初音ミク (hatsune miku) needs no introduction at this point. you've definitely seen her at least once while browsing online. one could even say she's the mascot of the internet, and i can't really blame them. miku was the source of a huge spark of creativity for people (mainly net/doujin musicians and illustrators at the time) in the late 2000s and still is a huge figure of inspiration and self expression to this day. i sincerely hope that miku can be used and loved for years to come, i love her so much and i love what most people can do with her
i have a page that encaptures a lot of what miku means to me, which you can view here
my personal favorite songs related to miku (mostly old)
- koisuru voc@loid by oster project
- miku miku ni shite ageru (shite yan yo) by ika
- packaged by kz
the 3 pillars of vocaloid characterization and songs i still love to this day. all of them are simply wonderful songs and are Very reminiscent of 2d idol culture of that time, you really can't go wrong with cute songs about miku wanting to sing for you
apparently a lot of people aren't entirely sure what's up with miku (misinformation am i right Haha Hahah ahah) so i'm giving the quickest rundown for the more confusing stuff
"is miku a vtuber?" no. there was a miku vtuber that someone launched one time, but it wasn't official
"is miku an AI?" NO. EVERYTHING ABOUT HER FROM THE VOICE TO THE MUSIC TO THE ILLUSTRATION IS MADE BY REAL PEOPLE. DO NOT CALL HER AI IT IS BLATANTLY FALSE ON SO MANY LEVELS
"is miku an anime?" she doesn't have an anime of her own, but she's a reoccuring character in jashin-chan dropkick, himouto! umaru-chan, and shinkansen henkei robo shinkalion. other anime, such as watamote and lucky star, reference her in passing as a generalization of vocal synth culture in otaku spaces or cosplaying events. there are anime directly based on miku's impact, such as actors -songs connection-, and there are anime about music miku is featured in, such as the black rock shooter anime
"i heard miku isn't a vocaloid anymore" yeah crypton cut ties with yamaha and miku is currently active on piapro studio which is what crypton and piapro have been developing (but the voicebank and software actually sucks). you can still use her vocaloid banks from v3 onwards (at least legally) so don't worry, but i really don't recommend piapro studio if you want to begin using miku
"does miku have a boyfriend/girlfriend/partner?" canonically no. you can't really go off of official media to really get "canon" content related to the vocal synth either since it'll just be canon to that media only and not to the actual character. "official media" like games or manga that crypton worked on isn't canon either and you shouldn't flock to it for "canon proof" because she's a blank slate, nothing is canon. i do encourage headcanons though go fucking ham. let the gay synths kiss
"is miku the first vocaloid or not?" do NOT let that cv01 fool you, there were 6 voicebanks before miku and she released for vocaloid2 shortly after sweet ann did. miku was the first to popularize vocaloid and vocal synths as a whole though, and cv01 just designates her spot as the first "official" character in the cv series
"so why did miku get popular?" this is a subject of Some debate but in short most people believe it was because her avatar was cute and it marketed well to niconico netizens who were already making media fanmusic thanks to touhou project
"why is miku associated with a leek?" because of the ievan polkka cover by otomania, which in turn was a reference to the leekspin meme. so everyone say thank you bleach for starting the item wars
"does miku perform as a hologram?" it's actually a screen projection that they use. sorry to crush your dreams, it crushed mine too
"can miku speak (insert language here)?" she has japanese, english, and (mandarin) chinese voicebanks but she can say pretty much anything if you try hard enough
i have a page that encaptures a lot of what miku means to me, which you can view here
my personal favorite songs related to miku (mostly old)
- koisuru voc@loid by oster project
- miku miku ni shite ageru (shite yan yo) by ika
- packaged by kz
the 3 pillars of vocaloid characterization and songs i still love to this day. all of them are simply wonderful songs and are Very reminiscent of 2d idol culture of that time, you really can't go wrong with cute songs about miku wanting to sing for you
apparently a lot of people aren't entirely sure what's up with miku (misinformation am i right Haha Hahah ahah) so i'm giving the quickest rundown for the more confusing stuff
"is miku a vtuber?" no. there was a miku vtuber that someone launched one time, but it wasn't official
"is miku an AI?" NO. EVERYTHING ABOUT HER FROM THE VOICE TO THE MUSIC TO THE ILLUSTRATION IS MADE BY REAL PEOPLE. DO NOT CALL HER AI IT IS BLATANTLY FALSE ON SO MANY LEVELS
"is miku an anime?" she doesn't have an anime of her own, but she's a reoccuring character in jashin-chan dropkick, himouto! umaru-chan, and shinkansen henkei robo shinkalion. other anime, such as watamote and lucky star, reference her in passing as a generalization of vocal synth culture in otaku spaces or cosplaying events. there are anime directly based on miku's impact, such as actors -songs connection-, and there are anime about music miku is featured in, such as the black rock shooter anime
"i heard miku isn't a vocaloid anymore" yeah crypton cut ties with yamaha and miku is currently active on piapro studio which is what crypton and piapro have been developing (but the voicebank and software actually sucks). you can still use her vocaloid banks from v3 onwards (at least legally) so don't worry, but i really don't recommend piapro studio if you want to begin using miku
"does miku have a boyfriend/girlfriend/partner?" canonically no. you can't really go off of official media to really get "canon" content related to the vocal synth either since it'll just be canon to that media only and not to the actual character. "official media" like games or manga that crypton worked on isn't canon either and you shouldn't flock to it for "canon proof" because she's a blank slate, nothing is canon. i do encourage headcanons though go fucking ham. let the gay synths kiss
"is miku the first vocaloid or not?" do NOT let that cv01 fool you, there were 6 voicebanks before miku and she released for vocaloid2 shortly after sweet ann did. miku was the first to popularize vocaloid and vocal synths as a whole though, and cv01 just designates her spot as the first "official" character in the cv series
"so why did miku get popular?" this is a subject of Some debate but in short most people believe it was because her avatar was cute and it marketed well to niconico netizens who were already making media fanmusic thanks to touhou project
"why is miku associated with a leek?" because of the ievan polkka cover by otomania, which in turn was a reference to the leekspin meme. so everyone say thank you bleach for starting the item wars
"does miku perform as a hologram?" it's actually a screen projection that they use. sorry to crush your dreams, it crushed mine too
"can miku speak (insert language here)?" she has japanese, english, and (mandarin) chinese voicebanks but she can say pretty much anything if you try hard enough