Un-Go TV Anime Domain Listed by noitaminA's Registrant

TOHO Ad, the same Tokyo-based company that registered noitamina.tv for Fuji's late-night noitaminA

 timeslot, registered the domain name un-go.com last month. The domain now hosts a website whose meta tags describe the site as the "official site of the October 2011 Noitamina-timeslot anime Un-Go" with the copyright notice "Un-Go Production Committee." The website also includes a thumbnail image (pictured at right).

On Friday, the July issue of Gakken's Animediamagazine is also listing Production I.G's Guilty Crownanime as premiering in the Noitamina timeslot this October. The guilty-crown.jp domain is registered byAniplex.

Shakugan no Shana III (Final) Anime to Air This Fall

The July issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko Magazine is announcing on Friday that the Shakugan no Shana III (Final) anime will premiere on television this fall. More information will be available in future issues ofDengeki Bunko Magazine.

Yamaha Updates Vocaloid Vocal Music Synthesis Engine

The Japanese conglomerate YAMAHA announced on Wednesday that it will release Vocaloid3, a new

 version of its vocal music synthesis software, at the end of September. With Vocaloid, ordinary computer users can create entirely new songs by typing lyrics and musical notes.

In previous versions, Vocaloid has been the underlying engine for such popular character voice software as Crypton Future Media's Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin/Len, Internet's Gackpoid and Megpoid, andYAMAHA's own Lily. It has been four years since Vocaloid2 first shipped in 2007, and eight years since the first Vocaloid software was developed in 2003.

Unlike the previous versions, Vocaloid3's components will be split up; the Vocaloid3 Editor (the core music synthesis package) and the vocal libraries (the singing voice data) will be released separately. YAMAHA itself will begin selling the Vocaloid3 Editor at the end of September. Licensees will then release the vocal libraries thereafter.

YAMAHA claims that the new version of Vocaloid will offer more realistic singing, thanks to its ability to use larger voice sample data as well as its more natural changes in pitch and smoother changes in tone. It also promises that Vocaloid3 Editor has a user-friendly interface.

The vocal libraries will still bundle a "Tiny Vocaloid3 Editor," but the full, separately sold Vocaloid3 Editor will still be required for more advanced capabilities. For example, the tiny version can only edit and play one track, while the full editor can handle 16. The tiny version can handle 17 bars, but the full version can handle 999. The tiny version only comes with the reverb effect, while the full version can add other effects, Vocaloid Job Plugins (see below), and libraries from Vocaloid2 via the V2 Library Import Tool.

Vocaloid3 will also offer Chinese, Korean, and Spanish vocal music support in addition to the Japanese and English capabilities already provided. The Vocaloid 3 Editor's menus can be easily localized into different languages.

Finally, YAMAHA is opening the application programing interface (API) so both companies and individuals, under license, can expand the capabilities of the software or create plugins. YAMAHA will begin licensing the underlying synthesis engine itself so developers can use it for their own software such as personal computer games.

In related news, a new venture called Vocaloid Music Publishing began offering a system for managing copyrights and royalties for self-published music on Wednesday.

Contest Held to Name Moshidora Artist's Moe Mascot

Cleanup Hyōgo Campaign, a beautification project for the western Japanese prefecture of Hyōgo, is 

holding a contest to name its moemascot girl character. Yukiusagi, the illustrator of the Moshi Kōkō Yakyū no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no Management o Yondara business novel that inspired the recent Moshidora anime, designed the high school girl character.

Applicants can each send one suggested mascot name along with their own address and name by email, fax, or postal mail by July 29. 100 random entrants will each receive the campaign's poster as a present. (1,700 posters were put on display in government offices, bookstores, and other places, and 250,000 bookmarks with the same art were put in places like bookstores.)

The Cleanup Hyōgo Campaign runs from May 30 to July 31, and the organizers hope to encourage participants to beautify the area by picking up trash and other ways.

Croisée TV Anime's BD/DVD Volumes to Add SD Specials

The first Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume for La croisée dans un labyrinthe étranger(Ikoku Meiro no Croisée)

 television anime series will include a newly producedSD "Yune & Alice" special short, "Costume Chapter," as a video bonus extra. The first volume will also have the credit-less opening and ending animation sequences, as well as the Club AT-X "Double R" video extra.

The limited first edition of the volume will add the first of an assortment of CDs. The first special CD will have tracks by composer ko-ko-ya which will be not included in the regular soundtrack release.

The story in Hinata Takeda's original manga follows a girl named Yune who arrives in the lower-class neighborhoods of Paris in the last half of the 19th century, when Japanese culture gains popularity in Europe. She ends up working at an ironworks shop with a boy named Claude.

The anime will premiere in Japan this summer.

Madoka Magica's Kyubey Plush Doll Offered at Retail

The manufacturer Medicom Toy will be offering a plush doll of the polarizing character Kyubey from the

 television anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica at retail at the end of September. Another toy maker, Banpresto, previously revealed that it will offer a 21-centimeter-tall (about 8-inch-tall) plush doll in August, but only as a "B" prize in its Ichiban Kuji lottery line.

Medicom Toy's version will be 400 millimeters (16 inches) long and weigh 500 grams (1 pound). Pre-orders for the 3,490-yen (US$43.60) toy are due by June 24.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica just finished airing in April. The lead character, Madoka, forms a contract with Kyubey to become a magical girl that fights witches in her hometown in exchange for a wish.

Eri Kitamura, Lia Turned Into Vocaloid Idol Characters

The Japanese manufacturer YAMAHA confirmed at its new product announcement event on 

Wednesday that CUL, the Vocalo Revolution television program's mascot character voiced by Eri Kitamura, will herself be made into a Vocaloid virtual character voice package. In addition, Lia, the singer best known for her Air and Angel Beats! theme songs, will provide her voice as the basis for a separate Vocaloid character.

These two characters following in the figurative footsteps of Hatsune Miku, the popular idol character made to personify Crypton Future Media's vocal music synthesis software packages. The new characters were announced alongside Vocaloid3, the first majorupgrade to YAMAHA's underlying vocal music synthesis software engine in four years. While Crypton Future Media has no current plans for formally porting its Vocaloid2 characters to Vocaloid3, there will be a Import Tool for bringing Vocaloid2 vocal data into Vocaloid3 for free. The company Internet is planning to make Megpoid Extend, its in-development upgrade of its Megpoid character voice package (voiced by Megumi Nakajima), compatible with Vocaloid3.

Surfersparadise announced yet another Vocaloid project called "i-style project," whose image character was created by illustrator Carnelian. The agency Moe Japan revealed that its "Vocaroidol" project will merge 2-dimensional Vocaloids with the three-dimensional idols in Moe Japan's own lineup. The Vocaloid Festa dōjin (self-published) event introduced Ringu Suzune and Hibiki Rui, two Vocaloid characters created by ordinary users. The Korean maker SBS Artech showcased a song by a Vocaloid that uses the voice of up-and-coming Korean idol singer Kim Tahi.

Finally, The Vocaloids CD album will ship in September with 18 songs by Vocaloid characters that have been sold in Japan up until now.