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, also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by
Crypton Future Media , or simply Crypton, is a Japanese media company based in Sapporo, Japan. It develops, imports, and sells products for music, such as sound generator software, sampling CDs and DVDs, and sound effect and background music libraries. The company a ...
and its official
anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's personification has been marketed as a virtual idol, and has performed at live
virtual concert A virtual concert, also called V-concert or virtual live, refers to a performance in which the performers are represented by virtual avatars. Virtual concerts can take place in real life, where digital representations of the performers are projec ...
s onstage as an animated projection (rear-cast projection on a specially coated glass screen). Miku uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 3, and Vocaloid 4 singing synthesizing technologies. She also uses
Crypton Future Media , or simply Crypton, is a Japanese media company based in Sapporo, Japan. It develops, imports, and sells products for music, such as sound generator software, sampling CDs and DVDs, and sound effect and background music libraries. The company a ...
's Piapro Studio, a standalone singing synthesizer editor. She was the second Vocaloid sold using the Vocaloid 2
engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...
and the first Japanese Vocaloid to use the Japanese version of the 2 engine. The voice is modeled from Japanese
voice actress Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
Saki Fujita. The name of the character comes from merging the Japanese words for , , and , thus meaning "the first sound of the future", which, along with her code name, refers to her position as the first of Crypton's "Character Vocal Series" (abbreviated "CV Series"), preceding
Kagamine Rin/Len , officially code-named CV02, are a pair of Vocaloid software developed by Crypton Future Media, headquartered in Sapporo, Japan. Their official ''moe'' anthropomorphism consists of a pair of twin vocals, a boy and a girl, respectively named ...
(code-named ''CV02'') and
Megurine Luka , codenamed "CV03", is a Vocaloid software developed by Crypton Future Media, headquartered in Sapporo, Japan. Its official ''moe'' anthropomorphism is a 20-year-old woman. She uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 4 singing synthe ...
(code-named ''CV03''). The number 01 can also be seen on her left shoulder in official artwork.


Development

Hatsune Miku was the first Vocaloid developed by Crypton Future Media after they handled the release of the Yamaha vocal Meiko and
Kaito Kaito (written: 海斗, 開士, 魁斗, 海翔, 海人, 快斗, 凱斗 or 海都) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese footballer * Baruto Kaito (born 1984, surname Baruto) ...
. Miku was intended to be the first of a series of Vocaloids called the "''Character Vocal Series''" (abbreviated "''CV Series''"), which included
Kagamine Rin/Len , officially code-named CV02, are a pair of Vocaloid software developed by Crypton Future Media, headquartered in Sapporo, Japan. Their official ''moe'' anthropomorphism consists of a pair of twin vocals, a boy and a girl, respectively named ...
and
Megurine Luka , codenamed "CV03", is a Vocaloid software developed by Crypton Future Media, headquartered in Sapporo, Japan. Its official ''moe'' anthropomorphism is a 20-year-old woman. She uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 4 singing synthe ...
. Each had a particular concept and vocal direction. She was built using Yamaha's Vocaloid 2 technology, and later updated to newer engine versions. She was created by taking vocal samples from
voice actress Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
Saki Fujita at a controlled pitch and tone. Those samples all contain a single Japanese phonic that, when strung together, creates full lyrics and phrases. The pitch of the samples was to be altered by the synthesizer engine and constructed into a keyboard-style instrument within the Vocaloid software. Crypton released Hatsune Miku on August 31, 2007. Crypton had the idea to release Miku as "an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost." Hatsune Miku was released for Vocaloid 3 on August 31, 2013, including an English vocal library. She was the first Vocaloid to be developed by the company, following their commercial release handle of Yamaha Corporation developed vocals "Meiko" and "Kaito", making Hatsune Miku the third Vocaloid to be sold commercially by the company.


Additional software

On April 30, 2010, a new add-on for Vocaloid 2 called ''Hatsune Miku Append'', was released, consisting of six different timbres for the voice: ''Soft'' (gentle timbre), ''Sweet'' (young,
chibi Chibi most often refers to: * Chibi (style), a super-deformed style of Japanese-influenced caricature *Chibi, Hubei (赤壁 lit. Red Cliff), a county-level city in southeastern Hubei, China. Chibi may also refer to: Places * Chibi Subdistrict, ...
quality), ''Dark'' (mature and melancholic), ''Vivid'' (bright and cheerful), ''Solid'' (loud, clear voice), and ''Light'' (innocent and angelic). ''Miku Append'' was created to expand Miku's voice library, and as such requires the original program to be installed on the user's computer first. This was the first time a Vocaloid had such a release, and more Append versions were reported from Crypton Future Media at later dates. It was mentioned that a 7th ''Append'' voicebank, a falsetto voice, had been recorded; however, since the developers didn't think it would be useful on its own, no plans were made for an independent release. During the Kagamine Append development, a "darkish Whisper/Sweet" append was being considered. Miku's English vocal was also due for a Vocaloid 2 release, but it was not released in the engine due to low quality. To aid in the production of 3D animations, the program
MikuMikuDance MikuMikuDance (commonly abbreviated to MMD) is a freeware animation program that lets users animate and create 3D animated movies, originally produced for the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku. The MikuMikuDance program itself was programmed by Yu ...
was developed by an independent programmer. The freeware software allowed a boom in fan-made animations to be developed, as well as being a boost for promoting Vocaloid songs themselves. This spawned "NicoNico Cho Party", where fans could submit their animations to accompany live holographic performances of popular Vocaloid songs. An English voicebank for Hatsune Miku was announced in 2011 and was to be released by the end of 2012. However, the decision to move to Vocaloid 3 and issues with English pronunciation delayed the release. It was finally released on August 31, 2013 via digital distribution. The Hatsune Miku Vocaloid 3 Japanese vocal library was released on September 26, 2013. It contained updates to all previous Vocaloid 2 vocals except ''Vivid'' and ''Light''. These were later released separately, though they were initially offered to anyone who already owned Hatsune Miku, Hatsune Miku Append, and Hatsune Miku V3. Once imported into Vocaloid4, all Vocaloid3 Hatsune Miku vocals could use the new Cross-Synthesis system (XSY) built for the new engine of Vocaloid 3. The voice was also imported into a device called ''Pocket Miku'', released on April 3, 2014. Hatsune Miku received an update for Yamaha's Vocaloid 4 engine under the name of ''Hatsune Miku V4X''. It makes use of the new EVEC system for Piapro Studio, a VSTi plugin used as an alternative to the traditional Vocaloid Editor. EVEC consists of recorded vowels. Along with the consonant, a different vocal tone can be achieved. Two vocal tones are included in the EVEC system: ''Power'' and ''Soft''. Along with the new EVEC system, phoneme errors found in Miku's V2 and V3 voicebanks would be fixed allowing for easier manipulation of the software's voice. , Hatsune Miku V4X/V4 English was released. A Mandarin Chinese voicebank was released in September 2017, making Hatsune Miku the first trilingual Vocaloid product. Her Chinese name is ; are the
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...
characters for her given name, Miku.


Marketing

Miku has been heavily promoted since 2008 and was originally aimed at professional musicians. On September 12, 2007, Amazon.co.jp reported sales of Hatsune Miku totaling 57,500,000 yen, making the character the number-one-selling software of that time. She was the first vocal to be developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media and sung in Japanese. Hatsune Miku's instant success is owed to Vocaloid being a cultural hit in Japan and she reportedly sold 40,000 units by July 2008, selling on average 300 units a week. By January 2011, she had sold 60,000 units.


Merchandising

Since the success of Hatsune Miku's Vocaloid 2 package led to an expansion of marketing possibilities, most of the mass marketing has come after the software's initial release as a response to Miku's popularity and has been on going since 2008. Even with the addition of other Character Vocals, Miku's name continues to be used as the primary source of marketing for Crypton Future Media, to the point where most products for their Vocaloid related products will usually only feature Hatsune Miku's name. In March 2012, the Nomura Research Institute estimated that the sales of all Hatsune Miku brand goods added up into the region of since the release in 2007. Her name is easily the most recognizable of all Vocaloids. In 2011, Crypton began to focus on marketing Miku to United States audiences. On May 7, Amazon placed a preview of Supercell's hit song, " World is Mine", as a single. When the song finally went on sale, it ranked at No. 7 in the top 10 world singles list on iTunes in its first week of sales. Since Crypton had always sold Miku as a virtual instrument in Japan, they asked their Japanese fan base if it was acceptable for them to sell her as a virtual singer to the new market audience. The main purpose of the Miku English version is to allow Japanese producers to break into the western market and expand their audiences.


Good Smile Racing

In 2008, Good Smile Racing began the licensing of Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Future Media-related Vocaloid content. Studie, which participated in the
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and 2009 seasons using a BMW Z4 E86. Their car was painted in official Hatsune Miku art, and fan-derivative versions of Hatsune Miku in some races in the 2009 season. In the 2008 season, a group of " Racing Queens" were seen in the pitstop of races. Dubbed the "MikuMiku Gals", the three girls were Rin Miyama, Riona Osaki and Hina Saito. In 2009, a new set of MikuMiku Gals were introduced; these girls wore outfits based on all three Character Vocal series females and not specifically Hatsune Miku alone. Hiroko Nagano, Atsuko and Ayami were the Racing Queens for the season. Team COX, participating in the 2010 season, which uses a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR (and will use a Porsche 997 GT3-R). Their car uses Racing Miku (an official Hatsune Miku derivative wearing an orange racing queen suit) as their image. 2010 was also the first season to receive the first official "Racing Miku" derivative design, and from this season onward, the Racing Queens outfits were based on the season's derivative design. The designer of the 2010 outfit was illustrator Redjuice. Model Ayami returned for this season as a Racing Queen and was joined by fellow models Saki Tachibana and Shihomi Kogoshi. GSR and Studie with TeamUKYO was the sponsorship for the 2011 season. The designer of the 2011 Racing Miku derivative design was illustrator Yuichi Murakami. Ayami returned as a Racing Queen for the third time and Tachibana Saki returned for a second season. Haruka Aoi was the third Racing Queen to wear the Racing Miku 2011 outfit. GSR and Studie with TeamUKYO was continued as a sponsorship for the 2012 season. The Racing Miku design was illustrated by Gan for this season. The Racing queens for the season were returning models Tachibana Saki and Aoi Haruka, as well as new models Sena Kougami and Ayana Sato. The Studie with TeamUKYO sponsorship continued with the 2013 season. The Racing Miku design for the season was done by Mari Shimazaki. The illustrator of the official art was Saitom. Sena Kougami returned as a racing queen for this season and was joined by Tsukasa Arai and Elena Ishiguro. In 2013, the sponsorship expanded to feature a team in the Isle of Man TT, called Team Mirai, with a Racing Miku-designed bike. They finished 6th with
Ian Lougher Ian Lougher (born 10 July 1963) is a Welsh motorcycle racer, noted for 8 victories in the North West 200, 10 wins at the Isle of Man TT Races and 32 wins at the Southern 100 Races in his career. Racing career Born in Cardiff, Lougher compete ...
after a fatal accident struck Yoshinari Matsushita (who rode another bike, a Suzuki 600cc) during practice at
Ballacrye Corner __NOTOC__ Ballacrye (, "Crye's farm") is situated adjacent to the 19th Milestone of the TT Course, on the primary A3 Castletown to Ramsey road at the junction with the B9 Ballacrye Road, in the parish of Ballaugh in the Isle of Man. Descript ...
. The Racing Miku design also was adapted for a " Sepang" version showing bare toned skin as part of showing good health and promoting the design as "the Angel of summer". The illustrator for the 2014 season was Oguchi, one of the 15 artists of '' Kantai Collection''. The outfit is designed by Koyamashigeto, the art director of '' Kill la Kill''. The machine version of the outfit is designed by Koyamashigeto and Shōji Kawamori, who is noted for his " Macross" designs. The Racing Queens who wore the outfit were returning models Tsukasa Arai and Sena Kougami, as well as new models Kelal Yamaura and Noa Mizutani. For the 2015 Racing Miku, the design was based on a "Princess Knight" complete with a shield and spear-like umbrella. The illustrator was Taiki, the lead visual design from Square Enix and
Sega is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
's games ''
Lord of Vermilion is an arcade-based fantasy collectible card game developed by Think Garage and distributed by Square Enix in which players control combat cards on an arcade play surface. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy team's Arcana Stones and ...
'' and ''
Rise of Mana ''Rise of Mana'' is a Japanese action role-playing video game developed by Goshow for iOS, Android and PlayStation Vita. It was published by series creator Square Enix in 2014 for mobile devices and 2015 for the Vita. It is the eleventh game in ...
''. Koyamashigeto once again returned as the art direction and designer for the season. Tsuyoshi Kusano is in charge of the new machine design.


