“There were so many times when I was really really really hurt and made to feel so small and worthless, made to feel like I should just quit, made to feel like I wasn’t good enough compared to others, made to feel like my issues weren’t important.”
“But I kept going, and I didn’t give up because I didn’t want to make little me sad. I wouldn’t have to finally achieve the dreams she’s been holding on to. But I finally did it.”
Let’s start the blogpost with a quote from her birthday stream that just completely broke me into tears.
Hello, my name is Max/Yoshiyuki, a VTuber enthusiast, and a musician! In my last blog post, I wrote about how I finally conquered my 5 years of depression with the help of my first Oshi and her community. In that blog post, I said that I won’t have the time to have 2 oshis. That sentence aged like fine wine, because now I have 2 kamioshi.
Now you may ask, “isn’t kamioshi supposed to be only one?” yeah, but in her tweet, she said that she wants people to treat her like a VSinger. At that time, I immediately know that I can make my first oshi as my VTuber kamioshi, and her as my VSinger kamioshi. Screw all the rules! I do whatever I want to do 😀
Her name is Utano Pandora, and she’s great at singing. While reading this, most of you might not even understand how good her singing is. The title is not a clickbait, and hopefully you can see why after reading this blogpost.
This blogpost is to celebrate her first 3D concert, which as the first clip shown, has been the biggest dream of her. I hope that this blogpost can increase the awareness of how good her singing is, so people can appreciate more to her crafts in singing.
The announcement itself was part of her birthday celebration. I already made a piano cover of her original song, Kagami no Panda, as a birthday present. But… after watching her birthday stream (which was my first time watching live of her), I just wanted to do more for her…
There’s only one week left before her concert, and this small blogpost is the only realistic thing to do in less than one week. Please enjoy~
Disclaimer
Do note that I only found her 3 weeks ago. I’ve tried my best to analyze all her songs, and I am also a musician and a retired singer. Despite that, every time I hear her singing, there’s always something new that keeps blowing my mind.
Also, this blogpost only covers her singing. I wish I can talk more about her, like how I really love her heterochromia eyes, how her soothing talking voice makes me feel calm and safe, how her hard work inspired me to do my best, how her kindness just made my days, and so much more.
Whatever I write in this blogpost still doesn’t even appreciate her singing enough (hence the “at least” in the title). But hope it can help :3
How I Found Utano Pandora
Everything started when I was thinking on how to support my (first) oshi more. One on her mods, Neo_Way, is like my role model in terms of supporting her. However, on his Twitter account, the oshi mark of her is in the last. At that time, I was thinking “well, if I check out on how Neo supported his first oshi, I might learn something”.
Well, turns out that I learned absolutely nothing from it, but now I have 2 oshis. So, thank you Neo :3
I was checking on Utano Pandora’s YT Channel, and the first video was her cover on “Kyoufuu All Back”. The first second I hear her voice, I immediately thought “yep, she’s my oshi”, and that’s how I found my second oshi.
After I literally fell in love at first… hearing(?), the next thing I checked out is her original song, Kagami no Panda. Turns out I wasn’t even ready at all for the overwhelming emotion that came with the song… the reason will be explained when I breakdown this song.
At that time, I couldn’t control my emotions. It was the most overwhelming thing I’ve ever experienced from just one song. I didn’t even know how to pour out all these emotions, because if I didn’t, I would end up being an annoying brat that might disturb her (which was in a vacation at that time).
So, I poured everything out to a piano arrangement of the song (because a couple days earlier, I just learned about MuseScore). It took me 100+ hours in 10 days to finish the project and finally calmed myself down; and I was still an annoying brat lol. The story about this project is available on the description of the video.
On the day I published the piano arrangement, Pandora immediately watched and leave a very memorable comments that literally made me on the happiest moment of my life for consecutive days. I still can feel that moment literally right now, 5 days after the arrangement was published, which happened to be right after her birthday stream.
How Good Is Utano Pandora’s Singing?
First, I want to share about my experience in singing. It’s not that I’m flexing, this is just a benchmark to see how Pandora’s singing is just so otherworldly.
I’ve learned on how to sing since I was… 7 years old maybe(?) I stopped my singing career when I was 18 years old; so, 11 years of experience, a.k.a. decent. During my career, I was in a church choir for 3 years, then in a high school choir for 3 years.
I want to highlight my experience in my high school choir. So, our choir was a World Choir Games champion for a couple times. And I know the fact that Pandora’s singing is MILES away better from everyone in that choir, including myself.
So, what do I mean by “better in singing”? Isn’t singing supposed to be an art where you can just express your feelings? The answer is of course no, just like other forms of art.
I split this discussion into two parts: singing techniques, something that we can learn and practice; and her style, basically something that is unique to her singing.
