MEIKO

MEIKO is a Japanese VOCALOID originally developed by Yamaha Corporation and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc. She was initially released in November 2004 for the first VOCALOID engine. There has since been a second instalment developed for the VOCALOID3 engine, dubbed MEIKO V3. Her voice is provided by the Japanese female singer, Meiko Haigō (拝郷 メイコ Haigō Meiko).

Etymology
"MEIKO" comes directly from her voice provider's name, "Haigō Meiko."

"Megumi" was also a name considered during her development.

MEIKO's codename was "HANAKO" ; it likely came from "Yamada Hanako (山田花子)", a placeholder name for female characters, and the Japanese equivalent to "Jane Smith".

She is often misnamed Sakine Meiko by fans. The name originates from the eponymous derivative character.

Appearance
The illustration was done by Shogo Washizu, often called わっしー(Wasshi),  a former member of Crypton. Crypton placed this product on the market with box art that depicted a female character. This character had nothing to do with the singer's image, but her anime-based appearance appealed to a mainstream audience and the software sold well.

Wat described how different the intention of the CV series was to the concept of KAITO and MEIKO during the development of KAITO V3. Consequently Crypton took a different direction with their updates in comparison to the Appends of Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin/Len, and Megurine Luka.

MEIKO's boxart hides the front of her red sleeveless jacket, making it difficult to tell what the design consists of. Due to this, there are many different designs, even for official artwork. MEIKO has no official given age. In Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix she is usually portrayed as a middle-aged woman, however KEI mentioned in a magazine interview that what he depicts in the comic is not official.

Spurned on by the items held by Hatsune Miku and KAITO, it became popular to feature MEIKO with One Cup Ozeki (sake).

Relations

 * KAITO: a complementary voicebank with masculine vocals.

Marketing
Putting a character on the boxart proved to be a successful marketing strategy. It influenced the development and art style of other VOCALOIDs such as KAITO and Hatsune Miku. While she does have a significant amount of merchandise, MEIKO is often less likely to be promoted than some of the other Crypton Future Media VOCALOIDs.

Trivia

 * A Japanese electro-pop artist, Susumu Hirasawa, announced that he used a female VOCALOID in the original soundtrack of "Paprika" by Satoshi Kon on his blog. Since Susumu Hirasawa did not reveal which VOCALOID he used for quite some time, except the fact it was a female, many producers speculated it was MEIKO. However, he later mentioned in a magazine interview that it was LOLA.


 * An old myth within the overseas fandom is that her samples were not from Meiko Haigō, but from a computer that generated samples to sound like her. It is estimated this originates from the fact that the original VOCALOID engine based its results on voice analytic instead of vocal samples.

Notable for...

 * First Japanese female vocal ever released
 * First Japanese vocal released for the VOCALOID engine
 * First Crypton Future Media VOCALOID released
 * First feminine sounding VOCALOID released by Crypton Future Media
 * First VOCALOID to have an official avatar
 * Being used in the oldest known VOCALOID related song