Winter festivals

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
has been a major main target of sponsorship since 2010, with Crypton Future Media sponsoring the winter festivals. The image of Hatsune Miku would appear around the town on public transportation. The image portrayal of Miku that is used is a derivative design called "Snow Miku". Although originally, this was simply a recoloring of the normal Hatsune Miku, unique designs have occurred every year since 2011. Figurines based on the design have also been featured. The 2012 design was chosen via a contest. The winning entry was referred to as "Fluffy Coat Snow Miku". The 2013 design was called "Strawberry Daifuku Shiromuku Miku". The 2014 design was based on a
Magical Girl is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centered around young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into which they can transf ...
design by dera_fury, who was the winner of the 2014 Snow Miku contest. The illustration was "Nekosumi". The design also featured a pet called "Rabbit Yukine". The 2015 design was called "Snow Bell Snow Miku" and was illustrated by Nardack. In 2012, several ice sculptures of the Character Vocal series and several snow sculptures of Miku were produced for the event. However, on February 7, 2012, one of the Snow Miku sculptures later collapsed and had to be rebuilt elsewhere with better support. The collapsed figure also hit a woman in her early 60s on the back of the head; no serious injuries were sustained in the process. During Miku's development, Crypton decided to take a different approach from that used by the other Vocaloid sound bank publishers. It was decided that to make the product successful not only would a highly appealing voice need to be developed, but that the voice needed an image. She was originally aimed only at professional producers; the amateur and otaku market had not fully formed yet, and so were not initially considered. The task for coming up with Miku's image went to the manga artist Kei Garō. When Kei designed Miku, his only direction was that she was an android and what her color scheme (based on Yamaha's synthesizer's signature turquoise color) was. The design on Miku's skirt and boots are based on synthesizer software colors and the bars represent the actual bars within the program's user interface. Miku was originally intended to have a different hairstyle, but Kei stuck to pigtails or bunches after trying them out.


