Tokino Sora interviews with Panora about Sign and her 5th year of activity

Holy unintentional year-and-a-half hiatus! I’m back! This is a translation of Panora’s interview with Tokino Sora for her album Sign released in September of last year. I’ve got another from Comic Natalie on bat, likely for release in early June. This is also a late birthday present for Sora-chan, who’s now in her sixth year of activity. そらちゃん、お誕生日おめでとう！

This text is credited to Daisuke Marumoto. Find the original here, as well as Tokino Sora on Twitter and YouTube.

“I love the time I spend with everyone” We talk to Hololive’s Tokino Sora about her fifth-year album release, Sign

Hololive VTuber Tokino Sora is set to release her fourth album Sign on Wednesday, September 7^th, five years after her debut. A full album of 12 songs, it’s got an impressive lineup of musicians participating, including singer-songwriter Hirose Koumi. This album is rich in variety and allows us to enjoy the many sides of Tokino Sora.

With her memorial day drawing close, we at PANORA conducted an interview with her. She looks back on five years of activity while telling us her feelings about Sign and things that happened during recording.

 It’s extremely rare for having fun with everyone become your job

– It’s been almost five years since your debut, tell us how you’re feeling.

Sora It feels really strange, when I started doing this I didn’t think it would continue for five years. It feels like it’s been such a long time, but at the same time I’m really happy to have reached a good turning point having been active for five years.

– Were you not thinking in years when you were just getting started?

Sora Thinking about the age of VTubers, until the beginning of 2018, I was like, what? Who? (laughing). I wanted to do it for as long as possible, but honestly, I was also thinking, how long am I gonna be able to keep doing this?

– From when you started until now, I don’t recall ever seeing you take a mid- or long-term break, it feels like you’ve been putting out contents the whole time. Where does that motivation come from?

Sora It doesn’t feel to me like I haven’t been taking breaks. I definitely haven’t taken a summer vacation or a long-term break, but I’ve made it a habit to at least spend one day a week doing nothing. There are times when I’m especially busy with work, but usually I’ve got two days off at the end of the week, like people with regular jobs.

My motivation definitely comes from having people waiting for me. The words of the people around me who know me well and everyone’s feelings have become a real plus. I’m having fun too, it makes me just say, alright, I’m gonna stream. I think it’s really rare to have a job where you can have fun with everyone. I want that fun to continue forever. That feeling motivates me.

– Tell us what you think hasn’t changed or what you’ve worked hard to not change during your five years of activity.

Sora For issues I feel strongly about, first, I think I’ve been able to keep doing things at my own pace. I don’t think the way I interact with my Sora-tomo (fan nickname) who support me has changed either. Since the beginning, I’ve felt strongly that we can’t shine without the support of our fans. My intent to get along well with people who support me has never changed. Doing something that people can feel at ease when they’re watching has always been important to me. 

– Everyone feeling at ease has been important to you.

Sora It has, people aren’t gonna want to watch if they’re feeling uneasy.

– So for example, you wouldn’t want to push yourself to stream if you’re tired from being really busy?

Sora When things get like that I just say I’m taking a break (laughing). It seems like people who’ve been fans for a long time know when you’re pushing yourself too hard. They’ll say, “Sora-chan, you seem tired.”

I wanna up my performance power

– Is there anything you’ve ever wanted to change or develop in your career?

Sora My performance during concerts. When it comes to singing, I’ve been able to put out albums, and it’s given me lots of opportunities to gain experience getting knocked around where the action is happening. There are still a limited number of places where we (VTubers) can perform.

While all this is going on, I’ve been thinking more and more about what kind of poses and movements will make me shine, and what kind of dances I should learn. Recently (this interview was conducted in July) I started taking dance lessons again because I wanna up my performance power. I’ve been taught before, but they were interrupted due to COVID. As the world is slowly getting back to normal, I’ve been thinking I should start taking dance lessons again.

– Do you feel like your lessons are paying off?

Sora I haven’t been dancing that much more than before, so my progress is really slow. It’s hard for me to say that I’m able to move the way I want. But if I keep getting more opportunities to dance here and there, I’m now able to think I’ll keep getting better, little by little.

– We’re looking forward to it. Even outside of your stage performances, we’ve felt that you’ve changed, or grown, a lot.

Sora Oh really, why’s that?

– It actually happened recently, you were so composed when you were speaking as MC for the second day of June’s V-Carnival VOL.2 (VKani), even with all those guests. We were really impressed with how confident you looked presiding over a big event.

