These days, Hiroyuki Itoh, CEO of Crypton Future Media is everywhere. In May, he came to New York again to witness the moment that Hatsune Miku opened for Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden (Megumi Sato-Shelley directed a piece for Japanese TV station FCI) . Then he flied over to Indonesia and attended Hatsune Miku Expo in Jakarta.
We interviewed him last year at NY Comicon. We had a mechanical trouble, and thought we had lost it completely. However, we could retrieve some audio components, transcribed and translated into English. (interview by Tony Yao, translatation by Megumi Sato-Shelley)
– How do you feel about the fact that the people call you “Father of Hatsune Miku”?
Since Hatsune Miku is singing voice software, it feels right when you call me developer or creator rather than “father.”
– What do you think about the global popularity of Vocaloids?
There’s no border in the internet society. So it’s very exciting to see that so many people in the world are sharing Japanese born Hatsune Miku. I’m very happy with that too.
– What was the toughest thing to produce the English version?
We needed the original Hatsune Miku voice actor Saki Fujita to master the English pronunciation. Painstakingly, she practiced it over and over and over. It was tough for us but it must have been even harder for her to do so.
– What’s the greatest moment of Miku Hatsune for you?
It was first released on August 31, 2007. On the same day, I saw a video Hatsune Miku video emerged on the internet. It was a great moment.
– Any advise to the creators?
You can create anything with Hatsune Miku all by yourself. But Hatsune Miku is more for collaboration. You create everything based on the creations by the creators in the past. So, it’s very important to respect your fellow creators.
– Any message to the global Vocaloid fans?
Now that English software was released, I suppose more English speaking creators will be joining us. There will be more opportunities for the creators to collaborate with each other to make something totally new. Why don’t we create new music, concept and culture together.
Related video: FCI Morning EYE, Hiroyuki Itoh Interview, May 2014
Samurai Beat Radio 