Singing Techniques
There is a reason why you can’t just sing with microphone, why you can’t just use pitch correction, why singing is not just about sounding good. It’s supposed to reflect your feelings. But how can we achieve that?
Oh, this song is happy. Well, what kind of happiness are we talking about? How do we make sure that the proper feelings can be received by the listeners? The answer is singing techniques.
Note that this is not a full guide on how to sing. I just write whatever I know in my attempt to justify how good Pandora’s singing is. Another disclaimer is that there is no “correct” way to sing, but there’s always a better way to improve the more you learn.
Breathing Technique
No, this is not a Demon Slayer joke. The first thing you learn as a singer is how to breathe, control your breath, and manage your breath. Breathing techniques is more important than just increasing your lung capacity. It will affect every single other technique that I discuss here.
There are 2 ways to breathe: chest breathing and belly breathing. You want the belly breathing to sing. However, there is actually one more, which is the most ideal for singing: diaphragmatic breathing. I don’t know why we use this term, because we use our diaphragm for belly breathing anyway lol.
Learning how to perform diaphragmatic breathing is the first thing that I was taught on a singing lesson. During a belly breathing, only the front of your belly expands. While during a diaphragmatic breathing, the side of your belly also expands.
The next thing that we learn is to control my breath. It is considered bad habit to sing with too much hissing/breathy voice. Other than wasting the breath, the sound doesn’t really project (later I’ll discuss about Projection). It is indeed very expressive, that’s why it should be used only in certain moment.
As a singer, Pandora’s breathing technique is as proper as it can get. I mean, it’s probably one of the earlier things that she learned. However, I do remember her saying that her lung capacity is decreasing (idk where the source is, it might be incorrect too). But lung capacity can be easily trained.
Vocal Resonance
I just learned the word “Vocal resonance” today lol. This is just a fancy word for the type of voice that you produce when singing: head voice, nasal voice, or chest/diaphragm voice.
Since I was learning to sing in a church choir, we were always taught that chest voice is the best. And it is indeed for most of the time, even for other genres of music. I thought that using your head voice is just a sign that you’re not capable of singing that part in chest voice. But just a couple years ago I learned that in some circumstances, we can use the other kind of voices to improve our singing.
An example would be the first line of “Stellar Stellar” by Suisei, when she uses head voice for “date boku wa”, then change to chest voice for “hoshi dakara”. She has the vocal range to reach those high notes, which means the head voice is an artistic decision. Another example is the intro of “New Genesis” by Ado.
So, how is Pandora’s singing? With that variety of genres that she can sing, indeed she can perform all 3 voices flawlessly, although she mostly uses chest voice. Later in this blogpost, I’ll breakdown some of her songs/covers as an example.
Pitch Control (Intonation)
I think she doesn’t have perfect pitch (know exactly what’s the frequency of a sound, this is genetic), but pretty sure she has relative pitch (know the frequency of a sound by comparing it with other sound in our mind, this can be trained).
To just sing in the correct pitch, it’s actually fairly easy to train, even if you’re tone deaf. A lot of trial and error will just do. However, to maintain your pitch (idk how to explain this), this is the work of your diaphragm muscle. This is kinda what you will learn on day 1 when you take a singing lesson (because it’s also for breathing technique). And it’s hard for most people, because we don’t even know how to consciously work that muscle.
It will get even more complicated the moment you introduce other stuff like dynamics (how soft/loud voice), textures, articulation, projection, etc. For instance, imagine you need to maintain a pitch with a very soft dynamic but make it feels bold and thicc at the same time. Release the tension of your muscles by a bit, and your voice is gone.
Having a good pitch control is a lower bound for a singer. I don’t need to explain how good her pitch control is, just listen to any of her karaoke stream. Pandora’s singing is very in tune and better than any pitch correction software, is what I’m trying to say. And the reason is not because of how perfect her singing is, but rather the small imperfectness that makes it… artistic and human, rather than robotic.
Every note, chord, and chords progression (relationship between adjacent chords) can invoke different feeling. You can’t just sing randomly then use pitch correction later, because it will change the feelings that you deliver. I really don’t like the idea on how singing perfectly is the norms these days. I know it’s easier to produce, but… isn’t singing all about a way to convey your feelings?
Learn more about natural voice VS pitch corrected voice from the following video. Notice how the natural voice is “better” than the pitch corrected one.
Vibrato
So, Vibrato is that wiggle when someone sings, especially when holding a long note. Do you know why Vibrato exists?
As I mentioned in the previous part, maintaining your pitch requires some muscles in tension. You know when you lift a weight, and your muscles start shaking? Yeah, the tremor from the muscle tension is the cause of actual vibrato.
Unlike actual vibrato, a vibrato from pitch correction software just simply wiggles the frequency. While you might argue that it’s just the same thing, you don’t get the tension and the emotion behind the natural vibrato.
