Tsuina-chan

Tsuina-chan VOICEROID2 Synthesizer V Studio | Originals

Tsuina-chan (ついなちゃん) is a Japanese VOICEROID2 voicebank by AH-Software Co. Ltd. in collaboration with a crowdfunding campaign by her creators of the "Tsuina, the Ogre Hunter Project" (鬼っ子ハンターついなちゃん). She is capable of speaking in both Standard and Kansai-ben dialects. She was released November 1st, 2019.

Her voice provider is Mai Kadowaki (門脇舞以; Kadowaki Mai).

Concept[]

Tsuina-chan originates from a popular "meme" character in the online Japanese anime community - Hinomoto Oniko. Oniko was created by denizens of 2chan in order to combat a particular Chinese ethnic slur against Japanese people by using that term and making it into a "cute anime girl." By doing so, they would "embrace" said term and make it useless as an insult.

She is the first VOICEROID to have both standard and Kansai-ben dialects, the second of which is due to a stretch goal for her crowdfunding campaign having been reached. Previously, this was achievable with Kotonoha Akane & Aoi, but as two separate characters.

Her character birthday is February 3rd.

Etymology[]

Her real name is "Kisaragi Tsuina" (如月ついな), though she's also commonly referred to as "Enno Tsuina" (役ついな or 役追儺). She prefers being referred to as "Enno" as she considers it cooler than "Kisaragi" (which she is embarrassed by).^[1]

Kisaragi (如月) is an outdated term referring to the second month of the year, known as February. Tsuina-chan's original online debut was February 3rd, which is also her character birthday.

Enno (役) can be translated to "role," "duty," "responsibility," etc. When combined with the kanji of Tsuina's first name, 追儺, which means "the ceremony of driving out evil spirits", her full name can be translated to "the duty of driving out evil spirits," which is the basis of her character.

Appearance[]

Kisaragi Tsuina is albino with red eyes, faint pink hair, long nails, and pointy ears. Her hair is spun into very long twindrills tied with red and gold ribon. She also had a ahoge ontop of her head which is visible without her mask.

Her ogre hunter outfit is made up of a kashiko-iro and red top. Her skirt and her tsutsusode are black and red. The shoes she wears are black geta with red straps.

Dickson is the four-eyed gigaku mask that sits atop her head. He is red with thick black eyebrows and golden eyes.

Her school uniform is made up of a white, pink, and red sailor top with a red and pink skirt. She also wears a white tie with a red stripe. Her socks are each white with a pink stripe and she wears brown loafers. A tiny Dickson is tied to her hair's right ribbon.

Relations[]

Dickson (ディクソン) - The four-eyed gigaku mask on her head. He is described as "quiet and a nice guy".^[2]
Kisaragi Hoan (如月宝庵) - Her grandfather. He is a mad scientist and a priest.^[3]
Hinomoto Oniko (日本鬼子) - Ogre and her rival
Enno Odzuna (役小角奈) - Recognized alongside her at the Kisshousouji Temple
Takato Saki (高遠咲) - Known as Saki-chan (咲ちゃん), is Tsuina-chan's friend and daughter of Tamamo-no-Mae^[4]. She is a keeper of a magic stone, the Sessho-seki and is one of the heroines in Tsuina-chan's story.^[5]^[6]
Mahitotsu Oni (目一つ鬼) - The greatest enemy in the story of Tsuina-chan, who has manipulated the history of Japan from the shadows.^[7]
Zenki (前鬼) & Goki (後鬼) - originally referred to as Wai (わい) & Wate (わて) - Tsuina-chan's shikigami, the front and back demons (後鬼). A pair of demons originally of a married couple who serve as Tsuina-chan's companions. ^[8]^[9]
Kotaro Kobayashi (小林小太郎) - Saki and Tsuina-chan's childhood friend. ^[10]

History[]

Biography[]

2011 Beginnings[]

Tsuina-chan resulted from a member of the "Hinomoto Oniko Project," Saki Oohenri, wanting to create a "rival" character to Oniko - as Oniko is a demon, Tsuina-chan was conceptualized as a ogre hunter. Tsuina-chan made her official online debut on Oohenri's pixiv on February 3rd, 2011 (the initial upload has since been deleted, however).

Her character is inspired from the "Tsuina" Event, which is an annual ceremony performed on December 30th each year. It is a ceremony designed to exorcise demons/bad spirits, which is the basis of Tsuina's character. Elements of the ceremony (instruments, wooden masks, traditional clothing) are all part of Tsuna's character design.

2016 Drama series[]

In August 2016, Tsuina-chan's voice drama series, "Tsuina, the Ogre Hunter," began. While it's primarily an audio-only series detailing Tsuina-chan's attempts at capturing demons (usually resulting in failure), there have been many guest appearances and commentary by the developers as well.^[11] Important Tsuina-chan related news, including announcements regarding the voice drama series, are announced on her Fantia page.

