Frimomen (フリモメン) is a vocal synthesizer character created by AH-Software Co. Ltd., initially created as a character mascot for the FREE MOTION high-performance Flash creation software. He has since received a pitagoe wave file collection, released in September 2021 and a VOICEPEAK text-to-speech library released in January 2023. He is expected to receive an AI voice database for Synthesizer V Studio in April 2024.
His voice provider is Koga Akira (古賀 明).
Concept[]
Frimomen made his debut in March 2006 as the character mascot of AH-Software Co. Ltd.'s first published program, the Flash creation software FREE MOTION (renamed to frimo in July 2009),[1] through a series of promotional four-panel or "4-koma" (四コマ or 4コマ, yon-koma) comics illustrated by Japanese illustrator, maruan.[2] He has since gone on to be used as an official mascot for AH-Software and has appeared in various AHS-related franchises such as the AHS Store and AHS official live broadcasts.[3][4]
He is described as a "macho in tights" who can do almost anything.[5]
Etymology[]
Frimomen (フリモメン) is a portmanteau of the words furimo (フリモ), the katakana reading of the word frimo (short for FREE MOTION) and men (メン). He was originally named "Free Motion Men" (フリーモーションメン); he was renamed to "Frimomen" in July 2009 following the FREE MOTION software name change to frimo.[6]
Appearance[]
Frimomen is a muscular, superhero-like male who wears a teal bodysuit with the word "frimo" written in yellow katakana characters spelled down his abdomen. He wears the FREE MOTION logo atop his head just above his mask.
Relations[]
- Towel Man (タオルの人) - A person who was aiming to become a Flash craftsman, but became entangled with Frimomen. He wears a towel wrapped around his head. He is noted to like beautiful girls.[7] He was featured not only on 4-komas for the Free Motion/frimo software series, but also on those for other AH-Software programs contemporary with the former (see further below the entries for Editan, Romeko, and Modeko).
- Frimomen 2 (フリモメン2) - Frimomen's younger brother. He is described as an attractive man in full body tights.
- Silver Frimomen (シルバーフリモメン) - A silver version of Frimomen. "Silver" may be a reference to Microsoft Silverlight, a multimedia content technology similar to Adobe Flash. He was the main mascot of frimo for Silverlight, a variant of frimo 3 that authored Silverlight content rather than Flash.[8]
- Frimo (フリモ) - Also known as Frimotan (フリモたん), is a mysterious magical girl who is known to be a strong ally of Flash craftsmen.[9]
- Kuro Frimo (黒フリモ, Black Frimo) - A mysterious magical girl who supports Frimo. She is noted to be a strong ally of Flash craftsmen.[10]
- Gin Frimo (銀フリモ, Silver Frimo) - Also known as Gin Frimo-chan (銀ふりもちゃん, Silver Frimo-chan), is a mysterious magical girl who helped create Microsoft Silverlight. No one knows her true identity.[11] She was the secondary mascot of frimo for Silverlight.
- Editan (えでぃたん) - A magical girl who cleans up HTML. She is noted to be surprisingly shrewd and is familiar with the Frimomen every day.[12] She was the mascot of another old AH-Software program, website-creation software Web Editor.[13]
- Romeko (ろめ子) - A magical logo design girl who aims to be an orthodox character. She is a member of the AHS Neta Character Corps (AHSネタキャラ軍団). She still manages to be orthodox, but still falls prey to the Frimomen's pranks.[14] She was also the mascot of yet another old AHS-branded software, Logo Maker Professional.[15]
- Modeko (もで子) - A magical girl that meets users' needs. She has the freedom to become an adult or a child at will.[16] She is noted to compete with the Frimomen every day. She originally debuted as the mascot of Motion Decompiler 2, the second version of still another old AHS software.[17]
- Gods (神々たち) - A duo of an old man and a young woman appearing as gods of animation, with the image of gods.[18] They themselves were featured in again another piece of old AHS software, Web Video Downloader.[19]
History[]
2021[]
On August 27, 2021, AH-Software Co. Ltd. announced a new lineup of a voice material collection series named pitagoe that could be used for commercial and business purposes released on September 29 as a digital download. Included in this lineup was a collection of voice samples for Frimomen recorded by Japanese voice actor Koga Akira. This would mark the first time Frimomen would have a voice since his 2006 debut.[20] Previously, Frimomen was treated as an April Fools joke on April 1, 2014 being advertised as an upcoming VOICEROID and VOCALOID3 male vocal from AH-Software.[21][22] He was featured alongside other AH-Software characters later on in April 2014 during a live stream event.[23]
2022[]
On November 18, 2022, AH-Software Co. Ltd. announced a new lineup of voice libraries for the text-to-speech software VOICEPEAK including Frimomen, announced to be released on December 15. He was given a new design, illustrated by Japanese illustrator muni, appearing to be a full body suit worn above his normal attire illustrated by maruan.[24] His release date was later pushed back to January 13, 2023 due to staff illness.[25][26]
2023[]
On October 6, 2023, Frimomen's official PR Twitter account announced the development of a Synthesizer V AI voice database through an official "MOMEN NEWS" (モメンズNEWS) broadcast.[27][28][29] He was scheduled to be released the following year in 2024.[30]
2024[]
On April 1, 2024, his Synthesizer V design (essentially a different pose of his VOICEPEAK design) and physical boxart were revealed; his release date was set for April 25.[31][32]
Marketing[]
Frimomen has been featured in various merchandise and media including an official 3D model for MikuMikuDance and Recotte Studio[33], LINE stickers[34], plush doll[35], face mask[36], acrylic stand[37] and keychains.[38]
He has also been featured in various promotional Yu-Gi-Oh!-styled trading cards often given as a bonus with purchases of AH-Software Co. Ltd. physical products.
