Kasane Teto: The Mimic
Oct. 17th, 2024 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malyminI am not knowledgeable enough on vocal synthesizer fandom to consider myself "within" it, but it intrigues me.
I have a soft spot for Kasane Teto.
For context:
"Vocaloid fandom" extends past the Vocaloid brand name proper, to other vocal synthesizer voicebanks, but Vocaloid was the patient zero. Hatsune Miku is the patent zero. Hatsune Miku (released August 31, 2007) was originally intended to be used solely by professional music producers; her unexpected explosive popularity among amateur musicians and otaku is what made vocal synth culture what it is now. Miku is the Mickey Mouse or Mario of her medium, and of her brand. But she does have a few Donalds and Goofies, or Luigis and Toads, within her inner circle. Her extended cast.
Miku was developed by Crypton Future Media, Inc. They'd sold two prior voicebanks for Yamaha's VOCALOID software,named MEIKO and KAITO. But Miku, oh she was special. She was the first member of the Character Vocal series - meant to compensate for the flaws and limitations of earlier banks by focusing on distinctive vocals provided by voice actors, rather than strictly professional vocals provided by professional singers. Her designation: CV01. She was announced to be followed by CV02, CV03, and CV04. All CV vocals contain "音" -- ne, or "sound", in their surname.
CV01, Hatsune Miku. CV02, Kagamine Rin & Len. CV03, Megurine Luka. And...
nex3's grid generatorWait? What's this? The name is the same; the image color is distinctive. The clothes are close enough to fit in with Miku and Rin, at the very least; the shoulder tattoo is the same as all the other girls. But that box art... wait, where's the box?
嘘 (uso), n. - a lie; a falsehood; a fallacy
Kasane Teto (revealed April 1, 2008) is not a real Vocaloid.
She's a prank, initially concocted by a bunch of 2chan trolls as no more than a spoof of the idea of a Vocaloid, to fuck with Miku's exploding fanbase. It could have just ended there, for her: discarded, as so many pranks are past her expiration date. But she wasn't. There was an opening: a freeware alternative to VOCALOID software, known as UTAU, had just released. The voice actress was willing to provide more vocals. Other 2channers were also willing to continue the project. Thus, formed TWINDRILL, the collective that manages and maintains her voicebank and character rights.
- March 30th, 2008: The first proposal. From proposal to unveiling, it took 48 hours of rush work to create Kasane Teto .
- April 1st, 2008: Kasane Teto debuts.
- April 3rd, 2008: VIPPER 's project to give a singing voice to Kasane Teto began.
- April 6th, 2008: Posted the first video ( sm2910040 ) featuring UTAU and Kasane Teto.
Her red arm-tattoo, while still mimicking the CV's in general form, changed, just a little. Away from CV04, to 0401 - an announcement of her roots. She went ignored, for a few months.
- June 10th, 2008: The signature song of Kasane Teto, "Song of the Eared Robot" by nm3611741, was released on NicoNicoDouga.
In the music video, Teto is positioned as a program or robot left behind by her creators, wandering without purpose, trying to forge her own path through the confusion, emotional pain, and her own inability to articulate herself through her technical constraints. It is simply a song about Teto as a digital being, of a sort that Miku herself has also sung. Nonetheless, it's a classic of the "canon" of Kasane Teto songs, referenced and remade time and time again. It's easy to see why: it is the story of a tragic underdog looking back at how far she's come. Its narrative gets stronger the more she's used, the greater heights she reaches, the more she's loved.
In the same year, the parody-songs linked to below mythologize her origins (with some embellishments), and pin down her role within the broader "cast" of vocal synth fan culture: VOCALOID, UTAU, and "Fanloid" (derivative OCs) alike.
a parody of "Daughter of Evil" by Mothy
a parody of "destiny ~ Ever Lasting Turn of Cirno" by SilverForest
We have a narrative, being synthesized here. Even within a world where vocaloids are people and not just collections of sound, Teto is a "fake," a "lie." Perhaps, by extention, a liar herself. She is an underdog, abandoned by the bulk of her cruel creators, who found her voice and now dreams of becoming a real Vocaloid, a big-time idol, just like the girl she was originally made as a mockery of. She's the little guy, she's a trickster. she's a big fucking shitpost and living meme. She is... the internet's home-born idol.
Facts about Kasane Teto.
