What To Watch For: MMD Cup 7

Source: 綾瀬 (hosted on pixiv)

As summer comes to a close, it is once again time for one of the most anticipated Vocaloid events of the year, the bi-annual MikuMikuDance Cup. This August will feature the 7th edition of the contest, and will once again bring together hundreds of impressive, cute, and/or funny videos produced by MMD veterans and newcomers alike. The title of this summer’s event is “MMD Cup 7: Beyond the Future”. Its important to note that the competition organizers have once again selected several open-ended and ambiguous themes to guide to creative energies of aspiring contestants. Those themes and some of their possible meanings are as follows: 「魔」 (demon, evil-spirit), 「間」 (time, space, interval, relationship), 「真」 (truth, righteousness, genuine), 「ピタゴラ的装置」 (Pythagorean Devices, think Rube Goldberg machines), 「縄文時代」 (The Jomon Period ), and 「M」 (generally interpreted as Masochist, but could hold other meanings).

By the time this hits the internet, all submissions for the most recent MikuMikuDance Cup should be in.  Scoring for the competition will be conducted by MyList voting and continues until August 29th at 9PM JST, and since over 350 entries made it through the prelims, there’s a lot to sift through.  So, if you’re still looking for the best of the best, look no further than your friendly fiends at Vocaloidism.  Your friendly bloggers will show you the best so you don’t have to.  All you have to do is hit the jump to see our editors picks and find some helpful information on the ways that you can participate in selecting the contest winner.

Before we get started, let’s a quick look at the promotional video for the event:

While it should be noted that the works of nearly all the entrants have slowly been making their way to youtube, I am sure that many of you would like to visit the visit the producers’ original works and actively participate in the selection process through commenting and MyListing (what counts) of videos. So first things first, if you still need to figure out how to make a NND account, please take at look at this excellent Vocaloidsm guide by KevinayP

With that cleared up, lets take a look at some other the important links that will help you in your viewing and voting quests (please note that many of these will be in Japanese language only):

Mylist link for competition finalist: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/25855775

The official wiki page: http://www31.atwiki.jp/mmdcup/pages/222.html

For those who would care to do some of their own searching for entry videos on both NicoNicoDouga and Youtube, we recommend the use of the following tags: “第7回MMD杯本選” and “”MMD Cup 7” will likely be the most helpful searches.

Once again, don’t forget that voting for MMD Cup 7 will conclude at 9pm JST on August 29th. Please feel free to discover and support your favorites from this summer’s competition before that time!

And now for editors picks:

Joe Mello’s Picks

I’m a bit of an old-school guy, but even though someone was thoughtful enough to use Dusty Springfield in their video, I have to talk about this one, instead. Why, because it’s a shot-for-shot remake of the Daicon IV animation, one of those seminal moments in the history of anime fandom (without whom Vocaloids as we know them would not exist) and sort of a coming-out party for what would then become the studio GAINAX, who is just a small player in the industry. Sadly, it’s out of the top 25 in it’s theme, which definitely needs to change. Seriously.

Whether you thought Angel Beats was awesome or just a bad parody of Sad Girls in Snow, you have to admit that the music was amazing. So, it’s only fitting that we have an MMD entry replicating a concert from the in-show band Girls Dead Monster, complete with a successful Operation Tornado. As an aside, I recently saw an AMV of GalDeMo set to a Vocaloid song. I know it’s a coincidence, but does the juxtaposition of artifical vocalists and a band from the afterlife qualify as irony?

Kamen Rider has always been hand-in-hand with MMD Cup, and last season was no different. Since the next Kamen Rider series doesn’t premiere until the fall, we have to deal with the next best thing: Kamen Rider OOO girls representing the main cast of Tiger & Bunny. Yes, the next best thing is only a runaway hit anime that would’ve been the biggest all year if it weren’t for that darn Shinbo.

descent’s Picks

Mustard

YT Link

Very simple, but I’m sure many will enjoy the funny twist at the end thanks to Iroha’s devlish antics. Poor Kaito…

Miku-beldon

I’m a big sports fan, so perhaps I appreciate this more than some of the other voters (judging for the Mylist count). But all in all a great video of Miku playing some serious tennis. Going between the legs to get the point was quite impressive!

YT Link

Sweet Magic

Some might say that its lame of me to link what is already quite likely to be the hands down winner of the competition. However this cute and well done dance video featuring Touhou characters Marisa and Alice is further augmented by a amazing song produced by JunkyP and sung by Lon. Enjoy the cute original here.

YT Link

Touhou Cross

Touhou characters spill over into an MMD remake of the ChronoCross OP to make for a fairly cool looking video.

YT Link

redemption2’s Picks

There are a lot of good ones this round, far beyond what I had seen in MMD CUP 6. It’s tough to pick anything major. I’m actually upset that kuma8’s Scatman parody didn’t make it past the prelims, because I was looking forward to it. Everyone so far has highlighted some major players in the running. Here’s some I love but may be a bit less popular.

Tea Party

I especially like this one because its a sequel to the universe that was shown at the MMD Conference at AnimeExpo 2011, where they encouraged MMD users in America to sign up. Not much really happens, but the sound effects were timed perfectly with the motion data, and in just the right way to make it hilarious. Also good use of TakoLuka v3.

Runaway

Let’s hear it for gorgeous characters. Granted that all the motions were used with video motion detection, however the execution of it was pretty innovative nonetheless. I’ve not seen that Kaito used anywhere else before, so color me impressed.

Ura-Omote Lovers Dance PV

The best Ura-Omote dance choreography I’ve ever seen, hands down. Well executed for about 90% of the video, however I don’t like the background at the end. It’s so very busy it takes away from the rendering of the rest of the video. Also not using Lat Miku is always a plus in my book.

Message – Time’s Scar

It’s so very reminiscent of something I’ve seen, but I can’t place where. It pretty much has everything you could ever want from MMD in one short video, including a huge picture mosaic. It really encompasses what MMD is all about, and is a tribute to its end, which will be coming in the next update, as the developers stated.

Everybody

Yeah, I went there. This one is the winner, at least in my book, if only for the fact that they actually risked putting it up in the first place. Growing up listening to this song only makes it that much funnier. I usually choose my winner based on the fact that I walk away from it remembering it for the next couple of days, which is why I picked Life is Like a Boat last time, and this is my sticker for MMD CUP 7.

About: Joe Mello


3 thoughts on “What To Watch For: MMD Cup 7”

  1. Omg 

    【第7回MMD杯本選】エアボトリオでEVERYBODY

    finaly someone made an MMD of the Duet pinoy lipsinger from youtube and gawd i cant sleep tonight going to be Loling pretty much all night

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