Hatsune Miku From the Manga Hatsune Mix & From Vocaloid 2(*) Character Series
Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) is the first installment in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series released on August 31, 2007. 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). The data for the voice was created by actually sampling the voice of Saki Fujita, a Japanese voice actress. Unlike general purpose speech synthesizers, the software is tuned to create J-pop songs commonly heard in anime, but it is possible to create songs from other genres.
Nico Nico Douga(*) played a fundamental role in the recognition and popularity of the software. Soon after the release of the software, 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 leek, singing Ievan Polkka, presented multifarious possibilities of applying the software in multimedia content creation. As the recognition and popularity of the software 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.
A Hatsune Miku 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 Hatsune Miku.
Her first appearance in an anime is in (Zoku) Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei, where she (and various other people and characters) try out to be the voice of Meru Otonashi. For online multi-player games, 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.
Her first appearance in a video game is in 13-sai no Hello Work DS (13歳のハローワークDS, 13-sai no Hello Work DS) for the Nintendo DS where she is included as one of the characters. Hatsune Miku will be given a PlayStation Portable game called Hatsune Miku: Project Diva to be released in 2009 by Sega.
Hatsune Miku made a cameo appearance in the Lucky Star OVA in the form of Kagami's cosplay in her dream. Hatsune Miku received the 2008 Seiun Award in the free category.
*Vocaloid 2 is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation that enables users to synthesize singing by just typing in lyrics and melody.
*Nico Nico Douga (ニコニコ動画, Niko Niko Dōga, lit. "Smiley videos") is a popular video sharing website in Japan managed by Niwango. Its nickname is "Niconico" or "Nico-dō", where "nikoniko" is the Japanese ideophone for smiling. Nico Nico Douga is the ninth most visited website in Japan. The site won the Japanese Good Design Award in 2007, and an Honorary Mention of the Digital Communities category at Prix Ars Electronica 2008.
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