Officially, her sex is "chimera", and her age is 31; knowing how later 2chan "VIPPERloids" were assigned sexes like "futanari" and "okama", these traits were not given to her out kindness. They were meant to make her absurd, make her seem freakish; a transphobic, intersexist, misogynist joke by 4chan's older brothers. Unofficially, as solidified by "Teto Territory"? Her species is chimera, and her age is 15.5 in "chimera years." Over time, this has become part of her fan culture depiction, and even her official iconography, in the form of leathery wings and a tail.
The tail is often portrayed as a devil-like tail that manifests spontaneously alongside the wings. Other times (especially in 3D models for the fanmade animation software MMD), the pink belt on her uniform is depicted as secretly being a prehensile tail, usually tucked into a position merely mimicking Miku, Rin, and Len's belts. This is inspired by an artistic mistake made in the original key artwork for Kasane Teto, where no origin or end point was shown for the belt. (Although her most recent design has the front of the belt clipped to the skirt, the back of the belt is still underneath the skirt, leaving room for it to continue to be treated as a secret tail...) Official illustrations (such as LINE stickers and merchandise) have used both forms of the "tail."
After Miku became memetically associated with spring onions (or "leeks"), it became popular to assign item or food associations to Vocaloid characters in fan culture. Teto has an official favorite food: baguettes.
Kasane Teto is sometimes called a 某CALOID, or "boukaloid" - a "so-and-so-caloid," because of her nature as a prank.
Kasane Teto is also regarded as one of the most used UTAU in Japan, if not the most used. She is regarded as one of the primary reasons UTAU became popular due to her infamy as a fake and fame as a character. [...] She has made guest appearances in official VOCALOID media by Crypton Future Media such as Project Diva. In fact, because of her fame and constant guest appearances alongside VOCALOIDs, she has been often been mistaken as a VOCALOID.
The Chimera Gets A Paycheck (Teto Stays Winning)
She is among the rare instances of a non-commercial voicebank who has seen a commercial adaptation and release by an established company.
So you want to be an idol.
But Vocaloid isn't what it used to be, at least, that's what you hear. Miku's lost some of her luster. And we're no longer living in some kind of Vocaloid Monopoly; there's new competition in the field now. Whispers that some of these new synthesizers are better. These new agencies are a better deal, they say, for both you and your fans. All Vocaloid has going for it these days is the brand name.
You get scouted by SynthV. You decide to take it.
You'll still keep up your UTAU gig, of course - you built your city on FREE SOFT(ware)! But this? This is great.
And you announce it all with the words of your roots on your tongue.
The fans go wild: Teto's hit the big leagues! She's reached her dream! Our baby girl's all grown up! "this is like a smash bros level reveal for voice synth fans," one person shouts. Your fans are excited to hear you, producers can't wait to write songs for you. You're in your hit era, baby!!! Fuck, man, you're singing alongside Miku herself again, in THE single most viral vocal-synth song of... the decade? So far???? "Oh that's Teto I know her from Mesmerizer!" The kids are discovering your old collabs, too - damn, remember Triple Baka? Wonder what Neru's up to these days.
Man.
You've come so far.
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Date: 2024-10-18 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-19 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-20 12:26 am (UTC)Nice!
There was a lot I wanted to say (about post-Synth V Teto music) that didn't fit into the scope of this post, so I made a second part. I hope you enjoy it! ^_^
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Date: 2024-10-19 05:32 am (UTC)linking this one too cuz it's real good
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Date: 2025-11-02 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-02 09:52 pm (UTC)I've noticed that there's far less overlap between Touhou fandom and Vocaloid fandom than there was in 2008... rather than being both part of the general soup of "otaku culture", their remaining, self-sustaining fanbases are much more distinct fandoms now. I can't speak for how new people come into Touhou, but there's plenty of kids and teens coming into vocal synth fandom who just don't have that broader aughts-otaku base of reference to notice when a song is a parody and not an original. This is completely natural, but I do wonder if there's a way to maintain "continuity of subcultural memory" without talking down to new and younger fans. (Far too many self-professed "fandom elders" in general are guilty of this, I find.)
Seeing what are clearly young fans sharing their own riffs on Kasane Teto really makes me smile. I've noticed young anglo fans sometimes go in a much more "furry" direction with Teto's "chimera" status, giving her the ability to turn into a lion-monstergirl with fur or an actual quadrupedal chimera-monster, than either JP fandom seems to, or than aughts anglo fandom oldies do. As someone who tends to identify with nonhuman (especially animal or monster) characters, I find it really fun.
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Date: 2025-11-02 11:22 pm (UTC)