Gumi

Development

Gumi was developed by Internet Co., Ltd. using Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 synthesizer software. Her voice was created by taking vocal samples from singer Megumi Nakajima at a controlled pitch and tone.

On December 11, 2010, the president of Internet Co. announced that Gackpoid, Megpoid, and Lily would be distributed in Taiwan.

Additional software

On October 21, 2011, a new version of the software, called "V3 Megpoid", was released, containing a package of four different tones of Gumi's voice for Vocaloid 3: Adult, Power, Sweet, and Whisper. This was one of the first 4 packages released on the same day for the then-new engine, the others being Mew, SeeU, and VY1V3. This was originally going to be an expansion pack for the Vocaloid 2 version of GUMI under the name of "Megpoid Extend" and was based on the "Append" vocals of Crypton Future Media. On March 16, 2012, an update of the Vocaloid 2 Megpoid was released, called "V3 Megpoid - Native". On February 28, 2013, another new version of Gumi, called "Megpoid English", was released, also for the Vocaloid 3 engine.

On November 5, 2015, an update to the V3 Megpoid package, called "Megpoid V4", was released for the Vocaloid 4 engine, updating the vocals from V3 Megpoid and V3 Megpoid - Native along with adding alternative versions to the vocals, including: MellowAdult, PowerFat, NaturalSweet, SoftWhisper, and NativeFat. These vocals made use of the new Vocaloid 4 feature "cross-synthesis". The Vocaloid 4 editor's cross-synthesis also worked with the Vocaloid 3 version of the Megpoid software, though it was restricted only to the five Japanese vocals. Noboru Murakami, president of Internet Co., Ltd., announced that the English bank for Vocaloid 4 would be updated at a later point. When asked in October 2015 about what this meant, Murakami replied "later in the year or next year", noting that it would be difficult to make more voicebanks for her. Ultimately, Megpoid English was never updated by the time Vocaloid 4 was retired and Vocaloid 5 released.

Megpoid was also featured in use on the Vocaloid Keyboard prototype.

In addition, a product called "Megpoid Talk", a speech synthesizer with the voice of Gumi, was released in 2014.

The "Native" and "English" voicebanks were released for the Mobile Vocaloid Editor.

Megpoid was also set to have a "falsetto" vocal for Vocaloid 3. Due to issues with balancing the vocal with the normal vocals, it was dropped, and a Vocaloid with falsetto capabilities, Kokone, was developed instead.

Reception

Gumi initially struggled to build popularity against Crypton Future Media's Character Vocal series and was considered to be "nothing special" when first released. She was, however, quicker to gain popularity in comparison to Camui Gackpo.

By 2010, Gumi's popularity was on par with Crypton Future Media's voicebanks, and she had outsold her predecessor Camui Gackpo, becoming the most popular and well-known non-Crypton Vocaloid. In 2011, her usage grew, and, in some weeks, she had even more songs in the top 100 rankings than some of the Crypton Future Media vocalists. In January 2015, a popularity poll was released, confirming Gumi was the second most popular Vocaloid of 2015 on Niconico.

Over 20,000 songs have used Gumi's various voicebanks. Two of the most popular include "Matoryoshka" (マトリョシカ), a song by Hachi also featuring Hatsune Miku, and "Mozaik Role" (モザイクロール), a song by Deco*27. "Matoryoshka" has amassed over 80 million views on YouTube and over 15 million on Niconico, while "Mozaik Role" has been viewed over 13 million times on Niconico and over 10 million on YouTube.

No official age has been given to Gumi in her various designs, but she is generally assumed to be a teenager or young adult.

The original Megpoid, for Vocaloid 2, has a suggested tempo of 60 to 175 beats per minute and a suggested vocal range of F2 to A4.

Marketing

Manga and anime

Gumi has appeared in several manga-based series. The bi-monthly Vocaloid magazine Comic@loid has released some titles based on songs featuring Megpoid, with others not yet released. The released titles include Mozaik Role, Kiritorisen, Shiryoku Kensa, Setsuna Trip, Ringo Uri no Utakata Shoujo, and Yowamushi Montblanc.

Another manga is Gumi from Vocaloid, which ran from 2013 to 2014. This manga is not based on a specific song, but on the character of Gumi and her adventures.

The manga MeguMegu☆Singer Song Fighter (メグメグ☆シンガーソングファイター), released in 2004, also stars Gumi. It features a fictional birth story for her, as a girl who became an android and debuted as an idol. The story focuses on her and a mysterious team called Intane-dan (インタネ団). Fellow Vocaloid characters Camui Gackpo, Lily, and Cul also feature in the manga.

Gumi stars in an anime television short series called Koi Suru Dessan Ningyō, named after a song by sasakure.UK, on which the short is based. Masanori Okamoto is responsible for many aspects of this project, including the script and filming of the short. If the short is popular, a series will follow.

Video game

Gumi starred in the game Megpoid the Music♯ (メグッポイド ザ ミュージック シャープ), a rhythm game created by ParaPhray (パラフレ) for the PlayStation Portable. Both standard and limited editions were released on March 28, 2013.

She also appears as a special guest in several songs in Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai and its sequel.

Competition

In May 2012, a song contest was announced for Gumi, hosted by Creofuga. Producers entering the contest could use any Vocaloid 2 or Vocaloid 3 Megpoid voicebank.

A contest was held by VocaloTracks in 2013 to create an original song using any of Gumi's voicebanks. They were able to sell their songs under a "professional label".

Another song contest, also held in 2013, was held in conjunction with the release of her English voicebank.