VOCALOID in other media

This is a list of references and allusion to VOCALOID as well as the illustrated vocalists in other media. Miku's popularity has expanded enough to have her appearance make cameos in various anime, manga, video games and magazines. For appearances in official licensed VOCALOID media, see Category:Vocaloid related products‎.

Note: This list is for mass media appearances only; please do not post or link to fan art or fanfiction unless notable to the subject.

Accel World
/ Wikipedia

In Accel World, episode 21, two posters of Project Diva Extend are shown on a shop in Akihabara.

Danball Senki
/ Wikipedia

In Danball Senki, Miku was mentioned when Ban and his companions met Otacross.

Baka To Test To Shoukanjuu
/ Wikipedia

In Baka To Test To Shoukanjuu, episode 11, Miku is in the B class.

Hyouka
/ Wikipedia

In Hyouka, episode 12-16, there are Miku, Rin, Len, and Luka cosplayers.

Kämpfer
/ Wikipedia

In Kämpfer, episode 7, during the first half of the eye-catch you can see the character Mikoto wearing a recolored version of Miku's outfit.

Lucky Star
/ Wikipedia

In the Lucky Star OVA, Hiiragi Kagami is forced to cosplay as Miku by the power of Konata's wand.

MM!
MM!

In MM!, episode 9, a recolored Miku is also seen at the school festival holding a stick in the shape of a leek.

In the opening song of episode 9, Hatsune Miku and Black Rock Shooter are featured in the background of Manager Domyoji's character profile.

Maria†Holic
/ Maria†Holic

In Maria†Holic, episode 12, Miku and Rin are featured in a choir.

Nichijou
In Nichijou (日常, lit. Regular Life), Sweet ANN can be heard singing the words "Helvetica Standard", as well as being apart of the background music.

Sakura Trick
/ Wikipedia

In Sakura Trick, episode 8, Aoki Lapis can be seen in a dancing game.

Samurai Flamenco
Wikipedia

A reference to Miku is made in one scene in Episode 12.

Un-GO
Wikipedia

In Un-GO episode 1, there is a costume party and a girl dressed like Miku is seen in a hall area.

In episode 2, the plot revolves about voice synthesis technology. there's a direct comparison with Vocaloid software.

WataMote
/ Wikipedia

In the anime, the ending theme for episode six is a cover by Utsu-P & Pandolist-P (Toka Minatsuki) of "Natsu Matsuri" (Summer Festival), and features vocals by Hatsune Miku.

In chapter 52 of the manga, Tomoko is inspired to become a VOCALO VOCARO-P after seeing one appear on TV and buys VOCAROBO2 "Simobukure" (the packaging clearly parodying Hatsune Miku and Mikudayō, and the program resembling VOCALOID). A package can also be seen that has a logo resembling Piapro Studio's logo. In chapter 81 Tomoko visits Akihabara and a poster featuring Mikudayo can be seen in the background above a sign that reads "SEG".

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
/ Wikipedia

In Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Miku is seen in the auditions of the role of Meru Meru. Other fellow Crypton Vocaloids like MEIKO, KAITO, the Kagamines have look-a-likes that are seen in the waiting line during auditions for the role of Meru Meru, however, the look-a-likes do not have their known colors.

Himouto! Umaru-chan
/ Wikipedia

In Episode 1 of Himouto! Umaru-chan, there is a figure of Miku shown when Umaru Doma pictures all of the things she can buy with the 1 Million Yen if she wins a video popularity contest.

In Episode 4, Miku appears as a machine game prize figure under the name "Hatsune Migu" and has 6 different types of expressions.

In Episode 5, Alex Tachibana, one of Taihei Doma's coworkers, is listening to a playlist from Hatsune Migu, a parody of Miku. Upon closer examination, one of the songs on the playlist looks like "みくみくにしてあげる♪ (Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru♪) and is shown to be about the same length (1:42).

In Episode 6, for Umaru's Birthday, Umaru has made a Wish List of all the things she wants and one of the items depicted is "figmo Migu", a parody of figma Miku.

In Episode 7, a Migu figure is shown on the shelf in the background at the 1:53 mark in the episode after Umaru asks her brother Taihei to bring her a cola. A bit later on in the episode, Taihei is taking out the trash and finds and throws away a Hatsune Migu figure box laying on the floor since Umaru says she doesn't need any boxes on that are laying the floor. Later on in the day, Umaru is looking for the same figure box, which was supposed to be on the bookshelf, and states that the box contained various facial expressions parts only to be reminded that she told her brother that he could throw the box. The episode continues with Umaru convincing her brother to try and find the box after making him feel guilty for throwing away the box without checking its contents.

