Shikoku Metan

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Shikoku Metan

UTAU
VOICEVOX
NEUTRINO
CeVIO AI

Talk
Humming

Announcement
Official

Character information

Gender

Female

Pronouns

She/Her

Birthday

August 21^[1]

Technical information

Product code

CeVIO AI:

SAHS-50173 (Song Voice, physical)
SAHS-50174 (Song Voice, digital)
SAHS-50175 (Song Starter Pack, physical)
SAHS-50176 (Song Starter Pack, digital)

Type

UTAU, VOICEVOX, NEUTRINO, CeVIO AI, VoiSona

Language

Japanese

Voice Provider

Koyuki Tanaka

Illustrator

Edomura Ninico

Release date

May 21, 2017

Company

SSS LLC.

Affiliation

AH-Software Co. Ltd.
Techno-Speech, Inc.

Shikoku Metan (四(し)国(こく)めたん) is a Japanese UTAU developed and distributed and created in collaboration with SSS LLC.. She was released on May 21, 2017 for UTAU. In August 2021 she was then released for VOICEVOX (with an update released later in November that same year), and for NEUTRINO in November of the following year. She received a CeVIO AI Song Voice and a VoiSona Song Voice in June 2024, both distributed by AH-Software Co. Ltd..^[2]

Her voice is provided by Tanaka Koyuki (田(た)中(なか)小(こ)雪(ゆき)).

Concept[]

Shikoku Metan is a second-year high school student at Furusato Girls Academy. A classmate of Tohoku Zunko, she is constantly low on money and having to sleep outdoors. Her main aspiration is to revive the Shikoku clan, who can harness the power of methane hydrate. She is able to transfer methane-hydrate warmth into any living organism (including humans) by kissing them. She is also skilled at controlling her own body temperature, and will not sweat on even the hottest of days. Her cherished white Lolita outfit never gets dirty.

Her birthday is August 21.^[1]

Etymology[]

Her given name, Metan, is the Japanese word for the organic gas methane (usually written in katakana as メタン, which is a loanword from German Methan). Her surname, Shikoku, refers to the smallest of Japan's four main islands.

Personality[]

Likes[]

Sulking in her teenage moodiness, though strangely skilled at writing furigana.

Relations[]

Tohoku Zunko - Classmate

History[]

2010s[]

Shikoku Metan was first shown on a 4-koma comic strip published by Zunko's Twitter on March 26, 2015.^[3] Her full key artwork, penned by Edomura Ninico, was first tweeted on November 4, 2016.^[4]

Earlier that same year in June, SSS LLC., in collaboration with WAO Corporation and Studio Live, applied for the young animator development project "Anime Tamago 2017"; they were selected as the commissioned production organization.^[5] The film was animated under the title Zunda Horizon (ずんだホライずん).^[6] As requested by the commissioning organization, it was produced in full animation, as were the other animations. It also introduced five singing songs –all made in vocal synthesizers like VOCALOID for the lead protagonist Zunko and UTAU for all other characters, including Metan–, some of which featured musical-style performances.^[7]

On February 11, 2017, the anime film's full cast of characters and their voice actresses was published; it listed Metan as being voiced by Tanaka Koyuki.^[8] On March 11, a completion announcement screening for Zunda Horizon was held at Ikebukuro HUMAX Cinemas along with three other films, followed by a late show screening at Theatre Shinjuku from April 22 to April 28, and an in-flight screening on JAL. The UTAU soundtrack recorded for the anime was also released along with demo songs;^[9] completion of the UTAU voicebanks for all new characters, including Metan, was announced on March 12.^[10]

On May 9, the anime was released on YouTube and NicoNico for free for a month, and the production story was broadcast on Studio Live's channel. A crowdfunding campaign was also conducted for this anime; if a certain percentage was to be achieved, then the next production would be considered.^[11] Metan's UTAU, produced under the direction of Delta (also known as Kimi ga Tame), as well as the UTAU voicebanks for her companions Kyushu Sora and Chugoku Usagi, were released as free downloads on May 21^[12] along with the release on NicoNico of the trio's debut demo song "Doki Doki Freinds".^[13]

2020[]

On July 3, 2020, a crowdfund campaign for an AI singing voicebank for Zunko's older sister Tohoku Itako on the NEUTRINO engine was launched;^[14] its second stretch goal (which was met at 217%) included funding for talk voicebanks for both Zundamon (Zunko's mascot companion) and Shikoku Metan on the VOICEVOX text-to-speech engine, which was still under development.

2021[]

On July 31, 2021, the first demo of Metan and Zundamon talking on VOICEVOX was published by Zunko;^[15]^[16] the next day, VOICEVOX went live online, and Zunko encouraged her followers to give it a try and play with Metan and Zundamon's voices there.^[17] On October 9, their VOICEVOX banks were announced to receive a major update soon;^[18] the update was released on November 11.

2022[]

On February 9, 2022, a crowdfund campaign for Zundamon to receive her own AI singing voicebank for NEUTRINO, as well as a Whisper style for her VOICEVOX, was launched.^[19]^[20]^[21] After her initial goal was met quickly, additional stretch goals were added: on February 15, the fourth goal (third stretch goal) to be announced was a Whisper style for VOICEVOX Shikoku Metan,^[22] and when that goal was met on February 20, the fifth goal (fourth stretch goal) to be added was NEUTRINO Shikoku Metan,^[23] which was fulfilled on February 28.^[24] On October 22, Metan's VOICEVOX Whisper style had its release date set for October 25;^[25]^[26] her NEUTRINO was later announced to be released on November 1.^[27]

Marketing[]

Shikoku Metan received a VRM 3D model on February 12, 2021.^[28] Additional voice recordings for her were put for sale on Zunko's BOOTH shop on November 28, 2021.^[29]

Voicebanks[]

Shikoku Metan (UTAU), May 21, 2017
Shikoku Metan (VOICEVOX), August 1, 2021
AI Metan (NEUTRINO), November 1, 2022
Shikoku Metan Song Voice (CeVIO AI), June 20, 2024
Shikoku Metan Song Voice (VoiSona), June 20, 2024

References[]

External links[]

Official[]

Website

Articles[]

Navigation[]

[birthday-1] 1.0 ^1.1 https://x.com/t_zunko/status/899289380510064641

[ceviozunda-2] ttps://x.com/cevio_st/status/1792752704261087283

[3] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/581022123298140160

[4] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/794471112583188480

[5] ttp://animetamago.jp/2016/article/2287/

[6] ttps://myanimelist.net/anime/33390/Zunda_Horizon

[7] ttps://vocadb.net/T/6313/zunda-horizon

[8] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/830322085800972289

[9] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/840552180692144130

[10] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/840788470666678273

[11] ttps://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1706/13/news097.html

[12] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/866156600632909824

[13] ttps://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm31250786

[14] NEUTRINO Tohoku Itako's crowdfund campaign page

[15] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1421473758615728132

[16] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1421485817319546884

[17] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1421797261227421701

[18] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1446813693476425734

[19] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1488397021912260608

[20] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1488504502688759808

[21] NEUTRINO Zundamon's crowdfund campaign page

[22] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1493553041643274243

[23] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1495353263751053313

[24] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1498229017886871554

[25] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1583476238110560256

[26] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1584413552777232385

[27] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1587317864578834432

[28] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1360184693463818242

[29] ttps://x.com/t_zunko/status/1464842444676407296

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