EXIT TUNES Announces VOCALOID During Live Event

A few hours ago, EXIT TUNES announced their own VOCALOID character, MAYU, during one of their EXIT TUNES ACADEMY live events. The official Twitter account for the event also linked to the official homepage, which currently only has a character image as well as usage guidelines and a link to the official Twitter account (@exittunesstaff). No information is available yet about who is going to voice her. The original illustration and design is by Hidari, who has worked with EXIT TUNES on numerous album covers before and provided the character visual concepts for FRACTALE. According to several tweets from people who went to the event as well as an article from 4Gamer, MAYU will be a yandere middle school girl and that EXIT TUNES is planning something for summer Comiket.

UPDATE: A demo video played during the event had been uploaded by EXIT TUNES and then removed. Currently, users can click on the speaker on her head on the main page to hear a different demo song, Caramel Sugar. The official Twitter account has now added that MAYU was born on May 6th and is 15 years old. Furthermore, when the promotional video was shown at ETA, the voice database was only 60% complete and the development staff felt it was okay to upload it. However, when people higher up were told that it was only 60% complete, the video was removed from Twitpic, although it did manage to garner 30,000 unique views. The development staff also stated that production was being handled by EXIT TUNES directly and not through some other company and that they had hoped to have gotten a prototype out for everyone to play with at the time of the reveal. They also stated that they wanted to compete on the quality of the voice bank.

The usage guidelines allow for the use of the name MAYU as well as derivative work illustrations based on the character and voices created through the software but do not allow for use of the original illustration and logo. Individuals and doujin circles can, without prior approval from EXIT TUNES, freely use them as long as distribution is limited in scope or is one of the “noted distribution methods,” regardless of whether money changes hands in doing so or not. Furthermore, commercial entities can freely use the voice without prior approval from EXIT TUNES.

The noted list of ways one could use the character consists of: decal cars (itasha), playing cards, candy, key chains, plastic protectors, cases, games, cosplay clothing, cosplay photographs, coasters, stickers, (cell-phone, etc.) straps, towels, tumblers, leaflets, T-shirts, doujinshi, stuffed toys, computers, music sheets, figures, hats, posters, mice (the electronic kind), mouse pads, mugs, robots, CDs, DVDs, augmented reality, virtual reality, and MikuMikuDance models.

4Gamer’s report of the live event gives a bit more detail as to how MAYU was introduced to the audience. After a four-song combo from cosMo, the name “MAYU” came up on the screen, puzzling the audience before they started cheering again. DJ UTO, head of EXIT TUNES, and Hidari both came up on stage to introduce the new character. Hidari described her as a “yandere middle-schooler” and pointed out the line separating MAYU and VOCALOID characters up until now, saying that there were a lot of characters who came off as kind and gentle, whereas MAYU would stand out amongst them. UTO then talked about the liberal usage guidelines related to the character. Finally, the audience was treated to a fully animated video that Hidari had a hand in — the promotional video for the song Kami Uta, composed by 164 and coming out on an upcoming Mayumi Morinaga CD.

UPDATE: According to a tweet, EXIT TUNES posted the announcement video that was aired at the live event. In it is a portion of MAYU singing 164’s Ama no Jaku (originally a GUMI song). Apparently the video has now been deleted along with the announcement tweet. Later, EXIT TUNES posted an official response and apology, stating that they had received instructions from the development team to remove the video because right now the MAYU sound bank is still in development and doesn’t really exist. A subsequent tweet bluntly stated that “at this point in time, MAYU’s voice does not exist.”


27 thoughts on “EXIT TUNES Announces VOCALOID During Live Event”

  1. The piano dress reminds me of Ritsu.
    She’s “cute” but… female? Another female Vocaloid?
    I want male Vocaloid =___________=””

    1. The Problem is not actually they are mostly female, it´s more they´re voice´s!
      They sound´s 2 similar to others and that´s what´s annoying us i think.

      1. Yeah, I would welcome some more mature female voices.  But another ‘middle school’ girl?  Consider me uninterested.

    2. I’m so agree! Another teenage girl?, I want a mature voice, or a male voice!, we have tons of 16 years old vocaloid, and no even one male vocaloid of that age! -.-
      This teeage girl’s voices sounds so similar with each other!, they will never be very much popular because they have a lot competition with the oher female vocaloids!,even if they are vocaloid3, they sounds really similar!

  2. Ki: the same reason why most idols are female, I guess?

    Nice, a yandere middle schooler.  And by EXIT TUNES, no less.  When you say “freely use”, does that mean really free?  Doesn’t this make MAYU the first free VOCALOID then?

    1. Crypton, AH-Soft and 1st PLACE all have fairly liberal licenses in terms of free usage by individuals.  Crypton needs you to make sure no money exchanges hands (otherwise you have to tell them if it’s like just to recoup costs). 1st PLACE is okay as long as you’re not trying to profit with the art (while name usage is quite free), and I don’t have AH-Soft’s agreement handy.  I think pretty much all the sound banks allow you to use the synthesized voice freely, as that’s the standard license for a musical instrument.

  3. You’re too quick for me, HTS~ Anyways I spazzed when I saw this, she’s my new favourite VOCALOID. *-*

    1. Well, actualy, she have an axe and if you enter her website and hover over her face, you will see a creepy surprise. ;P

  4. I love it; she’s a yandere middle school girl with multicolored hair and an outfit that is vaguely lolita. A+ for originality!
    Naw, I’m still excited to hear more about her. Hopefully her voice will cancel out some of the trite anime stereotypes.

      1. Ah so it is!  I didn’t even look at the picture next to her.

        Now just waiting for the first song with a theme along the lines of “Like my songs or else!”

  5. HEY GUYS!  go to her website, then hover over her face.  You’ll get a creepy little bonus.

  6.  I’m so dissappointed. u_u
    All the japanse V3 are teenage girls!,they sounds realistic yeah,but they also sounds a lot similar with each other, becuase of their age and gender.
    And the worst part is that their companys are inventing personalities for them, like anime character for fanservice,ecchi or shoujo, while they are a software!
    Now the new vocaloids are just shoujo designs, AND THEN, the companies starts to thinking about their voices, but looks like the avatar is first now! -.-

    Please people!, Vocaloid is an excelent software!, not an ecchi or shoujo show with loli or sexy teenage girls!
    Where is the originality?,that thing who made Vocaloid so popular!
    Where are the mature voices or the male voices?

    1. What the companies say: “Wheres the money in mature/male voices?” Really, it’s all about the money as any company would do… They do what the majority of people like, which in this case is Miku. Just a yandere Miku…

    2. “Vocaloid is an excelent software!, not an ecchi or shoujo show with loli or sexy teenage girls!”

      [Insert comment about sexy/kawaii/moe sells]

  7. I really wish there was a mature guy vocaloid. Not a teenage girl or a girl at all but if they make another one please let her be more of a mature like voice like luka and meiko. And if there was another guy one then I think he shouldnt be so shota like len either because that all just goes back to the cute little kid vocaloids. =,= but whatever I just wanna guy vocaloid pretty much…

    1. Totally agree!, we already have a lot of teenage vocaloid girls!, we need a teen boy, or a young male one (but not another Len please). u_u

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