More utattemita

Some cool covers that have come out in the last few months

トリノコシティ (Torinoko City)
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music and Lyrics by: 40mP

ENE cover


I haven't done any research as to what this song is about, but it sounds wonderful and ENE easily has the best cover of it. ENE is a somewhat obscure nico artist, as she usually covers some of the less popular songs. She also has a Youtube account under the name enedayo, and she actually responds to comments in English!

お断りします (Okotowari Shimasu)
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music and Lyrics by: あたたたP (AtatataP)

ろん(Lon) cover


Really cute PV, this song is hilarious. It's basically FML the song. I'm actually not a big fan of Lon but this song was basically made for her type of voice.

輪舞-revolution (Rinbu Revolution)
Original Artist: Masami Okui

花たん (Hanatan) cover


Revolutionary Girl Utena was one of the few shoujo anime that I actually liked, and the great opening theme was probably one of the reasons why. Can't think of anything else to say, Hanatan is a great singer and she does this song justice.

メランコリック (Melancholic)
Vocaloid: Kagamine Rin
Music and Lyrics by: Junky

ENE cover


My favorite Rin song, I'm not a big fan of the twins, but this song is pretty awesome. For whatever reason, most nico artists use a vocoder when covering this song, and I can't stand vocoders, so ENE's cover is one of those rare non-vocoder ones that happens to be really good. I think Usa's cover of this song is the most popular, but I actually don't like it that much.

Utattemita (Part 2)

Some of my favorite covers and originals are:
メルト (Melt)
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music and Lyrics by: ryo of supercell

ガゼル (Gazelle) cover, 3M mix


ちょうちょ (Choucho) cover, 3M mix


rockleetist cover, 3M mix and English translated lyrics


Gazelle's version is the classic one and easily the most well known cover of Melt. Melt is a ridiculously difficult song, and it's amazing how she can hit all the high notes during the chorus without destroying her voice. Choucho's cover is also amazing, though her voice does falter a bit during some of the high parts. I also included rockleetist's english cover because she does a good job singing it and the english translation is really good.

Just Be Friends
Vocaloid: Megurine Luka
Music and Lyrics by: Dixie Flatline

ちょうちょ (Choucho) cover


うさ (Usa) cover, Band Edition


rockleetist cover, English translated lyrics


Legendary Luka song, the song is about breakup if you can't tell from the title. Choucho's cover is my personal favorite, but Usa's is also really good as I love the Band edition. Also posted rockleetist's cover to see just how depressing the lyrics are! I could never have guessed how sad the song was before I read those lyrics, since the song is so upbeat. However, rockleetist did take a few liberties with the translation, since JBF is originally written from the guy's point of view, but she rewrote the lyrics from the girl's POV. Some people have a big problem with this, but I don't mind it since sometimes it has to be done to keep rhyme and meter.

ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー (Luka Luka Night Fever)
Vocaloid: Megurine Luka
Music and Lyrics by: samfree

実谷なな (Mitani Nana) cover


Luka Luka Night Fever is a eurobeat song describing her nightlife. I'm not a big fan of eurobeat(I can't stand it, actually), but this song is pretty well written and it fits Luka rather well. This song got so popular that the people on nico actually went and created an elaborate dance routine for it. There's also a vid of Nana Mitani herself trying to dance to herself singing it(by recording, of course).

初めての恋が終わる時 (Hajimete no Koi ga Owaru Toki, or Hatsukoi)
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music and Lyrics by: ryo of supercell

ちょうちょ (Choucho) cover


IMO the best cover that Choucho has done and the best cover of this particular song. Not much to say, it's a beautiful song and Choucho's performance is spotless as always. I'm not really sure what the song is about that, since the lyrics are kind of vague.

MEGANE
Vocaloid: Megurine Luka
Music and Lyrics by: ultra-noob

ゆず茶 (Yuzucha) cover


Megane is a fairly obscure Luka song. If you think girls with glasses are hot, this is the song for you. I actually don't like Yuzucha very much, but her cover of Megane is pretty much perfect.

ブラック★ロックシューター (Black Rock Shooter)
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music and Lyrics by: ryo of supercell

ちょうちょ (Choucho) cover, Band Edition


Another legendary Vocaloid song from ryo, this song got so popular that there's going to be an anime about it.

ggrks-ググれカス- (Gugure Kasu)
Vocaloid: Megurine Luka and Kamui Gakupo
Music and Lyrics by: Aamin-P

ヲタみん (Wotamin) and clear cover


This is a really cute song about a guy hitting on a girl on the Internet, asking her silly and personal questions, while the girl responds everytime with Gugure Kasu(Just google it, you moron). Tsundere Luka is delicious, and so is Wotamin's performance.

ワールドイズマイン (World Is Mine)
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music and Lyrics by: ryo of supercell

うさ (Usa) cover


Quintessential tsundere Miku song portraying her as a princess falling in love.

恋は戦争 (Koi wa Sensou)
Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku
Music and Lyrics by: ryo of supercell

Fye cover


This is an intense song about Miku declaring that one must fight for love. The most popular cover of this song by a Japanese nico artist is Yamai's, but I actually don't like it all that much. I think the best cover is done by Fye, who is actually Russian. Her pronunciation is really good, though not perfect, but it's her performance that blows the other covers out of the water imo.

