Hatsune Miku

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) is the first Japanese Vocaloid2 in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series created by Crypton Future Media. It is considered as the most popular and well known Vocaloid and the first to become a pop idol. 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) thus meaning "the first sound from the future." The data for the voice was created by sampling the voice of Saki Fujita (藤田 咲, Fujita Saki), a Japanese voice actress.

History
Before Miku was released, Vocaloid was not much more than an obscure program. Nico Nico Douga played a fundamental role in the recognition and popularity of the software today. Soon after its release, 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 spring/Welsh onion, singing levan Polkka, presented multifarious possibilities of applying the software in multimedia content creation. As recognition and popularity 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.

The initial sales of Hatsune Miku were so high that Crypton could not keep up with the demand. In the first 12 days of sale, nearly 3,000 sales reservations were made. This was around one sale in 250 in the music software industry, quoted as "an impossible number" by Wataru Sasaki—the person in charge of the planning and production company 'surprise'. Amazon.co.jp stated on September 12, 2007 that they had sales of Hatsune Miku totaling 57,500,001 yen, making her the number one selling software of that time. It was confirmed in her first year alone, Miku sold 40,000+ units. Later reports came that she had sold 60,000+ copies of her software, normally selling 1,000 copies of a synthesizing software was considered good business. Because of Miku's success, Crypton Future Media were able to open up their services to allow more support for their Vocaloids, including websites such as Piapro and Karen-T, concerts and merchandise. By 2009, some were referring to her as Vocaloids first "Diva".

In late November 2009, a petition was launched in order to get a custom made Hatsune Miku aluminum plate (8 cm x 12 cm, 3.1" x 4.7") made that would be used as a balancing weight for the Japanese Venus spacecraft explorer Akatsuki. Started by Hatsune Miku fan Sumio Morioka that goes by chodenzi-P, this project has received the backing of Dr. Seiichi Sakamoto of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. On December 22, 2009, the petition exceeded the needed 10,000 signatures necessary to have the plates made. An original deadline of December 20, 2009 had been set to send in the petition, but due to a couple of delays in the Akatsuki project, a new deadline of January 6, 2010 was set; by this deadline, over 14,000 signatures had been received. On May 21, 2010 at 06:58:22 (JST), Akatsuki was launched, having three plates depicting Hatsune Miku.

On October 18, 2007, an Internet BBS website reported that she was suspected to be victim of censorship by Google and Yahoo!, since images of Miku did not show up on the image searches. Google and Yahoo denied any censorship on their part, blaming the missing images on a bug that does not only affect "Hatsune Miku" and related keywords but other search keywords as well. Both companies expressed a willingness to fix the problem as soon as possible. Images of Hatsune Miku were re-listed on Yahoo on October 19.

Miku was also the subject of one of the most controversial uses of the legal agreements of any Vocaloid producing studio was from the Democratic Party of Japan, whose running candidate, Kenzo Fujisue, attempted to secure the use of Miku's image in the Japanese House of Councillors election of July 11, 2010. The hope was that the party could use her image to appeal to younger voters. Although Crypton Future Media rejected the party's use of her image or name for political purposes, Fujisue released the song "We Are the One" using her voice on Youtube, by only replacing her image with the party's character in the music video.

Append - the Future of Miku
On April 30, 2010, Miku Append (初音ミク・アペンド), a data library which consisted of six new Miku voicebanks, was released. Both the Miku product and the Append product exist and are sold separately, and the voicebanks of Miku Append are different from the voicebank the original Miku has. All the new voicebanks were voiced by Saki Fujita: Soft, Sweet, Dark, Vivid, Solid, Light. Crypton announced that this is an append disk (an addition which offers extension to computer softwares and is similar to Expansion Packs in English) and users need the original Miku to utilize Miku Append. It costs collectively slightly under the original Miku price. While they had been announced on Miku's second birthday, they were released over eight months later. The different appends are meant to capture the "moods" and were described by Cypton Future Media as "like a rainbow of colour" and had been created from vocal performance of her voice provide.

