Hatsune Miku (Virtual Idol)

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク?) is a humanoid persona voiced by a singing synthesizer application developed by Crypton Future Media. She uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3 singing synthesizing technology. She was the second Vocaloid sold using the Vocaloid 2 engine, and the first Japanese Vocaloid to use the Japanese version of the Vocaloid 2 engine. Her voice is sampled from Japanese voice actress, Saki Fujita. Hatsune Miku has performed at her concerts onstage as an animated projection.[1] Hatsune Miku is portrayed to be a 16-year-old girl with long turquoise pigtails.

The name of the character comes from merging the Japanese words for first (初 hatsu?), sound (音 ne?) and future (Miku (ミク?) sounds like a nanori reading of future, 未来, normally read as "mirai"[2]), referring to her position as the first of Crypton's "Character Vocal Series". According to Crypton, her name is meant to signify the "first sound from the future".

“Her beauty is eternal, but that is only because she is virtual,” said a 19-year-old woman who said she is studying Japanese at a university in Orleans. “I was impressed by her unstable existence.”

A man from the audience said he enjoyed Miku’s performance, but that he was as well confused by the show.

“Hatsune Miku was not only cute, but also seemed to try to convey a deep message to us,” the 59-year-old man said. “But I was confused by the sounds and images.”

Keiichiro Shibuya, a musician who was involved in the special screening, said that is the point.

“I hoped to make an impact with art as ukiyoe paintings did,” Shibuya said after Hatsune Miku’s performance. “If our show confused spectators, that is what we wanted.”