Bee and Puppycat
Bee & Puppycat is a Cartoon Hangover series featured on YouTube. In the series Oliver is mostly speaking gibberish in the episodes. However, he randomly spurts out swear words such as "fuck" and "shit", as well as on occasion other things such as "laugh hohoho". He is also heard saying "Poo poo" in the Bee and Puppycat episode "Farmer" and "Pretty Patrick" in "Beach Cats".This series is also acknowledged for being the first two videos to reach 1 million views using OLIVER's voice, as well as 1 million views using a PowerFX VOCALOID. Unlike all other cases of English VOCALOIDs being used, however, this is the only case where the VOCALOID was a co-starring vocal as all other English VOCALOIDs were only used as singers in soundtrack related elements.

The project is by Natasha Allegri, notably recognized as the character designer and storyboard artist for popular cartoon series "Adventure Time". The series became an immediate hit on YouTube and received much praise. It was the first major usage of the English VOCALOID OLIVER. Part 1 was published on YouTube. Once available for viewing, it received 1 million views within several weeks. Part 2 was eventually made viewable to the public and later went on to receive 1 million views as well.

According to Natasha, when she originally pitched the story board to Eric Homan of Frederator Studios, he rejected it. However, she later received a call in the middle of the night from Holman who told her that the decision had been changed and that Frederator would like to make it into a short. The story was inspired by Sailor Moon, the early 90's animation look in general, and another anime series called "Super Book". The use of a VOCALOID was Natasha's own idea, though she did not get to use OLIVER's vocal directly.

13-Sai no Hello Work DS
In 13-sai no Hellowork DS (Job Placement for the Age of 13), Nintendo DS, marked Miku's first appearance in a video game, she is included as one of the characters.

7th Dragon
/ Wikipedia

The 7th Dragon 2020 video game featured an opening song written, composed and arranged by sasakure.UK and sung by Miku. The song is called "SeventH-HeaveN". The opening for the sequel, 7th Dragon 2020-II, is once again written by sasakure.UK and performed by Miku. It is titled "HeavenZ-ArmZ". The sequel also features Miku singing the background music when the "Diva" setting for choosing BGM Mode is selected. Diva mode has music from 10 different producers: kiichi, Keeno, Clean Tears, koyori/Denpol-P, SHIKI, take, nak-ami, millstones, Lemm and Wonderlandica. In addition to this, Miku will also be featured in the game, appearing as the mysterious songstress who goes by the moniker "Hatsune Miku Type2021". While it is unknown what role Miku plays, SEGA has stated she will appear somewhere in the middle of the game.

Alteil
/ Wikipedia

A story-driven, Flash-based online collectible card game produced by Dex Entertainment. A special promotion featured Miku.

Brave Frontier
In the mobile app Brave Frontier (a turn-based RPG app by game developers Alim and gumi Asia Pte. Ltd.), Hatsune Miku appears as a "collab" (cross-over) character which is obtainable through her special "Vortex" dungeon called "Songstress of Light". She is designated with the Earth element and has her V2 design as a 4-star form while her 5-star form uses her Append design. Her dungeon also plays Sharing The World, MIKU EXPO 2014's theme song.

Megurine Luka was also included but is only obtainable via a special code obtained by players from the 2014 New York Comic Con booth of Brave Frontier. She is designated with the Dark element.

By December 29, 2014, Rin and Len Kagamine joined the fray as "Rare Summons". They are designated with the Thunder and Light Element respectively.

Meiko and Kaito were also added, desginated with the Fire and Water element respectively.

In the 2015 version of the event, Luka was added as well as a 6 star form for Miku featuring her V3 design. Her dungeon music was changed to "Hand in Hand" and her boss music to "Shiroi Yuki no Princess wa." The event also returned for Miku Expo 2016.

Chaos Fighters
In Chaos Fighters, a Chinese-based iOS app, you can unlock Miku-based content.

Cytus
/ Wikipedia

Cytus is a rhythm game developed by Rayark Games, an independent game developing corporation in Taiwan. Done in chapters- there are songs vocalized by Luka, Rin, Miku and GUMI.

Tracklist
 * Endless Journey / Hoskey feat. Megurine Luka
 * LNS OP / Hoskey feat. Megurine Luka
 * COSMO / HAMO feat. Hatsune Miku
 * Dragon Warrior / Hoskey feat. Megurine Luka & Kagamine Rin
 * It's A Wonderful World / HAMO feat. Hatsune Miku
 * Her Sword / Hoskey feat. Megurine Luka
 * Code 03 / Hoskey feat. Megurine Luka
 * COMA / ensou feat. Gumi

Dynasty Warriors 8
/ Wikipedia

The outfit design for Akikoloid-chan is used for the character Wang Yuanji in Koei's series Dynasty Warriors 8.