The original appends planned had been "soft", "very small", "dark-prototype", "vivid", and "solid". However, "very small" was replaced with "sweet", "dark-prototype" became "dark", and "light" was added.Prior to the release, demos had constantly been put on Crypton's website. These included productions by various Vocaloid producers from Nico Nico Douga. Ryo's "Black Rock Shooter" 2M mix had also been done with one of the beta voicebanks. In December 2009, demo software versions of "soft" and "dark" were released. They did not allow VSQ saving, but did allow .wav rendering, which led to a stream of videos released on Nico Nico Douga.

Despite the success of Miku herself, her Append did not sell as many units. Following the Kagamine Append release, both the Kagamine and their Append software pushed Miku's Append software into 6th place on Crypton's sales page. Though it returned to popularity soon after, the reaction to the Append has never reached the same level as her original voicebank.

English Voicebank
On October 8, 2010, at the New York Comic-Con, Ito Hiroyuki (Crypton's CEO) announced that if Miku's facebook page hits 39,390 "likes", an English bank will be developed. The project was termed "Project MIKUCASH".

Miku's page has reached more than 39,390 "likes" on her Facebook page (run by Crypton staff). It has been confirmed that there will be more released on this soon. Samples have already been made and demos are said to be in the process of preparations. A Tweet from Crypton on Twitter confirms that they are not sure if English Miku will be Vocaloid2 or Vocaloid3. Early on in the English voicebank announcement, Crypton Future Media made a point across they would not make a localised version of the software if it did not meant their expectation, i.e. it did not sound cute enough.

The alpha stage of development went under review the weekend of the 19th of March 2011. By then it was still far from the beta stage, Crypton reported they would keep their fans up to date with its development and were aiming for a good qualified English voicebank. Crypton also report that they would like to do Miku English Appends in the future, however they have no specific plans right now.

On the 28 of May 2011, demos of Kaito Append Whisper and Power along with Miku English were posted on Nico Nico Douga. This voicebank was only 40% complete and there is more developement left to do, as noted by a number of native English fans her smoothness was lacking, but improvements had already been made from Luka's voicebank.

On July 2, 2011 a Beta version of Miku's English voicebank was used at the "MikuNopolis" concert in Los Angeles. It was used to enable Miku to address the audience and, with Luka, perform World's End Dancehall with English lyrics.

On Oct 16, a video was uploaded on Youtube with Miku's English Voicebank showing much improvement.
 * Miku singing Ballet Mecanique by Sakamoto Ryuichi
 * Miku singing Ballet Mecanique by Sakamoto Ryuichi

On Oct 24th, it was reported that Miku's voicebank is 70% complete and all the basic sounds had been captured.

Vocaloid 3 demo
Miku was one of two voicebanks used to demostrate the difference between Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3 when a Vocaloid 2 voicebank is imported into vocaloid 3. The other voicebank was Sweet Ann, unlike Ann Miku was not restricted to saying "My" in different keys again.

Marketing
Crypton had the idea to release Miku as "an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost." When KEI illustrated Miku, he was asked to draw Miku as an android and a color scheme to go off of (based on YAMAHA synthesizer's signature blue-green color). Crypton also provided KEI her detailed concepts, however, Crypton says it was not easy to explain what a "Vocaloid" was like to him, and KEI says he could not create an image of "singing computer" at first, as he did not even know what a "synthesizer" was. It took him more than a month. The digital design on Miku's skirt and boots are based off synthesizer program colours and the bars represent the actual bars within the program, following Crypton's idea. Miku was originally intended to have a different hairstyle, but KEI stuck to pigtails after trying them out.

When it comes to the Corolla Miku presented in 2011, her attire is slightly different from KEI's: instead of one skirt stripe and single floating ribbons, she now has two, as was intended by the client.

