Forgotten Friday #6 - Suzune Who / 鈴音フウ - Yuuboku Strikes Again

Who is Suzune Who? Why is her bank in Romaji? Who made her?

Forgotten Friday #6 - Suzune Who / 鈴音フウ - Yuuboku Strikes Again

Previously I have spoken about Isaac E. Altermond and the man behind him, Yuuboku. If I had to sum up Yuuboku in one sentence, it would be "But why do it that way?" This is another case of that. The first thing is that Suzune Who's name is romanized as, well, Suzune Who. I spent a long time calling her Suzune Fuu, including when I used her and made an OTO file for her.


(Please don't use that OTO I have no idea how I was so bad at them back then!)

The second thing that's confusing is why is the bank encoded in romaji?? Romaji banks were pretty big back in the day because of people who wouldn't change their locale for some reason or another. Finding an old, unknown bank from this era encoded in romaji would be nothing strange. But Yuuboku is Japanese! 

The third thing is that the voice provider isn't mentioned in any of the documentation. On asking Yuuboku, he explained that he promised he wouldn't show her name. That's very respectable, but I slightly wish that the fact that the voice provider was anonymous was included in the information. (I was half convinced it was pitch shifted Yuuboku for a quick second.)

The fourth thing has nothing to do with the bank itself. Suzune Who is almost never used by herself. Almost every time she's used on NicoVideo it is in a chorus.

It's all a storm of really interesting things, honestly.

Who is Suzune Who?

Suzune Who is a standard CV voicebank encoded in romaji for some reason. The green thing hanging from her neck is actually a bell! That's where the "suzu" in her name comes from, apparently. It means "bell". 

Art from UTAU Visual Archive

That's literally all that anyone knows, other than her release date being in January of 2009. A lot of UTAUs have a ton of cute world-building to flesh them out. Birthdays, likes, dislikes . . . this UTAU has none of that. But boy howdy is her voice cute!

It's strange that it has all of the required samples!!! is a thing I have to say after so many run-ins with banks missing samples, but she has all of the required samples!

If you're interested in trying out Suzune Who, her voicebank is available in the description of her release video.

Something about Suzune Who really resonates with me, but I'm not sure what. Hopefully, someone who sees her will resonate with her also! 😃