On January 17th, 2017, Tsuina-chan, along with another character named Enno Odzuna, became an officially recognized character of the Kisshousouji Temple. Acrylic stands of the two were set up at the location.^[12]

2018 VOICEROID campaign[]

On December 16th, 2018, Tsuina-chan's official PR twitter announced a crowdfunding campaign to become a VOICEROID.^[13] The actual campaign began two months later, on February 5th, 2019, and would run until February 20th.^[14]

The goal for the campaign was 4,800,000 yen, as a VOICEROID2 speaking in standard dialect. However, if the campaign could reach 11,500,000 yen, Tsuina-chan would receive the capability of speaking in Kansai-ben as well. By the end of the campaign, she had far surpassed that stretch goal, with the final total being 14,052,884 yen - surpassing her original goal by 292%.^[15]

On October 16th, early copies of Tsuina-chan's VOICEROID2 package were shipped out to those who had backed her fundraiser.^[16] She then released to the general public on November 1st that same year.

Present[]

On September 14th, 2020, Tsuina-chan launched a contest for fans to design what would be an outfit for her if she were to become a singing synthesizer, which lasted until November 14th.^[17] Less than a month later, on October 5th, Tsuina-chan's official Twitter account confirmed that she would be starting a crowdfunding campaign for a singing synthesizer later in winter.^[18]

On October 30th, Synthesizer V AI was announced by Dreamtonics Co., Ltd., and it was revealed that Tsuina-chan would begin a crowdfunding campaign for both Synthesizer V Studio Standard and Synthesizer V AI voice databases later that year.^[19] The campaign began on December 4th, and reached its initial goal of 5 million yen in one day.^[20]^[21]

Pre-orders for additional Tsuina-chan voice recordings known as Pitagoe (ぴた声) began on August 26, 2021.^[22]

Marketing[]

Tsuina-chan has an official MMD model and Live2D/Facerig data available on AHS' VOICEROID omake page, available here.

Voicebanks[]

Tsuina-chan: Tsuina-chan comes with two sets of vocals: one for standard intonation, and another for Kansai-ben intonation. While the two are very similar, they each carry their own distinct tone.

Both dialect voices have a soft, high tone in contrast to her louder, more energetic voice from her voice drama series. The standard dialect voice is more somber and deeper than the Kansai-ben one. The pronunciation is more standard and fluid.

The Kansai-ben voice is brighter and more energetic than the standard dialect one. The pronunciation is very particular, as she stresses each mora for emphasis.

Tsuina-chan (VOICEROID2), November 1, 2019
Tsuina-chan Standard (Synthesizer V Studio), November 26, 2021
Tsuina-chan AI (Synthesizer V AI), November 26, 2021

Demonstrations[]

[Link] Work in Progress

Gallery[]

For Synthesizer V specific illustrations, see Tsuina-chan/Gallery (Synth V Wiki).

Reputation[]

Status

Google Trends

Tsuina-chan,ついなちゃん,Ogre+Hunter+Tsuina-chan,鬼っ子ハンターついなちゃん

Trivia

Tsuina-chan's VOICEROID2 product won the Creator's Category Prize in the 33rd Vector ProRegi Awards.^[23]

Achievements

First popularized 'meme' character to become a VOICEROID through campaigning.
Second VOICEROID revealed to be voiced by their voice provider and creator.
Third VOICEROID character to have Synthesizer V voicebank (second released VOICEROID to have Synthesizer V bank)

Polls

References[]

External links[]

Navigation[]

[1] ttps://twitter.com/Tuina_chan_PJ/status/1227231473142337538

[2] Tsuina-chan's secrets part 7

[3] Tsuina-chan's secrets part 26

[4] ttps://fantia.jp/posts/879937

[5] ttps://twitter.com/Tuina_chan_PJ/status/1433052035562106886

[6] ttps://twitter.com/Tuina_chan_PJ/status/1433059168433238016

[7] ttps://fantia.jp/posts/668275

[8] ttps://twitter.com/tuina_chan_pj/status/802704488775548928

[9] ttps://twitter.com/Tuina_chan_PJ/status/801940848589950980

[10] ttps://fantia.jp/posts/879937#post-content-id-1381505

[11] vocaloidnews

[12] ttps://www.facebook.com/gosegirl/posts/1518634621560927

[13] ttps://twitter.com/tuina_chan_pj/status/1074275008807989248

[14] ttps://twitter.com/Tuina_chan/status/1092687774119940096

[15] ttps://greenfunding.jp/pub/projects/2625

[16] ttps://greenfunding.jp/pub/projects/2625/activities/9481

[17] ttps://fantia.jp/posts/460822

[18] ttps://twitter.com/Tuina_chan_PJ/status/13130833410300887047

[19] ttps://dreamtonics.com/en/synthesizer-v-ai-announcement/

[20] ttps://twitter.com/Tuina_chan_PJ/status/1334697472090726406

[21] ttps://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/334914

[22] ttps://www.ah-soft.com/pitagoe/tsuina/

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