A 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 Miku. A second manga called "Hachune Miku no Nichijō Roipara!" drawn by Ontama began serialization in the manga magazine Comp Ace on December 26, 2007, published by Kadokawa Shoten. Miku sometimes wears glasses in the manga, and Rin and Len call her "onee-chan"(big sister). A yonkoma webcomic made by artist Minami called Chibi Miku-san can be found on his webpage, as well as on third party sites.

Robot Miku
At CEATEC Japan 2009, Boffin, in joint with Yamaha had the robot model HRP-4C react to the Vocaloid software for demonstrational purposes. She was dressed up to look like Hatsune Miku for the demo. Miku was one of 3 voicebanks HRP-4C was set up to react to, the other two were Gumi and Crypton's CV-4Cβ.


 * HRP-4C as Miku

Guest Appearances
Miku's popularity has expanded enough to have her appearance make cameos in various anime and manga, such as in Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Miku is seen in the auditions of the role of Meru Meru. In the OVA of Lucky Star, Hiiragi Kagami is forced to cosplay as Miku by the power of Konata's wand. .She and Rin are in a choir featured in Maria†Holic episode 12. Miku is also seen episode 11 of the anime Baka To Test To Shoukanjuu, in the B class. . A recolored Miku is also seen in episode 9 of MM! at the school festival holding a stick in the shape of a leek. In the anime Usagi Drop, in episode 6 a leek very similar to Miku's can be seen in a shopping bag. Miku also appears in Un-GO, in episode 1.

For online multiplayer 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 Hellowork DS (Job Placement for the Age of 13) for the Nintendo DS where she is included as one of the characters. Miku Hatsune also stars in a video game of her own, Hatsune Miku - Project Diva on the Playstation Portable (PSP) in Japan. In Tales of Graces (Wii), she is a downloadable costume for one of the characters. In Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP), her hairstyle is available for female characters, and her costume as well as multiple weapons themed after leeks are unlockable by inputting certain passwords.

Miku also appeared in the visual novel game Idolmaster 2 singng "The World is Mine". Her costume is also unlockable.

Miku also made a cameo appearance in a Weekly Jump strip.

Good Smile Racing
Since the 2008 season, different teams in the Super GT racing received their sponsorship under Good Smile Racing, and turned their cars to Vocaloid-related artwork


 * Studie, which participated in the 2008 with a BMW Z4 E86.
 * Studie also used Miku's image in the 2009 seasons with BMW Z4 E86.
 * Team COX, participating in the 2010 season, which used a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR and a Porsche 997 GT3-R. Their car used Racing Miku (an official Hatsune Miku derivative, wearing an orange race queen suit) as their image.
 * For the 2011 season GSR & Studie with TeamUKYO used Miku's image on their BMW E89 Z4 GT3 team car.

In 2011 a collab CD was released as "Hatsune Miku GT Project Theme song Collection".

Concerts
Miku and other Vocaloids began to appear in concerts in Japan 2009, since then she has made appearances outside of Japan. Hatsune Miku performed her first "live" concert like a virtual idol on a projection screen during Animelo Summer Live at the Saitama Super Arena on August 22, 2009. At the "MikuFes '09 (Summer)" event on August 31, 2009, her image was screened by rear projection on a mostly-transparent screen. Miku also performed her first overseas live concert on November 21, 2009, during Anime Festival Asia (AFA) in Singapore. On March 9, 2010, Miku's first solo live performance titled "Miku no Hi Kanshasai 39's Giving Day"「ミクの日感謝祭 39's Giving Day Project DIVA presents 初音ミク・ソロコンサート～こんばんは、初音ミクです. ～」 was opened at the Zepp Tokyo in Odaiba, Tokyo. The tour was run as part of promotions for Sega's Hatsune Miku: Project Diva video game in March 2010. The success and possibility of these tours is owed to the popularity of Hatsune Miku and so far Crypton is the only studio to have established a world tour of their Vocaloids, which led to subsequent concerts to be premiered on March 9.