ニコニコ観測(ββ) (Nico Nico Kansoku)
Based on the song 天体観測 (Tentai Kansoku) by BUMP OF CHICKEN
recog


This is a hilarious song about the life of a nico addict. I can totally relate to it since I spend way too much time on nico myself.

Super Mario RPG Rawest Forest
Based on the song "Rawest Forest" by Martin Hagwell, video by Kirbopher15
"Rawest Forest" an arranged version of 森のキノコにご用心 (Beware the Forest's Mushrooms) on the Super Mario RPG OST
僕太 (Bokuta) cover


One of the coolest things ever. Rawest Forest was a song based on the Forest Maze music from SMRPG about the joys of playing the game. Kirbopher15 made a flash video of it that can still be viewed on Newgrounds, and this video apparently got so popular on Nico that people started covering it.

組曲『ウメハラ動画』 (Kumikyoku Umehara Douga)
Based on the song 組曲『ニコニコ動画』 (Kumikyoku Niconico Douga)
僕太 (Bokuta) cover


This is a hilarious song about the greatness of Daigo Umehara and his dominance in the fighting game scene. The song is based on the that big nico medley that was popular a few years ago. The modified lyrics were written by somebody else; Bokuta supplied the vocals.

Utattemita (Part 1)

歌ってみた, or utattemita, was something I discovered last year. It roughly translates to "to try singing", and it's the category on ニコニコ動画(nico nico douga) where people record themselves singing popular songs. So it's like karaoke, basically. Supposedly in the old days, most people on utattemita did anime song covers, but nowadays it's mostly Vocaloid songs.

I'm actually not a fan of Vocaloid at all. Well, I really like Megurine Luka, but I can't stand hearing any of the vocaloids sing because well... they're computer programs. No matter how good the songs are, it sounds terrible to me whenever that robotic voice is singing. However, Vocaloid is remarkable because it allows people with a lot of talent to create songs and share their works with other people when they normally wouldn't have been able to, either because of the composer's own inability to sing or the difficulty in finding a person willing to sing. Similarly utattemita is great because it allows amateur singers a chance to shine with some really professional sounding works(it's not hard at all to record yourself singing and then layer it over an off-vocal track).

So I first discovered utattemita last year when I watched a really good Toradora Ami MAD, which can be viewed here. The song used in this video is "World Is Mine" sung by Usa. I was really interested as to who sung the song, so I did some research and the rest, as they say, is history.

Some of my favorite female singers in utattemita are:
ちょうちょ (Choucho)

Easily my favorite nico singer, she has a really pretty voice, amazing range, and she's quite cute to boot. Her most famous cover is Miku Hatsune's Last Night, Good Night, but I think the best cover that she's done is Hatsukoi.

うさ (Usa)

Another fairly famous singer, her range isn't on the same level as Choucho's, but she's a great singer and has some really good material. Her singing voice(which is somewhat high and cutesy) is actually really different from her normal voice(which is really deep), but there are some songs where she sings in that deep voice. She does doujin music work under the name Hana, and also has a band with Yamai, Tolie, and other singers called Usa Colony. Her most famous covers are of World Is Mine and Dear.

ヤマイ (Yamai)


Yamai is another very famous singer. She has a nice deep voice, but her range is pretty good and the image I get from hearing her voice is that of the beautiful older sister. She's done a lot of Meiko covers in the past, which might be the reason why some people call her the real-life version of Meiko. She and Usa do radio shows together pretty often, and they act pretty yuri together. Whether it's real or if it's just teasing the fans will never be known, but it's definitely delicious~ Yamai's blog is also really cool because she puts up lots of WIP pieces of her songs, so you can hear how much they change in the final product.

ガゼル (Gazelle)
Gazelle is a legendary nico singer that unfortunately doesn't upload any more covers because of some drama. She has a clear, beautiful voice, and has covered some great material. Her most famous cover is Melt, both the original and the 3M mix. Even though she's quit nico, she still does work as a doujin artist under the name Yanagi Nagi. But most notably, she's actually somewhat broken into the mainstream, being the vocalist for the group supercell. Bakemonogatari's legendary ending theme is sung by her.

ヲタみん (Wotamin)

Not much to say... she's a great singer, has covered A LOT of material and releases new covers pretty frequently. She seems to like singing Luka material. Her most famous song is actually a duet with clear on the song ggrks.

As for male singers
I don't actually listen to male singers, for whatever reason... it might be because I don't like any of the songs that were composed for the male vocaloids, and it feels weird to hear a male sing a song that was composed for a female vocaloid. So basically, all of the male singers I like are ones that do parodies or come up with original songs.

ヒャダイン (Hyadain)

Linked his user profile because there's no mylist that contains all of his songs. Hyadain is hilarious and mostly creates songs based on existing videogame pieces. Most of his works have become wildly popular everywhere, evidenced by the sheer amount of Youtube vids of his works with foreign language subs in them. He's a very good singer, and is also really good at singing as a female as well. His most famous song is his original composition about Street Fighter II, which incorporates various sound effects from the game and has him singing as every character in the game.

recog

recog is another great singer that mainly does parody songs. My favorite recog piece is Nico Nico Kansoku, a song about the life of a nico addict, parodying Bump of Chicken's Tentai Kansoku.