Miku Hatsune

* Suit
* Normal

**Hatsune Miku** (Japanese: 初音ミク), sometimes called **Miku Hatsune**, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official moe anthropomorph, a 15-year-old teenage girl with long, turquoise twintails. She uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 3, and Vocaloid 4 singing synthesizing technologies. She also uses Crypton Future Media's Piapro Studio, a singing synthesizer VSTi Plugin. She was the second Vocaloid sold using the Vocaloid 2 engine and the first Japanese Vocaloid to use the Japanese version of the Vocaloid 2 engine. Her voice is modeled from Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita. Miku's personification has been marketed as a virtual idol and has performed at concerts onstage as an animated projection (rear cast projection on a specially coated glass screen).

The name of the character comes from merging the Japanese words for first (初, *hatsu*), sound (音, *ne*), and future (ミク, *miku*), thus meaning "the first sound of the future",[3] referring to her position as the first of Crypton's "Character Vocal Series".

## Development

Hatsune Miku was the first Vocaloid developed by Crypton Future Media after they handled the release of the Yamaha vocal Meiko and Kaito. The name of "Hatsune Miku" was conceived soon after the Vocaloid 2 announcements, when an English and Japanese vocal were developed for the character. The intended design was delayed and later used for Megurine Luka instead. Miku was intended to be the first of a series of Vocaloids called the "*Character Vocal Series*", which included Kagamine Rin/Len and Megurine Luka. 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 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 her the third Vocaloid to be sold commercially by the company.

## Appearance

When KEI illustrated Miku, he was given a color scheme to work with (based on the YAMAHA synthesizers' signature blue-green colour) and was asked to draw Miku as an android. Crypton also provided KEI with Miku's detailed concepts, however, Crypton said it was not easy to explain what a "Vocaloid" was to him. KEI said he could not create an image of a "singing computer" at first, as he did not even know what a "synthesizer" was. It took him more than a month to complete the commission.

Miku was originally intended to have a different hairstyle, but after trying out pigtails, KEI thought they were more suitable. Her pigtails have since become an iconic part of her design. On June 22, 2012, Hatsune Miku's twin tails even earned her the title of the Twin Tail which best represented the 2000s, marking her the best set of Twin Tails from the dawn of the 21st century. She now shares her twin tail distinction with other characters like Sailor Moon (who won best Twin Tails back in the 90s period).

The digital design on Miku's skirt and boots are based on synthesizer program colours, and the bars represent actual bars within the program, following Crypton's ideas. Part of her design is based on some of YAMAHA's keyboard models, particularly the DX-100 and the DX-7. The thin squares around her pigtails are futuristic ribbons made of a special material that floats in place. As seen in KEI's art for Miku, they are able to hold Miku's pigtails in place without having to physically touch the hair itself. The ribbons are also reported by KEI to be the hardest item on the character's design for cosplayers to recreate.

After an internet meme involving Hachune Miku, Miku was associated with a spring onion (often mistaken for a leek due to the similar appearance). This, along with KAITO's association with ice cream, started a discussion called "the Item War" within the VOCALOID fandom, where it became traditional for new VOCALOIDs to have an item assigned to them and the items were debated upon until one stuck via an Internet Meme. This occurrence has since died out.

Her VOCALOID2 Append design is often subjected to censorship. In the original design, there is a bare strip of flesh under the tie area. In many depictions, this bare strip of flesh is not shown and is covered. For example, while Max Factory models showing the uncensored version in their normal and Figma models, the Project Diva game series shy away from showing any exposure.

During her work as an office lady, she wears a business suit. The suit contains a black jacket with white shirt underneath and a black pencil skirt. She also puts on her grey stockings and work shoes. She still wears the suit even in the hot summer days and in the warm beaches.

## Personality

Hatsune Miku is a carefree and cheerful-hearted 15-year-old girl who is very good in singing. Altough, she is heroically poupular, she attends a lot of good things with her good friends like KAITO and other Vocaloids, who have been friendly to her.