Later, the CEO of Crypton Future Media appeared in San Francisco at the start of the San Francisco tour where the first Hatsune Miku concert was hosted in North America on September 18, 2010, featuring songs provided by the Miku software voice. A second screening of the concert was on October 11, 2010 in the San Francisco Viz Cinema. A screening of the concert was also shown in New York City in the city's New York Anime Festival. Hiroyuki Ito, and planner/producer, Wataru Sasaki, who were responsible for Miku's creation, attended an event on October 8, 2010 at the festival. Videos of her performance are due to be released worldwide.

On March 9, 2011, Miku's 2nd Performance(Hatsune Miku's Live Party 2011 39's Live in Tokyo)「初音ミク ライブパーティー 2011 -39’s LIVE IN TOKYO-」marked a new step in broadcasting concerts, Not only was the concert held at the same location Zepp Tokyo in Odaiba, Tokyo, it was also broadcasted into 15 others theaters within the vicinity of Japan, under the name (Hatsune Miku Live Party 2011 Live Viewing in Theater)「初音ミク ライブパーティ2011 ミクパ♪ 39's ライブビューイング イン シアター」. This particular concert did not use the traditional glass screen but a box screen to present Miku and the team. The Same concert was to be repeated in Miku's Home, Sapporo Hokkaido at Zepp Sapporo under the name (Hatsune Miku's Live Party 2011 39's Live in Sapporo)「初音ミク ライブパーティー 2011 -39’s LIVE IN SAPPORO-」, but was postponed due to the Great Japan Earthquake that occurred 2 days after the Tokyo Concert. It wasn't until April 27 where details of the postponed concert was given details.

On July 2, 2011, Miku's first concert performance in the United States was held in NOKIA theatre in Los Angeles, California, during the Anime Expo 2011 event. The concert was based on the "Miku no Hi Kanshasai 39's Giving Day" Concert, with improvements and new songs.

On August 16 to 17, the Postponed (Hatsune Miku's Live Party 2011 39's Live in Sapporo)「初音ミク ライブパーティー 2011 -39’s LIVE IN SAPPORO-」and was held for two days. It took place at the Sapporo Education and Culture Hall at Sapporo Hokkaido. This concert had been redone and the transparent glass screen was once again implemented. The concert was not broadcasted in NicoNicoDouga unlike previous concerts. It was broadcasted in the same theaters that broadcasted the last concert, but it included 2 additional theaters, one from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

A Sequel to the Sapporo Concert will take place in Singapore on November 11, 2011 at the I love Anisong Concert. This will mark her second visit to Singapore, with her Performing at the last years anisong concert, lacked Rin and Len and Luka.

Figurines


Miku's popularity has led to numerous figurines based on her image. Many are inspired by PVs made by fans and Vocaloid users.

For Miku's Append, a standard figurine was produced but both Figma and Nendoroid figurines have also been produced since.

A special version of Miku "Snow Miku" has also seen a number of figurines. This started out as a special seasonal Nendoroid but has seen been updated to add joints and become a Pullip doll alongside Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len. After the Earthquake in Japan in 2011, both a figure and Nendoroid version "support" version of Miku were made with donations going to the Japanese Red Cross for every sale. Due to the popularity of the Lucky Star Kagami cosplay both a nendoroid and a figma version of the character dressed as Hatsune Miku were produced. A figurine from the "Soul of Chogokin" series of figurines made by Bandai was also produced as a special release. As a cross over, a figurine of Miku based on Fei-Yen from “Cyber Troopers Virtual-On: Operation Moongate” a game made by SEGA, was also released. The release was came because SEGA owned the rights to produce games based on the Crypton Future Media Vocaloids and had also previously produced other models based on Miku as part of promotions for the game "Project Diva".

Many of the figurines have been made based on the Crypton fanbase in put with a standard and DX "Love is war" figurines being released in 2011. Other releases include VN02, a figurine based on the MMD "Lat" model and "The World is Mine" to name but a few examples.