Sora I’d MC’d the third day of IdolFes (Virtual TIF held in 2020) too, but to be honest, I’m not too confident in myself as an MC. For VKani, I can’t say I wasn’t reassured to have a pro (Virtual MC Isshou Ken) MCing with me (laughing).

 – It didn’t feel like Isshou-san was taking the lead, though, but that he trusted you as a partner and you were MCing together.

Sora Thank you very much. VKani isn’t a normal event, it’s got content like a television program, and it’s hard to change stuff like where you’re standing. Of course they’ve got stage markers (marks to show where a performer should stand), but it’s really hard to keep the program going while you’re making sure of how you’re appearing. It’s obvious to people who appear on television regularly, but it really felt difficult to me.

It was a live broadcast too, so it was really difficult to keep time when I was talking with guests. But it was a good learning experience!

– You’ve had experience with officiating things since early on in your activities, haven’t you?

Sora I think my first time was PANORA-san’s Weekly VTuber Ranking. Though the only thing I remember was (PANORA Editor-in-Chief) Hiroda-san carrying me through it. At that point I was only able to say what we’d already decided on (in the script) (laughing).

– (To Hiroda-san, also present at the interview) Did you feel like you were providing backup?

Hiroda Not at all. I remember she threw in some really sharp tsukkomi (laughing). Since then I’ve thought she’s an absolute genius.

Sora (laughing) Really? Thank you so much.

A fateful-feeling album release day

– Tell us how you’re feeling about your 4th album going on sale on the 5th anniversary of your debut.

Sora A lot of coincidences have led up to this point. It was originally supposed to go on sale in July, but for a bunch of different reasons it got delayed, and in the end, it ended up being the day I debuted.

– September 7th of this year being a Wednesday, the general release day for CDs, really is a coincidence.

Sora Yeah. Being able to release an album on the day of my 5th anniversary feels like fate.

– What kind of conversations were you having with the staff in the early stages of putting this album together? Did you make any requests?

Sora When they asked me what kind of songs I wanted to sing, I told them whose songs I’d been listening to a lot and whose songs I was covering. Also, because my specialty is singing in a high key and I know I can sing in a key that’s higher than usual we talked about how I wanted to emphasize that and challenge myself to develop it further while also singing all sorts of stuff.

– We were able to listen to all 12 songs recorded for your new album Sign, and given how truely wide the range of songs is for this album, it seems like you got your wish to “sing lots of different songs.” How did you feel once all the songs you’d be recording were assembled?

Sora I was thinking that, because there were songs like “Tasogare Midnight” that feel a bit Showa-era and songs that have a strong digital feel like “Digitalic Lyric,” it really was an album with songs of all different colors, but I also felt that, out of all the albums up to now it was the one with the most songs that gave off a strong “idol” vibe.

Singing at full belt has always been important to me

– We’ve got a few songs to ask about from the ones you’ve recorded. You’ve already streamed “Sora no Toki,” a song where singer-songwriter Hirose Kohmi-san, who we know from songs like “Romance no Kami-sama,” was in charge of the lyrics and composition. Please tell us how you felt when you knew Hirose-san would be providing a song for this album.

Sora Hirose Kohmi-san is a veteran of the label I belong to, Victor Entertainment. I wasn’t expecting such an amazing person to create a song for me, and would never have expected she’d collaborate with me too. I was really happy when I knew she’d be creating it. Though, I feel like many of Hirose-san’s songs are ones first sung by her, where she’s been able to bring out all the power those songs had. So I was nervous too, because I wasn’t sure what would happen when I sang that kind of song. In fact, you could tell it was a song she’d made just by the sound of it, so I had to think a lot about how I could make it my own.

– She’d written stand-in lyrics as well?

Sora Yeah, that’s why I felt like it’d been put together as “Hirose-san’s song.”

– But on the stream you said you could “remember it quickly.”

Sora Being able to sing something quickly is hard, but when I took a look at the lyrics, she’d included words that I use a lot. It’s also easy for me to get into a song where there are lots of parts to get the audience excited, and the lyrics and melody were really easy to remember. It’s rare for me to remember something quickly, so I felt like it really was catchy.

– When it came to recording, what was on your mind when you were singing it?

