VY2 codenamed 勇馬 (, "Yūma" / Yuuma), is the second from the avatarless VY series of Vocaloids, produced by Bplats and like VY1 before it, is of the highest quality amongst the Japanese Vocaloid2 engine voicebanks. Nagimiso (なぎみそ) and Kazeno (風乃) undertook the illustration for VY2's package. The Wakizashi was by Nagimiso, the illustration on the inside sleeve was by Kazeno, which was Japanese and SF styled with Tenshukaku (天守閣, Japanese castle tower) and two moons.
Unlike past Japanese Vocaloids, VY2, along with voicebank partner VY1, have never had an official avatar established for them allowing a creative freedom that other Vocaloids did not offer.
VY2 was originally going to have other items for his boxart such as clothing. However, it was felt that these items were too personal and would only end up giving too much design. Thus, opting for the Wakizashi makes the Vocaloid ambiguous to any design.
Despite the wining entry of VesFes "Roro" being commonly used as a avatar for VY2, this was never picked as a official avatar of the software, though has been used as a concept in an illustration book to represent the vocal "VY2".
While VY1 had a standard and Deluxe edition, VY2 did not offer such a choice nor did it have a CD released for it.
Due to the professional design of VY2, the vocal often appears in use for apps and equipment that involves derivative products produced by Yamaha, either by its own or with VY1. However, unlike VY1, VY2 is often added as an additional vocal or alternative one and has yet to head a product using their vocals. Furthermore, when VY2 is used, the vocal often is only made for download sometimes after the initial release of the product unlike its counterpart VY1.
At VocaFes 2011, two winners were announced for VY1 and VY2. This was the result of the competition on how fans view VY1 and VY2. Manbou no Ane won for VY2's design which can be found in his pixiv account while Rimiko won for VY1's design.
VY2 was better received than VY1 because the concept of the VY series had been better understood at the time. The producer who created his demos declared that VY2 was the best Japanese male Vocal of the Vocaloid series boasting a quality none of the previous male vocals could reach.
A independent Vocaloid search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most Vocaloids had less then 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in between July 1 and December 15 2011. However, based on average views, VY2 came second in the report with an average of 3972.28 views per video (and 314.21 mylists). Although part of the reason for this high average was owed to the popularity of songs such as those by the producer “Ieno Urade Manbouga Shinderu-P", which upset the average results due to their high view count when most VY2 videos did not recieve such attention.[4]
Because of the Wakizashi, VY2 ended up overlapping with Internet Co., Ltd's Gackpoid Vocaloid, Internet co., Ltd joked that the two Vocaloids should do battle with each other.
In the western fandom, the term "Big Al's syndrome" got applied to VY2 due to being a masculine vocal. This was because he was expected in 2010 but ended up being released in 2011 after a delay. However, VY2 did not recieve so much fuss as previous "male" Vocaloids did.
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