As vibrato is the result of proper singing techniques, I don’t need to explain how Pandora’s vibrato is as natural and expressive as it can get. She’s very passionate about singing. Every time she sings, she always goes all out, and I wish all of you can appreciate these small details that she puts.
Also, naturally, you can’t perform natural vibrato with breathy/hissing voice because the muscles are in relax. Of course, the alternative is you can artificially change the pitch with your vocal cord (or with pitch correction) to give the illusion of vibrato if you want it.
Vocal Diction (Articulation)
As singing is a form of speaking and communicating, it’s important that what you want to say is clear. This is called articulation. I can’t explain too much about this because this blogpost will be way too long if I discuss about how to speak, how to shape your mouth for a certain sound, etc.
One important thing in articulation is called Phrasing. Typically, in singing, one phrase is just one sentence, or one row of lyrics. Sometimes, when the phrase is very long and dividing the phrase into two will degrade the quality, breathing technique becomes very important.
Other than the execution itself, the way you phrase the phrase is a part of artistic decision. Typically, phrasing and interpretation is something you learn in a music major in university. I’m self-taught, so I can’t explain it really well. I know it, but I don’t know how to explain it.
Another thing about clarity is, have you ever listened to someone singing and they used the slides and slurs to make their singing not stiff like a text-to-speech? While slides and slurs are indeed a great way to express yourself, if you use it too much, you will sacrifice the clarity of your voice. It will sound… murky?
The clarity of Pandora’s singing is just… I would say that this is one of her strongest points in singing, and I think it was also helped a lot by her skill as a voice actress. Her singing is as pure as it can be. Whenever she is singing, it felt like she was directly talking, either a monologue or a dialogue.
The only constructive “criticism” I want to give to Pandora is sometimes, especially during karaoke stream and she is really tired, she runs out of breath before finishing one phrase. Basically, just don’t force yourself too hard 🙂
Well, it is just a silly little karaoke, but I know she is always all out during her karaoke stream too.
Projection
Projection is about how your voice travels to the ears of the audience. You may think that this is irrelevant in the fully digitized era because we just use microphone and speaker. It definitely has less impact. You don’t need to sing like an opera singer that can sing without mic, and everyone can hear the singer. You also don’t need a specially designed concert hall.
Projection is really hard to learn. This is one of the techniques that my choir coach had the most difficult time to teach the members. If you want to sound louder, you can’t just shout. Other than it will affect your singing quality, without proper projection, your shout means nothing in a large concert hall.
A bad projection is when your voice just spreads out and dissipates. A good projection is when your voice is concentrated like a single beam to the target of your singing. It can be the audience, or the ceiling of the concert hall (again, specially designed), or the mic.
You can check out the following video and see how Hiroshi Kitadani moves his mouth while singing. Projection is a result of muscle-works and the shape of your mouth, but at least you can see the mouth a lot clearer. That’s the mouth of a well-projected voice. Well… you can kinda see the contraction of the neck muscles as well.
I’m not saying that bad projection means bad singing. There are some circumstances when bad projection is more desirable, but it’s better if it’s from artistic decisions. For instance, in the following video, on (0:58 – 1:01) notice how the voice just dissipates. But then, on (1:01 – ?) the projection is back.
So, how good is Pandora’s projection? Of course, better than everyone else in my choir. And let me remind you that she doesn’t even need to do that because she sings in front of a mic!
If you asked me, how do I hear her projection, there are 2 reasons. First, she still needs to project her voice to the mic. The way she sings kinda reminds me of my choir coach when he demonstrated the concept of projection. Second, I can hear it better during her IRL Karaoke booth in Japan that she uploaded on Twitter.
The only way to fully enjoy Pandora’s projection is to hear her voice directly, without mic, without being recorded. Just talking casually like a normal human interaction in real life in the same room, which is basically impossible to do in the VTubing world.
Vocal Range
Damn her vocal range is so wide… During my choir era, I was the only member who could sing comfortably in 3 vocal ranges: Tenor 1, Tenor 2, and Bass 1. While it doesn’t mean anything in a choir, having a large vocal range allows Pandora to sing more variety of songs.
She also has 3 vocal ranges: Soprano 2, Alto 1, and Alto 2. Soprano 1 is really high; it sounds like that helium choir meme. That meme is not real, the singer didn’t use helium to sing that. Check out the original recording that meme, “Miserere Mei Deus” by Tenebrae Choir, it is my favourite choir recording.
Slowly, I was losing my ability to sing in Tenor 1. Meanwhile, Pandora can still sing in those 3 vocal ranges. You can definitely practice widening your vocal range, but it really takes a toll on your throat. Just don’t force it, it takes time and patience.
Small Recap
That’s why singing is not just all about your feelings and having good/cute voice, but the technique is just as important. The techniques are what allows you to convey your feelings accurately. You need to make sure the listeners feel the same thing with you.
