The contest judges were two members of Danceroid, Ikura and Kozue. Danceroid became well known for their Odottemita videos on Nico Nico Douga of dances to Vocaloid songs. As their fame grew, they started releasing DVDs and performing at live events. This festival was their first appearance in Northern California. In addition to being judges, they performed on stage, led a dance workshop and were part of the contest's grand prize. Their role in the prize was to dance with the contest winner.

Tiffany won the grand prize. Our impression is that she understood the ramifications of Danceroid choosing who would dance with them and that her key point for winning was to be respectful to Danceroid and Danceroid fans. Tiffany's costume might not have been recognizable to everyone in the audience, but Ikura commented that it matched the outfit she wore for Danceroid's first DVD. Tiffany danced to Strobo Nights, the longest of the three songs. The judges recognized that Tiffany's dancing matched Danceroid's dancing. When all three danced together at the contest finale, it was amazing to see how in sync they were without ever having rehearsed together.

Cherry, who wore a very cute yellow maid outfit and danced to First Kiss!, won as runner up. Simon, who dressed as male Vocaloid Kaito and also danced to First Kiss!, impressed one of judges as being like Kaito come to life and received an honorable mention for being the only male brave enough to compete. All the contestants danced well and the judges had something nice to say to each of them.

In addition to Danceroid's presence on Nico Nico Douga, they have a Youtube page which has a video for DANCEROID 1st DVD showing Ikura wearing the white with pink outfit. Both Ikura and Kozue blogged about the contest (in Japanese, of course).

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Why Vocaloid?

One way to look at the Vocaloid phenomenon is as genre that exemplifies how to use computers and the internet for music and dance.

The name "Vocaloid" comes from Yamaha's Vocaloid computer software. This software synthesizes vocals for songs as an alternative to a human singer. It complements the keyboards/synthesizers and drum machines or their software-only equivalents that were available to computer music hobbyists since the late 1980's. As Vocaloid software started to become available in the mid 2000's, hobbyists had all the tools required to make songs in a wide range of styles.

Crypton Future Media brought Vocaloid products to market taking advantage of the internet. Software was associated with anime-style fictional characters such as cute, cyan-haired Hatsune Miku. The company encouraged a community to form around both the software and the characters by creating a web site for sharing Vocaloid based media for non-commercial purposes with a license similar to a Creative Commons license. Hatsune Miku grew from humble beginnings as box art to staring in Toyota Corolla ads.

Internet video sharing sites, Nico Nico Douga from Japan and YouTube from America, were ideal for song length videos, whether CG animated or live action. Videos of song covers, Utattemita (歌ってみた, "I sang"/"I tried singing it") and videos of dancing to songs, Odottemita (踊ってみた, "I danced"/"I tried dancing it") became popular. Vocaloid's flood of new songs took advantage of this, allowing outstanding songs to find an audience. Songs that were highly viewed could become hits themselves, be recorded by professional artists, be performed at live events or be used in games and more. Vocaloid artists grew to become a mix of hobbyists, indie artists and professionals.

Increasing use computers/internet/electronics for entertainment and rising worldwide interest in anime, manga and other Japanese pop culture benefited Vocaloid. There is no way to know if decades from now Vocaloid will still be cool and have a vibrant community. If leeks (a recurring element of the genre's videos and images) still appear at rock concerts and in commercials, then it will be a sign of that this genre endured.