Description

VOICEROID2 Kotonoha Akane is a part of a Japanese voice synthesizer software series designed for speech production. Here’s Kotonoha Akane & Aoi are a pair of voicebanks for the VOICEROID+ and VOICEROID2 software, developed by AH-Software Co. Ltd. in collaboration with AI, Inc. They were first released on April 25, 2014, and are unique in being the only dual characters in the VOICEROID series1. Their voice provider is Yui Sakakibara, a Japanese actress, singer-songwriter, and dancer2. The characters are depicted as sisters, with Akane being the elder and Aoi the younger. Akane is known for her “natural airhead” personality and speaks in the Kansai-ben dialect due to her long residence in the Kansai region. Aoi, on the other hand, has a gentle personality but is more firm than her older sister1. Their names have significant meanings in Japanese culture. “Kotonoha” (琴葉) translates to “leaves of a koto” (a traditional Japanese stringed instrument), symbolizing the idea that both Akane and Aoi are parts of a metaphorical koto that complete each other when joined together. “Akane” (茜) refers to the Japanese madder plant and the red dye extracted from it, while “Aoi” (葵) refers to the hollyhock flower, which is also part of the Tokugawa shogunate’s official seal1.