Cultural impact

Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese video streaming website similar to
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, played a fundamental role in the recognition and popularity of the software. Soon after Miku's release, Nico Nico Douga users started posting videos of songs created using the character's sound bank. According to Crypton, a popular video featuring Miku's chibi version, Hachune Miku, singing and dancing to "
Ievan Polkka "Ievan polkka" (Finnish for " Ieva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song with lyrics printed in 1928 and written by Eino Kettunen to a traditional Finnish polka tune. The song is sung in an Eastern Savonian dialect spoken in North Karelia. I ...
" while spinning a Welsh onion in homage to Loituma Girl's original video (which led to Miku also being commonly associated with spring onions) demonstrated the potential of the software in multimedia content creation. As Miku's recognition and popularity grew, Nico Nico Douga became a place for collaborative content creation. Popular original songs written by a user would inspire illustrations, animations in 2D and 3D, and remixes by other users. Some creators would show their unfinished work and ask for ideas. In September 2009, three figurines based on the derivative character "Hachune Miku" were launched in a rocket from the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
state of
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
's Black Rock Desert, though it did not reach
outer space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...
. In late November 2009, a petition was launched in order to get a custom-made Hatsune Miku aluminium plate (8 cm × 12 cm, 3.1" × 4.7") made that would be used as a balancing weight for the Japanese
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
spacecraft explorer Akatsuki. Started by Hatsune Miku fan Sumio Morioka (also known as "chodenzi-P"), this project has received the backing of Dr. Seiichi Sakamoto of the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...
. On December 22, 2009, the petition exceeded the needed 10,000 signatures necessary to have the plates made. An original deadline of December 20, 2009, had been set to send in the petition, but due to a couple of delays in the Akatsuki project, a new deadline of January 6, 2010, was set; by this deadline, over 14,000 signatures had been received. On May 21, 2010 at 06:58:22 ( JST), Akatsuki was launched, having three plates depicting Hatsune Miku and Hachune Miku in several monochrome images, composed of the miniature letters of the messages from the petition form etched in the plates. The UK 59th issue of the music and fashion magazine '' Clash'' featured Hatsune Miku as their cover star (using a real-life photo model), with a full feature on her. The third launch of the MOMO sounding rocket by Interstellar Technologies used Hatsune Miku's voice for the countdown. The Vocaloid software has also had a great influence on the character Black Rock Shooter, who looks like Hatsune Miku but is not linked to her by design. The character was made famous by the song "Black Rock Shooter", and a number of figurines have been made. An
original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...
made by
Ordet ''Ordet'' (, meaning " The Word" and originally released as ''The Word'' in English), is a 1955 Danish drama film, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is based on a play by Kaj Munk, a Danish Lutheran priest, first performed in 1932. The film w ...
was streamed for free as part of a promotional campaign running from June 25 to August 31, 2010. A televised
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
series aired in February 2012. In October 2011, Crypton showed on the official Hatsune Miku Facebook page a letter from the Japanese Minister of Economy for "contributing to the furtherance of the informatization by minister of economy." The flag of the city of Chiba was considered to coincidentally resemble the silhouette of Hatsune Miku, and on the 10th anniversary on August 31, 2017, the municipal government website temporarily changed its logo to look like Miku. Geoffrey Cain of GlobalPost has argued that the phenomenon of Hatsune Miku is partly due to the love of Japanese for giving inanimate objects a soul, which is rooted in
Shintoism Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shint ...
or animism, but also in the long tradition of
Karakuri ningyō are traditional Japanese mechanized puppets or automata, made from the 17th century to the 19th century. The dolls' gestures provided a form of entertainment. The word has also come to mean "mechanisms" or "trick" in Japanese. It is used to ...
or automated wooden puppets. Thus, Japanese are much more ready to accept a virtual character as "human". Hatsune Miku is often jokingly attributed as the creator of the video game ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before b ...
'' (originating from the Miku Twitter parody account ''mikumiku_ebooks'' which tweeted "i created minecraft") as well as the book series ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at ...
''. Both of these attributions came about after the original creators of both works ( Markus Persson and J. K. Rowling, respectively) published tweets that were critical of transgender people, which resulted in backlash from their respective fans.


