A Look at Gumi’s Initial Impact

Image source: ぱんつ
Image source: ぱんつ

So it’s been a couple weeks since Megpoid has been released to eager music-makers everywhere, and now that Ms. Nakajima can sit back and start collecting her checks (I’m only speculating, though), now’s a good time to take a look and see how Gumi has fared in the early goings.

(Note: For sake of consistency, I’ll be consulting the Weekly Vocaloid Rankings for numbers and whatnot)

In her debut weekend, Gumi’s biggest hit was only #4 at 224,668 points, and only 9 of the Top 30 Songs that week featured her. This seems to pale in comparison to Luka’s record-breaking debut last January, but to compare an Internet Company Vocaloid to a Crypton Vocaloid seems unfair. For whatever reason, the two are going to get different audiences, with likely Gumi’s crowd being merely a subset of the CV crowd. A better comparison would be to put Megpoid’s debut vis a vis Internet’s initial offering, Gackpoid. Back in August 2008, Gackt’s vocal doppleganger scored two Top 5 hits, (Dancing Samurai hitting #3) but only three other songs hit the Top 30.

Another thing one needs to take into account is that Gumi was released on a Friday, with Ranking results posted early Tuesday morning. So, if we check the next week of rankings, we see that Gumi’s penetration hasn’t really gone down, and “blue bird” went from #16 to #2, scoring a solid 334k.

So what does all this mean? Well, that’s still unsure. Luka made a big splash early on, but Dixie Flatline’s “Just Be Friends” is CV03’s first #1 in 9 weeks and 1st solo #1 in about 4 months. Gackpo has had a few #1’s himself but has been relatively obscure since his debut. Honestly, the only one thing I’ve seen to be constant is that everybody loves Miku Hatsune and everyone else is just fighting for extra eyes. It’s sad and disappointing for sure, especially since I’m not real big on Miku’s voice, but it’s a fact of life.

However, let’s not let that get in the way of good times.  Welcome to the fold, Gumi.  May your career be a prosperous one.

In the meantime, let’s enjoy s.y.n.’s “blue bird” just because.

About: Joe Mello


2 thoughts on “A Look at Gumi’s Initial Impact”

  1. This week's Weekly Vocaloid Ranking continues Gumi's good start with Miracle∞Gumiracle (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7546989) hitting the #4 spot, up from #60 the previous week. Gumi's voice package is unnervingly realistic at times… might prove to be a big boost to her chances in maintaining some popularity.

Leave a Reply to Guest Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *