KAITO (カイト) is a Japanese VOCALOID, a voicebank made for the voice synthesizing software VOCALOID. He was originally developed by Yamaha Corporation, the developer of VOCALOID, and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc.. Kaito’s voice provider is Naoto Fuuga (風雅なおと), a Japanese singer.
Kaito’s first voicebank (KAITO) was released in February 14, 2006 for the first VOCALOID (VOCALOID1) engine. His release was considered a commercial failure for the lack of sales: he sold noticably less than his vocal counterpart, MEIKO. Despite him failing commercially, he was still liked within the userbase. His voicebank was not updated for the following engine, VOCALOID2, but received a new voicebank with the third installment of the software, VOCALOID3. KAITO V3 was released in February 15, 2013. With V3, KAITO got four different voicebanks, all with slightly different vocal traits and usage purposes: STRAIGHT, his regular voice; SOFT, which has ”looser” pronounciation than his regular voice; WHISPER, which is the ”loosest”, meant to sound whispery and with the highest vocal range; ENGLISH, which is closest to his regular STRAIGHT voicebank, but made specifically for pronouncing English. His V3 release was much better commercially than his original release.
Kaito’s VOCALOID1 voicebank’s box art wasn’t supposed to portray him, similar to other early Vocaloids. The users, however, developed characters around the voicebanks and the box art, which lead to the voicebanks becoming established characters. This is likely the reason Vocaloids like Miku Hatsune, and Vocaloid in general, got extremely popular during VOCALOID2s reign. Kaito’s popularity rose with Vocaloid’s rising popularity during the VOCALOID2 era as well, since he and Meiko were associated closely with the new voicebanks like the fan favorite Miku. Kaito is often characterized as being a young man, possibly in his early 20s, but fans have also characterized him as being a middle aged man due to a popular doujinshi. Kaito’s character item (an item assigned to early Vocaloids by fans during the ”item wars”) is widely accepted to be ice cream.
On the top, from left to right: KAITO V1 logo, KAITO V3 logo.
On the left, from top to bottom: KAITO V1 box art, KAITO V3 box art.
