Ask John: What is Hatsune Miku?

Question:
Who or what exactly is Hatsune Miku?

Answer:
To explain who and what “Hatsune Miku” is, it’s first necessary to start elsewhere. Yamaha first released its “Vocaloid” software program in January 2004, and the upgrade “Vocaloid2” in January 2007. The Vocaloid software is a computer program which allows users to input lyrics and musical notation to generate songs sung by an artificial human voice. The Vocaloid software is commercially distributed in Japan by Japanese publisher Crypton Future Media.

On August 31, 2007, Crypton Future Media released its customized Japanese version of the Vocaloid2 software with the name “Hatsune Miku,” a name created by combining the Japanese kanji characters for “Miku” (Future), “Hatsu” (First), and “Ne”(Sound). The artificial voice of Hatsune Miku was based on the voice of voice actress Saki Fujita, perhaps best known as the voice of student reporter Momoha Odori in the 2007 Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight anime television series. Rather than promote “Hatsune Miku” as the voice of Saki Fujita or present it as a mere digitally generated vocalization program, Crypton Future Media hired character designer and illustrator “KEI” to create a persona for Hatsune Miku. The result became the 16 year old, 5’2, 92.5 pound, twin pony tail haired idol singer Hatsune Miku.

While songs “sung” by Hatsune Miku can’t pass for songs sung by real humans, they do have a remarkably lifelike sound by the standards of artificially generated music. As a result, the Hatsune Miku program became an overnight success among Japanese users, developing a tremendous fan following and turning into a commercial juggernaut. In early September 2007, “dRESS,” the main composer for Japanese pop music group ave;new, used the Hatsune Miku program to create a version of ave;new’s song “True my heart.” Ave;new vocalist Sakura Saori playfully publicly praised Hatsune Miku’s rendition. The Hatsune Miku software began setting Japanese sales records as demand outweighed supply for the 15,750 yen program. Japanese users quickly began creating original Hatsune Miku music videos featuring Hatsune Miku performing popular anime, game, and J-pop songs, and Hatsune Miku’s original theme song “Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru,” (“Give You Miku Miku”).

In a bizarre sequence of events, in April 2006 a GIF animation of Orihime Inoue twirling a “negi” (scallion, or leek), taken from the second episode of the Bleach anime television series, set to the music of Finnish folk song “Ievan Polkka” performed by Loituma, appeared online and instantly became a brief web sensation commonly known as the “Loituma Girl.” Given the poppy and whimsical sound of “Ievan Polkka,” the song became a natural selection for a rendition by Hatsune Miku. Thus images of Hatsune Miku holding a “negi” sprouted. But enhancing the bizarre coincidence even further, the imagery of an anime girl wielding a leek is actually older that the celebrity “Loituma Girl.” The “OS-tans,” fan created personifications of computer operating systems drawn as cute anime girls, first appeared in Japanese fan art in the early 2000s, roughly around 2003 and 2004. The character ME-tan, a personification of the Windows ME operations system, is often depicted as trying to defend herself by swinging a “negi,” a pun on the name of the firewall security program “NEGiES.” So the original anime girl holding a negi was a personification of software, and Hatsune Miku, also a personification of software, is now commonly associated with a negi.

The massive popularity of Hatsune Miku as spawned an official manga serial called “Hatsune Mix!” by original character designer KEI in the monthly Comic RUSH magazine, countless fan created music videos – some even utilizing fully original fan created 2D and 3D CG animation, a customized Hatsune Miku plush doll on display at Akihabara’s Melon Books, a Hatsune Miku “Nendroid” action figure from Japanese toy company Good Smile (which generated over 10,000 preorders on Amazon Japan in a mere two days and enough consumer traffic to the Good Smile homepage to overload and crash the website), and plans for a second Hatsune Miku manga series titled “Hachune Miku,” that will debut in the February issue of Comp Ace magazine. Hatsune Miku’s popularity is such that she’s spun off a parody of herself. The dazed and confused looking super deformed version of Hatsune Miku is officially known as “Hachune Miku.”

There’s no telling how long Hatusne Miku will remain popular nor how far her popularity will go. Two manga today. An anime series tomorrow? But without a doubt, Hatsune Miku is presently a celebrity in Japan’s fan community, and an eerily real life approximation of anime digital celebrities like Eve Tokimatsuri and Sharon Apple.