Forgotten Friday #197 - 中語音水 / Mizu Nakagone

. Ememe-nai is really talented. It would be super cool if she came back!

Forgotten Friday #197 - 中語音水 / Mizu Nakagone

The explanation for the name on the Wikia is strange. "I cage". It's middle language sound, but I just am so curious how that meaning was gotten. The name given in the Readme is "water basket". Her Act 3 was mostly recorded in 2010, but has files created in 2012 included. Sadly, there is proof that Mizu had VCV banks that were never released. Believe me, I went through the entire history of her Wikia page to see if there were any other banks that were discontinued but still online. Only her Act 3 has ever been up on the Wikia.

Mizu has a very typical 2010 biography. She's mischievous and loves to play pranks on her friends, but she is very kind and generous to them. She is loud and optimistic and eats a ton of candy. Her age is listed as 15.

Who is Nakagone Mizu?

art by voice provider

You may be wondering what Mars has to do with Fifty Shades of Grey or My Little Pony. There's no answers to that in this installment of A Spectrum of Apple Skins!

"I hate it here!" Belinda cried out. "I pretended not to! But I do!"

Franz and Marissa exchanged a pained glance. They honestly didn't think there was any issue with Belinda and Mars. Marissa instantly felt guilty, as if she had poisoned her daughter.

"But… you guys love it, so I never said anything." Belinda looked down at her lap.

"No," Franz sighed. "I like it here, but your mother feels the same way you do."

Belinda jerked her chin upwards. She looked to her mother. She plainly stated, "They bully me. Even grandma and grandpa, but mostly the kids at school." She paused. "But not about you most of the time. Whenever someone says something mean about you, someone smacks them upside the head and asks 'how do you think you got here?!' It makes everyone shut up except for Robert Rivers. He was incubated in a cow." (editor's note: I had no idea what I had meant when I wrote this like a year ago until I reread it like five times. Marissa is a stay at home mom. When someone throws shade at her, she is defended by other people because everyone had to have a biological mother... except for Robert Rivers.)

Franz froze. He never thought for a second that anyone viewed him poorly on Mars. He worked hard, and he always produced good work. His co-workers were curt, but he just thought that was Martian culture.

"Once, I accidentally said 'ain't', so they called me Billy Hill and said to go back to Apple-Asia." Belinda shrugged. "It didn't hurt much because I knew that they didn't know what they were talking about."

Franz turned towards the window and took a deep breath. He spoke slowly, "I spent years to get rid of my accent. It took so much time and effort. But it doesn't matter as long as I still say lawyer as 'law-yer'. If I call a shopping cart a shopping cart, or if I'm slightly too nasal… that's enough for them to see me as uneducated." He turned towards his family with a pained grimace. "There are workers straight from Europe who have accents that are difficult to understand. No one berates them. But, I've watched Latinos and Indians sit in the break room agonizing over it, using programs that would loudly honk at them if they used slightly less than formal intonation."

Marissa took a deep breath. She tried to find the right words, but she also knew that there weren't the right words in this instance. "So, you want to go home too?"

Franz sighed deeply. He slowly nodded his head before saying with the accent he grew up with and fought to destroy: "I reckon. Ain't nothing here for us."

Belinda and Marissa stared at him in confusion. They had never heard the deep drawl coming from him. They had only heard the clinical and quick voice that he kept at a respectable pitch.

"If y'all don't like how I'm talking," Franz turned back to the window before tapping at the counter. Drone footage from a small Appalachian town filled the window. It wasn't that there was some fundamental lack of technology that froze the mountains in time. It looked like the year Abraham Lincoln was born because of a conscious decision made by the people who tore down the factories and filled in the coal mines. They wanted to live an Amish fantasy without all of the religious restrictions. 

Coming up next week, a flashback inside of a flash back! Stay tuned!

How is Mizu Nakagone's bank?

As said earlier, just the Act 3 is available, but at least two VCV banks had been recorded - though perhaps not fully. I did leave a comment on one of the videos featuring the VCV saying that it would be cool if we got a Mizu VCV in the future.

Act 3 is CV with some extra samples for English and Spanish. The OTOs need work, but she has such a pretty voice! Seriously, the OTOs were 2010 era quality, but she has the correct pronunciation of "r"?! The samples sound clear and well recorded aside from a few issues of clipping consonants a little too soon. I really, really wish we could get more Mizu banks - or failing that, new banks from Ememe-nai for a different UTAU. Which, we technically have! I listened to her other UTAU, Maihime, and instantly wanted to download her! But, the download link was a dead 4Shared link and there's no Wikia page. 

Where can I download Nakagone Mizu?

Her Act 3 download link is on her Wikia page. This is a really, really good CV bank.