Tohoku Itako (東北イタコ) is a Japanese vocal synthesizer character created by SSS LLC. in collaboration with AH-Software Co. Ltd.. She is capable of speaking and singing. She was released as an UTAU in June 2015, as a VOICEROID2 in November 2018, and as a NEUTRINO singing model in September 2020. A freely available singing data set for Itako was released in June 2021 for research and development purposes.[1] She also received a CeVIO AI Song Voice in late January 2022,[2][3] a VOICEPEAK text-to- speech library in October 2023, and a VoiSona Song Voice (ported from her CeVIO AI Song Voice) in June 2024.
She has also been released on voice conversion software, such as Seiren Voice, in November 2022.
Tohoku Itako is a collage graduate from Itako College. She graduated at the top of her class.[4]
In 2014, she and her younger sister Kiritan were successfully crowdfunded to have UTAU voicebanks developed. Later, in 2017, she followed her sisters and had another successful campaign to become a VOICEROID.
Etymology[]
Her first name, Itako, can be referred to as a deceased corpse that can be possessed by oneself and others, and is able to speak. Her last name, Tohoku, is inspired by the Tohoku region in Japan.
Appearance[]
Tohoku Itako is a fox girl with long whitish-gray hair tied into a ponytail. In her hair is a pink bow and two spherical barrettes. Her eyes are bright purple. She wears a white kimono-like tunic over a violet, black, and white skirt. Draped on her shoulders is a pink see-through ribbon. The sleeves of her kimono bear a blue flame decoration on the hem. Fastened around her waist is a black, pink, and green obi bound by a red flower shaped obijime. Her footwear consists of black zori with white tabi.
Personality[]
Her dreams are for her business the Itako business to make Zunko a idol famous nationwide and to restore her power of the nine-tailed fox.[4]
In December 2017, a VOICEROID2 library for Tohoku Itako was also crowdfunded and released November 8, 2018.[5] A goal of ¥4,500,000 was needed: however, she achieved a total goal of ¥10,300,000, which was even greater then the amount Kiritan had achieved in her own fundraiser.[6]
On September 27, 2018, she was officially announced for preorders via press release. [7] She was revealed to have three expression parameters not unlike the VOICEROID2 versions of Yuzuki Yukari and Kotonoha Akane & Aoi, but instead of having emotional parameters like happiness, sadness, and anger, she instead has "Flustered" (Atafuta), "Powerful", and "Sexy".
On June 12, 2020, it was announced on Zunko's Twitter that there would be a new crowdfunding campaign related to Itako, with full details coming on Itako's birthday.[8] Two weeks later, on June 24, it was announced that Itako's new crowdfunding campaign would be for the development of a new singing voice project.[9] When details of the fundraiser were revealed, it was announced that money would be raised for the development of creating a singing database that could be used for research into singing software. The goal was for Itako herself to become an "AI Singer," not unlike Kiritan's NEUTRINO bank (which is commonly referred to as "AI Kiritan").[10] In July, the crowdfunding campaign was launched with a goal of ¥6,000,000. It ended July 31 with a total of ¥15,674,000.[11]
Tohoku Itako was announced for CeVIO AI on October 27, 2021 during a press release from AH-Software Co. Ltd.. She releases as a CeVIO AI Song Voice in January 2022.
On January 16, 2023, a crowdfund campaign for VOICEPEAK Kiritan was announced.[12] After it became fully funded within less than an hour, stretch goals were announced, which included one for VOICEPEAK Itako at 450%[13] which was easily met and exceeded. VOICEPEAK Itako released on October 5, 2023.
Note: This is not a comprehensive list and only covers UTAU voicebanks featured on Vocal Synth Wiki. Due to user creation capabilities, the total number of UTAU voicebanks is indefinite. See the UTAU Wiki and UTAU Wiki 2.0 for more information and available voicebanks.