her demo songs.

“Kuchiyose Ouse” by Hoken TaiikuP

“Kuro Hane” by Bakuha Mikan

“Itako Metal” by greAir

Crowdfunding for Itako’s VOICEROID Development

While the initial ￥4,500,000 JPY would fully fund Itako’s VOICEROID development, it would be just a straight up voice bank with a singular style, and no recorded voice samples. However, the 23-minute fulfillment of the crowdfunding’s initial goal quickly led to the addition of more stretch goals the very next day, which would add many more bells and whistles to her product.

These stretch goals are as follows:

￥10,500,000 JPY (about $93,266 USD): 1 new voice style* and 150 new voice samples** added

￥11,700,000 JPY (about $103,925 USD): 150 new voice samples added

￥16,200,000 JPY (about $143,896 USD): 1 new voice style added

￥17,400,000 JPY (about 154,555 USD): 150 new voice samples added

￥22,000,000 JPY (about $195,415 USD): 1 new voice style added

*Voice styles are parameters that change the voice type or emotion, such as “angry,” “sad,” or “whisper”

**Voice samples are set, pre-recorded phrases and expressions that users can easily access for quick use in a video or anything else that they desire

Examples:





Then on November 19th, just 5 days after these stretch goals were added, every single one was fulfilled!

From all of us at Itako-neesama’s VOICEROID crowdfunding (◍•ᴗ•◍) Thank you so, so much! ✧.ﾟ٩(๑>◡<๑)۶:.｡♡
We never would have thought that we would achieve our final stretch goal within just one week! ヽ(•̀ω•́ )ゝ✧

They’ve done it!!!????? Ehhh!!! (lol) Amazing!
In just 6 days, they’ve raised ￥22,000,000 yen!∑(ﾟДﾟ)
This was all possible thanks to you! I’ll be doing my very best with the voice recording! (^з^)

Following the announcement that all stretch goals have been met, the crowdfunding page then mentioned that they will soon be preparing new illustrations and a Live2D model for Itako that users can download and utilize for free!

Up next, we’ve got an exciting announcement to make!o(≧▽≦)o
Itako-neesama’s Live2D model is now being made!((o(*´∀`*)o))

Itako-neesama’s popularity just grows and grows (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

The base illustration was provided by @edomuraninico, and the model was created by @JORA_JORAEMON (〃▽〃)ﾉ

Now about what we’ll be doing with all the money raised (๑╹◡╹๑) We’ll be using some of it to create brand new illustrations and develop the Live2D model! o(≧▽≦)o

Itako-neesama in motion (*ゝ∀･*)b

Donor Rewards

As with many crowdfunding efforts, donors to the project could score some nice rewards depending on how much they donate. Please note that by now, many of the merchandise rewards are out of stock, but there are still some digital rewards that have no limit to the number of people who can claim them.

￥500 JPY (about $4.50 USD)

  • Early look at Tohoku Itako’s VOICEROID2 box art

￥5,000 JPY (about $44.45 USD)

  • The above-mentioned reward
  • Crowdfunding donor-exclusive voice data

“We’ll be giving you exclusive voice data that only donors to the crowdfunding project can obtain as a reward!”

￥30,000 JPY (about $266 USD) **OUT OF STOCK**

  • All of the above-mentioned rewards
  • Tohoku Itako’s VOICEROID software (after it’s complete)
  • Tohoku Itako fabric poster
  • Voiced thank-you message from Tohoku Itako (they will be recording each person’s name for the thank-you message, and sending them individually)
￥30,000 fabric poster reward design

￥50,000 JPY (about $444 USD) **OUT OF STOCK**

  • All of the above-mentioned rewards, with your copy of Tohoku Itako’s VOICEROID software being autographed by Edomura Ninico
  • Tohoku Itako fabric poster (different from the ￥30,000 JPY reward), autographed by Edomura Ninico
￥50,000 fabric poster reward design

￥100,000 JPY (about $889 USD) **OUT OF STOCK**

  • All of the above-mentioned rewards
  • Tohoku Itako fabric poster (different from the ￥50,000 JPY rewar), autographed by Edomura Ninico
  • Tohoku Zunko picture book (same reward from the Zunda Horizon crowdfunding campaign)
￥100,000 fabric poster reward design

￥600,000 JPY (about $5334 USD) **OUT OF STOCK**

  • All of the above-mentioned rewards
  • Participation in a Tohoku Zunko business conference
  • A white plate with a Tohoku Itako illustration imprinted on it, newly-crafted right on the spot by Edomura Ninico

The extremely rapid success of Tohoku Itako’s VOICEROID crowdfunding project caught many people by surprise, including VNN. However, this early success confirms that Tohoku Itako’s VOICEROID2 software will soon be in development! Stayed tuned to VNN for any official updates and a release date announcement!

At the time of this writing, there are 18 days remaining until the Tohoku Itako VOICEROID Crowdfunding project concludes on December 11, 2017. You can donate to it here.

Links

Tohoku Itako VOICEROID GREEN FUNDING Page
Tohoku Zunko’s Official Twitter

Tags

About marumain

Hello! You can call me Marumain, and I serve as a translator between VNN in English and VNN in Japanese, translating articles between the two languages. I love pretty much every Vocaloid, though I consider MAIKA to be my favorite!