Forgotten Friday #141 - v.g.mのヘイス / Heiss

 My grandmother just brought over food for us because it's Christmas Eve and Christmas is cancelled. It was chicken and gluten free dumplings for my mom. She brought nothing I could eat, but it's okay. We literally never told her anything she could make for me that was vegan because we were going to take care of that to make sure there were no mistakes. 

Forgotten Friday #141 - v.g.mのヘイス / Heiss

I thought I’d just address the fact that I am fully aware that chiquita isn’t the correct word to use in this context. It’s “Chica”. But then I see the little chica and she’s so cute and little, so she’s a chiquita!

It always made me feel happy inside when the manager of the room I rented added the “ita” to the end of my name. So, I guess I just think about how I felt when that happened, and the word reminds me of that time, and I feel happy. 

Learning time? Learning time. First tangent that goes nowhere: modern Filipino in general was heavily influenced by Spanish (as y’all know), but Filipino doesn’t have “c” and Spanish doesn’t have “k”. This does kind of go somewhere. In Spanish, “c” does double duty. It covers hard “k” and soft “s” at the same time. When the “c” is “s” or “k” is entirely context dependent. “ci” will always be soft. “Ca” will always be hard. So, how do you say “ki” if there’s no “k” and “c” doesn’t work that way?! “Qu”. Que for “ke” because “ce” is “theh”. Qui for “ki” because “c” is “the” (if you’re in Spain, at least.)

Who is Heiss?

Official Art from Bank

I love educational UTAUs. Now, mind you, these are only educational for Gaijin who are interested enough to look into the background. For example, this UTAU is a “baku”. The first definition of a “baku” is the humble tapir. 

Sidenote, I grew up hearing that giant pandas are not bears because they resemble racoons. However, they are bears due to the fact that their family is Ursidae. They also have the digestive system of a carnivore despite almost everyone thinking they only eat bamboo. They can eat meat if they want to.

That tangent was just brought up because tapirs look like pigs, but they belong to the order Perissodactyla. This is the order for hoofed animals that bear their weight on an odd number of toes. Not odd as in it’s unusual, just that there isn’t even. Pigs are even-toed ungulates. This means that even though tapirs look like pigs, they’re more closely related to rhinos and horses. 

The second definition of baku, which Heiss is, a spirit that eats dreams. Originally, they were a chimera. In English, chimera is mostly used to define a specific mutation in an embryo that causes a person to have two sets of DNA. However, in mythology, a chimera is just any fictional creature with parts taken from multiple animals… or anything that was just “implausible or dazzling” according to Wikipedia.  Kasane Teto is a chimera because she has two sets of DNA. Rainbow Dash is a chimera because horses don’t have wings, but she does!

Now, baku are just tapirs. Drowzee in Pokemon is basically a tapir. I don’t really think that Baku can switch between human and tapir, and tapir don’t have wings. But, like, it’s a magical creature that eats dreams. I’m not calling out another VGM UTAU for not mentioning aversion to the sun in their biography for the vampire character. 

Heiss herself is adorable. She wears an adorable Lolita inspired dress and shawl in variations of UTAU purple. Her legs are covered in charcoal tights and she wears red ballet flats. She has black wings and pretty purple hair. One eye is red and one is blue. 

She is a smart and introverted sixteen year olds who loves stories. She’s good at sewing and knitting, but she’s garbage at cooking. Her favorite hobby is reading, and she uses polite honorifics. 

At one point, Heiss ate the dreams of someone who felt deep longing for those that he had lost. Since that point, Heiss got really messed up and lost her ability to eat dreams. She settled into life as a mostly human person, just eating normal human food. 

How is Heiss's bank?

Heiss has one three pitch CVVC bank. Yay! I love CVVC so much! Her OTOs aren't perfect, but they're actually really good!! 

The voice is sweet and kind, and the pitches blend perfectly. The inflection is just enough to be spunky without interfering with well tuned UST files. I love her. I love her very much!! (And she also shares a voice provider with Manuu, Murasaki, and Ruki apparently.)

Where can I download Heiss?

You can download her from her distribution page. I love her very much, and I hope all of you do too.