It’s now late January, and I’m considering what the top vocaloid songs I heard through the last year were. I looked through some of my playlists and came up with this list here to talk about what I enjoyed in each of them, and hopefully you’ll check a few of them out yourself! One thing I like about the vocaloid and utaite community is that songs from years ago are often recycled and brought back into the spotlight through covers, both with other voice synths and real singer covers. So, this list will have some song from years previous, many many years in a few cases, but 2024 was the year that I discovered them, so to this list they go. (Included lyric translations come from official translations in that music video’s CC, but if that is not available, they come from that song’s respective page on the Vocaloid Lyrics Wiki) These are presented in an order that only I understand, but I will have something of a Top 3 at the end ^^
Slowdowner by Rokuro
This cold January weather from the past few weeks is what reminded me of how much this song carried me through some dark and cloudy days this time last year. This song is a couple of years old, but a new Rin and Len cover brought it on my radar (though its addition to Project Sekai in December ‘23 seemed to also boost its popularity at the time). What I love about this cover is that the voices seem much more powerful than the original, almost like Rin is yelling at you with her first first lines, even.
The two characters in the music video, a tearful medical patient covered in bandages while hooked to an IV and a concerned doctor ominously holding a noose next to their clipboard through the whole song, invoke a lot of story with just a few poses and expressions. The lyrics show a type of suicidal depression that feels almost like a confession of guilt and regret, “Even if I came to love humanity in the end, I don’t belong anywhere, do I?”
The doctor smiling as the patient cries, and later enabling their suicidal instinct by happily handing them the noose, feels like a message conveying “sometimes confessions can be made to the wrong person” or “sometimes they can hurt more than they absolve”, or “doctors will misdiagnose in fatal ways” or something. An explosive, yet dark song to sing-yell when feeling like a blight on the world.
Emotions by Task
Pretty sure this is the oldest of all the songs on this list, but like Slowdowner, a cover song brought the original to my attention. The music video isn’t much more than a single illustration, but I think the lyrics carry this song far enough on its own, the great instrumentals and arrangement are all great bonuses on top.
The song is a duet between Miku and Gumi, as they are trying to convey the idea that feeling the full breadth of your emotions is healthy, even if those emotions are negative or hard to manage. Some of the lines between the two seem to represent conflicting feelings, for example, like wanting to enjoy the little things in life, while also wanting to dream big and make the most of your life. Or the feeling of wanting to communicate with others, have deep and difficult conversations, while also feeling like words would never be enough to convey all that’s on your mind.
The main message really can’t be stressed enough, FELL YOUR EMOTIONS, don’t bottle them up or allow yourself to grow numb. Happiness, anger, sadness, and joy are all parts of the human experience and allowing them to flow through you makes you a more emotionally conscious person, able to better navigate not just your own emotions, but those of the people you care about as well.
Tensai by Kanon69
As embarrassing as this is, what first caught my eye in seeing a cover of this song by vtuber Hibachi Mana was the fountain pen held in his hand. I’ve unfortunately been converted into a fountain pen freak by one of my coworkers over the last 2 years, so I said “Whoa, that looks fancy! Is that a gold nib? Maybe its from one of the Pilot Custom lines?” and off I clicked on this song lol
I will admit, I’m not the biggest fan of the electro-swing sound and not many of those songs end up on my radar, but this one had enough other interesting things going on in the lyrics and themeing to keep me around. As an English-Literature-Degree-Haver, I appreciate a song that talks about the joys and passions of simply writing, as well as the deep depressions it can put you in lol. There’s also this fun angle of “writers are primadonnas with their works and will rob themselves of a career through perfectionism” that I don’t see acknowledged in music much, if at all… lol
Can you tell this is simply a super fun song for a super huge nerd like me? I only wish there were maybe like a 4-ish minute version of this song, as opposed to its curt 2 and a half minute length.
Momiagewo Shakaagewo by Nunununununununununununununununu
This song got me to try Kewpie mayo on fried chicken and realize that it’s worth the hype, dammit! That is all.
Gatarsis by Maubox
In the waning months of 2024, I adopted two kittens for the first time ever. I was dying at work one day, heartbroken that it would be several more hours until I could go back home and cuddle with those awfully cute little fur balls, when I remembered that this was quite literally the plot of Gatarsis. Obviously, the Spanish version goes hardest, Mis Gatitos~ que siempre hacen pan~ / Mis Gatitos~ me ronronearán~
At the time, I also learned about the artist’s post-pandemic revisit of this song, Purranda Con Mis Gatos, and felt like it was perfect timing for this point of my life. Como Miku con sus gatos, soy tambien comenzando mi nueva vida con mis gatitos…
●utlaws / ⓪ Responsibility Society by Masarada
2023/24 was the year of Teto, to me, the same way 2013/14 was the year of Luigi. Her updated SynthV came out in April of 2023 and me and many others were blown away with her new look and sound. Her new outfit was an amazing upgrade from her previous miku-clone design, the box illustration was incredibly well done, and her voice had a much more mature and distinct sound than before. I looped the demo version of Migi ni Ma Gaaru so much during that time.
