Hatsune Miku

Hatsune Miku was the first Vocaloid developed by Crypton Future Media after they handled the release of the Yamaha vocal Meiko and Kaito. 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 and Megurine Luka. Each had a particular concept and vocal direction. During Miku's development, Crypton decided that to make the product successful, not only would a highly appealing voice need to be developed, but the voice needed an image. The task of coming up with Miku's image went to the manga artist Kei Garō, who was already known from doing art for various doujin artists. When Kei designed Miku, his only direction was her color scheme (based on Yamaha's synthesizer's signature turquoise color), and that she was an android. Various aspects of her clothing, such as the computer interface on her left sleeve, were based on Yamaha's synthesizers. Miku's vocal samples were taken 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. Hatsune Miku was first released on August 31, 2007, as the third commercially sold Vocaloid library. Crypton chose to market 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. Additional software On April 30, 2010, an 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 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. 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 seventh Append voicebank, a falsetto voice, had been recorded; however, since the developers did not think it would be useful on its own, no plans were made for an independent release. Miku's English vocal was 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 unofficial program MikuMikuDance 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. An English voicebank for Hatsune Miku was officially announced in 2013, after having been promised in 2010, in celebration of the official Facebook page hitting 39 390 likes. The decision to move to Vocaloid 3 and lack of experience with English pronunciation delayed the release. It was finally released on August 31, 2013, as a 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 Vocaloid 4, all Hatsune Miku V3 vocals could use the new Cross-Synthesis system (XSY) built for the new engine of Vocaloid 3. The voice was 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 released on August 30, 2016. A Mandarin Chinese voicebank was released in September 2017, making Hatsune Miku the first officially trilingual Vocaloid product. Her Chinese name is ; are the kanji characters for her given name, Miku. At 2019, head of Crypton Future Media's Character Development Wataru Sasaki announced that Hatsune Miku would be departing Yamaha's Vocaloid engine, and would not be utilizing Vocaloid 5 for any further development of their voice banks. It was established that the "identity" of the voices would remain the same, however. Then, on December 24, 2019, Sasaki announced that information about Hatsune Miku NT (Newtype) would be released. On the same day, Sonicwire announced that the release of Hatsune Miku NT was planned for summer 2020, and those who had registered for the software early would be able to access a prototype of the new engine, Piapro Studio NT. After delays, the Piapro Studio prototype was released on June 4, 2020. The full version of Piapro Studio and Hatsune Miku NT were released on November 27, 2020. On August 1, 2024, Sonicwire posted that on August 30, 2024, they would be releasing the Piapro Characters Super Pack, a voicebank bundle that includes a Hatsune Miku variant for Vocaloid 4. In this post, it was also announced that a Hatsune Miku V6 would be released, compatible with Vocaloid 6 and its AI voice synthesization tools. It was also announced that an updated version of Hatsune Miku NT was anticipated for the end of the year. Early access for Hatsune Miku NT V2 was released on October 23, 2024, before being officially launched on March 18, 2025.{{cite interview |last=Koizumi |first=Kiyomizu |subject-link= |date=March 19, 2025 |title=初音ミク NTバージョン2がリリース。複数のエンジンでクリエイターの思いを存分に反映できる環境を |url=https://www.dtmstation.com/archives/70423.html |work=DTM Station == 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 Japanese vocal to be developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media. Hatsune Miku's instant success is owed to Vocaloid being a cultural hit in Japan - 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 went on sale, it ranked at No. 7 in the top 10 world singles list on iTunes in its first week of sales. Due to Hatsune Miku's massive popularity in Japan, Crypton asked their Japanese fan base if it was acceptable for them to sell her as a virtual singer to the new market audience. Good Smile Racing at Fuji Speedway, 2018 In 2008, Good Smile Racing began licensing Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Future Media-related Vocaloid content. Studie participated in the 2008 and 2009 seasons using a BMW Z4 E86 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. Winter festivals Sapporo has been a major target of sponsorship since 2010, with Crypton Future Media sponsoring the winter festivals. The portrayal of Hatsune Miku for the event is a derivative design called . Although originally this was simply a recoloring of the normal Hatsune Miku, unique designs have occurred every year since 2011, and figurines based on the design have been made based on the year's design. 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 design by dera_fury, who was the winner of the 2014 Snow Miku contest. The illustration was "Nekosumi". The design featured a pet called Rabbit Yukine, based on a mountain hare. From 2015 on, design submissions also include a costume for 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 hit a woman in her early 60s on the back of the head; no serious injuries were sustained in the process. == 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 the character's sound bank. According to Crypton, a popular video featuring Miku's chibi version, Hachune Miku, singing and dancing to "" while spinning a spring onion in homage to Loituma Girl's original video (which led to Miku being commonly associated with spring onions, as well as leeks, due to the Japanese variation looking similar to them) 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 aluminum 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 (known online as "chodenzi-P", his producer name), this project has received the backing of Dr. Seiichi Sakamoto of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. On December 22, 2009, the petition exceeded the 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 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. 