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History
The evio is surprisingly related to the Pokemon. Tomy had a deal with Nintendo to produce Pokemon lines of toys. Tomy made a fortune of it with their stock ruling the Tokyo Stock Exchange. But a few years later, the Pokemon became less popular and the profit felt in the red. As the toy division general manager for TOMY, Shigeki Yanagisawa, decided to go back to their roots, making toys that would outlast any fad, such as the Plarail which had been a long-selling product for 40 years. They came up with the idea of creating a new line of toys called the “Simple Concert”. The line would consist of electronic musical instrument series that would be easy to use.
On April 15th, 2003, TOMY announced the upcoming released of the evio, a video-game console to learn violin. Chisako Takashima, a well-known Japanese violinist, was on scene for the announcement and became the face of the evio. She noted the “Many people aspire to be violinists, but it is difficult to produce a proper sound, and many give up. That’s why I want evio, which allows children to easily experience the joy of the violin, to get them more interested in the instrument.”
The bow is equipped with an infrared optical sensor where it touches the string, and the bow has barcode-like slits printed on it for the sensor to read. When the bow is moved and the slit passes through the sensor, a sound is emitted, and the volume and length of the sound can be adjusted by the speed at which the bow passes through the slit and the distance it is moved. The neck is also equipped with a “vibrato key” that allows you to enjoy the performance effect of vibrating the sound. The evio would come bundled with 6 songs and cartridges would allow additional songs to be played. The evio would have, of course, have a “Solo” mode for enjoying playing alone, but additional mode would also be included. The “Orchestra” mode where you play the main melody with accompaniment in the background, the “Contest” mode where you compete to see how well you can play by following the guide, the “Lesson” mode where you can learn how to play, and the “Demo” mode where evio plays a model.
TOMY had an ambitious goal for the evio, hoping to sell 500,000 units of the series, for a total of 1 billion yen.
Release
The evio was released on July 31, 2003 for ¥7,000. Dedicated headphones were also available for ¥1,800 and all cartridges were also available for ¥1,800. An even with Chisako Takashima was held on July 28, 2003. At the event, Takashima performed “Great Old Clock” on the evio accompanied by the chorus of “Chaimu”, the youngest unit in history consisting of seven elementary school students. Even though the violin is different from a real violin, the performance was truly professional.
Demise
The evio had a bright future ahead of it, especially since it had virtually no competition. The closest thing to the evio was the Yamaha silent violin which cost between ¥69,000 and ¥110,000. Of course, those were not toys, but if you wanted your kid to start learning the violin in silence, this was either that ot the evio. But the evio had serious limitation. It would help kids learn about the position of the hands and the timing, but the rest was too different from a real violin to be used as a practice device. In the end, the evio was not the success TOMY hoped for and abandoned the evio and the Simple Concert concept as a whole.
Cartridges
18 cartridges were released for the evio, each containing 10 additional songs. A additional “not for resale” cartridge also exist.
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| エヴィオセレクション 01 Evio Selection 01 eM1 | エヴィオセレクション 02 Evio Selection 02 eM2 | アニメミックス 1 Anime Mix 1 eM3 | |||
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| I love クラシック 1 I Love Classic 1 eM4 | ヒーリングエアー Healing Air 1 eM5 | ドラマミックス 1 Drama Mix 1 eM6 | |||
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| ピュアキッス 1 Pure Kiss 1 eM7 | ハードソウル 1 Hard Soul 1 eM8 | エヴィオセレクション 03 Evio Selection 03 eM9 | |||
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| アニメスペシャル ポケットモンスター Anime Special Pokémon eM10 | アニメミックス 2 Anime Mix 2 eM11 | I love クラシック 2 I love Classic 2 eM12 | |||
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| コンチェルトセレクション Concerto Selection eM13 | ディズニーセレクション 1 Disney Selection 1 eM14 | エヴィオセレクション 04 Evio Selection 04 eM15 | |||
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| 高嶋ちさ子セレクション Chisako Takashima selection eM16 | みんなのエヴィオ Everyone’s Evio eM17 | エヴィオチャレンジ! Evio Challenge eM18 | |||
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| スペシャルコンチェルトセレクション Special Concerto Selection eM-c1* Not for sale |
* While this cartridges exist, its origin are unclear. Please contact us if you have any information.