KAFU

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KAFU
Character information
Gender	Female
Pronouns	She/Her
Technical information
Product code	CeVIO AI Song: KTR-0025 (Starter Pack, limited edition) KTR-0065 (Starter Pack, regular edition)
Type	CeVIO AI Synthesizer V Studio Synthesizer V AI
Language	Japanese
Voice Provider	KAF
Illustrator	PALOW
3D modeling	Kawasaki
Release date	July 7, 2021 (CeVIO AI) Postponed (was January 15, 2024, Synthesizer V Studio)
Creator	KAF
Company	KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO
Affiliation	CeVIO Project AH-Software Co. Ltd.

KAFU (可(か)不(ふ)) is a vocal synthesizer character derived from the Japanese Virtual Singer, KAF. She was released as a Japanese singing voicebank for CeVIO AI, developed by KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO as a part of the ARTIFICIAL SINGING SYNTHESIZER series in July 2021. She was expected to receive an AI voice database for Synthesizer V Studio in January 2024, but it was indefinitely postponed the month before.

Her voice provider is the Virtual Singer and YouTuber, KAF.

Concept

KAFU is advertised as an "ARTIFICIAL SINGING SYNTHESIZER" (音楽的同位体) of KAF. This is likely done as a way of separating KAFU from KAF. Her signature color is blue, specifically hex code #0000FF.

Etymology

KAFU's name is a combination of "KAF", her voice provider, and "You", stylized as "U".

The kanji of her name, 可不 (KAFU) derives from "kanousei" (可能性) meaning "possibility," and "fukakai" 不可解 meaning "mysterious, incomprehensible." It takes from the first character of each word respectively (可能性 and 不可解; kanousei and fukakai.) In addition, "Fukakai," or "Incomprehensible" is a song sung by KAF, and it is one of her more notable songs.

Additionally, the name "KAFU" shares its romanization with KAF's character "Morisaki Kafu" (森先化歩) from KAMITSUBAKI CITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION. (神椿市建設中。) So far, this trait is also shared by the other Musical Isotopes.

Appearance

KAFU's appearance and theme are based on that of her voice provider KAF with many similar design elements and an overall white color-scheme. She wears a heavy white jacket with blue and black detailing and a hood similar to that of KAF's own attire. She also wears an over-the-knee length black dress, white tights, yellow socks, and blue heeled short boots. Her hair is snow white and bobbed with low pigtails on either side, which is reminiscent of KAF's hairstyle, and is adorned with large diamond shaped hair clips. Her eyes are dark blue and purple.

KAFU was illustrated by Japanese freelance painter & character designer PALOW.

Relations

• KAF - Voice Provider and basis for KAFU's character.
• SEKAI - Fellow "ARTIFICIAL SINGING SYNTHESIZER" series vocal.
• RIME - Fellow "ARTIFICIAL SINGING SYNTHESIZER" series vocal.
• COKO - Fellow "ARTIFICIAL SINGING SYNTHESIZER" series vocal.
• HARU - Fellow "ARTIFICIAL SINGING SYNTHESIZER" series vocal.

History

2020

On October 10, 2020, it was announced that KAF would be collaborating with CeVIO AI. Her voicebank was announced at that time to be distributed in the winter of that year. A demo for KAFU was uploaded on October 13, and a YouTube channel was created for her. On October 15, a questionnaire was announced that would be used for determining the type of voice KAFU would have. An accompanying video showcasing three potential vocals was also uploaded including: TYPE // A, TYPE // B and TYPE // C. Users were able to voice their preference for whichever vocal they liked the most. On October 18, the results of the questionnaire were tallied with TYPE // A receiving a rating of 65% of the total votes, TYPE // B receiving a 25.3% of the total votes and TYPE // C receiving a 9.7% of the total votes. Here, it was announced that the voice provider KAF would be making the final decision of which vocal would be moving forward with development with reference to the survey results.

On October 19, KAF herself followed up with a tweet regarding her own feelings on KAFU. KAF stated that while she was overall thrilled of the vocal as a fellow VOCALOID fan herself, KAF believed that the TYPE // A voice was too similar to her own vocals and was concerned that KAFU would "replace" her, thus making the final decision that TYPE // B would be the vocal to go into development. After the conclusion of the questionnaire results, KAFU's twitter announced on October 27 that the development period would be extended with a delayed release date in hopes of satisfying both KAF herself and fans. KAFU was slated to be released within the first half of 2021.

The first full demo for KAFU was uploaded on November 14 titled "雛鳥" a cover of one of KAF's own original songs.

2021

On January 21, 2021, the official website for KAFU was created and revealed her full illustration as well as information regarding pricing, purchase options and locations. It was revealed KAFU would be releasing as starter pack with both the Song Voice and CeVIO AI editor as well as an original compilation album or the Song Voice being sold separetely.

On March 14, KAFU was released for pre-order. A special retweet campaign was announced to commemorate KAFU's release in which 10 users would be selected to receive KAFU's CeVIO AI Starter Pack.

On June 24, KAFU's terms and guidelines for her character and voicebank usage were posted to her website as well as the official KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO website.

She was finally released on July 7, her download version having been available as well on Vector Shop.

2023

On July 7, 2023, at the end of the "V.I.P -Virtual Isotope Phenomenon- 1st" livestream, it was announced that KAFU would be in development for Synthesizer V AI and was expected to release during the winter. She was confirmed to be developed by AH-Software Co. Ltd., though would be published by KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO. Pre-orders for KAFU's physical copy and starter pack were opened on September 4 and would run until November 27 at 12:00 JST or if the available stock had sold out as she is a made-to-order product. Her release date was confirmed to be January 15, 2024.

On December 23, KAMITSUBAKI announced that her release date was being postponed due to various unspecified circumstances, with new release date being yet undetermined but to be announced as soon as details are decided.

Voicebanks

KAFU

• Musical Isotope KAFU (CeVIO AI), July 7, 2021
• Musical Isotope KAFU (Synthesizer V Studio), In development, postponed (was January 15, 2024)

Reputation

Reaction

In October 2020 a questionnaire was released to determine what voice type would be used for KAFU. Three types of samples were released with TYPE // A receiving the majority of votes with 65%. However, the next day KAF tweeted that TYPE // B would be the voice going into production instead due to feeling that TYPE // A was too similar and fears that KAFU would end up replacing her. The response to the results were mostly positive and understanding, but there were some who were upset that the final results did not reflect the voicebank chosen.

Achievements

• First CeVIO from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO
• First CeVIO AI from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO
• First Synthesizer V from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO.
• First female Synthesizer V from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO.

External links

Official

• Official Website
• KAFU FINDME STORE Website
• Musical Isotope YouTube Channel
• Twitter
• Musical Isotope Twitter

Articles

• CeVIO Wiki
• SynthV Wiki
• NicoNicoPedia
• Moegirlpedia
• VocaDB (CeVIO AI)
• VocaDB (Synthesizer V)