Forgotten Friday #175 - 田中ノリ / Tanaka Nori

 175 was a number that meant something to me at some point. It was all based on randomizing usernames, but it stuck. That's a story for another day!

Forgotten Friday #175 - 田中ノリ / Tanaka Nori

Nori had three banks. As far as I can tell, only two were released. Act 3 had a video posted, but no link I could find. Act 2 was released, but the file was taken down. That leaves us just with the act one. You guys know how UTAU historians are, though! We would always take the 2010 Act 1 over the polished 2020 Act (something other than one). It's about history. 

The voice provider is UTAUpm. Nori is apparently a woman who is twenty years old. That's all I got for ya. She's on the Visual Archive, but not on the UTAU Fandom site.

Who is Nori Tanaka?

Official art from Visual Archive

This time on Beauty and the Puppy, we see who lives in the house.

Belle scurried up to the door. She was surrounded by roses and unreasonably excited. She was Belle! And there were roses! Her heart was pounding in her chest as she began mashing the doorbell.

She began dancing as there was a deep growl followed by a shouted "Who stands at my door?!" The door was thrown open, and there was a beast. Belle squealed as she jumped up and threw her arms around the creature.

The Beast stared down at the girl clinging to him. She was slightly above average height, wearing a stained white hoodie that was probably a men's size. Her light blue blue jeans had small tears and rips in them, and her ratty Converse shoes were either grey or so old the black had faded to grey. 

He staggered back. He didn't exactly look like the movie price Belle was expecting from the roses and her name being Belle. He was a furry! She didn't really know what species of fursona he was, but sometimes people are creative. His fur was a silvery grey, his eyes a striking amber, and he had the longest, most boopable snoot. He was a reasonable height, unlike the Beast from the movie. Dating him would be like dating a college basketball player! She giggled to herself as she grabbed harder onto the Beast's fur. It was soft and fluffy like a rabbit! She did think he'd be cuter with rabbit ears, but his indistinct animal ears that she couldn't put a species to were still adorable!

He put his hands under her armpits and pulled her away from him so that they could see eye to eye. She squealed out, "Puppy stronk!!"

He sighed as she stared into her eyes. They were a piercing yet soft blue with greasy brown hair falling in front of them with each giggle. She was objectively beautiful, but honestly strange. He sat her down as soon as she pulled her arm around to 'boop!' his nose, complete with the shrill sound effect. 

"Do you know the movie Shrek?!" She laughed as she squealed out. "If I kiss you will I be a furry too?!"

"No…" He stared at her. There was a curse, and true love's first kiss would end it. But, he was so confused. He was vaguely aware of the Shrek franchise being a thing that existed, but he was more acutely aware of the movie about the large Beast kidnapping a young woman because her father picked a rose for her.

"You're right!" Belle turned and rushed to a rose bush. "If I pick one I have to stay here, right?!"

"They're really more just for aesthetics…" He stared blankly at her. "How old are you even?"

"Nineteen!" She laughed as she hunched down before the roses. "I got held back in elementary school a few times before Dad let me go virtual."

He looked up at the sky as he tried to do the math in his head. He was sixteen when the curse started… he had replanted his rose garden after winter five or so times… twenty-one sounded right? He'd have to know the year and track down his birth certificate to get the exact age correct. He looked down at Belle. The age gap wasn't bad, and he really wanted to be human again. But he also knew that consent can be tricky when one of the parties wasn't playing with a full deck. But, then again, just one kiss and he'd be good. They could grow old and grey together without ever doing anything that was morally grey. That sounded good enough.

"Do you have a phone?!" Belle called out.

Does The Beast have a phone?! Find out next time on Beauty and the Puppy!

How is Tanaka Nori's bank?

Let me start by saying, what do you expect? The samples say they were modified on 7/8/2010. While that was a year after her initial release, it's still 2010. The samples are romaji encoded, but in all caps. UTAU is case sensitive, so not even romaji USTs would work. She comes with some tester USTs, but they're strange also. 

Her average pitch is listed as A#3 and her OTOs have hiragana aliases! yay! The OTOs are pretty good for 2010 standards. Heck, they're great by 2010 standards, but I'm still confused how we collectively didn't understand plosives for years.

Now, for the brutal honesty... This bank is so high quality for its presentation. Like, if you changed the filenames and updated the art, this honestly could fit in with modern CV UTAUs with no issues. Like, this is a really great bank. The accent is very nice. The voice is soft and feminine and dang. This is a good bank, regardless of when it was released. 

Where can I download Nori Tanaka?

You can download her from UTAUpm's YouTube channel's About Page. It is sad that we don't have the later banks, but from the preview of Act 3, it doesn't seem like it was drastically different. So, let's be joyful that we can still access this lovely UTAU!