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Megurine Luka (巡音ルカ) was a fictional character from the Vocaloid character series by Crypton Future Media. Her voice provider is Yū Asakawa.

Vocaloids[]

A vocaloid is a synthesizer program where someone (in this case, Asakawa) records some specific parts of their voice, and the program makes it so that the user can make words from the voice samples. Therefore, a user can make songs after pitching the sounds. The character is a representative of the voice, and many music producers who use Luka's voice use her character too, although that is not always the case.

Here is a video showing the worldwide influence of vocaloids, made by Google.

Release[]

She was the first vocaloid to be available in both English and Japanese versions from the start, as the earlier vocaloids started with one language and gradually got another language as their popularity rose. However, Luka was mainly marketed towards Japanese producers, despite her having an English voicebank. However, she eventually became more popular in the English fanbase as well, perhaps because of the early songs that featured her.

When Crypton stopped licensing YAMAHA's VOCALOID vocal-synthesis engine in favor of its own Piapro Studio-based engine, Luka technically stopped being a Vocaloid.

Etymology[]

Her forename Luka is usually written as ルカ, but in kanji the "Lu-" is written as 流, which means "flow". "-Ka" can either be written as 歌 which means "song", or 香 which means "scent."

Her surname Megurine is a combination of "Meguri-", which is written as 巡 (circulate, sound), and "-Ne", which is written as 音 (sound).

Appearance[]

Megurine Luka MMD

The earliest known MikuMikuDance (MMD) model of Luka.

Her design was made by Kei Garou, who by then had a little more idea of what a vocal synthesizer would look like.

She has light pink waist-length hair with neat eyebrow-level bangs. Her eyes are dark blue, and she is rather pale. There is a pair of black headphones on her head. Her outfit is not based off a school uniform, unlike the previous vocaloids like Miku and the Kagamine twins.

Her dress is ankle-length and black, and there are occasional golden accents. Her design is made to be asymmetrical to allude to her being a bilingual voicebank. She also has thigh-high black boots that were originally golden knee-high boots. There is a red tattoo saying "03 Megurine Luka) on her left arm.

Personality[]

Due to Luka's voice and character being used for many different types of songs and media throughout her time, her personality can drastically change from one song to the next. However, her vocal may be used, but the song itself might feature some original characters from the artist, so only the persona of Luka singing as herself in a song will be considered with her "personality", as there is a slight trend in her personality change through the years.

The earlier songs such as シザーロイド (Scissorloid) by Zawazawa-P and ロッテンガールグロテスクロマンス (Rotten Girl, Grotesque Music) by Machigerita-P saw Luka being a love rival with Miku, who are both in love with KAITO. These songs are rather dark, and usually either Luka or Miku dies and the other is a yandere.

In a slightly later period of vocaloid songs, Miku and Luka are still love rivals, but the gory undertones are gone, instead including rather mellow ideas, as shown in ACUTE by Kurousa-P. Some other songs, although not featuring Luka as as character but as a voice usually had her as a tragic character as well, such as Leia by Yuyoyuppe.

However, there is a notable example that stands out. This is ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー (Luka Luka★Night Fever) by Samfree, which is the most popular solo Luka song. In this song, she is much more "meta", resembling Miku's more recent persona in the songs. The song is very upbeat, and Luka sings about breaking out of the fourth wall to love the listener.

Notable songs[]

There aren't really any producers that focus on just using Luka, and a lot of her well-known songs include multiple vocaloid voices. Therefore, the notable songs will be shown instead.

  1. ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー (Luka Luka★Night Fever) by Samfree
  2. Just Be Friends by Dixie Flatline
  3. ワールズエンド・ダンスホール (World's End Dancehall) by Wowaka
  4. ハッピーシンセサイザ (Happy Synthesizer) by EasyPop
  5. どりーみんチュチュ (Dreamin Chuchu) by emon(Tes.)
  6. Drop Pop Candy by Giga-P
  7. Leia by Yuyoyuppe

Voicebank versions[]

The main Kaito voicebank is Megurine Luka - Japanese (V2), but there are also other versions, which include:

  • Megurine Luka - Soft (V4X)
  • Megurine Luka - Hard (V4X)
  • Megurine Luka - English Straight (V2, V4X)
  • Megurine Luka - English Soft (V4X)
  • She was originally going to have an Append version for V2, but then got changed to a update for V3, which then got changed for V4.
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