Mafumafu

Note: This sample is linked to the utaite's own upload on YouTube, as he has forbidden reprints to video sharing sites outside of Nico Nico Douga and his own channel on YouTube.

Mafumafu (まふまふ) is a popular well known for his soft, yet upbeat middle-high ranged voice who started in mid 2011.

Mafumafu likes to add effects to his voice and scream loudly in his covers. Mafumafu has a very wide vocal range and a versatile voice, having the ability to hit and leap into high notes effortlessly, sometimes to feminine range, without sounding strained or losing the softness in his voice. However, he also sounds pleasant when he sings songs in his regular and lower voice, which can sound relaxing and quite soothing. Because of his high vocal range, he is also capable of producing a very convincing female voice, most clearly seen in his cover of "Matryoshka". Though he is not a full-time, there are occasional moments where he feigns a more high, feminine-sounding voice. He often makes use of his wide range in his covers by leaping into higher or lower octaves to match the tone of the song. The first time he officially sang as a female character was in 's unique duet album "Finale".

Mafumafu originally sang in a much lower, more deeper voice when he first started out as an utaite. Eventually his vocal range widened as he became more experienced. Now, he normally sings in a much more high ranged voice that is often viewed as beautiful or even cute by fans. As shown in his namahousous, Mafumafu's voice is naturally and uniquely childlike, and he also has the tendency to act somewhat childish as well. His most popular cover to date is Sugar Song and Bitter Step which has over 3 million views.

Occasionally he forgets some of the lyrics and either mumbles or makes cute noises until the next line. His songs are often tagged as someone with a "kakuseirui" (覚声類, lit. energizing voice).

He often collaborates with the Akatin, Amatsuki, un:c, and most frequently with the well-known utaite, Soraru. The two are part of the duo unit After the Rain and also host Hikikomoranai Radio (ひきこもらないラジオ) together also, where the two mostly talk about various subjects. They are shown to have a close friendship with each other as seen on their twitter accounts. Mafumafu even posted on his blog once that Soraru helped him get through a bad experience in the past, and he is very grateful to have Soraru in his life.

Mafumafu suffers from depression and anxiety, however it's no longer as bad as it used to be. Occasionally he will fall into a depressive episode, but is now able to use those feelings to help him write lyrics. Mafumafu once wrote a blog post explaining this, and also mentioned that he used to be badly bullied and even physically and emotionally abused. He briefly explained an incident which severely hurt him emotionally and caused him to become very depressed. He noted that Soraru was quick to defend and help him as soon as he found out what was happening, and he even approached the culprit and made them promise "not to do anything to hurt Mafumafu again."

Amongst Mafumafu's friends, he's never done a one-man live. Even though he's done a national tour with Soraru for their unit, Mafumafu has never had one due to personal reasons and his health conditions since his health takes time to recover. However, by November 17, 2016, Mafumafu announced in a Twitcastundefined that he's going to hold a solo live for three days next year, 2017, on the following dates; January 18 (Zepp DiverCity, Tokyo), 22 (Zepp Namba, Osaka), and 28 (Zepp Nagoya, Nagoya). The title of Mafumafu's solo tour is titled, Hikikomori demo LIVE ga Shitai (ひきこもりでもLIVEがしたい！, I'm a Shut-In but I Want to Hold Concerts) or Hikirai (ひきライ), an abbreviated form of Mafumafu's live, derived from the DVD he sold in NatsuComi that featured him, Soraru, Amatsuki, Luz, and ZimuinG. According to Mafumafu in his Twitcast, he's only going to hold a solo live once because he wants to do other things he's never done while he's still young.

Also due to numerous of entries in the lottery for the tickets of his first live, he announced his final live in Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba on February 5, 2016.

Mafumafu is also a mixer and often mixes songs for other utaites as well. He started as a Producer for VOCALOID originals. For more information on Mafumafu as a producer, please visit his article on the VOCALOID wiki.

Collaboration Units

 * 1) Mafutsuki (まふ月) with Amatsuki
 * 2) After the Rain with Soraru
 * 3) Mafutin (まふティン) with Akatin

Discography
For After the Rain albums see here