Wiki Wednesday #50 - 来咲ライカ / Raika Kurusaki
Eh, I listened to the demo on the site and knew what we were dealing with instantly. The voice provider, Yukiyuki Yuki, has another UTAU. That UTAU is a young man that you'd confuse with a tomboyish young lady. As a woman with a deeper voice, I get it. When you get told you sound like a boy when you really sound like a woman, you overcompensate when you try to sound like a girl. On the Wiki, Raika is listed as over 15, but she has the Haruka Nana voice. (Baby Macne Nana may be the closer comparison? Am I imagining baby Macne Nana was a thing?)
I totally get it, but maybe I'm wrong and I'm projecting. But, as Yukiyuki Yuki is a Japanese user, I doubt she'll see this to contest me.
Who is Kurusaki Raika?
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| Official Art Packaged with Bank |
Her skin is listed as "黄色人種的な". It's... Why? It's a Japanese UTAU, so I mean, I kind of expect her to be some form of Asian to begin with. Why would her skin be listed as yellow race??! I felt awkward Googling the alternate translation (you gotta take off the last two characters for Jisho to get it if you want to check what I'm saying). Don't get me wrong, using terms like white and black is normal and accepted. Using colors like red and yellow have always been culturally offensive for as long as I can remember in America.
If this wasn't the first time I've seen that word be used to describe an UTAU, I wouldn't be so shocked. There's a chance it's normal in Japan; I don't live there. But, at this point I've written over a hundred articles for this blog, and I've never seen that before. Heck, the Wiki even felt the uncomfortable vibe and completely left that fact out of her description there.
This is the real time a language barrier comes up. If someone in the overseas fandom made a loli goddess of fertility that was totally definitely not under 12 with antiquated and now offensive language, I'd chuck them in the "troll" pile. But I have no idea with this because... Is this okay? That entire sentence feels not okay, but... I guess?
Anyway, I started out kind of jazzed. Adorable design, the voice is decent for the loli niche, and VCV. But the more I poked at the character information, the more uneasy I got. Anyway, let's pretend that I'm John Snow (and therefore know nothing. I only know that specific meme!)
How is Raika Kurusaki's bank?
Raika has a one pitch VCV, and that's it.
I usually completely shy away from using terms like loli, but I feel like I have to use it here. I'm not the biggest fan of the bank, but I need to give it credit. Loli voicebanks are really freaking hard. Not only do you have to put on a really taxing voice, you have to remain consistent. Being able to get through an entire VCV bank putting on that act is actually difficult, and to remain consistent the way Yukiyuki Yuki has is amazing. That's not even mentioning the microphone quality. The microphone quality is, also, amazing.
If you like loli voice types, this is one of the best banks you can add to your collection. If you don't, then you can still acknowledge how insanely good this bank is. (And okay, the art is amazing also.)
Where can I download Kurusaki Raika?
Let me start by saying that the website feels impossible to navigate. It uses good old fashioned frames, but you can just open the links in a new tab to avoid the whole frame setup. That's how I got this link for the download page. I know directly linking the page and not the homepage is a little uncouth, but that site is hard to navigate!
If you like loli voices, download Raika now. You will love her with every fiber of your being. (Okay, you don't have to download her, and you may just be slightly fond of her, bordering on indifferent.) But if you don't? Well... I'm in the same boat as you.
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