History[]
Fraloids (previously spelled "FRAloids") is a French group that develops UTAU voicebanks and characters in France. This group was created by Kaiji-fr in April 2010, although the first few voicebanks already had been released since late 2009. The group later expanded in 4 series of UTAU characters, and other UTAU users such has Hibya Tweek, Kimi_Thunder, MissNanaLolita and Aude-Javel joined the Fraloids' development team over the years.
Original Run (2010 - 2020)[]
2010 - 2011: Series 1[]
Fraloids first got its name in early 2010 while it only features 4 UTAUs: Trisha, Evan, Kriss & Kelly. During most of 2010, the group would be very active on French forums and would produce new UTAUs almost every month. Every new UTAU produced would get a serial code starting with the letters "FRA" followed by a number, corresponding to the order of production. The Fraloids with the numbers FRA01 to FRA19 would be grouped together as a subcategory of Fraloids called "Fraloids series 1".
2012: Fraloids²[]
In 2012, Fraloids released 10 new UTAUs filling the spots from FRA20 to FRA29. This group was then called "Fraloids²" and was initially intended to have the nickname "Fraloids: Fairytale" as a group wide storyline was initially planned, but was only achieved partial on some of the characters.
2013 - 2014: Revision Project[]
In 2013, new UTAUs were produced as part of the next group: Fraloids³. At the same time, the Fraloids decided to revamp the previously released UTAU for the first time with a 2 year project called "Fraloids Revision". During that time, some of the UTAUs in Fraloids series 1 were discontinued and replaced with higher quality UTAUs, and all the rest were reconfigured and received new designs and artworks.
2013 - 2016: Fraloids³[]
By 2013, the Fraloids team started to release new voicebank at a slower pace, to allow them to work on higher quality voicebank, and to record both Japanese and French voicebank. Fraloids³ was the first Fraloids subgroup to systematically record and release French voicebanks for every of its UTAUs (with the exception of Kate). Fraloids³ was comprised of the Fraloids with the serial codes FRA30 to FRA39 and featured a global overarching story involving each of the characters produced.
2015 - 2020: Fr4loids[]
While Fraloids³ was still active, another subgroup was created: Fr4loids. This group was intended to specialise in high quality voicebanks, recorded by semi-professional actors and singers. However, due to complications mainly due to scheduling conflicts only one UTAU was fully produced: Kevin Futarine STUDIO & NEXUS, and one was partially produced, Cornelia Kiseine. Three more UTAUs were planned as part of this group, but production was stopped in 2017, when the decision was taken to end Fraloids in 2020, for its 10th birthday.
In August 21, 2020, it was announced that the Fraloids group would no longer be creating content, however, some users within the group would remain active on their own pages and channels.
VORTEX Revival (2023 Onwards)[]
In 2023, Fraloids announced it's comeback through an ARG and the announcement of a now project: VORTEX. For this revival, the Fraloids branding was completely changed with a new logo, the removal of the capital letters "R" & "A" in the official spelling of Fraloids, and with a brand new website and theming.
Etymology[]
Fraloids is the contraction of the words "Francophone" (which translates to "French speaking") and "UTAUloids".
Characters[]
