AHS Official Livestream 156: Koharu Rikka Special
The 156th AHS Official Livestream aired from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM (JST) on May 28th with Tomohide Ogata and LESS Kitayama as hosts, and Akasakov of TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT and voice actress Yoshino Aoyama as special guests!
Watch a recording of it below!
The livestream overview and illustrations
This episode was all about Koharu Rikka and her crowdfunding campaign to develop her VOICEROID product. Prior to the livestream, her character designer, 手島nari / teshima nari, uploaded a cute illustration for us all to enjoy!
Moreover, TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT tweeted a first look at the Koharu Rikka can badge that you can earn by taking part in her crowdfunding.
The idea behind Koharu Rikka and future of TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT
At the start of the livestream, Akasakov himself appeared all dressed for the occasion to talk about his new company and the new VOICEROID!
He explained the reason behind leaving VOCALOMAKETS in last January after having a child, but still expressed over Twitter his desire to continue making VOCALOIDs. That’s when he got to talking with his former partner, Bumpy Urushi, about starting a company, and in the end he accomplished that earlier this year.
Leveraging on the skills and know-how that he acquired from his time at VOCALOMAKETS, Akasakov hopes to deliver all sorts of 2.5D entertainment through his new character, Koharu Rikka. This includes not only her initial VOICEROID product, but someday also live performances, game collaborations, merchandise sales and other ambitions plans.
Rikka’s surname, “Koharu,” comes from the word “koharubiyori” (小春日和), literally meaning “little spring weather” and referring to what is commonly known as an “Indian summer.” Akasakov named her such in hopes of turning her into a voice synth that reminds people of a soothing and relaxing spring day. Her first name, “Rikka” (六花) literally means “six flowers”. It is both a pseudonym for snow, as well as a representation of TOKYO6 company’s philosophy. The snow motif is also used widely in poetry written during the Southern Song Dynasty which Akasakov hopes that will help Rikka appeal more to fans in China.
You can watch her previous introduction videos for her exVOICE samples, and review previous info on her here.
As for choosing Aoyama to be Rikka’s voice provider, Akasakov felt that her voice fits the character well. Furthermore, they are of the same height and share almost the same birthday, so their personal profiles are quite similar, which makes it easier for Aoyama to represent Rikka in 2.5D content. It’s worth noting that Yoshino Aoyama has an experience in the idol content as she was a seiyuu (voice actress) to one of the members of the idol group – Yoshino Nanase in anime series Wake Up, Girls!, Akasakov considers it as an additional factor appealing to the fans to the series.
Rapid success for Koharu Rikka and even more!
Then at exactly 1 hour 16 minutes and 25 seconds into the livestream, Koharu Rikka’s crowdfunder began…
…and within 15 minutes, it reached its￥7,000,000 JPY goal! You can witness it yourself by watching the livestream video from exactly 1:16:25 time mark, to see the amazed reactions of the four speakers as the donated amount of money rapidly rose to the 100% mark!
But that’s not over yet. There are still 31 days remaining of the crowdfunder, and for every ￥3,000,000 JPY rised up to ￥16,000,000 JPY, TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT will add an additional voice style to her VOICEROID product and another 200 voice samples to her exVOICE!
So be sure to take part in the crowdfunding campaign by following the below link!
https://greenfunding.jp/pub/projects/3660/
Crowdfunding goal steps and rewards (as pictured)
- First goal: 7,000,000 JPY
VOICEROID product (with 400 samples of exVOICE) - Second goal: 10,000,000 JPY
One new style of voice
200 more exVOICE samples (in total: 600 samples) - Third goal: 13,000,000 JPY
One new style of voice
200 more exVOICE samples (in total: 800 samples) - Fourth goal: 16,000,000 JPY
One new style of voice
200 more exVOICE samples (binaural recording, in total: 1000 samples, )
The end of livestream and double birthday!
Afterwards, it was revealed that during Takapi‘s Creators Midnight radio show on June 8, Yoshino Aoyama herself will be the guest star and talk about Rikka! Viewers are encouraged to send any questions or comments that they have for Aoyama on Twitter by tweeting them with the hashtag # クリ深.
And finally, the crew celebrated the birthday for both Yoshino Aoyama and Koharu Rikka with a surprise cake!
“Thank you for watching today! And once again, happy birthday to Koharu Rikka-chan and Aoyama Yoshino-san! The next official AHS livestream will be on June 26th around 8:00 PM (JST)! Look forward to it!”
“Thank you for watching the AHS livestream!
I still can’t believe it! The crowdfunder… actually reached its goal… during our broadcast! This was all thank to you, the listeners! Together with Rikka-chan, I intend to take on many more challenges with renewed vigor, and would appreciate your continued support!”
“Thank you once again for watching tonight’s AHS livestream. Yoshino Aoyama-san, Akasakov-san, may great things come your way! Video is here: https://youtu.be/aHbCRbpMioE“
Reactions & Developments
And here are reactions from the Vocal Synth world on Twitter to the surprising news and other developments that took place in this amazing project!
