Hatsune Miku

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) is the first Japanese Vocaloid2 in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series created by Crypton Future Media. It is considered as the most popular and well known Vocaloid. The name of the title and the character of the software was chosen by combining Hatsu (初, first), Ne (音, sound), and Miku (未来, future) thus meaning "the first sound from the future.". Her voice data is provided by Saki Fujita (藤田咲, Fujita Saki).

Initially released only in Japanese, Hatsune Miku is set to be released in the western market, with English voice data. The release date currently is unknown, but the voice data will be provided by the same voice actress.

Hatsune Miku (Hatsune Miku 初音ミク)

Character Overview

Miku is designed to be "an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost". KEI at that time had a hard time designing Miku since he did not have an idea of an image on how a "singing computer" is like (Well, he did not even know what a "synthesizer" is like at that time), so the design took more than a month to finish. The digital design on Miku's skirt and boots are based off synthesizer program colours and the bars represent the actual bars within the program.

KEI decided to stick with the twintails after trying them out initialy; Whereas Cryton had a different hairstyle in mind that time.

The First Vocaloid "Diva"

VOCALOID, at that time was just an obscure program, but the popularity soon soared with NicoNicoDouga played a fundamental role in the recognition and popularity of the software today. Soon after its release, users of Nico Nico Douga started posting videos with songs created by the software. According to Crypton, a popular video with a comically-altered Miku holding a spring/Welsh onion, singing levan Polkka, presented multifarious possibilities of applying the software in multimedia content creation. As recognition and popularity grew, Nico Nico Douga became a place for collaborate content creation. Popular original songs written by a user would generate illustrations, animation in 2D and 3D, and remixes by other users. Other creators would show their unfinished work and ask for ideas.

As of September 2007, VOCALOID 2 Hatsune Miku sold many copies, according to Amazon, totaling 57,500,001 yen, making her the topmost selling program of that time.

Impact in pixiv

As of November 21, 2010, There are about 154,000 Hatsune Miku related illustrations, ranked no.1 in the character list that has most tags associated with, with the second being Honda Kiku of Hetalia.

As of May 11 2011, 182804 Hatsune Miku illustrations have been uploaded so far.

Many illustrations that have been posted in pixiv are sold in their seperate, respective doujins in Comiket, pixiv also sold their own published VOCALOID illustration books under the name "FIRST NUMBER, PIXIV HATSUNE MIKU ILLUSTRATIONS", with a total 47 pages of illustrations done by various veteran artists.

Cultural Impact

As her popularity grows, she appeared in many different medias since then :

A manga called Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix began serialization in the Japanese manga magazine Comic Rush on November 26, 2007, published by Jive. The manga is drawn by Kei, the original character designer for Miku.
A second manga called "Hachune Miku no Nichijō Roipara!" drawn by Ontama began serialization in the manga magazine Comp Ace on December 26, 2007, published by Kadokawa Shoten.
"Chibi Miku-san", a very popular 4-koma manga can be found in pixiv as well as his own webpage
At CEATEC Japan 2009, Boffin, in joint with Yamaha had the robot model HRP-4C react to the Vocaloid software for demonstrational purposes. She was dressed up to look like Hatsune Miku for the demo. Miku was one of 3 voicebanks HRP-4C was set up to react to, the other two were Gumi and Crypton's CV-4Cβ.
Miku's first appearance in an anime is in episode 5 and 13 of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei in which she (and other Vocaloids) auditioned to dub Otonashi Meru's voice.

Miku also had her appearances in games as well.

The Japanese version of PangYa started a campaign with Hatsune Miku on May 22, 2008 in which she is included as one of the characters.
She also appeared in 13-sai no Hellowork DS (Job Placement for the Age of 13) for the Nintendo DS where she is included as one of the characters.
Miku Hatsune also stars in a video game of her own, Hatsune Miku - Project Diva on the Playstation Portable (PSP), and Arcade (known as "Hatsune Miku - Project Diva Arcade") in Japan.
In Tales of Graces (Wii), she is a downloadable costume for one of the characters, namely Sophie.
In Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP), her hairstyle is available for female characters, and her costume as well as multiple weapons themed after leeks are unlockable by inputting certain passwords.

Aside from her appearances in the form of Anime, Manga and Games, she also had her appearances in many concerts. One of them is the ever famous "Miku no Hi Kanshasai 39's Giving Day", a solo live performance concert took place in Zepp Tokyo in Odaiba, Tokyo.

Towards the International Market

On September 18, 2010, The CEO of Crypton Future Media appeared in San Francisco at the start of the San Francisco tour where the first Hatsune Miku concert was hosted in North America , featuring songs provided by the Miku. A second screening of the concert was on October 11, 2010 in the San Francisco Viz Cinema. A screening of the concert was also shown in New York City in the city's New York Anime Festival. Videos of her performance are due to be released worldwide.

On October 8, 2010, at the New York Comic-Con, Ito Hiroyuki (Crypton's CEO) announced that if Miku's facebook page hits 39,390 "likes", an English bank will be developed. The project was termed "Project MIKUCASH". As a result, Miku's page has reached more than 39,390 "likes" on her Facebook page, which is run by Crypton staff. It has been confirmed that there will be more released on this soon. Samples have already been made and demos are said to be in the process of preparations. A Tweet from Crypton on Twitter confirms that they are not sure if English Miku will be Vocaloid2 or Vocaloid3.

Recently in May 2011, Toyota used Hatsune Miku to for two online adverts to promote their car the Corolla. She is also displayed on the official Toyota page.

On the May 7th, USAmazon placed a preview of Supercell's hit song "World is Mine" as a single. The entry was presented as "The World is Mine Feat. Hatsune Miku".

Other information

Age : 16 (in USA, her age is legal enough for her to drive, hence the Corolla online adverts)

Height : 156CM

Weight : 42KG

Genre preferred : Idol-pop, Dance-pop

Tempo preferred : Songs in 70 - 150 BPM (Beats per Minute)

Voice Tone : A3 - E5

These information below are thought to be made up by Hatsune Miku fans and are in no way official

Birthday : March 9th, 2007 (Mi being 3, hence March, and ku being 9, hence the date), August 31st, 2007 (The release of VOCALOID Hatsune Miku, also the date where people submit their illustrations about Hatsune Miku wishing her happy birthday)

Favourite Food : Welsh Onion