So, if you follow what I told you about singing techniques, and practice for years, then congrats! You can sing just like me, a properly generic singing voice… yeah, I told you her singing skill was MILES away from what I can even perform…
Pandora told us that she started to take singing lessons since she was 3 years old, and she has been singing since then. Since she was 423 years old in her latest birthday, she has been singing for 420 years…
Obviously, other than singing techniques, she has developed so many experiences that shaped the way she sings. The next part will discuss something that is UNIQUE to her singing, the thing that made me fell in love at first hearing.
Voice Colours
Also known as vocal timbre, which makes why everyone has different voice, both speaking and singing voice. Although singing is not all about how good/cute the voice is, it’s still a huge part of why you love and follow the singer.
Same thing with me as well. Let’s be honest here, the first reason why I fell in love in first hearing on Pandora is not because of a deep analysis on her singing. It’s because of her voice.
I feel like Pandora’s singing voice is very powerful yet very gentle. The power that comes from her voice feels like she’s the center of the universe. But, in combination with her gentleness, it sounds like that is indeed the place for her to sing rather than forcing it to be. There’s a modesty in her voice, that she’s there just to sing before she loves it.
I guess the analogy is that she is that one leader that works harder than everyone else, so the followers end up following her. This analogy to a leader is also reflected in her everyday life, and I’m definitely not the only Friendoras (her fan name) that think of this. After all, singing should be a reflection of someone’s feelings and she 100% delivers this feeling.
It’s hard to describe her voice in detail with words, but I can give examples. So, I’ll discuss about this a lot later during the breakdown of the cover.
Voice Textures
Unlike timbre, textures are mostly the result of proper singing techniques. The singer has their own artistic decision to decide how they would sing.
One of her signatures is the combination of short-pulse breathy/hissing voice with strong well-projected chest voice. I think she does this unconsciously (sorry if this statement is wrong), but it appears everywhere in her singing.
I’ll discuss this later in the cover breakdown examples, but I’ll give one example just because this part is very special for me. It’s from “Kagami no Panda”, her original song. Check out the second chorus at (2:30 – 2:34) when she sang the part “ienai ruuru no shita de”.
Oh btw, all videos are already at the highlighted timestamps.
Here’s how she sang it. The syllable “i” and “e” with breathy voice; then “na” with chest voice, strong and no vibrato; “i” and “ruu” with breathy voice; then the rest “ru no shita de” with chest voice and ends it with a vibrato.
Only she would sing that part like that. It is her signature. That adds soooo much to her singing. And I bet whoever will cover Kagami no Panda in the future will sing that part differently.
Another of her signature is the usage of Tenuto (when she holds a certain note) and the emphasize on consonants (as in articulation). You’ll hear this a lot in her singing as well.
Variety of Genres
My high school choir’s specialty is in Pop, Children, and Folklore category. The moment we need to sing like a Gregorian, or Jazz, it’s… bad lol.
So, how many genres Pandora can sing? Uhh… the amount is rather crazy. You will see during the cover breakdown. Every time I hear her singing something new, my mind is always blown away. “Wait huh, she can sing THAT too?!”
Like, imagine you ask Andrea Bocelli to do a rap song, or Laufey to do those moe moe kind of song. But on the opposite side, Pandora can do rap song and moe moe song really well, and also rock, jazz, and probably classical opera songs and Gregorian as well if she wants to.
Breakdown of Her Songs/Covers
If you read the whole breakdown of the singing technique, you’re a GIGACHAD! Because this blogpost is already 3500+ words long…
Well anyway, this is the time you’ve been waiting for. I only pick songs and covers that are in SSS+ tier, basically the songs that still blow my mind even after understanding how good her singing is. The remaining songs are songs that I kinda can imagine she can sing them really well.
Also, I think Pandora will drop her first album for her first 3D concert. This blogpost is written before that. I might do a full breakdown on her first album in another blogpost.
Note: for full experience, try to read each part while listening to the song. I will put timestamps on which part am I talking about.
Kagami no Panda
Fun fact! The first time I hear this song, it has 9500 views. I misread it as 9.5M views lol. After a couple of times listening to it, I’m shocked that it has 1000 times less recognition (hence, the title of this blogpost).
Oh gosh, where should I start on breaking down this song… now that I’ve read Pandora’s reply on my piano solo arrangement, and I’ve watched the Birthday Stream, it adds even more context. Even right now, when listening to the song, I still cry.
This song has all her life poured into it. Her past and her dreams, her pain and sorrow, her joy and hope. Through her singing, she delivers everything.
I feel like I want to use this opportunity to breakdown the song itself rather than her singing. At least, I’ve told you about her signature, and you can hear it a lot throughout the song. The part that I mentioned is just one example that you can hear it clearly.