Idolmaster 2
/ Wikipedia Idolmaster 2, a visual novel. Miku was included within the game as part of the collaboration between this franchise and Project Diva game series. She appears singing "The World is Mine" and "Melt". Her costume is also unlockable.

Just Dance
Wikipedia Songs featuring Miku have been featured three times in the Just Dance Franchise: [*]In the Japanese-only Just Dance Wii U, kz's Tell Your World. [*]In Just Dance 2016, Otomania's Hatsune Miku Sings Ievan Polkka. [*]In the upcoming Just Dance 2016, LamazeP's PoPiPo.

For Miku's international Just Dance debut, Ubisoft also provided a behind-the-scenes video in which they revealed that bringing one of her songs into their games was something they've wanted to do for a long time, and also showed off the leek they used while motion capturing the dance choreography.

Within the games themselves, each of the three songs are listed by just "Hatsune Miku" rather than by the actual artist.

Mabinogi
The MMORPG game Mabinogi, costumes of 4 VOCALOIDS namely Miku, Rin, Len and KAITO are featured as limited-edition items. The player can wear these costumes which includes a wig, imitating the VOCALOID's look completely. In addition, the player can also obtain "Prefix Titles" of each VOCALOID's name, granting various buffs relating to a "Music-based skill".

Magica Wars Taisen
An app game that features illustrated magical girl types, featured Hatsune Miku's persona, Snow Miku 2014.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
The multi-platform game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, an entry in the popular Metal Gear series by Konami, used Vocaloid-flex technology for recording lines pre-set into Metal Gear ZEKE's AI. A number of songs voiced by the voicebank were featured in the game's DLC. The voicebank remains nameless.

Monster Hunter
/ Wikipedia

CAPCOM began promotional videos for the collaboration between its Monster Hunter Frontier G online video game for the PC and Xbox 360 and virtual idol Hatsune Miku.

No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle
/ Wikipedia

In the No More Heroes universe, the main character, Travis Touchdown, is obsessed with moe mecha magical girl anime franchise called Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly. Travis collects merchandise of the anime, such as posters, figurines, and body pillows. In the 2010 sequel No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, there is a fictional video game called Pure White Giant Glastonbury, a shoot-em-up (taking heavy inspiration from the Touhou franchise) featuring characters from Bizzare Jelly. The chiptune-styled background music during the minigame features vocals by Hatsune Miku.

PangYa
/ Wikipedia


 * The Japanese version of this Korean online mulitplayer game, had a campaign with Hatsune Miku on May 22, 2008, in which she is included as one of the characters.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night
/

Miku makes a cameo as a DLC character, along with a remix of the Persona 4 song "Heaven" by ATOLS, using Miku V3 English. Her costume within the game was designed by Shinegori Soejima.

Phantasy Star
/ Wikipedia

In Phantasy Star Portable 2 on the PSP, certain passwords can be entered to unlock Miku's costume and hairstyle, as well as leek-themed weapons. Phantasy Star Online 2 also sports costumes and hairstyles for Miku, Rin, Len and Luka.

Rage of Bahamut
/ Wikipedia An online mobile card game, Rage of Bahamut features Miku in a special collaboration that lasted until February 14, 2014.

Recettear
/ Wikipedia

In the Indie game Recettear, the skill icon for Nagi's "Hundred Trusts" resembles Miku.

Syndicate
Syndicate is a first-person shooter video game developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is a reboot of the Syndicate series of real-time tactical shooter games developed by Bullfrog Productions. In the level "Aspari Extraction" the player enters a club where he is attacked. The music that plays uses Hatsune Miku, as the author said, "to give it a japanese feel" the author also stated that the lyrics are "Syndicate Classical Franchise Persuader Happy Minigun"

Miku is due to appear in 7thDragon 2020 II for the PSP.

Tales of Graces
/ Wikipedia

SoPhie has a Miku costume available as DLC in "Tales of Graces f" on the PS3. However, it was only made available in Japan.

Transformice
/ Wikipedia In Transformice, an online game, a Hatsune Miku hairstyle was added as a purchasable item.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover RPG that touches on Japan's recording industry, and naturally includes references into the Vocaloid scene. Tiki, originally from Fire Emblem, is portrayed as a popular virtual singer known in the game world as an "Uta-loid", (Singaloid in the Japanese version) Kiria's battle form has hair exactly like Miku's, ribbons and all.

Yakuza 5
/ Wikipedia

In Yakuza 5, PS3, Miku snow sculptures can be seen around town and you can win Miku toys from UFO catchers (like claw-arm games). When playing as the character Sawamura Haruka, you have the option to wear a Miku costume. Instead of getting into street fights, Haruka has dance "battles" that play like a rhythm game.