Appearances in other media

Miku's popularity has resulted in various references to her in anime. Miku is the protagonist of a manga series named '' Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix'', written by Kei Garō. The manga explores the many possibilities of story-telling and has featured numerous adventures, ranging from giant-sized battles with Hatsune Miku to home exploits. There is therefore no single storyline, and the entire setting within the manga is unofficial. During an episode of '' Zoku Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei'', Miku is seen auditioning for the voice of Meru Otonashi ( Kagamine Rin and Len are referenced in the same episode). Miku's voice is used in one of the ending themes for the anime series '' Akikan!'' (episode 12). Moreover, she also sings the ending theme for the anime '' Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories'', called . During an episode in the '' Lucky Star'' OVA, Kagami Hiiragi gets magically transformed into Miku
cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture ...
. A character in the anime ''
Kämpfer is a Japanese light novel series by Toshihiko Tsukiji, with illustrations by Senmu. The series contains 15 volumes, published by Media Factory under their MF Bunko J imprint between November 2006 and March 2010. The main series covers 12 vo ...
'' appears dressed as Miku in episode seven. She also appeared in the large plasma screen in ''
Chrome Shelled Regios is a Japanese light novel series by Shūsuke Amagi, with illustrations by Miyū. A short story light novel series was serialized in '' Dragon Magazine''. A manga adaptation drawn by Miyū is serialized in the shōnen manga magazine ' ...
'' as an endorser. She also appears in episode 11 of '' Baka and Test'' as a member of class B. Miku also appears in ''
Maria Holic is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Minari Endō, the author of ''Dazzle''. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine ''Monthly Comic Alive'' on June 27, 2006, and is published by Media Factory. Th ...
'' episode 12, when the class is told they have a swim meet. Miku also appears in episode 1 of '' Himōto! Umaru-chan'', in an imagination of what the main character wants to buy. A parody of Miku is also seen in '' Gintama'' (episode 237) in the second editor of Gintaman, Daito's anime fantasies. Miku also appeared in the anime '' Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion the Animation'' as a recurring character. Miku appears as a recurring guest character in 2022's '' Dropkick on My Devil! X'', the third anime season based on Yukiwo's ''Dropkick on My Devil!'' manga series, voiced by Saki Fujita as opposed to having lines recorded through the Vocaloid software. A series of rhythm games starting from '' Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA'' were produced by
Sega is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
under license using Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Vocaloids, as well as "fan-made" Vocaloids like Akita Neru. The series has sold 6million copies. '' Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai'' was developed for the Nintendo 3DS. Miku's appearance in this game is based on the Nendoroid series of figures. Later on, a mobile gacha rhythm game called ''Project SEKAI: Colorful Stage!'' (marketed as ''Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!'' outside of Asia) was released. The game features Miku as well as the other Crypton Vocaloids alongside original human characters. Many of the game's playable songs are covers of existing Vocaloid originals. Hatsune Miku is also briefly referenced in the game ''
Recettear is a role-playing game developed by Japanese dōjin maker EasyGameStation for the Windows operating system. The game follows a young girl named Recette, who is charged by the fairy Tear to run an item shop out of her house to pay off the consider ...
'', where a young man stargazing sees "The Green-Onion Girl" constellation. Also, in 2013, Saki Fujita voices Fei-Yen HD, a character based on one of Hatsune Miku's modules, in '' Super Robot Wars UX''; this appearance does not use Miku's vocal library. Haruka Sawamura from the '' Yakuza'' series, another Sega franchise, can wear Miku's outfit in '' Yakuza 5'', and an ice statue of Miku is also seen in the Sapporo region of the game. TinierMe also made attire that looks like Miku's for their services, allowing users to make their avatar resemble her. Miku's clothes appear as a costume for a playable character in the Japanese version of '' PangYa'' and was the back-up vocal for the game's season four trailer, as a downloadable costume for Sophie in '' Tales of Graces'' and is seen during a stage in the game ''13-sai no Hellowork DS''. Miku's clothes also appear in ''
