Gackpoid Contest Grand Prix Winner: KanimisoP’s “Episode.0” (Updated)

GACKT’s 39th single has been announced. Join us after the jump for more info!

Updated: Full PV starring GACKT, sung by him and rearranged, jackets for the two editions of the single.

The Gackpoid Contest started after GACKT participated in a NicoNico Live Broadcast (NicoNico Nama Housou, or NicoNama for short) on June 10, 2009. The rules were simple: upload a song featuring Gakupo to NicoNico Douga with the appropriate tag, and GACKT himself would choose his favorite one, sing it and, after having gone though arrangements, the selected song would become his new single. 255 songs have been uploaded by famous and not-so-famous P’s alike before the August 31, 2009 deadline, and the final results have been announced during the “NicoNico Daikaigi 2011 in Taiwan” event.

Here are the ten winners: mathru/KanimisoP won the Grand Prize for “Episode.0”, natsuP (SCL Project) won an Excellence Prize for “Paranoid Doll” which will also be featured in GACKT’s single, Eight other songs also won an Excellence Prize, including two by DonatakaP. KanimisoP also received 300,000 yen (3,660 USD) and the nine Excellence Prize winners received 100,000 yen (1,220 USD).

How about checking KanimisoP and natsu’s songs?

And here’s the video message by GACKT announcing his new single, which also includes an excerpt from the second NicoNama with him (December 15, 2009) during which he announced the Excellence Prize winners, as well as commented on “Episode.0”, saying among other things that “of all the submitted songs, this is the one that moves [him] to tears the most”. A collection of his comments on the winning songs can be found on the NicoPedia article on the “Gackpoid Contest” (Japanese).

You can also watch the mylist containing the winning songs, except TanbarinP’s “Koe” which has been deleted. To watch the videos, you must have a NicoNico Douga account; if you don’t have one and can’t read Japanese, check this tutorial on our own Vocaforum.

The single will be released on July 13, and will contain 4 tracks: “Episode.0” and “Paranoid Doll”, as well as instrumental versions of these two songs. The first press edition will include a DVD with a live-action version of the original PV starring GACKT, as well as a drawing by mangaka Kentarou Miura, the author of “Berserk”; it will be sold at the price of 1,890 yen (23 USD). The standard edition will be 1260 yen (15 USD).

Update: The PV, starring Gackt, has been released. Notice the complete re-arrangement of the song, which now has a distinctly Metal feel. And though VOCALOID still remains an amazing vocal synthesis technology, the difference with a “real” singer is huge… maybe not for long with the arrival of VOCALOID3 and VocaListener!

The video on NND cannot be embedded and it seems there are only previews on YouTube, so go watch it directly on NND if you’re interested!

There will be two jackets for the single depending on the edition.

There’s currently a discount on the first-press edition on Amazon; you can get your hands on it for 1517 yen (19 USD).

Sources: NicoInfo, NicoPedia, Mainichi Shinbun Digital, Gackt’s official site.