In work, she is a hardworking and serious office lady, working from Monday to Saturday. She focuses on her work in the accounting firm and does her best job to become a better office lady. In addition to her job as a J-pop idol, which has a salary of about 15 million USD, she also gets her salary as an office lady of about 2000 USD per week for most of her charity work for her Hatsune Miku Charity Project.

## Characteristics

During Miku's development, Crypton decided to take a different approach from that used by the other Vocaloid sound bank publishers.[*citation needed*] 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.[*citation needed*] Miku was originally intended to have a different hairstyle, but Kei stuck to pigtails or bunches after trying them out.[*citation needed*] Crypton then officially created and posted Miku's personal data sheet. However, this only contained her 'physical' and technical traits; Crypton did not provide much information about Miku's personality, which has allowed song/music video creators and fans to choose the traits that they think suit her best.[*citation needed*]

 **Suggested Vocal Range** | A3–E5, B2–B3

### Cultural impact

Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese video streaming website similar to YouTube, 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 her sound bank. According to Crypton, a popular video featuring Miku's chibi version, Hachune Miku, singing and dancing to "Ievan Polkka" 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 state of Nevada's Black Rock Desert, though it did not reach outer space. 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 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. 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 made by Ordet was streamed for free as part of a promotional campaign running from June 25 to August 31, 2010. A televised anime 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."[*citation needed*] 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 or animism, but also in the long tradition of Karakuri ningyō 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* (originating from the Miku Twitter parody account *mikumiku\_ebooks* which tweeted "i created minecraft") as well as the book series *Harry Potter*. Both of these attributions came about after the original creator published transphobic tweets which resulted in major backlash from 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 "Kaikai Emaki" (怪々絵巻). During an episode in the *Lucky Star* OVA, Kagami Hiiragi gets magically transformed into Miku cosplay. A character in the anime *Kämpfer* appears dressed as Miku in episode seven. She also appeared in the large plasma screen in *Chrome Shelled Regios* 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* 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.

A series of rhythm games starting from *Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA* were produced by Sega under license using Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Vocaloids, as well as "fan-made" Vocaloids like Akita Neru. TinierMe also made attire that looks like Miku's for their services, allowing users to make their avatar resemble her. The series has sold 6 million 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. Hatsune Miku is also briefly referenced in the game *Recettear*, 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.

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* as a costume for the player's female character, as well as her hairstyle and leek-themed weapons. Miku appears in the PlayStation 3 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*.

In 2014, Korg introduced "Miku Stomp", a guitar effects unit 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*. 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. 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* also with a dancer whose resembles Miku. Then, "Love Ward" 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'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.

## Featured music

In August 2010, over 22,000 original songs had been written for 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 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 *Sakura no Ame* (桜ノ雨) by Absorb and *Miku no Kanzume* (みくのかんづめ) by OSTER-project. She had covered Nyan Cat called "Nyanyanyanyan!" by daniwell-P. Kagamine Len and Rin's songs were covered by Asami Shimoda in the album *Prism* credited to "Kagamine Rin/Len feat. Asami Shimoda". Another song original sung by Miku, "Color", was covered by Maria, and featured as the opening theme of the 2011 anime series *Freezing*.

As a virtual idol, Hatsune Miku performed her first "live" concert during Animelo Summer Live 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 also performed her first overseas live concert on November 21, 2009, during Anime Festival Asia (AFA) in Singapore. On March 9, 2010, Miku's first solo live performance titled "Miku no Hi Kanshasai 39's Giving Day" was opened at the Zepp Tokyo in Odaiba, Tokyo. 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 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 entitled "Weebmalion", appeared in 2018, this time featuring a real soloist, tenor Aleksander Kunach, singing with her in a love duet written by Polish composer, 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's world tour ArtRave: The Artpop Ball, performing throughout the first month of her 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 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 made her American network television debut as she 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 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.

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.

On December 11, 2020, Hatsune Miku was a featured artist on a remixed version of American rapper Ashnikko's song "Daisy" titled "Daisy 2.0".

## See also

* List of anime girls age 15
* VOCALOID