She also had a Tony Taka model. A note about this particular model though is that is that it is one of the models that could be striped down until Miku was in just her underwear as her clothes were layered, these could also be removed to leave her as a Makaizou model. However, this will damage the model in the process.

The Good Smile racing company have also produced figurines every year since the 2009. These have been special releases not set for overseas shipping and can only be bought with a season ticket. She also had a couple of figurines amongst the Prize fair figurines in September 2011. She also has had several resin kits made for her. In December 2010, Brindle made two such kits. During the Winter Wonderfest 2011, a White Miku figurine was produced by Polygonia. In the Summer wonderfest 2011 Replyfrom made a non-scale Resin kit for Miku and Polygonia made a 1/7 scale model. Honeycomb also produced a Append Miku figurine at the 2011 winter event earlier that year, the model was tweaked and reissued for the summer event. During the May 2011 Treasure-festa, a Append non-scale kit was produced by Ambivalent.

Unfortantely, her popularity has led to a number of bootleg goods being produced, particularly towards Nendoroid and Figma models.


 * For more Figurines see Template:Nav Figurines

US Debut
In May 2011, Toyota used Hatsune Miku for two online adverts to promote the 2011 Toyota Corolla. She is also displayed on the official Toyota page. Toyota had been the ones who had approached Crypton for use of Miku. On May 7, USAmazon placed a preview of Supercell's hit song "World is Mine" as a single. When the song finally went on sale, it came 7th in the top 10 World singles list on iTunes in its first week of sales. The entry was presented as "The World is Mine Feat. Hatsune Miku". Crypton had to consider who they were aiming the advertisements of Miku at, mostly at the web base and had to check the differences between the nationalities of Japan and the United States. Since Crypton always sold Miku as a virtual instrument in Japan, they asked their Japanese fanbase if it was acceptable for them to sell her as a virtual singer to the new market audience.

Miku's Los Angeles concert sold out on the 26th of May 2011. Not only was she the first singer to sell out but this was the only time AX, the company in charge of selling her tickets, had ever sold out. This also caused a huge fan out roar on the AX forums, as usually AX tickets did not sell out and because of the numerous spare tickets it had been possible to enter a concert for free if you turned up 10 minutes before the show. Because there were no tickets left, regulars who had expected to be able to get in for free on the day had not expected to be able to not get into the concert at all. Because demand was so high AX are currently looking to book more seats. Previously, only the first floor seats were booked as those were the seats where viewing the Vocaloid concert's hologram-like visual was most optimal. However, they had been trying to ascertain if the balcony seats would suffice and if more tickets could be sold.

Later, the Toyota U.S. ad featuring Miku won an award Multicultural Excellence Award in November 2011 at the Association of National Advertisers' annual Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference. The campaign won the award in the digital media category.

Cosplay Mania Cameo
Cosplay Mania, a cosplay festival in the Philippines, is the first known appearance of Hatsune Miku in the Philippines that was officially sanctioned by Crypton Future Media, apart from Singapore. This was first announced in Hatsune Miku's Facebook page controlled by Karen-T. Her appearance will only be in the form of the said sticker.

Usage
The Vocal Character series were designed to be a set of vocals with particular characteristics about them; her voice allows for manipulation in a variety of ways while maintaining a cute sounding voice as a result of this approach. Her strength lies in her ability to climb up high into the octaves while maintaining a strong mid-tone range without loosing her cute sounding vocal tone. There was 22,000 original works reported in July 2010 on Karen-T alone, several times more than any other Vocaloid, with songs in just about every genre.


 * Comparison between the Vocaloid and voice provider
 * Hatsune Miku has songs in the Nico Nico Douga Hall of Fame

Because she is sold by Crypton, permission is also granted to add her works to Karen-T.

Vocaloid 2
Miku's original voicebank was in the Japanese language. The voicebank was considered one of the easiest voicebanks to use and is the most common voicebank bought by new Japanese users wanting to learn how to use Vocaloid as well as the most used overall. Users who could not use Miku, often did not buy another Vocaloid.