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, and 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 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. Akihiko Kondo, a Japanese school administrator, unofficially married Hatsune Miku. In November 2018, he held a formal wedding with the character, attracting media attention. Crypton Future Media wrote a statement to Fox News, clarifying that the company was not involved in the wedding. Commenting on it, they said: "We see this as one individual's way of expressing his appreciation for Hatsune Miku, and we respect that." The name "Miku" (, ) has been used as an Internet chat slang term for "Thank you" when written with numbers: and , an example of numeric substitution in Japanese. The number is traditionally used as a word pun equivalent for "thank you". By reading as , and as , becomes . 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 Miku to home exploits. There is therefore no single storyline, and the entire setting within the manga is unofficial. Miku 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, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA, were produced by Sega under license using Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Vocaloids. 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. The American MMO game TinierMe made attire that looks like Miku's for their services, allowing users to make their avatar resemble her. Miku appears in the PlayStation 3 version of The Idolm@ster 2 as downloadable content. Hatsune Miku's attire has appeared in Phantasy Star Online 2 as a female character's costume, along with "Miku Dayō" as a Mag Design. She makes an appearance in the game Brave Frontier. In 2012, a collaboration between Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and Hatsune Miku was produced in promotion of an opera titled The End, where Vocaloids take the place of all human actors. The opera debuted in December 2012 at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media. 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. In 2016, a remix of "Ievan Polkka" appeared in an LG G5 commercial. "PoPiPo" was announced to appear in Just Dance 2017 with a dancer who resembles Miku. Then, "Love Ward" by OSTER project was announced to appear in Just Dance 2018 with the same Miku-resembling dancer. In 2016, the incremental dating sim Crush Crush featured a character based on Hatsune Miku, "Alpha Prelude", as a romanceable love interest. In August 2017, to celebrate the tenth 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 (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 unlocks a Miku-themed outfit for Ulala (under Channel 39). In the 2024 game, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, two songs from Hatsune Miku Colorful Stage! are available to unlock and listen to while roaming in the game's world. In April 2024 a Hatsune Miku Character DLC was added to the game Crypt of the Necrodancer which added an eighth soundtrack to the game featuring a number of Hatsune Miku songs including 2 made exclusively for the game. In the same month a collaboration between Hatsune Miku and Magic The Gathering was announced and would feature 6 Hatsune Miku themed Magic cards for use in the Magic the Gathering Card game. In Season 7 of Epic Games and Harmonix's Fortnite Festival, Hatsune Miku appeared as the featured artist as an unlockable character with two outfits, included in both the Music Pass and Item Shop. Additionally, other cosmetics such as jam tracks, instruments, and emotes themed around her were made available for purchase. She also received vehicle cosmetics in Rocket League. Miku appears as a playable character via downloadable content in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. To promote the game, five Sonic-themed Vocaloid tracks were produced, along with accompanying art and music videos, under the name Project ONSOKU. Project Voltage In September 2023, a collaboration project between Pokémon and Hatsune Miku was announced, featuring 18 illustrations and 18 songs with music videos. == Featured music ==

In August 2010, over 22,000 original songs had been written under the name Hatsune Miku. In 2011, it was reported that she had 100,000 songs to her name. 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 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, by OSTER-project, and by Wowaka. The viral Nyan Cat meme featured an Utau cover of "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" by Daniwell-P, the original song featuring Miku. As a virtual idol, Hatsune Miku first featured in a "live" virtual 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 made her first overseas live appearance at a 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. 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 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 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 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 did a collaboration with Hatsune Miku for the song "Through the Night", which was released on May 11, 2018. 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". In January 2024, she was once again announced as a performer at Coachella. In 2022, American rock band Set It Off featured Hatsune Miku in their single "Why Do I", which replaces some of the vocals from their song of the same name from their Elsewhere album with Hatsune Miku. ==See also==