Phantasy Star Portable 2 is a video game for the PlayStation Portable, produced by Alfa System and published by Sega. It is the sequel to '' Phantasy Star Portable'' and was released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on December 3, 2009. The North American version w ...
'' as a costume for the player's female character, as well as her hairstyle and leek-themed weapons. Miku appears in the
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
version of '' The Idolm@ster 2'' as downloadable content. In the video game '' Skullgirls'', one of Filia's alternative colors is based on Miku. Hatsune Miku's attire has also appeared in '' Phantasy Star Online 2'' as a female character's costume, along with "Miku Dayō" as a Mag Design. She also makes an appearance in the game ''
Brave Frontier was a Japanese mobile role-playing game developed and published by A-Lim, originally for Apple's iOS and later for Android and Kindle Fire. It was first released in Japan by A-Lim on July 3, 2013, and later released worldwide by Gumi Asia on De ...
''. In 2014, Korg introduced "Miku Stomp", a guitar
effects unit An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ...
that emulates the sound of Miku's voice. "Tell Your World" by Livetune, which features her as a featured artist, appears in Japan's ''
Just Dance Wii U ''Just Dance Wii U'' is a 2014 dance rhythm game developed by Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Romania, Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Montpellier and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. The third Japanese installment in ...
''. In 2015, "Ievan Polkka" was announced to appear in '' Just Dance 2016'' along with a dancer whose outfit is exactly like Miku's. On July 23, 2015, Miku was announced as a DLC character in '' Persona 4: Dancing All Night'', a video game released in 2015 for the PlayStation Vita and developed by
Atlus is a Japanese video game developer, publisher, arcade manufacturer and distribution company based in Tokyo. A subsidiary of Sega, the company is known for video game series such as '' Megami Tensei'', '' Persona'', '' Etrian Odyssey'' and ...
. On November 26, 2015, Miku became a collaboration idol for the second update of the 2016 series of the '' Aikatsu!'' arcade game. Several cards containing Hatsune Miku uniforms were also included for the update. In 2016, a remix of "Ievan Polkka" appeared on an LG G5 commercial. "PoPiPo" was announced to appear in ''
Just Dance 2017 ''Just Dance 2017'' is a 2016 dance video game developed and published by Ubisoft. It was unveiled on June 13, 2016, during its E3 press conference as the eighth main installment of the series, and was released in October 2016 for PlayStatio ...
'' also with a dancer whose resembles Miku. Then, "Love Ward" by OSTER project was also announced to appear in '' Just Dance 2018'' with the same Miku-resembling dancer. In March 2017, Miku was introduced as a playable character in the mobile game '#COMPASS'. In fall 2017, Hatsune Miku was added as a playable character in '' PriPara''. "Love Ward" and "PoPiPo" are still available in future '' Just Dance'' games as part of
Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...
's ''Just Dance Unlimited'' service for ''Just Dance 2016'' onwards. In August 2017, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the virtual singer, Ricoh released a limited edition of its 360° camera Ricoh Theta branded with Hatsune Miku imagery called the Ricoh Theta SC Type Hatsune Miku. The Ricoh Theta Type Hatsune Miku mobile apps (iOS and Android) allow for placing images of the character (in 55 different poses) within 360° images taken with the camera. Users can manipulate Hatsune Miku's facial expressions, change the direction of the character's shadow and hair, and rotate the character to place it within the 360° image. The product includes a specially designed case and other features illustrated by Fuzichoco, an illustrator at Crypton Future Media. In 2020, Hatsune Miku (also under the name Space Channel 39 and Space 39) was announced to be released as part of a DLC pack for '' Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash'' on July 27 that same year. The installment allows the player to dance with Miku or attempt to defeat her in a dance battle, alongside Ulala, 88MAN, or Pudding. The DLC also unlocks a Hatsune themed outfit for Ulala (under Channel 39).


