Producer Spotlight: DevilishP

[fascinates]

ダルビッシュP / DevilishP

mylist | piapro | KarenT profile | HearJapan profile

DevilishP started uploading his works in Nico Nico Douga sometime in 2009 and has remained active until now. His specialty is rock music, always with awesome guitar melody and snappy drums in the background. He is one of those composers whose rock music is well polished and delivered in such a way which aren't hard on the ears no matter how "hardcore" it is.

He first used Miku as his main Vocaloid, using Rin at least once in the past. Nowadays, though, he uses GUMI more. Despite that, both Miku and GUMi sounds really well against his rock melodies, smooth and not piercing to the ears. The combination of his rock music and the Vocaloid's softened, well-tuned voices yield very auditory pleasing results.

sample songs
• Squall (Hatsune Miku)
• final letter (GUMI)
• Thousand Smiles (Miku) -- rare pop song from him ^^;
• Hikarizakura (Rin and Len)
• Holography (GUMI)


nikki says
I became interested in DevilishP's works when I heard his "final letter" in 12Stars, a GUMI compilation album. I really loved it and looked up his works, most of them I loved so much. I place him beside buzzG when it comes to GUMI rock and alongside otetsu when it comes to composing high-quality rock songs which are good listens.

Utaite Spotlight: ASK

[fascinates]

ASK

mylist | community | mixi | blog

I am sure no one, even newbies in this fandom, does not know about ASK. He is one of the most popular singers in the utattemita world as well as one of the most secretive. The reason it took so long to write this writeup for him is because there is virtually no information on ASK, save for his songs and works (CDs, live events, etc.).

There is no need to describe ASK's voice in terms of genre or singing style. He can sing ballads, rock, pop, etc. Sometimes, his voice tends to get shaky in his solo works, especially during high parts. He also often appears to sing with less force compared to his contemporaries like clear, Tourai, Kettaro, etc. However that doesn't mean he doesn't have a wide range or strong voice; a proof of this is his numerous Nico Nico Douga medley covers, where he most often sings all the songs (high, low, super high, loli, etc.) using various pitches and styles of his voice. His medley covers alone show how well he manipulates his own voice to bring life to his songs. He has minimally, though, borrowed Hanatan's voice in a few of his medleys.

One reason why ASK is popular is because of his lighthearted take on songs, sometimes even bordering on crack. He started singing Kamen Rider songs before delving into medleys and eventually into Vocaloid songs. He has several collaborations with other utaite including the infamous AsuNeGero and Smiley*2. At the moment, he hasn't put out any covers because he is busy with his live events and doujin works.

ASK was born in Aichi on March 26, 1985. He stands at 180 cm, one of the tallest utaite I know. He likes playing MMORPGs and video games. Despite those info, ASK is a very secretive individual. He rarely appears in live events and rarely has radio shows (he guests in shows but rarely holds them alone). In his blog, there is a page dedicated to telling people the sites he frequent and that he never uses the name ASK in sites other than those, encouraging people to report to him if someone from other sites are using his name and posing as an utaite. He also states that aside from his e-mail and twitter, he cannot offer any other way of correspondence, and keeps his Skype and other vital information private. He also said that he never uses his utaite name when playing games.

Furthermore, he has a statement for people who want to send him gifts and discouraged them from doing so. While he is thankful for everyone, he thinks that people should not waste money on him, especially since they already bought tickets for his events. There is also no way to send him gifts other than during live events. Instead of material gifts, he strongly encourages sending him letters instead because it doesn't cost much to buy paper ^^;. As for fanart, he welcomes them but he doesn't personally allow BL-themed art because he thinks it might be a breach of etiquette ^^;.

ASK also says that he can read little English but he is quite bad at it. People are free to leave him messages in English (in his blog/email) but he pleads to keep the English very basic.


sample songs
• Ningen ga Daisuki na Kowareta Youkai no Uta (Touhou/Cool&Create)
• Piano x Forte x Scandal (original by OSTER Project)
• Cendrillon [with aomofu] (original by SignalP)
• Wash my Blood (original by DeadballP)
• Wanderlast (original by SasakureP)

• Nico Nico Douga medley
• Nico Nico Ryuuseigun
• Nanairo no Nico Nico Douga
• Fukutsu no Tama de Gocchani! medley
• Nijigen medley


nikki says
ASK has included all the information you need in his blog as I stated above, but I find it hard to understand most of his posts (not to mention he's very tl;dr ;;). But since I promised I'd do a writeup for him, here it is even if it's late XD.

I first knew ASK because of his heart-wrenching cover of Aku no Meshitsukai which is still my favorite cover of the song to date. I honestly like only a few of his covers but I admire his medleys so much. For me, he gives off an 'older brother' attitude even when he is among older fellow utaite. He's pretty much level-headed and always seems to have a cool aura except when doing some crack with NeGero w. His songs aside, he is one of the few utaite I admire because of his diligence to separate his private from his online life as well as saying his points across without hesitation, like for example, his stand on the proposed Virtual Child Porn Ban in Japan.