The real lipsync version versus the so-called ‘Anime’ version. How was it done? Read on…

By Hermann Malapit
U.S. News Las Vegas
Asst. Managing Editor

The duo Moymoy Palaboy and Roadfill ran across an ‘Anime’fied version of their ‘Everybody’ lipsync with Mark Herras, and was pleased with what they saw.

In an interview from GMA-7′s 24 Oras, under the Chika Minute segment, Roadfill wondered at first about the origins of the animation video that mimicked them.

When the duo saw the side-by-side video and comparison, the synchronized moves and mimicry down to the facial expressions impressed them greatly.

The video even earned a note from Holywood host Ryan Seacrest, who featured the video in his website. Well, except for the fact it was the ‘Anime’ version that mimicked the real-life version, not the other way around.

Moymoy Palaboy’s Everybody lypsync first came out 2 years ago. That ‘anime’ version just came out earlier this year.

The source of the ‘Anime’ version

According to the notes of the animation video, the style may be reminiscent of Anime, known for charming eyes and the unmistakenably Japanese look, but they were not drawn in paper.

The animation was rendered using a software called MikuMikuDance. It is a 3D animation software that was first released in 2009.

MikuMikuDance was programmed by HiguchiM, who worked the software from 2008 until just recently.

The program’s name was derived from the original inspiration and aim of the program, to help music makers and fans promote the Vocaloid voicebank Hatsune Miku.

Using the program, they can use and manipulate the movements of its titular character, Miku Hatsune; and subsequently render her movements into a video file.

But as you may have seen, Miku is not the only character available for MikuMikuDance.

The ‘Anime’ Everybody

The ‘Anime’ characters that mimicked Moymoy Palaboy’s lipsync isn’t exactly as Anime as they look. They may look like Anime but their origins are different; it’s not from mangas (Japanese comic books) either. In fact, one of them is a game character, two others, avatars of voicebanks.

But surely, curiosity draws to the identities of the virtual girls who imitated Moymoy Palaboy.

The ‘Anime’ girl who mimicked Roadfill, even with the hairstyle, is Reimu Hakurei, a game character from a Japanese homebrewn game Touhou Project, or in its English working title, Project Shrine Maiden. She was designed and created by ZUN, who programs these games in his spare time, being an employee of a Japanese game company Taito. However, the model used here was designed by a fan who had no connections with the original designer.

The ‘Anime’ girl in the middle who mimicked Mark Herras is an avatar for an UTAU voicebank called Nana Haruka. She was designed and created by Nanahira and Nagimiso, respectively. UTAU is a voice synthesis program designed to reproduce singing sounds, and is a freely-available software. Nana is among those voicebanks that works in UTAU, and has songs attributed under her name.

And finally, that other ‘Anime’ girl that mimicked Moymoy Palaboy a little too well, and according to the video comments in YouTube, was ‘scary’ yet ‘hot’, is a VOCALOID voicebank character, Rin Kagamine.

Rin is one of the avatars in the voicebank Kagamine Rin and Len. And VOCALOID is like UTAU, except it was first released back in the latter half of the past decade, years before UTAU, and is a commercial software. VOCALOID is currently gearing for it’s third version, due later this year. And like with Nana, Rin has plenty of songs to her name, and is popular worldwide.

Well, what about THAT other guy at the back who was just minding his business?

They got that in the fan video too. And in the ‘Anime’ video, the guy is represented by yet another UTAU voicebank and Macloid avatar, Macne Nana. She shares the same name with the little Nana Haruka too. She was created by act.2 and was meant to be the Macintosh’s answer to the VOCALOID software. She is usable in UTAU as well.

Nana Macne, as she is called in English, just stayed still and watched them, sans mobile phone, all throughout the video.

‘Everybody’ is doing it

The video was created by a Japanese fan who entered the video as an entry to an annual contest called MMD Cup. The producer of the video is known as KiyoP. It was first published in the Japanese video sharing website NicoNicoDouga.

As the name implies, it is a contest about producing the most impressive videos using a choice combination of VOCALOID, UTAU, or all of them.

The video got so popular that many parody videos of it instantly sprung off. Apparently the model movement data was made available for download, and so, many users were able to make similar videos with their characters of choice.

One even edited the character who stood as the idle man at the background to be actually doing something.

The ‘Everybody’ video instantly became an internet meme in Japan, and it didn’t take long for it to gain popularity in YouTube.

But the credit of the movement to Moymoy Palaboy was initially unspoken.

Going beyond ‘Everybody’

Moymoy Palaboy’s lipsync of the popular Backstreet Boys tune isn’t the only thing that has caught the attention of Japanese fans.

Their take of Volare, also a lipsynch video, was given an ‘Anime’ version too.

Their ‘Everybody’ video remains as their most popular to date, in Japan, and it is going to stay like that for quite some time.

It’s not like Moymoy Palaboy isn’t popular enough back at their turf though.