Breakdown of the Song
The first thing I want to mention is the usage of the IV-V-vi-I chord progression, which is quite common in 2010s pop music. This chord progression is “tonally ambiguous” (yeah big words), which means you can’t really decide where’s the home key: minor (from the vi chord) and major (from the I). Both the minor and major chords feel like a resolution.
The song itself is in F major, which by itself has this calm, peace, and joy feeling into it. While the relative minor, D minor, has this feeling of tragedy, sorrow, and heartbreak. Combined with the IV-V-vi-I chord progression, you can already feel the mixed feelings that I described previously: her life, or the pandora’s box if you want to be chuuni like me.
During the part (0:14 – 0:28), you can immediately hear the IV-V-vi-I chord progression. The chords are Bb major (IV), C major (V), D minor (vi), and F major (I) but the bass is on the third note, E. This, F major over E (the notation is F/E), makes the major chord feels unresolved. So, although it is ambiguous, you can hear that the first part is a lot sadder than the later part. But then, during (0:28 – 0:42), the F major actually resolves, it’s just regular F major.
Then, on the next section (0:43 – 0:48), when she sings “I don’t need sympathy, I’m lost in my mind”, the chord progression changes into IV-V-iii-vi, which is the Royal Road Progression, or the “anime chord progression”. It has this, melancholic feeling. It serves similar purpose with the previous IV-V-vi-I but less bright. Also notice the rhythm on this part. There’s a halftime breakdown there (time signature change from 4/4 to 2/2).
I’ll be honest here. My piano arrangement for this part really sucks. I still can’t capture the exact feelings that I hear from this part. I think I spent 5 hours to arrange this 5-seconds moment, and I still fail. Why? Because I was genuinely lost in my mind…
Like, imagine if you are the singer, and you are asked to sing a part that invokes the feeling of “lost in your mind”. If you’re a pro singer like Pandora, she can make me, the listener, lost in my mind. But if you’re bad like me, then we’re the one who lost, not the listeners, which is not good lol. Again, just emphasizing the huge gap between me and Pandora’s musicality.
Now, let’s talk about the first chorus (0:56 – 1:25). You can clearly hear her singing signature throughout the chorus. The chorus uses the same chord progression, except for the final chord. Instead of back to F major, it changes to Eb major. This major 7 chord happens everywhere: during the final chord of every chorus and the bridge.
So, a major 7 chord has this warmth feeling. This warmth hits really hard on the final chorus (3:33 – 3:48), when she sings “why not try to laugh!” on the phrases “Before I (the person behind Pandora)’m swallowed by the darkness that is before my eyes, you (Pandora) reached out. You are there, why not try to laugh!”, which ends her singing.
Another thing to mention within the chorus is the bass. Listen closely to the bass, it goes like this: fourth, fifth, sixth, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. So, there’s a sense of motion/direction, leading to more tension to the climax.
This is the power of music. You can feel so many complex feelings and we haven’t even discussed about the lyrics… Unfortunately, I don’t know how to analyse lyrics. However, I already put my interpretation of the lyrics on the description of my piano solo arrangement. You can also see Pandora’s reply, which adds even more context as well.
Small Break
Let’s talk a small break before continuing to the next song. For the next songs, I’ll discuss more about how Pandora sings, because it’s not her song; it’s a cover. Moreover, as I mentioned before, her singing in Kagami no Panda is… it’s perfect, it’s everything…
Also, I feel like Pandora’s voice is barely pitch corrected in this song(?) It’s hard to tell by ears (unless you are perfect pitch), because her singing is already very in tune. I know some parts are definitely pitch corrected, but not all of them to the point that it sounds robotic. Quite the opposite, it sounds very human.
If you are not a musician, you might think that the analysis sounds really hard. But if you are a musician, this song is actually quite simple, musically. But that’s why this song really shines. You don’t need complex chord progressions with so many upper extensions to make it sounds hard or complex. Difficulty is not equivalent to complexity.
Within my piano solo arrangement, the part that hits the hardest is definitely the climax, on bar 113 – 127. That part is actually very simple to play, and that’s why the emotions are just so raw. The second part that hits the hardest is the outro (bar 161 -169), which is the simplest part. The outro is also Pandora’s favourite part.
I feel like I did a good job on the final chord on the piano solo arrangement, which is just Bb major 9. It sounds even warmer than major 7. I imagine the last chord being Pandora sitting on a couch, hugging her plushies while closing her eyes. I’m really happy that this is Pandora’s favourite part, because it is my favourite too. It just feels finished.
Yona Yona Dance
Let’s focus on the texture of the first part (0:13 – 0:41), both Inami Yoki and Pandora’s part. You can hear how sharp Inami Yoki’s singing (like a karate chop), in contrast to how solid Pandora’s singing (like a palm strike). Yeah… nice analogy lol. This contrast in texture makes the cover very playful, and you can really hear the combo within the first chorus (0:43 – 1:11), when they sing together.