“є(๑´ᴗ`)э Congratulations! є(´ᴗ`♪)э”
“Koharu Rikka-chan, congratulations on reaching your second goal of ￥10,000,000 JPY! That was amazingly fast! ∑(ﾟ∀ﾟ｣)｣”
“I was wondering if Koharu Rikka-chan’s crowdfunder could use some self promotion, but then it reached its goal in the blink of an eye without needing any involvement from me. Amazing.”
“This is about a different company, but it’s wonderful what happened with Koharu Rikka-san, isn’t it!!”
“Congratulations!
(Her character design is especially amazing!”
“Crowdfunding, huh… in short, offering money… I wonder if we can also use something like that…? (Mikoto)”
“Ooh, congratulations to Koharu Rikka-san on the completion of her crowdfunding > RT
I wonder if videos featuring her with Yukari or Akari will be made~ I’m looking forward to it (˘ω˘)”
“This may be sudden, but because we reached all of our goals, we’re adding one more.
If we reach ￥19,000,000 JPY raised, we will consider making a 3D model. We will make an announcement depending on agreements made with related parties.
Thank you so much for all your support.”
“Thanks to all your donations, we have reached our additional goal (the 5th one), and will be creating Koharu Rikka’s 3D model.”
“Thank you so much for all your backing and support for Koharu Rikka.”
“We will be making another announcement for the additional, additional goal (the 6th one).”
“We want to express our gratitude to you all, but just can’t find the words to properly do so…”
“Before we announce the next goal, we would like to first make a recap.
“Thanks to all your support, Koharu Rikka’s initial VOICEROID development goal can be accomplished, as can her proposed full-function development (3 emotional parameters + 1000 exVOICE samples + inclusion of a 3D model in her product).
“Once again, all of you have our deepest gratitude. Thank you so much.”
“All donations made from here on will be used for Kohari Rikka’s various activities.
“For the 6th goal, if we reach ￥25,000,000 JPY in donations, we will develop Rikka’s singing synth software.
“Furthermore, we are making this the final goal.
“We look forward to your continued support.”
“For various reasons, we cannot reveal the name of the singing synth software that we will be using.
“It may be frustrating news, but we appreciate your understanding.
“We will do our best to make it so that we can announce it before the end of the crowdfunder.”
“We considered making a 7th goal to support event and live concert creation, but if we were to include those in our original plans, it’ll probably be too much of a burden to the cast and any related personnel. Therefore, any donations received after completion of the 6th goal will not be used to serve any additional goal in particular, but rather they will serve as “Koharu Rikka’s future events funding.”
“Naturally, if the donations really pile on, we will expand on the plans for Koharu Rikka’s future activities.
“Her crowdfunder has been making headlines, and we as a company are extremely happy that you, the fans, could derive so much joy from what we do.
“We hope for your continued support.
“TOKYO5 ENTERTAINMENT Representative, Akasakov”
【Singing voice synth software development confirmed!!!】
“￥25,000,000 JPY has been raised, and Rikka’s singing voice synth software has been confirmed.
“We will developing both her speech software and her singing software.
“Thank you all so much for the amazing support.”
“The crowdfunder will remain open until June 28.
“Any additional donations made from now on will not go towards any specific goal, but will instead serve as funding for Koharu Rikka’s upcoming activities, such as events, the Koharu Rikka 1st Live (working title), promotion and demo song creation, etc.
“We appreciate your continued support.”
“Due to a variety of reasons, we cannot reveal details about Rikka’s singing voice synth software.
“We appreciate your patience as you wait for future information.
“We want to make sure to create a high-quality product that will be worthy of everyone’s amazing support.
“Please continue supporting Koharu Rikka.”
**UPDATE ON JUNE 12, 2020**
TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT has begun taking ideas for phrases for Rikka to say in the exVOICE pack! Suggestions can be tweeted on Twitter with the hashtag #喋って六花 for the following topics:
- Onboard a car (taking ideas until June 19)
- Game “Let’s Play” (taking ideas until June 26)
- [Other topics] (taking ideas until July 3)
Among those who tweets ideas, 10 will be selected at random to win a LAKISTON sticker and magnet sticker (gray or pink colors) created by Tap! Details for this campaign can be found here.
**UPDATE ON JUNE 17, 2020**
The prize for the second round of exVOICE ideas, as well as for an upcoming illustration contest, have been revealed! Official Note here.
Idea campaign prize: LAKISTON icon mini can badge (25mm)
Illustration contest prize: LAKISTON icon towel
※Both the towel and the orange version of the can badge are not for resale
The excitement for Rikka and the rapid success of her crowdfunder was so feverish that Ogata decided to save all of the other planned content for the livestream for next time!
Congratulations to Akasakov, Yoshino Aoyama, and AHS! We look forward to welcoming Koharu Rikka into the world!
1 Response
[…] believe that it has only been a little over month when Kohari Rikka was first announced? After her immensely successful crowdfunding campaign and countless fan art posted with the ＃六花ギャラリー hashtag on Twitter, it feels like […]