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posted by takyon on Monday November 06 2017, @03:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the have-some-fun-with-me dept.

Diehard fans turn virtual teen singer into Japanese mega-star

She wears extremely short skirts, sports blue pigtails to her knees and has the boundless energy of a playful puppy. During her 10-year career, she's released more than 100,000 songs in a variety of languages and opened shows for Lady Gaga. And yet Hatsune Miku, who boasts 2.5 million Facebook followers, doesn't actually exist — at least not in the typical way we think of a flesh-and-blood diva. Miku is a computer-simulated pop star created more than a decade ago by Hiroyuki Ito, CEO of Crypton Future Media in Sapporo, Japan.

A virtual music star, driven by fans and voice-synthesis software. Here's a sample video, if you're curious. I can't judge the voice, since I don't speak japanese, but the animation is remarkably good.

takyon: Wikipedia for Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid. Have some fun with Miku! meme (YTP version. Warning: Gets LOUD).

News? Maybe not. However, you're on the right track:

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @05:16AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @05:16AM (#592873)

    Only in Japan? What about Gorillaz? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillaz [wikipedia.org]

    Their entire band is virtual, which is a step further than the particular linked Hatsune Miku video.

    Hatsune Miku does seem to be a much bigger deal though.

    Also Hatsune Miku has done plenty of shows outside Japan: http://mikuexpo.com/na2016/ [mikuexpo.com]

    Anyway, I think the readers here would enjoy knowing that there is an "Internet Explorer-tan", an actual official Microsoft (contracted) production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTUlF7NA2o [youtube.com] (and she is not the only Microsoft associated anime girl)

    These days I think it would be hard to find something that not at least indirectly associated with an anime girl somehow (Feel free to take that as a challenge).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @06:02AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @06:02AM (#592885)

    These days I think it would be hard to find something that not at least indirectly associated with an anime girl somehow (Feel free to take that as a challenge).

    Soylentnews?

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday November 06 2017, @06:03AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday November 06 2017, @06:03AM (#592886) Journal

    The community driven success (where fans compose many of the songs, and some of them become super popular) and complete voice synthesis (Vocaloid software) are differences. I would also compare the concerts to each other.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:33AM (#592951)

    Anyway, I think the readers here would enjoy knowing that there is an "Internet Explorer-tan", an actual official Microsoft (contracted) production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTUlF7NA2o [youtube.com] [youtube.com] (and she is not the only Microsoft associated anime girl)

    That's just Microsoft Embracing a concept (OS-tan [wikipedia.org]) that already existed, and is by no means limited to Microsoft software.

    Apparently there is a specialized wiki [ostan-collections.net] for them as well. Aside from MS, you can find OS-tans for various Linux flavors, Macs, Mozilla software etc.

  • (Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Monday November 06 2017, @03:00PM (1 child)

    by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Monday November 06 2017, @03:00PM (#593066)

    Hatsune Miku's been around for awhile now, and actually there's an entire group of related characters associated with different products.

    The most interesting thing is actually the licensing. The main reason she's been successful isn't because she's particularly original, it is because her creators are so loose with her licensing and encourage users to generate content and share it... using the software they bought from the creators, of course.

    I didn't read the article, but it's interesting to note they had trouble getting actual singers to help with the project. The singers themselves could see where this was leading and didn't want to create their own competition. In retrospect though, I think it's the recording companies that are the most concerned.

    • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday November 06 2017, @04:25PM

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 06 2017, @04:25PM (#593145) Journal

      Hatsune Miku's been around for awhile now

      I know that news doesn't necessarily have to be super-fresh to be notable and culturally relevant.

      TFA from MalayMail has dateline "TOKYO, Oct. 30", but Hatsune Miku was released in 2007 [wikia.com], and the underlying Vocaloid software is from 2004 [vocaloidotaku.net]. A search on YouTube.com today for Hatsuni Miku [youtube.com] returns over four million results, some of them fully ten years old [youtube.com].

      "Oh, you never heard about diet coke and menthos [xkcd.com] Hatsuni Miku? There's this cool article..."