The first time I hear this cover, my first impression is “wow this is better than the original” (disclaimer: both versions are different, and this is just my personal preference, there’s no “correct/best” way to sing).
While the first part already blows my mind, the second part (1:23 – 1:49) blows my mind even further. Like, excuse me?! How did Pandora even sing that part that masterfully?! It still gives me goosebumps even after listening to this cover for, idk, around 100+ times in the past week.
Let’s breakdown Pandora’s part. This part has 3 phrases.
- First phrase (1:23 – 1:26): Start with her default, powerful gentle colour, end the phrase with breathy voice.
- Second phrase (1:27 – 1:30): Full breathy voice. Notice how soft this part is… literally that’s not how she sang a couple seconds ago.
- Third phrase (1:30 – 1:37): Do you notice her, breathy + powerful signature during this phrase? She also starts with her gentle colour, then the smooth transition to powerful colour without us even noticing.
- Then, notice the end of the third phrase when she sings “take your hands”. The way she sings “take”, “your”, and “hands” are called Tenuto (means hold) rather than Staccato (means sharp, the way the original and Inami Yoki sound). This artistic decision makes this phrase very powerful.
- Finally, I want you all to notice how she sings the “hands” part. She hold the notes on “ha-“ for two beats, then the “-nds” in the third beat. This is professionals singing. This is what I meant by articulation. So many singers will just forget to sing the “-nds” part, because people often forget how important to emphasize consonants.
People might see me as crazy to even notice how she emphasized the “-nds” sound in “hands”. You can barely hear it as well, because of the drums covering it. Hopefully, after reading this, you can appreciate her singing more 🙂 this is art, it’s a masterpiece. These small differences are the huge gap between me, a generic proper singer, and Pandora, a professional singer.
To make this blogpost a bit shorter, let’s skip into the bridge (2:21 – 2:45). It starts with Pandora’s default colour. Let’s take a note at the third phrase (2:34 – 2:40). Huh? HOW?! How did she sing that powerful?! Full force chest voice with barely any slides/slurs.
A lot of singers add too many slides/slurs because they afraid their singing to be too rigid. Despite that, this part is still very expressive despite no slides/slurs at all. This is a very good example that slides/slurs aren’t always the solution. Different context needs different technique. The more technique you have in your pocket, the more artistic decision you can make.
Finally, the final chorus (2:45 – 3:14). Let’s focus on Pandora’s part, the first two phrases. The lyrics of these two phrases are exactly the same, but the way Pandora sings it makes the texture so much different.
- During the first phrase, she sings with full chest voice. Let’s check her articulation. “Naraba odora nya”, normal, straight. Then, the “son” is in Staccato (sharp). Then, “odora nya”, normal again. Now, the next part, “son desu”, is insane. Listen closely to how she sings the second “son”. It’s not “son”, but “so-n”. The Tenuto in “so-“, and the emphasize on the “-n”! Closed with the “desu” with Staccato.
- Now, during the second phrase. She started the “o-“ in “odora” with breathy voice, then “-dora” in chest voice. Her signature. Then, the first “son” has no Staccato in it. Finally, the “desu” has no Staccoto as well.
The difference between the first and second phrases can be explained as “interpretation” in Music Theory. Whenever there are something repeats, whether it’s a whole bar, whole phrase, or whole part, we can sing both parts differently. One classic example is “call and response”, to make both parts sounds like a dialogue. This is also what I did in the Kagami no Panda piano solo, in bar 113-120. Another classic example is “echo”, when the second part is the echo of the first part.
Back to Pandora’s part in the final chorus. I can give an analogy. It’s like when your parents are scolding you to go study. The first phrase is like, high “Hey! You need to study now!” then the second phrase, your parents repeat it again, with low “You really really need to study now, got it?”
That is what I interpret from Pandora’s version. The second phrase might sound “gentler”, but you know you’re in deep trouble when your parents start to repeat what they are saying with lower voice. Even though Pandora is gentler in the second phrase, the impact is larger.
And… that is my analysis of this legendary cover. Sorry if I didn’t include Inami Yoki’s analysis that much, because she did an AMAZING job in this cover as well. I guess, I’ll leave the analysis of Inami Yoki’s part as the reader’s exercise :p
Kaibutsu
Okay, you might be afraid if her voice is too powerful, how can people collab to sing with her? What if another lead singer asked her to be the secondary singer for a song? Will Pandora overshadow the other singers?
One classic mistake that newbie singers always do, including me, is how we can’t adapt. My voice is also very powerful, and it stands out too much in a choir. I’m having a hard time to adapt. The choir should be one entity, and I should blend in with the other voices.