Sora At first, I had this really strong feeling like, “Hirose-san made this song!” so I thought about trying to sing like her. The ways we sing are completely different, so trying to imitate her was really hard (laughing). So instead of thinking of imitating her, I burst into song like I wanted to, and that’s what we recorded. Singing at a full belt has always been important to me, so I put my lungs into it and sang like I was performing at a concert.

– Meaning you finished recording without doing that many takes?

Sora I think this was the smoothest recording we did for this album.

– We’re still at a point where attendees can’t speak out in concert venues, but when they are, is this a song you want to sing with them?

Sora Once they’re allowed to speak, I wanna sing this first and call out, “Let’s make some noise!” Though it might cause some trouble for everyone being at the top of the set (laughing).

– The music video for “Sora no Toki” is out. Tell us your feelings about the video when it was completed.

Sora I was surprised at how aware the video they made for me was of this being five years, there were even videos of my past streams in the background. They took a lot of care in what they chose and timing with my (3D model’s) makeup changing. I could tell they put a lot of thought into making something nice, so to use a word all my fans use, I thought it was “emoi” (laughing).

– I imagine it might have resonated with your longtime fans in particular.

Sora I was looking around on places like Twitter and I saw people saying “I cried!” Even though it’s such an upbeat song, the video had people crying. I think it’s great to have a video that’s fun but also moves people.

– By the way, do you not feel embarrassed looking back on things like your debut?

Sora For me, if I’m watching them without sound, it doesn’t really feel embarrassing. But when I’m listening to myself having trouble stringing words together or not knowing what to talk about, I get embarrassed (laughing).

Probably in the highest key of any song I’ve done so far

– On the opposite end from “Sora no Toki,” what was a song that was difficult to practice and record, or had a lot of takes?

Sora I really had to fight it out with “Mary Sweet.” I’ve been listening to Hiiragi Kirai’s songs for a long time, and I think she has great taste, so remembering the music itself isn’t that much of a struggle. But when it came to recording, it was really hard for me to sing in my own style. When we were starting out, no matter how hard I tried, I ended up sounding like a vocaloid.

– You were just matching the sound of a high-key song?

Sora Yeah. In the beginning, I couldn’t put any nuance into it, and we ended up with a lot of takes. I was really frustrated because this was a song written for me by a creator I love, and I couldn’t sing it the way I wanted to, so I felt like I needed to work harder. I’m really happy with the way it came out.

– It felt kind of alluring, there was an air of maturity, this was a rare taste for one of your original songs. What was on your mind when you were singing that let you give it your own nuance?

Sora It had some allure, so in the beginning I sang pretty gently. But when I did that I cooled down and my singing became too precise, and I wasn’t putting much nuance into it. When [the director] told me “you can put more strength into it,” I realized I was being too precise with how I was singing. It took some time, but in the end I was able to sing it in a way that I liked.

 – What about the other songs? Was there anything you were really surprised by the first time you heard it?

Sora I was really surprised by “Pittoshite! Marmalade.” It was definitely high-key (laughing).

– You have such a wide range, but even you were surprised.

Sora The end of the final chorus is probably in the highest key of any song I’ve done so far. Not that I can’t hit it, but I feel like I’m gonna start screaming (laughing). There’s a part halfway in where the rhythm and music change too. It’s different from every other part of the song, so it took time to get down. But I think it’s a song that’s really gonna stand out in concert. If I sing it when the show’s at its peak we’re gonna get even more worked up, I can’t wait to sing it with everyone.

– Besides the songs I’ve asked about, “Kara no Sora” made a big impression on me too. It’s also in a high key and the melody changes a lot, so I’d imagine it was hard to sing – is that true?

Sora It didn’t take that much time to record, but like you said, it was a really tough song. It was a bit different from songs I’d sung before, it’s got a playful melody, so I wasn’t sure how to express myself with it. I felt like the chorus needed to be powerful, but for the rest of it I had to think about how to sing playfully but also with restraint. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be singing the whole song at full power.

– It might be hard to bring out the best of this song if you were doing the whole thing at full power.

Sora Yeah. It’s a great song, it makes you wanna listen to it when you wanna get pumped up or when you’re going out.

– “Egonade Labyrinth” had a real vocaloid feel, this was fresh for an original song by you, but for someone who listens to your singing streams and cover songs I’d imagine it felt very familiar.

Sora I felt like it was close to the volcaloid songs I’ve covered too. Meaning the lyrics have a lot of words. Expression wasn’t so much an issue with this one as not tripping over my words, so I went into the recording having practiced a lot. It’s a cool song, so I wanna try making a video for it.