In terms of realism, however, Miku's results are not that realistic in comparison to Vocaloid 2 era voicebanks that followed her, the focus of her voicebank remains entirely on its vocal performance rather then its singing results. Miku has a great amount of help within the Vocaloid fandom to make improve her usage as well as a vast array of different songs made by other Vocaloid 2 users as examples. Some songs have undergone a large amount of voice editing to be able to make Miku fit the genre style she was being used for. Even though she is amongst the easiest to use, Miku is also one of the more dated voicebanks for Vocaloid 2 and is not as smooth as later Vocaloids that followed, being either choppy or slurry on many of her vowel sounds. However, despite this she is still held in high standard over several newer Vocaloids released after her.

Some users say that Miku, comparatively with other other Vocaloids, has strong attack and marked consonants


 * Japanese Phonetics

Hatsune Miku's software may occasionally have an installation error when installed, this is related to her engine version and may show up when installing her over a more updated Vocaloid 2 like Gachapoid or Lily. Help can be found within the fandom on fixing this. This can be fixed very easily, however, if a newer Vocaloid installed after her installation, otherwise re-installation in release order is another solution.

Vocaloid 2 is unsupported as of 2011 by Yamaha. These voicebanks however can be imported into Vocaloid3. Crypton Future Media currently have no plans to update their Vocaloid 2 voicebanks to Vocaloid3.

Append
The Append voicebanks exist side by side with the original voicebank, giving Miku a total of 7 possible voicebanks to choose from for users with both plug-ins.


 * Comparative verification of 7 Append voicebanks
 * Comparing VY1(β version), Miku Append (Soft), Gumi, Lily

The Appends are as follows;
 * MIKU Append SWEET : French Pop, Ballad, Electronica
 * MIKU Append DARK : Ballad, Jazz, Folk, Ambient
 * MIKU Append SOFT : Soft Rock, Ballad, Folk, Ambient
 * MIKU Append LIGHT : Pop, Rock, Dance, Techno Pop
 * MIKU Append VIVID : Pop, Techno Pop, Trad
 * MIKU Append SOLID : Pop, Rock, Dance, Electro

There is some debate as to if Appends are really needed. While they make it easier to find the right tone for a song, it is possible to recreate similar results to the Append tones without actually buying the software with just the basic voicebank. However, pronunciations between the voicebanks do vary per sample because each Append has its own set of vocal samples. For less experienced or skilled users, the Appends are a useful tool to add tone to a song; for experienced users they act as a method of extending the vocals of one voice even further than it can already go.

The Append release also gave older Miku users the chance to update the Vocaloid2 engine to a newer version, as the Append had the latest engine version. Users must also own the original Hatsune Miku voicebank to be able to install and use the Append voicebanks. The Appends themselves were also overall much smoother and of a higher quality than the original voicebank. However, not all of the Append voicebanks share the same pronunciation quality overall as each other with some of the voicebanks being smoother and/or clearer than others.

English
The English voicebank will add a 8th voicebank to her list of possible voicebanks. According to the official reports from Crypton Future Media, her voice will be "cute". The English voicebank for Miku is aiming to be of a good standard. As Saki Fujita knew no English before working on the voicebank, Miku has a heavy Japanese-English accent. Like her previous Japanese voicebank, realism is not the aim and her voice is similair to her Japanese voicebank in that it is focused on her performance rather then singing results.


 * English Phonetics

Even though the early demo song "Let it be" (representing her voicebank at 40% developement) still had much room for improvements at the time of its release, unlike Luka her lyrics were clear to hear and understand. A vast improvement in clarity from Luka had been noted and the vocals were much stronger in comparison, lacking the quietness related issues that plagued Luka's two voicebanks, especially the English one. A slight change of tone is present in Miku's voicebank and she sounds more vivid than her Japanese version.

