LogFAQs > #928776537

Fluttershy_Pony posted...

#30 [#12]:

Name: Untitled PHYZ company song contest entry
Origin: Virtual Neko x Osanai Mei

I already alluded to mei a couple of times already so I guess here's where I elaborate on her. And virtual cat/neko too. Osanai Mei was one of the earliest members of Upd8, one of the few I followed, and also one of the few that are still left. At its peak, I'm pretty sure it had like 80 members, and now it's down to like 20-something, and I couldn't tell you a thing about any of the ones that left save for like 5 of them.

Anyway, despite being inactive as heck, she's stayed there for a reason, and it's one that may surprise you. It's a deceptive channel. Rather than being your typical cute channel befitting of, well, a kindergartener, she is actually more like an edgy anime take on Stewie, someone who doesn't actually act that age at all. She has music videos, but she's not much of a singer so they tend to be hiphop, rap or very grungy dubstep. She has videos about setting planet being on fire, or mentioning her father having gone missing and her mother's mental state gradually declining, or her dealing with the stress of her work environment as she struggles to deal with deadlines on her manga, because I guess she's also a mangaka (unironically). Rather than having a conventional voice actress... It's more like the person who voices her, a woman likely in her late 40s at least, just pitched this character to her company purely because she was a lolicon... And also likely has a criminal record for other reasons too. So, needless to say, it all culminates in a very... Unsettling persona. There's a reason Misoshita was one of the only people she's collaborated with.

Speaking of, here's that cover I mentioned. It's probably one of the videos most symbololic of her own style despite being a cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCIRxBGgPc" data-time="

Oh yeah as for virtual cat/neko, he's the composer of the song I picked, and one of the only (also still active) members of Upd8 that compares to her. That cat is... I'm not sure how to even describe it. His videos are art. He has a series of short videos (generally ranging from a couple of seconds to a minute long) that has about 150 parts now, each accompanied by original ambient bgm he does. They make next to no sense on their own, and barely any more in context, but ultimately do flesh out his character as well as other virtual cats in that universe, all of which tend to just be minor variants with different quirks. There's even a mecha one.

The song that I actually picked probably isn't the best from either of them, but it was notable for being way better than the other song it was made to face in the competition... But, in the cruellest twist, it was one specifically determined by retweets. Mei and Virtual Neko together only have little more than 40k subscribers and about as many twitter followers.... Aaaand they ended up facing two far more popular upd8 members both with around 130k subscribers and 150k followers at the time. It was a blowout, and it sucked. Also, it meant having a song that represents both of them, so there was that too.