An album filled with songs worthy of five years of activity

– In an album with so many unique songs and overflowing with so much variety, “Hane wo Te ni shite” feels like it actually stands out with its gentle and lighthearted melody. It also feels like the perfect song for the image many VTuber fans have of “Tokino Sora.” What’s your impression of it?

Sora When I first listened to it, I was reminded of when I was just starting out. There were a lot of these kinds of comfortable songs on Dreaming, stuff like “Okaeri” and “Hoshi no Furu ni wa.” I was a little nostalgic thinking back on how I used to sing so many songs like this early on.

– Maybe it was how well it suited you, it felt kind of like the song your fans made, “soraSong.”

Sora That’s true! I was wondering how that song would sound now time had passed and I’d grown more. I was still a student then, I didn’t have any experience behind me, I was really a blank canvas. But I also felt nervous because, after all the experiences I’ve had and having been painted with all sorts of colors, I wasn’t sure I could bring out the same softness as before. But it was able to put me back in that mindset, so I think I was able to sing it gently. The music itself is easy to understand, it’s cute, I really liked it.

– This is a general question, but what kind of album do you think Sign, your fourth album, is?

Sora This album’s got a strong star theme going, like the title, Sign, and the song “Polaris Solaris.” I’ve got a star-shaped hair decoration too, it feels like an album that put together different parts of my personality and made a constellation you could see in the night sky. Each song shines like the brightest stars in the sky, but when you put them together I think they make a beautiful constellation too. When I’m singing with everyone in concert, I’m sure it’ll become an album full of bright, shining songs worthy of five years of activity.

– Do you feel like you were able to sing such a variety of songs because you’re entering your fifth year?

Sora Yeah! There are lots of songs that I don’t think I’d have been able to sing when I was just getting started.

 – You must be excited to sing them in front of your fans.

Sora Of course! The truth is I think it’s best when we can all sing together, but even if they can’t, I wanna hurry up and meet them in concert.

– With that, I’d like to hear your feelings about moving into a sixth year of activity starting with your album release.

Sora With five years behind me, I feel like I’m entering my sixth year with a new feeling, because it’s gonna be five more years until my next big turning point. Up to this point I’ve strengthened a lot of things I perform, singing included, and leading up to my tenth year I wanna do the same in other areas. Meaning I wanna feel secure doing more things, like the MCing you spoke about earlier. As a goal in my career, I want people to think of me as someone who’s accomplished in not just singing but in all sorts of things, someone who’s secure in doing whatever I’m called upon to do whenever they need me.

 – You were very matter-of-fact when you said “ten years” just now, do you feel like you’ve become able to see further into the future after five years of activity?

Sora Having given this five years, I’ve spent a lot of that treasuring the time I’ve spent with everyone. I’ve come this far, so I feel strongly that I wanna do ten next.

– I take it ten years isn’t you ending things there, but the next clear milestone after five.

Sora Yeah. Lately I’ve fallen into the habit of thinking about what I should be doing to continue on after ten years.

Tokino Sora 4th Album Sign

On sale: 9/7/2022

Regular CD: 3,850 Yen (tax included)

First Run Limited Edition (CD + Goods): 12,100 Yen (tax included)

Recorded songs (included on both)

01 Pittoshite! Marmalade

Lyrics Tabuchi Tomoya

Arrangement Yashikin

02 Yumezora☆Fanfare

Lyrics Matsumoto Nanami

Arrangement Fujiwara Ayato

03 Logo Badge

Lyrics Watanabe Shou

Arrangement HAMA-kgn

04 Hane wo Te ni shite

Lyrics & Arrangement: Akki

05 Kara no Sora

Lyrics Yuri Kanon

Arrangement Tsukuyomi, Hirosawa Yuuya (HANO)

07 Egonade Labyrinth

Lyrics & Arrangement YASUHIRO

08 Electrical Surfing

Lyrics & Arrangement Mashio Kaede

09 Digitalic Lyric

Lyrics Takase Aiko

Arrangement Hayashi Masahito

10 Tasogare Midnight

Lyrics Makoto Nobumasa

Arrangement Watanabe Kazunori

11 Mary Sweet

Lyrics & Arrangement Hiiragi Kirai

12 Sora no Toki

Lyrics Hirose Kohmi

Arrangement Sena Wataru

13 Polaris Solaris

Lyrics Tada Shinya

Arrangement Takamura Yoo