In her most recent song "Ballet Mecanique" by Sakamoto Ryuichi (representing 70% development stage), she has been noted to demostrate a vocal that is heavier Japanese accented then Luka's vocals. Her pronounications are quick and hurried with much level of instablity compared to her previous demo "Let it Be" and resulted in a unsmooth vocal and there are noticable differences between the notes she sings. As well as this, because of the heavy accent her clarity had fallen.

Throughout the two demos, Luka users have claimed that they hear Luka's pronounications amongst Miku's, with the 40% being the most noted amount of pronounications from Luka.

English Append
There are currently no plans for a English version of the Appends, however, Crypton reported they are considering it for the future.

Reception



 * Google Trends "Hatsune Miku"

Miku has remained the fan favourite amongst the Japanese fandom, having the strongest following and usage even after the release of much better Vocaloids for her era. Her popularity was so high that when GazettE’s Aoi made a negative comment on her through twitter, he was imediately met with outraged fans and was forced to retract some of his comments after trying out the software for himself. Indeed most of the more popular songs for Vocaloid are sung by Miku and she has more hit songs on Nico Nico Douga than any other Vocaloid. Merchandise of Miku is plenty and often sells well due to her popularity. As she is the most popular Vocaloid and the most commonly used, she is the most associated with the software and is regarded as the first true "Vocaloid Diva Star".

In the western fandom, Miku remains mostly the most popular Vocaloid amongst western anime fans, only beaten in overall terms of popularity if one combines the fan following of both Kagamine vocals together. She is also responsible for introducing many to the Vocaloid craze. However, within western Vocaloid communities, she may not have the same fan following due to the varied tastes of the Vocaloid fans present. The more negative comments of non-vocaloid fans are that she "sounds like a chipmunk", in the Vocaloid fandoms this is also added with other comments that note that Miku is so popular that she often overshadows the other Vocaloids, even higher quality Vocaloids like VY1. Some also go so far as to label her as "Crypton's cash cow" for the amount of attention that is given to her even against other Crypton Vocaloids. In more positive notes, Miku is praised for bringing Vocaloid to the attention of the masses, for the amount of songs she offers and the varity of usage within the fandom with many Vocaloid fans admitting that they have many of her more popular songs in their MP3 collections. Also, the fans have defended Miku from time to time.

Append
Miku's Append was not as well received as her original voicebank, although despite the inital negativity it has been considered an improvement overall. While Miku's original box mascot design was cute and innocent, the Append was not. The strip of material that made up her tie was noted to be able to come loose to float (as seen in the box art), leaving bare skin that went all the way down to the groin area, this was considered far too sexualized/perverted. The design was awkward and regather strange with parts that made little sense to some as to why they existed on the design, others hated the design overall. Some users argued if there was a point in the existence of the Appends when it was possible to mimick the same tones with editing. In the Japanese fandom some were reported to not accept Miku and the Append as one and the same character. Even though a number of producers bought the Append, very few original songs have been made with it with some producers admitting that they don't use the Append voicebanks because to them they do not sound like Miku anymore.

In the Western Vocaloid fandoms, some saw the introduction of the Append as a method of exploiting the Vocaloids Crypton already had, rather then focusing on new Vocaloids with better vocals. However, some also noted that it was now possible to easily find the right tone of voice for a song using Miku's Appends and the Appends to a degree improved many of Miku's songs. The downside was that users now expected the same song to appear in 7 different versions; a concept that annoyed and bored users to various degrees. Another report from fans in the Western fandom, is that due to the popularity of some of the Appends over others, there is a high demand for voicebanks like Miku Append Dark, to the point those who accept requests have noted that they are asked constantly for songs in that voicebank. The over popularity of one or two voicebanks results in much fewer songs for the less popular ones, despite the fact they may be suited better for certain styles of songs. Even with the negativity, some Vocaloid fans have expressed desiring other Vocaloids with append-like additions on top of their original vocals.

