Hatsune Miku: Virtual Idol
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.04 – 22:30 -
The title may read like a bad anime series title, but 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku) is not fictional. Well, she doesn’t really exist, except for in ニコニコ動画, but she is the closest thing to a real virtual idol that I can think of.
Let me give you some background. Yamaha came out with a singing virtual vocalization program. It was released in Japan as Vocaloid. People started to make videos of it singing things, associating it with a cute anime girl character, and now all of this is exploding on ニコ動.
Imagine all those people who do karaoke on YouTube, but with a sense of shame. Why not have a virtual proxy sing songs for you. It’s so meta.
I’m still amazed that they can even get a computer voice to sing. And the fact that this idol is a community created thing and not some corporation’s mind control world domination plan (yet…) is something that makes me feel good about the world. The future really is here!
Here are a few of my favorite 初音ミク songs:
1. ワールドイズマイン / World Is Mine (an original song)
2. みくみくにしてあげる♪ / MikuMiku ni shite ageru♪ (an original song)
3. Ievan Polkka
4. ﾄｩﾙﾄｩﾙ☆ﾀﾞﾀﾞﾀﾞを初音ミクが歌って踊る / Hatsune Miku does Tunak
There are lots of covers and original songs, so go seek out your favorites!
Tags: anime, character, cute, music, nicovideo, technology, video, vocaloid
Posted in technology | 5 Comments »
5 Trackback(s)