Unlike me, Pandora is a professional singer. During this cover, Aoi Tokimori is the lead singer. Indeed, the most powerful moment is hold by her (0:46 – 0:50), Pandora’s voice doesn’t overshadow her. Pandora’s singing can adapt to different situations, indicating how experienced she is. Despite that, I love how they put Pandora as the first voice that we hear (0:00 – 0:12). It immediately catches your attention. Seriously a good decision.
Listen to (1:37 – 2:00). This part is so masterpiece OMG… Kudos to all three of them, Aoi Tokimori, Tomoya Uzuki, and of course Pandora too. This part hits harder than a truck… Okay I want to breakdown this part:
- First section (1:37 – 1:42), Aoi Tokimori part. We already start this part with the main protagonist of the song. It’s already that powerful.
- Second section (1:42 – 1:47), Tomoya Uzuki part. Soft gentle strong voice, like a breeze before the storm.
- Third section (1:48 – 1:53), Pandora part. Just catches you off-guard and slams you to the ground. How can we go more powerful than this?
- Fourth section (1:53 – 1:56), Pandora and Aoi Tokimori part. Pandora as the main singer and Aoi Tokimori sings the perfect fifth interval as the secondary. Also, notice how for Pandora, the third and fourth section are connected as one phrase (she doesn’t take a breath/stop). Chef’s kiss, truly artistic decision, because this adds so much tension.
- Fifth section (1:56 – 2:00), everyone sings. Aoi Tokimori is back as the main singer. This is the climax of this part!
I really want to discuss more about every section, because this cover is just such a banger…
Let’s just skip to the outro (3:01 – 3:10) because I’m a bit too overwhelmed with how good this cover is and my brain just stops working. Three phrases, sing by each singer, and it’s hitting harder and harder. The last phrase is done by Pandora, and now listen to how she sings this part. Hear how heroic that sounds. How she emphasizes the “o koeru”… that is such a peak for an outro…
I’m sorry Yoasobi, but this cover is sooo much better than the original, from the first second to the last second… (disclaimer: both versions are different, and this is just my personal preference, there’s no “correct/best” way to sing). After hearing this version, Yoasobi sounds like the one who covers…
I just realize that Aoi Tokimori’s range is Soprano, Pandora’s range is Alto, and Tomoya Uzuki’s range is Tenor… no wonder this cover feels so much fuller than the original. The instrumental is very bassy as well, so you don’t need bass voice that much.
I also want to add something that my friend noticed when I asked him to listen to this cover. This version has a lot of held notes (Tenuto) compared to the original Yoasobi version. I’ve discussed this texture on “Yona Yona Dance”. I guess, you can say that this is also Pandora’s signature: plays on texture, the usage of Tenuto and emphasize on consonants.
OMG I just realized it only has 3000 views… I legit thought it has millions of views… If you read this blogpost and haven’t supported Pandora, Aoi Tokimori, and Tomoya Uzuki, GO SUPPORT THEM NOW!
Ahoy!! Warera Houshou Kaizokudan
Excuse me?!!
I’m sorry but, if Marine sings like a pirate, Pandora sings like the Pirate King (0:30 – 0:41). It has the energy of the first opening of One Piece. It feels like the start of a huge journey with her as the leader. The amount of energy that she brings throughout the song is insane.
But here’s the problem with this song. There’s this “cute/moe” part (0:42 – 0:51), which I think can be produced with… head/nasal voice(?) That is hugely different from the “Pirate King” feels, and she nails it. Also listen how she uses her signature to during this part. She sings the word “umi” with those breathy voice, then continue with chest voice.
In the middle of the song (0:51 – 0:57), there’s also this bluesy feel that she 100% delivers too. This pretty much confirms that she probably can sing Blues/Jazz as well… Now I’m interested to hear Pandora sings something jazzy, idk maybe at least starts with like Laufey’s song.
Now, the chorus (1:05 – 1:31) of this song has this, FripSide feel. It’s like the opening for To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. How does Pandora sing this part? Yeah very powerful like a railgun… Now I’m interested in hearing her singing FripSide’s song, like “Only My Railgun” for starters. My delulu can imagine her singing that song, and I’m 100% sure it will be better than the original.
Since this song also has a lot of narration (2:43 – 4:04), her skills as voice actress also really shine. This cover can literally be an opening for One Piece, I told you. Then, on (4:17) when she shouts “Ute!” with main protagonist energy…
Kyoufuu All Back
Again, no matter how much I tried, there’s no way I can sing like her on this song. The genre is just too incompatible with what I can sing, but she still can deliver it.
Think for a moment now. If you are asked to sing this song, how would you sing it? I bet most people will try those uwu voice, because it’s a cute, meme song. A lot of covers of this song indeed use this uwu voice.
