Vocaloid Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Yowane Haku (弱音ハク) is an officially recognized derivative. The term "Derivative" is used here to describe a fanmade Vocaloid character that is based on an already existing character.

History[]

Haku was originally made as a representation of songs that use Hatsune Miku but ended up sounding awful. In such cases, the makers of such music would then proceed to whine about how their work never received attention and later moved on to whine when criticism stated their work was dull and boring, or was posted quite late when few people were on Nico Nico Douga. Haku became popular and her creator Caffein later established other characters following the same procedures, each representing a different aspect of failure within the Vocaloids.

Concept[]

Some fans have tried to give her an actual voice using Miku's voice and manipulating it to sound depressed, through methods like down pitching her. These were later also switched to the Miku Appends as some such as Miku Append Dark produced the desired results much easier or a manipulation of MEIKO's voicebank.

When speaking about songs and PVs that feature Haku singing, it has been pointed out by some fans that if one succeeds at producing a "bad" song, then no failure was met in the process. There are a small number of fans who disapprove of such songs because it can be considered a contradiction to the point of Haku's existence being based on failure. This in particular is also aimed at the Haku songs that end up sounding "good" as Haku was meant to be far from this ideal. However, whatever songs that come out in her name are subject to the interpretation of the producer, whether they follow Haku's depiction of failure or not.

Etymology[]

Her name is taken from Yowane, meaning negative sayings/thoughts and Haku, roughly translated as utter. Her first and last name make a play on words "yowane-(wo)-haku" (弱音(を)吐く), meaning to say negative thoughts or to show white feather. Her white hair is based on her given name as well, which has the same pronunciation as the word for white (白/haku).

She is referred to as a "VOYAKILOID", a term for derivatives representing failure. In Japanese, ぼやく (boyaku) means grouchy or to grumble and complain, thus VOYAKILOID is a combination of boyaku and vocaloid, giving ボヤキロイド (boyakiroido).

Appearance[]

Haku's design is drastically different from Hatsune Miku. She has white hair as her name suggests, though popularized as grey. It is as long as her body and styled into a ponytail held by a bow that is striped black and purple. She has a stray hair at the top of her head, nose length bangs, and side locks. Her eyes tend to slope downward and there is a hint of bags under them. On her left upper arm is a red tattoo saying "DTM", which stands for 'Desktop Music', which is what Vocaloids were created for.

Her top is grey in color and sleeveless, the style is bare midriff with low cleavage covered by a purple tie. The rest of her attire is black with purple trim. She wears detached sleeves, and bell bottom pants with short white boots. On her left side is a belt strap. Her headset microphone points upward away from her mouth. Going by Caffein's character sheet commentary, Haku's early design had a tinge of grey skin, but it was not well received. Her red eyes were not an attempt to reflect albinism, but merely inspired while watching a Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. music video on Nico Nico Douga; the character named Major has red eyes.[1]

Relations[]

Music featuring Yowane Haku[]

あなたのVOYAKILOID
Niconico logo
[nn]
Translation Anata no VOYAKILOID (Your VOYAKILOID)
Featuring
Yowane Haku
Producers
Bonjin-P
Categories Parody
Description
"Your VOYAKILOID" is a parody of Miku's original song "Your Diva". The song is of Haku telling whoever bought her that she from now on is their VOYAKILOID. She talks about being considered horrible, and she constantly brings sake and drinking into the song. In all honesty, she wants to tell everyone her feelings through songs, but she chooses to be worthless because she will forever only be a singing robot and have the voice of a singing robot. She then explains though that she's fine the way she is. After all, the one who installed her is her "drinking buddy." She finally states that she will keep drinking because she is (your) VOYAKILOID.
白ノ娘
YouTube logo
[nn][yt]
Translation Shiro no Musume (The Daughter of White)
Featuring
Yowane Haku, Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin (back-up)
Producers
Akuno-P (mothy)
Categories Original song
Description
A part of the Story of Evil and Haku's big hit song that made #1 in Weekly VOCALOID Ranking #119. In this song Haku takes the role of Clarith, a girl living in the Elphegort country, characterized that all its inhabitants are green-haired . Ridiculed and discriminated by everybody due her white hair, Clarith makes a trip to the an Held's Tree where she prays for a friend. She later finds near the tree an unconscious green-haired girl and nurses her back to heal. The girl's name is Michaela (Miku) and both became good friends. Eventually both girls run off to the city to live there, living happily together while they work for a wealthy merchant woman. That until the events of Daughter of Evil happens.
ツマンネ?
YouTube logo
[nn][yt]
Translation Tsumanne? (Boring?)
Featuring
Yowane Haku, Akita Neru
Producers
Categories Original song
Description
Neru complains about the official VOCALOIDs (and Haku when she appears) and why she hates them, later revealing how she actually likes them, and that she wants to be loved by everyone as well. Later, Haku appears and calls her tsundere.

Marketing[]

Haku is one of the derivatives of Vocaloids that became officially recognized by Crypton Future Media, the publisher of the Character Vocal Series for Vocaloid2. The other derivatives bearing this distinction is Hachune Miku, Akita Neru, Sakine Meiko, and Tako Luka.

Because of her popularity, merchandise of Haku appear alongside official Crypton Future Media VOCALOIDs.

Merchandise[]

Official licensed Haku figurines have been produced: a Nendoroid Puchi, a scale model and a plush.

Publications[]

In Maker Hikoushiki Hatsune Mix, Haku makes a cameo appearance as a student of Akita Neru (who is a teacher), and again drinking sake with MEIKO. She appears in chapters 2, 3, and 16.

Video Games[]

In the rhythm game, Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA-, Haku is an available character. If the player has not chosen her for a long time, she exhibits her trademark moody mannerisms.

In Project Mirai, unlike the Diva series, Haku does not appear as a playable character. She does, however, appear in the game's video of Aku No Meshitsukai.

Trivia[]

  • While she was conceptualized to originally be a Miku user, Caffein states it is not a problem to think of her as a failing Vocaloid, or a co-worker, or the lady at the small candy shop etcetera. In essence, Caffein does not object to alternate depictions of Haku.

References[]

  1. Pixiv: 弱音ハク設定画(2010年版)

The contents of this page have been duplicated and expanded on the Fanloid Wiki (link).

External links[]

Navigation[]

Advertisement