Trivia

 * Because she is the first Vocaloid many get to know and the first to draw a large amount of attention, a number of mistakes have become commonly spoken;
 * Miku is often mistaken as the very first Vocaloid ever produced by those new or unfamiliar to the software's history, or the first Vocaloid 2 released. While she was the first Vocaloid 2 to be released for the Japanese market, it was PowerFX's Sweet Ann who claimed the place as the first Vocaloid 2 to be released, she was released 2 months prior to Miku. When Miku became more known in 2010, the media also incorrectly labelled her as this as well. On more than one occasion Crypton Future Media have labelled her as the first, though this is likely an error as they usually introduce her as "the first of the character vocal series".
 * Since 2010, Miku has won the classification of "Virtual Diva" and has become a pop star in her own right. However, some reports mislabel her as "the first virtual star" when other "virtual stars" have been released prior to her existence as early as the mid-1990s, although these "stars" never rose to the level of popularity Miku has reached.
 * Miku is also not the first Vocaloid to debut in America as Zero-G's Vocaloids were already on sale before her. However, all previous Vocaloids failed to make a impact in America.
 * Miku is also not the first to have an avatar, the first was Sweet Ann who was based on "the bride of Frankenstein", though Miku was the first to have a profile and expand on the concept of an avatar. Leon and Lola did not feature a character on their boxart, Miriam had a blurred photo of Miriam Stockley.  Though Kaito and Meiko had characters on their boxart, they were not originally meant to represent their vocals.


 * Sound Horizon, a popular band that uses music to tell stories, used Miku Hatsune in their third single "Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido" and its corresponding album, "Marchen". Saki Fujita, the seiyuu that provided her voice, also does narrations.


 * In Sega's game "Vocaloid Project Diva: Dreamy Theater", for the Playstation 3, Hatsune Miku can gain access to a costume based off Sega's very own Ulala from Space Channel 5, an older dancing game from Sega. She gains Ulala's trademark white Space Channel 5 Uniform, and her hair and eyes change to Ulala's hair and eye colors. In addition, her outfit and trademark negi make an appearance as obtainable and equippable items in Sega's RPG series Phantasy Star Zero, Phantasy Star Portable 2 and it's update Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity contains the same items and more, as well as items for Crypton's other Vocaloids.


 * Since the trial version had enough vocal capabilities to function as a normal Vocaloid, hackers were reported to have found out how to turned off the limit of 30 days for her 30 day trial versions.


 * The thin squares around her pigtails are futuristic ribbons made of a special material that float in place. As seen in Kei's art for Miku, they are able to hold Miku's pigtails in place without having to physically touch the hair itself.  The ribbons are also reported by Kei to be the hardest item on the character's design for cosplayers to recreate.


 * The singer Kerli has made several references to Miku in her videos. In the most direct reference, Miku's music was used as the background music in a video for the making of a prop for one of her videos. In "Tea Party", a twin pigtailed doll is seen. In "Army of Love", a microphone is used by the singer, a reference to "Love is War".  In 2011, the singer also dyed her hair the same color as Miku's hair and even wore it in long pigtails.


 * Due to her iconic long twin-tails, her close physical similarities and her specialization of music, Sona from League of Legends is seen as a tribute to Hatsune Miku. This is not the only time the game made tribute characters; Lux was also seen as a tribute to Touhou heroine Marisa Kirisame, down to her magical abilities and even catchphrase.

Notable for...

 * First Japanese Vocaloid 2 to be released
 * First of Crypton Future Media's Character Vocal series
 * First specialised vocal of Vocaloid 2
 * Most merchandise to date
 * Most songs created to date
 * First Vocaloid to have a "true" avatar given
 * First Vocaloid to have a bio
 * First Vocaloid to earn the status of "Diva"
 * First Vocaloid to be Appended
 * Holds the highest sales figures of all Vocaloids
 * Highest amount of pre-orders of a software synthesizer
 * Most common/popular Vocaloid
 * One of 3 voicebanks used by the robot HRP-4C
 * A number of the Internet Memes linked to Vocaloid