Iroha, The New Hello Kitty Vocaloid

AH-Software's family of Vocaloid characters - not to be mingled with Crypton's official and much more popular Vocaloids (Miku, Rin / Len, Luka) - has adopted another loli named Iroha Nekomura. Originally, she is one of 13 "kittyler" characters inspired by Sanrio's flagship mascot Hello Kitty, and drawn by various well-known artists such as POP (Moetan), KEI (Hatsune Miku) or Aoi Nishimata (Shuffle!).



Iroha's illustrator is okama, who unfortunately gave her a new look which is nowhere near as cute as the original. And her Vocaloid voice isn't particularly soothing, either, nor does it match her... like, at all. You can listen to a couple of her tunes over on moetron, or on her dedicated page from AH-Software's website.

Acoustically speaking, a better fit would've probably been KEI's kittyler, named Rio. In fact, she was the one initially rumored for this new "Hello Kitty to Issho! x Vocaloid" avatar, but an AHS staffer was quick to deny that last month. The company eventually announced Iroha as their final pick a couple of days ago, giving an October 22, 2010 release date for the upcoming AHS Vocaloid software "Nekomura Iroha".

Previous characters in AH-Software's family of Vocaloids include Kaai Yuki and Miki. Then there's Yamaha Corporation's family, whose sole membemer so far is Lily. And as for Crypton's family, the latest addition (or, rather, update) was Hatsune Miku Append, which will be followed next summer by a Kagamine Rin and Len Append version, as well. And that's about all worth looking forward to, as far as female Vocaloids go.