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A.I.VOICE Tange Kotoe Crowdfunding Campaign

Rylitah

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Apr 8, 2018
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A VTuber named Tange Kotoe has announced plans for a crowdfunding campaign backed by SSS to have a talking synth created of them.


Their YouTube channel is here.

They had a birthday stream held a few hours ago talking about the announcement:
 

Rylitah

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She is a pretty small VTuber, only 1k subs on YouTube... but I'm sure once Zunko's twitter starts talking about it everyone will be all over it anyway, haha.

That being said, I think it's interesting that this is happening. VTubers and voice synths have been close relatives since conception basically, so I guess it was just a matter of time before a VTuber wanted to make a synth like this? (I guess Kafu/Kaf was first, but. you know)
 

Rylitah

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30 minute livestream going over all details of the future product will be held today at 9 PM Japan time (about 8 hours from making this post).


I'm not really sure if making a crowdfunding campaign right now is the best idea considering even Rosa, despite all the support she's gotten, is struggling to reach her goal (not even halfway funded with only one week left of her campaign - though I guess Seika proved that miracles can happen). And Kotoe has a much, much smaller audience. Best of luck to her either way, but I am a little concerned about the prospects of it succeeding.
 
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Rylitah

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Well, my interest has finally been peaked. (I've liked Kotoe's design and voice from the beginning, but honestly I forgot this also was an option and just... assumed it'd be a CeVIO AI project, haha. Now I'm really going to be paying much closer attention.)

So, the confirmed synth now is A.I.VOICE, and the plan they've chosen is the A.I.VOICE Junior plan that lets third parties raise a smaller amount of money to still make their product. Full features can be expanded with via crowdfunding stretch goals, but the basic minimum here is just to get the base voice funded.


The first image is just a brief description of Tange Kotoe's character: a white-haired white fox who uses "maro" as a pronoun, which according to wikipedia is "used as a universal first-person pronoun in ancient times," and whose dialect* is "noja." (Not an actual dialect. Just means they end their sentences with ~じゃ or ~のじゃ is what I got from a brief google search. It's a character trope.)
Their backstory is essentially that they used to be a popular god, but while they were sleeping, their faith died out and their shrine destroyed, which led to them losing their powers. They eventually met a human named "Utsuwa-chan" and with her help, became a Vtuber. The reason for becoming a Vtuber is to raise enough money to rebuild their shrine and presumably regain their powers.

Also mentioned in the first image is their official illustrator, かれい / Karei, aka @flat_fish_ on twitter. They're a very popular illustrator and have done many VOICEROID illustrations and standing images in the past. They also are the artist for Kotoe's Vtuber model - you've seen their art just by looking at this thread.

On the second image, a new logo saying "Tange Kotoe" is shown, as well as a black silhouette. The word "temporary name" (仮称) is written next to it for some reason. Guess it'll change?
The description basically says that this is a derivative of Vtuber Tange Kotoe that was born to spread themselves (fame, influence, etc.). Their outfit is different from the original. The tone and personality of this one are based off the original Tange Kotoe, but as they spend more time with "you" they will grow into their own person.
Then it just repeats the same info about Karei the illustrator, but with an additional note at the bottom saying that everything on this image is subject to change as this is a product in development.

The third image is just a brief overview of A.I.VOICE (Junior) and the company behind it. Nothing that isn't already in the general dedicated thread for it.

Finally, the last image is the whole Tange Kotoe x AI Inc. promo image of sorts. New info here is that the crowdfunding campaign will take place in July, so next month.

As for the actual livestream that was done today, it's here:

My internet is really bad right now and won't load it in any sort of listenable quality, but I doubt it has anything not mentioned in the tweet thread linked. Still, I'll go over it later when I actually can watch it and update if there is new info.
 

Rylitah

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Tentative crowdfunding tiers have been announced. "Tentative" because these aren't yet set in stone and could be adjusted due to feedback.


Pretty standard tiers, the only tiers that get you the product is the 32,000 yen (~$290 USD) one as well as the 100,000 yen (~$910 USD) tier which gets you everything in the previous tiers as well as a Tange Kotoe plush.

Also, the physical product is limited to the crowdfund only, like Solaria was. If they are fully funded, there will only be a digital product afterwards.

I really like them and want to contribute if I can, but paying $600 more for a single plush is a little bit....
 

Rylitah

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Crowdfunding has begun, and they've actually already reached the goal!

They actually got fully funded while the A.I.VOICE livestream they were guest starring in today was still live.

They do have two stretch goals: 3.5 million yen (175%) will get them an additional "high tension" emotion parameter, while 5 million yen (250%) will get them an additional "low tension" emotion parameter.

At the time of this posting, they're already 131% funded. At this rate they'll hit the first stretch goal for sure.

The campaign will end on August 31st.
 

Rylitah

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First stretch goal has been reached! Not sure when it happened, I checked like the day before yesterday and it was 5% off, but right now we're 10% over. Since the campaign is currently 185% funded, this means they need 1.3 million more yen to hit the second stretch goal.

I'm not sure when this was added, but there's a new tier: 15,000 yen (~$136 USD) will get you the download version of Tange Kotoe's A.I.VOICE, as well as digital versions of a commemorative book and "special movie" (no details on this, it's also in other tiers).

The 20,000 yen tier remains the same and does not contain Kotoe's A.I.VOICE product.

In addition, two more tiers will be introduced beginning August 1st. 10,000 yen (~$91 USD) and 13,000 yen (~$118 USD) plans, both of which are just various types of goods. Neither contain the A.I.VOICE product.
 
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Rylitah

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The sample video isn't a demonstration of how Kotoe's voice sounds in A.I.VOICE - rather, Kotoe is speaking in different tones/expressions/emotions that they would like to incorporate in the A.I.VOICE product. The actual product may sound different.

 
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uncreepy

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Apr 9, 2018
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The types of voices they want to do are so weird compared to normal.

Normally, you'd get Normal/Happy/Sad/Angry, but these are so oddly specific.
0:55 = Normal version (ノーマルver)
1:11 = No personality version (無個性ver)
1:28 = Bokukko (ボクッ娘ver) [Uses "boku" pronoun, closest equivalent to English is tomboy vibe]
1:42 = Uchikko (うちっ娘ver) [Uses "uchi" pronoun, but she's depressed & telling master to not do bad things to her in the clip]

I'm not sure if these are part of her lore or something (haven't watched any of her VTuber videos)
 

Rylitah

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Now accepting suggestions for exVOICE recordings until the end of this month.

 

Rylitah

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Second stretch goal has been reached! Kotoe will have the low tension emotional parameter on release.

A final bonus stretch goal has been added for 6 million yen. I can't really find any tweets mentioning it, but the stretch goal graphic on the actual crowdfunding page has been updated with it (before it just said "???"): at 6 million yen, it seems a VR/3D version of the shrine that was destroyed as mentioned in Kotoe's lore will be made.

A livestream was held earlier to thank everyone for contributing to the campaign:
 
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Rylitah

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All stretch goals have been reached, including an additional last bonus one which is of the creation of 3D models for both the original VTuber design and the A.I.VOICE design!

There's about 11 hours and 30 minutes left of the crowdfund as of this posting. Reminder that this campaign is the only way to get her physical box, as general sales afterwards will be digital only.
 

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