Tako Luka
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About
Tako Luka (Japanese: たこルカ), occasionally called "Octopus Luka" or "Octo-Luka" in the outside Japan, is a fanmade Vocaloid character inspired by Megurine Luka. In the same manner as Hachune Miku, this mutant character is a popular mascot in both the Vocaloid fandom and the official Vocaloid franchises.
Origin
Tako Luka was created by pixiv user Sangatsu Youka (三月八日), also known as Sanpachi (さんぱち).[1] The archetype of Tako Luka was a headshot drawn of Luka uploaded to pixiv on January 6th, 2009 (shown below, left).[2] Then, by getting inspiration of octopus from her pink hair, it finally mutated to Tako Luka in the two days later (shown below, right).[3][4]
Tako Luka came into the Vocaloid fandom under the "Item War", a Vocaloid flamewar within the fandom to determine the next Vocaloid, Luka's, character item like Miku's leek and Rin/Ren's road roller, as this had become a tradition in the fandom. Later, the creator said Tako Luka's octopus hands which can handle many items together also had caricatural meaning against the war.[5]
Spread
Just after Luka's release on January 30th, 2009, Tako Luka achieved to get the position of Luka's pet or mascot, often shown on top of her head, in Vocaloid user-generated contents.[6][7] Among those creations, these two early Tako Luka videos below originally uploaded to the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND) are famous for their contribution to increase her popularity.
Left: Luka & Rin/Ren English Conversation[8] | Right: Po-Pi-Po[9]
As of may 2013, the amount of illustrations related to Tako Luka on pixiv is more than 2,500.[10] Meanwhile, because its Miku Miku Dance (MMD) character model has been too often shown as a side character or a mascot in a lot of MMD videos, NND has over 3,800 videos including Tako Luka.[11]
Tako Luka's overnight success also surprised Crypton Future Media. Based on the reflections that former Vocaloids were sometimes characterized too rougish in the user-generated contents to sing serious songs, they had attempted to control Luka's personality in the user community throughout her launching plan. In one of the news reports for Tako Luka[12], CFM's staff left a comment "Tako Luka is completely unexpected. But it's novel and very cute.". For this reason, Tako Luka earns the moniker of "Crypton's Biggest Miscalculation" (クリプトン最大の誤算) in the Vocaloid fandom.
Official Approval
On June 4th, 2009, an online golf simulation game PanYa started distributing an avatar item of Tako Luka in the Vocaloid collaboration campaign.[13] At that moment, this fan-made character succeeded to join the official Vocaloid character merchandise line as well as Hachune Miku and Akita Neru. Tako Luka's Nendoroid figurine, charm and plushie are produced by Good Smile Company.
In addition, the most popular Tako Luka song "Tako Luka Maguro Fever", a parody of "Luka Luka Night Fever", was included to SEGA's rhythm game for Playstation Potable Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd[14] released in 2010.
Notable Examples
Illustrations
Videos
Tako Luka MMD model intro[15] | MMD Comedy Skit "When Tako Luka Sleeps"[16]
Animated Music Video for Vocaloid Song "Tako Luka Maguro Fever"[17] | Animated Music Video for Vocaloid Song "I Want to Eat Tuna"[18]
Relationships With Other Characters
In fan works, Tako Luka often appears with other user-generated "creepy" characters in NND mashup videos, which group is called "The Three Miserable Sisters" (惨姉妹, Sanshimai)[19] consisting of she, Shiteyanyo and Larval Rin.
Left: MMD Dance Video[20] | Right: Parody of Vocaloid Song "magnet"[21]
Search Interest
External References
Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.
[1] pixiv – 「さんぱち」's Profile
[2] pixiv – 「ルカルカさん」/「さんぱち」のイラスト / Posted on 01-06-2009
[3] pixiv – 「たこルカ」/「さんぱち」のイラスト / Posted on 01-08-2009
[4] piapro – イラスト「たこルカ」 / Posted on 01-08-2009
[5] SANPATI家 – 「たこルカ」メモ / Posted on 01-30-2009 (Hidden)
[6] Impress Internet Watch – 「巡音ルカ」がなんとタコに!? 「たこルカ」という新ジャンル / 02-06-2009 (Japanese)
[7] ITmedia News – ねとらぼ：巡音ルカが“たこ化” 「たこルカ」人気 / 02-09-2009 (Japanese)
[8] niconico Video – 巡音ルカ と 英語でおしゃべり！ / Posted on 01-03-2009
[9] niconico Video – たこルカぽっぴっぽー / Posted on 02-04-2009
[10] pixiv – Search results for たこルカ
[11] niconico Video – Search results for たこルカ
[12] ITmedia News – 英語に苦心 大人なVOCALOID「巡音ルカ」ができるまで (2/2) – ITmedia ニュース / 02-10-2009 (Japanese)
[13] 4gamer.net – 4Gamer.net ― 「パンヤ×巡音ルカ」，アリン専用「ルカ衣装」と「たこルカ」装備が本日登場に / 06-04-2009 (Japanese)
[14] Wikipedia – Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd
[15] niconico Video – 【MMD】 たこルカモデルMk-II公開 / Posted on 03-06-2009
[16] niconico Video – 【MMD】たこルカの寝る頃に / Posted on 07-16-2009
[17] niconico Video – 「まぐろたべたい」に絵をつけてみた / Posted on 02-09-2009
[18] niconico Video – 「たこルカ★マグロフィーバー」に絵をつけてみた / Posted on 02-20-2009
[19] niconico Pedia – 惨姉妹 (Japanese)
[20] niconico Video – 【MMD】N式クリーチャーズ【配布動画】 / Posted on 01-03-2011
[21] niconico Video – magnetにシテヤンヨ / Posted on 04-22-2010
![[Luka] I want to eat a tuna (english sub / annotation) [Fanmade PV] english / romaji in description](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IvWjKDwlb9g/hqdefault.jpg "[Luka] I want to eat a tuna (english sub / annotation) [Fanmade PV] english / romaji in description")
![[Luka]"Tako Luka☆ Tuna Fever" english sub(annotation) [Fanmade PV] english romaji in description](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1R0i7BKi-p4/hqdefault.jpg "[Luka]\"Tako Luka☆ Tuna Fever\" english sub(annotation) [Fanmade PV] english romaji in description")
Top Comments
mona_jpn Moderator
May 19, 2013 at 12:07PM EDT
Thaneofife
Jul 01, 2015 at 05:11PM EDT