The Teto-explosion came alongside newcomer Masarada, opening with the song Liar Dancer (which I might want to do a separate write-up for later as well). There’s been very few releases since, but each one knocks it out of the park, including the most recent, Outlaws.
I would summarize the themes of the song as “personal responsibility vs personal pleasure”, the struggle in balancing the two, and how each idea is formed and judged within society. I’m not sure how the “rabbits on the moon” part plays into it, but I noticed that in the video, the rabbit people’s eyes are drawn in the same crescent way as the moon.
I like the short bit near the beginning where a figure laments in agony, both physical and emotional “ouch, ouch, ouch,” to which a group of people whistle it off and ignore whats happening.
During the line “Creation, cannot be blamed”, it shows the silhouettes of many generic looking anime characters, making me imagine that it’s talking about how fantasy is an escape from reality, and any social ills that come from these escapes can only be blamed on those that caused their creation in the first place.
I like that the lyrics in the song seem to have a clear first and second half, about the societal judgment of indulging in personal pleasures, and about the same judgment on taking up personal responsibilities. The first chorus judges “That’s too poor!” and the second judges “That’s the best!”
3 - Fireflies Never Came by Harumaki Gohan
This was the year that I finally gave Harumaki Gohan a chance; nothing against the artist, I just hadn’t really delved into more of his discography aside from the ever popular Melty Land Nightmare. Maybe I would’ve listened to more sooner had I known that many of his songs had a strong bent towards yuri/lesbianism. The song that first alerted me to this was Zero Talking, which I think is also an awesome song with incredible animation. However, Fireflies Never Came seems to hit me in the heart every single time I listen to it, as it’s a less-than-explicit one-sided love story between two girls.
A small group of high school friends go out camping to see some fireflies, but one of them seems to harbor a romantic longing for one of the others. As they are all out together having a great time, the main girl gets a chance to spend a solitary moment with her crush, who crosses a line of physical affection that she hadn’t seen coming. The intense light of the fireflies they see together seem to symbolize the love in her heart that desperate to be known. Despite this, they quickly go back into the relationship dynamic they had before, just a pair of friends out camping.
In the last lines of the song, she sings “Until adulthood, I will bury last night deep in my heart / If someone asks about it, I will answer: Fireflies never came”… shit makes me cry every time.
2 - Igaku by Haraguchi Sasuke
(chanting) Year of Teto! Year of Teto! Year of Teto!
Not surprisingly, many artists still preferred to use her original UTAU voice bank. The most notable being Haraguchi Sasuke, who released Hito Mania in August 2023 and since then has been nonstop making multi-million-view songs with Teto, along side Miku, Adachi Rei, and others. There’s a very distinct style to his songs, with lots of sound effects mixed into the music.
Simply put, this song is just so fucking good. The exact 2-minute length might trick you into thinking that this song can get old easily, but it is dense with details that make it feel fresh on each re-listen. Plus the kind of “fake -it-till-you-make-it” feeling in the lyrics mixed in with some medical/doctor theming also gives a lot of mental imagery for re-listens. I’ve seen plenty of fan-made music videos of this song for good reason, and have even considered (am considering?) making one of my own.
ユ！
1 - I am the ran by Inabakumori
Inabakumori’s music seems impossible to avoid when one is discovering new vocaloid music. I feel like his work hardly needs introduction as Lagtrain became a hit even outside of regular vocaloid listeners. This song, I am the rain, stands out to me among all his other hits. I love the moodiness, the past/future self reflections in the animation, the real sounds of rain used to underscore the music… just a flawlessly executed song and video…
When that final chorus happens, it almost sounds like thunder sounds with the crash of the drums, which I love as it extends the rain metaphor further. I also love the use of the 2 squares as a literal framing device in the animation, how it later goes crooked, and later is shown being held in the final shot of the video.
It really is up there for most replayed song of the year, regardless of genre, for me personally ^^
Lateness by Nihoshika
Just wanted to tack this on as my current and first fav song of 2025. I would’ve written more here, but I wanted to get this post finished by the end of January and, fuck, I’m running late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!