First of all, Pandora doesn’t use her regular powerful voice, which is already out of her comfort zone. It feels very light (not soft, but light). But if you hear it closely, she still uses chest voice with proper projection throughout the song. She has to hold back her voice (pun intended), which is a lot harder than just release everything.
I really love this song, and I’ve heard so many versions of it, including the original. One thing that stands out from Pandora’s version is definitely the articulation. I can actually hear the lyrics!
Let’s listen closely to (0:53 – 0:56) when she sings “hato hato hato hato dairantou”. She actually uses the uwu voice for the “hato hato hato hato dairan-”, then change back to chest voice on “-tou” with natural vibrato. Wow!
This is also a perfect example that serious does not equivalent to tense. If you want to sing something light, you don’t need to be goofy then forget how to sing. You can still focus and serious in singing, to produce this very light texture.
GETCHA!
Disclaimer. Sorry I only discuss about Pandora’s voice 😦 I just want to highlight the things that blows my expectation. Iekushi Chapipi did a really amazing job in this cover. Feel free to analyse Iekushi Chapipi’s part as an exercise for the reader~
OMG she raps… she uses both Alto and Soprano voice…
My favourite part is (0:31 – 0:45). Listen to how she sings this part… just filled brimming with her signature. To change things up, I’ll colour the “breathy voice” with Green/Cyan, and the “powerful chest voice” with Pink.
I’m moving on and I’m never ever turning back around, around, around again. Now I’ll go higher and I’ll go higher. And you couldn’t take me down if you tried.
Smooth.
Now, let’s hear her Soprano voice for the first time in this blogpost. Check out at (2:20 – 2:28). How is an alto singer has better soprano voice than every soprano in my choir… HOW does she maintain that power on a pitch using chest voice outside her comfort zone?! You can feel, the contraction of the diaphragm, chest, throat, and neck muscles.
I’m serious… if I asked my friend with bassy voice to sing a tenor voice with that amount of power, they’ll just use head or nasal voice. It will sound weak, and the projection will be bad.
KING
I want to make a controversial statement here… I… don’t really like this song that much :’) But don’t worry, I’m a very open minded person. I’ve listened to like, 30+ version of this (especially when it was trending), even the newest Ookami Mio cover, and of course, the original version as well.
Across all 30+ versions that I listen, only TWO versions that worth the title of the natural king: Pandora, and Suisei (Disclaimer: I never said any version is good or bad, don’t cancel me).
I still believe that this song is weird and very hard to sing. It needs a lot of raw power(?), if that makes sense at all. The trap is, people often force it to add power, so it feels like they’re the king. But… feels like a king… is not the king. Due to the nature of this song, if you don’t have the necessity raw power, then the song feels too empty(?) which might be the reason why I don’t like this song that much. Idk lol.
When Pandora and Suisei sings, you can immediately know who you will follow. It’s THE king. Yeah, I’m just making words at this point, but hopefully you get my point.
During the first part (0:19 – 0:21), when Pandora sings “STOP!”, she actually emphasizes the “-p” sounds. It’s genuinely a stop, like she’s talking to you to stop. Again, this is articulation. Oh, guess what? Suisei does the same thing as well. Stuff like this is what makes us know, both Pandora and Suisei are truly pro singers.
You can analyse the rest of the song. Both versions, Pandora and Suisei, are blowing my mind. The only versions that I can truly enjoy this song are Pandora’s and Suisei’s.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading this 7500+ words blogpost. Hopefully you can appreciate her singing more. She’s more than just “having a good/cute voice”. She’s a proper, professional singer. Treat her like a singer.
Let’s recall her quotes during the birthday stream.
“There were so many times when I was really really really hurt and made to feel so small and worthless, made to feel like I should just quit, made to feel like I wasn’t good enough compared to others, made to feel like my issues weren’t important.”
“But I kept going, and I didn’t give up because I didn’t want to make little me sad. I wouldn’t have to finally achieve the dreams she’s been holding on to. But I finally did it.”
This quote broke me so much. Honestly, I still regret the fact that I haven’t known her since her debut. I was 3 years late… But I can’t just be depressed and regretful of anything from the past. I need to focus on supporting her, and everything that she wants to achieve for the future. She’s my kamioshi, after all.
Please, check out Utano Pandora’s first 3D concert. The journey of her life, what she has endured so far, everything leads to this very special moment. Let’s celebrate it together with her by watching her concert.
For future projects, I do have the next secret project for her. It might have something to do with a real life convention, AFAID 2024. It’s still a very rough plan but let me cook something for Pandora. And if you Friendoras come to AFAID 2024, let’s meet in real life! “I’ll make sure you can find me easily”.
I am a teacher IRL, and I really support my students so they all can be successful. So, are my students my oshi? Am I their oshi?
hyoshiyuki 