Happy fifth birthday to Megurine Luka! The third release for Crypton's VOCALOID Character Vocal Series, this "cool, somewhat mysterious" based on Yū Asakawa, was introduced in January 2009 and soon became notable for being the first Vocaloid with an English voicebank and first to take a share of popularity away from Hatsune Miku. For the occasion a preliminary site has been launched for V3 of Luka's software.

So far, listed V3 features include

• Improved quality
• The issue with her sounding tight throat on higher pitches has been addressed so she handles higher pitches better.
• Adjustments made to the tension in the vocal to improve realism of the vocal.
• The "core" Luka vocal was worked upon to make it more expressive and flexible.

Meanwhile, her birthday...

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=754675

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=3969890

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=3969890

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1360638

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=421971

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=4519947

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=264650

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1689485

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1731567

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=105699

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=59893

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=79531

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=3324888

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1049010

------

Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.