Voicebanks[]
- Frimomen - Talk
- The speaking voicebank for Frimomen.
- Frimomen - Sing
- The singing voicebank for Frimomen.
- Frimomen (Synthesizer V Studio), April 25, 2024
Reputation[]
Reaction[]
As a popular mascot character created by AH-Software Co. Ltd., his announcement for Synthesizer V AI was met with excitement from fans. He is often the subject of April Fools' Day jokes including previous announcements of fake VOICEROID and VOCALOID3 voicebanks created by AHS.[39][40]
Impact[]
TBA
Achievements[]
- First April Fools' Day prank to receive official (non-prank) Pitagoe recordings.
- First April Fools' Day prank to receive an official (non-prank) VOICEPEAK library.
- First April Fools' Day prank to receive an official (non-prank) Synthesizer V voice database.
References[]
- ↑ The original version of FREE MOTION (SAHS-40500) was released on March 3, 2006 as a Japanese localization of British software company SourceTec Software Co., Ltd.'s Sothink SWF Quicker (see the product page for SWF Quicker version 1.6 versus the one for FREE MOTION). As the origin English program went through updates, so did its Japanese port a few months later: Free Motion 2 (SAHS-40535, released June 7, 2007) was derived from SWF Quicker V2.x (this link is for V2.5; the formatting for all archived V2.6 links was not properly archived), while the final version ever published by AH-Software Co. Ltd., Sothink frimo 3 (SAHS-40664, released July 17, 2009) was localized from either V3.0 or V4.0 of SWF Quicker.
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/fm_1/frimo.html
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/frimomen/
- ↑ https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AA%E3%83%AB
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/index.html#%E3%83%95%E3%83%AA%E3%83%A2%E3%83%A1%E3%83%B3
- ↑ https://twitter.com/SevenTail770/status/1468420504273195008
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130709182847/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/towel.html
- ↑ Like frimo 3 above, frimo for Silverlight (SAHS-40668, released the same day as frimo 3) was a Japanese localization of a SourceTec program, in this case Sothink Quicker for Silverlight V3.0.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130713030914/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/frimo.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130716124723/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/blackfrimo.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130713030939/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/silverfrimo.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130713031542/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/editan.html
- ↑ Web Editor (SAHS-40570, released February 8, 2008) was also a localization of another SourceTec program, Sothink HTML Editor 2.5 Standard Version. It also came in a bundle pack (SAHS-40573) with FREE MOTION.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130713031832/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/romeko.html
- ↑ Logo Maker Professional (SAHS-40855, released December 13, 2012) was another localized Sothink program; unlike the frimo products and Web Editor above, it retained the same software title as its source.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130714125451/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/modeko.html
- ↑ Motion Decompiler (SAHS-40539, released June 7, 2007) was yet another localized Sothink product, SWF Decompiler (archive link shown is for version 3.5, but Motion Decompiler may have been localized from either V3.6 or V3.7, the latter being released the same day as AHS's version). It was also released as a bundle with Free Motion 2 dubbed the Craftsman Pack (職人パック, SAHS-40542). It was updated to version 2 (SAHS-40594) on June 6, 2008 as a port of SWF Decompiler 4 (link is for V4.1); a version for Mac (SAHS-40595, localized from SWF Decompiler for Mac) was also released the same day. While the original Motion Decompiler featured two animal mascots, Pennin (ペン忍, a blue penguin with a black mask around its eyes) and Myaonin (ミャオ忍, a red cat with also a black eyemask), version 2 came up with Modeko.
Version 3 was released the same day as frimo 3 (July 17, 2009) and came in both standalone (SAHS-40669) and Craftsman Pack (SAHS-40670, bundled with frimo 3) editions; while the origin software Sothink SWF Decompiler V4.5 came in both Windows and Mac versions, only the Windows version was localized by AHS (opting instead to keep selling version 2 for Mac while retiring V2 for Windows; the Mac version itself was retired overall sometime after January 4, 2010 with no replacement, and its /md/ URL was redirected to the V3 for Windows /mdw/ product page). Version 4 (SAHS-40802, ported from a 6.x version of SWF Decompiler) was released on June 10, 2011 as a standalone Windows product (by this time, AHS had stopped localizing newer versions of both SWF Quicker/frimo and the Mac version of SWF Decompiler), while the final AHS localization ever, Motion Decompiler 5 for Windows (SAHS-40865, from V7.x of SWF Decompiler), came out on June 6, 2013. - ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130714122234/http://www.ah-soft.com/charactor/kami.html
- ↑ Web Video Downloader (SAHS-40635, released December 12, 2008) was again another Sothink product that was localized by AH-Software under the same title. Although the Gods were featured in that software, it was best known for its boxart mascot, a light-brown bear simply referred to as Kuma (クマ, the Japanese word for "bear").
- ↑ https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000010.000060783.html
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/450899023776333825
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/450902019721555968/photo/1
- ↑ http://www.ustream.tv/
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/voice/frimomen/index.html
- ↑ https://twitter.com/dreamtonics_jp/status/1599646739111505920
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/1599646153079132160
- ↑ https://twitter.com/frimomen/status/1710203277709914176
- ↑ https://twitter.com/frimomen/status/1710207424945336488
- ↑ https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm42851685
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/1710208900451238126
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/1774633007397413329
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/press/synth-v/20240401.html
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/627036527856455680
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/629571259064430596
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/1377274659045920771
- ↑ https://twitter.com/frimomen/status/1500759131342266368
- ↑ https://www.chara-fab.jp/items/63385370
- ↑ https://twitter.com/chara_fab_jp/status/1575681847857532928
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/450899023776333825
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ahsoft/status/450902019721555968/photo/1
External links[]
Official[]
Articles[]
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