Featured music

In August 2010, over 22,000 original songs had been written under the name Hatsune Miku. Later reports confirmed that she had 100,000 songs in 2011 to her name. Crypton's website promotes Miku's popularity having her voice used in over 100,000 unique songs. One of the Vocaloid compilations, ''Exit Tunes Presents Vocalogenesis feat. Hatsune Miku'', debuted at number-one on the Japanese weekly
Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike i ...
album charts dated May 31, 2010, becoming the first Vocaloid album ever to top the charts. Another album, '' Supercell'', by the group Supercell also features a number of songs using Vocaloids. Other albums, such as 19's Sound Factory's ''First Sound Story'' and Livetune's'' Re:package'', and ''Re:Mikus'' also feature Miku's voice. Other uses of Miku include the albums by Absorb and by OSTER-project. The viral Nyan Cat meme featured an Utauloid cover of "Nyanyanyanyan!" by daniwell-P, the original song featuring Miku. Another song originally using Miku, "Color", was covered by MARiA, and featured as the opening theme of the 2011 anime series ''
Freezing Freezing is a phase transition where a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. In accordance with the internationally established definition, freezing means the solidification phase change of a liquid ...
''. As a virtual idol, Hatsune Miku first featured in a "live"
virtual concert A virtual concert, also called V-concert or virtual live, refers to a performance in which the performers are represented by virtual avatars. Virtual concerts can take place in real life, where digital representations of the performers are projec ...
during
Animelo Summer Live ''Animelo Summer Live'', abbreviated as , is the biggest annual anime songs music festival in Japan hosted by Dwango and Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. Animelo Summer Live has been held every summer since 2005. Description Animelo performers ar ...
at the Saitama Super Arena on August 22, 2009. Miku later returned to Animelo Summer Live 2012: Infinity to perform "World is Mine" and "Tell Your World". Miku made her first overseas live appearance at a concert on November 21, 2009, during Anime Festival Asia (AFA) in
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
. On March 9, 2010, Miku's first solo live performance titled "Miku no Hi Kanshasai 39's Giving Day" was opened at the
Zepp The Zepp music halls are a group of Japanese music venues covering every area of the country. They play host to many international tours and are a popular stop among Japanese musicians. Each venue takes the Zepp name, along with the city in whic ...
Tokyo in Odaiba,
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...
. Miku performed in the United States on July 2, 2011 at the Nokia Theater at L.A. Live during the 2011 Anime Expo in Los Angeles. The concert followed the same format as the previous "39's Giving Day" concert. Hatsune Miku performed in
Japanese rock , sometimes abbreviated to , is rock music from Japan. Influenced by American and British rock of the 1960s, the first rock bands in Japan performed what is called Group Sounds, with lyrics almost exclusively in English. Folk rock band Happy End ...
festival Summer Sonic 2013 on August 10, 2013. Hatsune Miku teamed up with designer Louis Vuitton and director Toshiki Okada for a Vocaloid opera, titled ''The End''. It featured no human singers and took place at the Theatre du Chatelet Opera House in Paris on November 13 and 15, 2013. Another operatic work starring Hatsune Miku, a short
opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dram ...
entitled "Weebmalion", appeared in 2018, this time featuring a real soloist, tenor Aleksander Kunach, singing with the character in a love duet written by Polish
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...
, Krzysztof Żelichowski. It was the first time a classically trained voice appeared alongside Vocaloid in original classical composition. A young male prototype used for the "Project If..." series was used in Sound Horizon's musical work "Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido", labeled as the "prologue maxi". The prototype sang alongside Miku for their music and is known only by the name "Junger März_Prototype β". Hatsune Miku was the opening act for
Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
's world tour ArtRave: The Artpop Ball, performing throughout the first month of Gaga's tour from May 6 to June 3, 2014. In March 2014, Hatsune Miku and Crypton Future Media teamed up with the Japanese band
Bump of Chicken is a Japanese alternative rock group from Sakura, Chiba, Japan. The band members are Motoo Fujiwara (vocals, rhythm), Hiroaki Masukawa (guitar), Yoshifumi Naoi ( bass) and Hideo Masu ( drums). Since their conception in 1994, they have released 2 ...
to record a music video featuring a real band singing alongside Hatsune Miku in real time. This video was uploaded on March 12, 2014, and contains the song "Ray". The video is not after-edited in any way. This was made possible by Crypton's newest technology to focus characters on a screen directly to the recording camera by using a big curved screen, motion data, Wifi-sensors, movement-sensors and some older technology from Crypton. Pharrell Williams made a remix of Livetune's song "Last Night, Goodnight" featuring Hatsune Miku. On October 8, 2014, Miku debuted on American network television as the character performed "Sharing the World" on the '' Late Show with David Letterman'' on CBS. Hatsune Miku is featured in "B Who I Want 2 B" produced by
Sophie Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...
from Namie Amuro's album '' Genic''. The 2016 Hatsune Miku Expo tour featured American electronic band Anamanaguchi as an opening act; to commemorate the tour, the band recorded a single track titled "Miku", which they performed live on the tour with Miku as an encore song. Big Boi (of Outkast) sampled Aura Qualic's song "DATA 2.0", featuring Hatsune Miku for his 2017 single "Kill Jill", also appearing in the song's music video.
Slushii Julian Michael Scanlan (born May 1, 1997), known professionally as Slushii, is an American musician, DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer based in Los Angeles. He is best known for working with various artists managed by Moe Shalizi, such a ...
did a collaboration with Hatsune Miku for the song Though the Night which was released on May 11, 2018 on the single Through the Night. In January 2020, Hatsune Miku was announced as a performer at Coachella 2020 in Indio, California, which was later cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. On December 11, 2020, Hatsune Miku was a featured artist on a remixed version of American rapper
Ashnikko Ashton Nicole Casey (born February 19, 1996), known professionally as Ashnikko ( ), is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. They rose to prominence with their 2019 single "Stupid" with (Yung) Baby Tate, which gained viral popularity on t ...
's song "
Daisy Daisy, Daisies or DAISY may refer to: Plants * ''Bellis perennis'', the common daisy, lawn daisy or English daisy, a European species Other plants known as daisy * Asteraceae, daisy family ** '' Euryops chrysanthemoides'', African bush daisy ** ' ...
" titled "Daisy 2.0".


Notes


References


External links

* {{Authority control Vocaloids introduced in 2007 Female characters in anime and manga Fictional female musicians Fictional singers Japanese idols Japanese popular culture Music production software Sega protagonists Teenage characters in video games Fictional characters invented for recorded music Virtual influencers Internet memes introduced in 2007