Mememe no Kurage
Miku was selected to sing the opening theme for Takashi Murakami’s first film, Mememe No Kurage. Murakami specifically requested the song "Last Night, Good Night" by kz as the theme song and it was rearranged especially for the movie.

Paprika
Wikipedia

A Japanese electro-pop artist, Susumu Hirasawa, announced that he used a female VOCALOID in the original soundtrack of film 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.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Wikipedia

Luo Tianyi was used in a promotional video for China's release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. She was singing the Chinese theme song and was tuned by Dong dian-P.

Akibaranger
Miku sings the background theme song to the Sentai comedy show, Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger, "Itasa Ha Tsuyosa!"

Late Show with David Letterman
Hatsune Miku was the closing guest singer for the show, debuting with her developing English DB. The song sung was "Sharing The World". This was done in connection with the upcoming HATSUNE MIKU EXPO 2014 in Los Angeles and New York concerts. Miku was featured in her projected form along a live band.

Ant Farm
"product misplacemANT", the ninth episode in the third season of Disney Channel's A.N.T. Farm, features the character Chyna losing her phone and having to enter a karaoke competition to get it back. In the karaoke scene, Chyna is dressed in something like a Hatsune Miku cosplay, with a "schoolgirl outfit", black arm sleeves, painted-on "anime eyes", and a light blue twin-ponytail wig. The episode was badly received among the VOCALOID fandom, largely because of its low-quality satirization of the Japanese culture.

Google Chrome
A Japanese Google Chrome commercial was released in December 2011 featuring Miku singing "Tell Your World".

Toyota
Toyota was responsible for the infamous "Corolla + Miku" ads around the time of Miku's first North American show in the summer of 2011. The ad featured ryo's "World Is Mine" and dubbed the 2011 Corolla the "Official car of Hatsune Miku."

A Japanese Toyota Aqua commercial, released in November 2011, features a piano arrangement of popular VOCALOID song "Senbonzakura". The arrangement was created by marasy, who spent over four hours in the studio rewatching the ad to get the music perfect.

Shu Uemura
Shu Uemura, a Japanese make-up company, released an ad in October 2013 for a line based off the anime franchise "Six Hearts Princess" by Takashi Murakami. The accompanying song, "Pink or Black", was sung by Hatsune Miku and produced by kz.

LG
An advertisement for the LG G5 smartphone featured a remix of Otamania's "Ievan Polkka" mashed together with Busy Signal's ''"Watch Me Now." ''

Glico
A Pocky commercial was released by Glico Japan on May 31, 2016, featuring Miku singing "The Great Sound of Chilled Snacks".

Comptiq
Wikipedia

Snow Miku 2013 is on the cover of Comptiq, a Japanese computer game magazine, from the February 2013 edition.

Binbougami ga!
Wikipedia

In Binbougami ga!, one of the chapters in the manga series shows Momiji cosplaying Miku in the chapter's front cover.

Comic Party
Wikipedia

In the manga Comic Party, during the fair there is a person wearing Rin's ribbon and the same hairstyle.

Girlfriends
In the last chapter, there is a picture of Tama Min cosplaying Hatsune Miku with a boy (possibly Harada) cosplaying KAITO.

Hetalia World Stars
During a strip in chapter 11, Miku is shown at a cosplay convention.

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

Kerli
Wikipedia

The Estonian singer 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 megaphone 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.

One Direction
wikipedia

In One Way or Another music video, Hatsune Miku cosplayer is seen during Cafe Scene somewhere in Tokyo. She also appears in concert film  where One Direction coming into same cafe. She and other cosplayers are performng Moe Moe Kyun to serve a Milkshake for the Boys.

deadmau5
Wikipedia

deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse"), is a Canadian progressive-house music producer and performer from Toronto, Ontario. In the music video "Professional Griefers" (@3:37) there is a woman wearing a twin-tail wig that looks similar to Miku's hair. deadmau5 has also been seen wearing a shirt with Hatsune Miku graphics.

CEATEC
At CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) Japan 2009, Boffin, in joint with Yamaha, had the robot model HRP-4C react to the Vocaloid software for demonstration 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

Gaia Online
/ Wikipedia

Gaia Online is an avatar community site whose main feature is forums and the use of chibi avatars to portray the members. With Vocaloids growing popularity the community has long requested for Vocaloid items to be created to wear. Since Gaia can only work under the law fair use by parody and reference there has been items that imitate Crypton Vocaloids without directly infringing on their property. Unlike the former avatar site, TinierMe, Gaia has yet to be sponsored by anything VOCALOID.

The items created are: The Melody series, "Happy, Perky, and Tragic" and a small doll was wearing the entire Perky Melody set, the doll also has a pose that is reminiscent of Hachune Miku's face. The "Stereo Hearts" item has two Vocaloid based accessories, the hip modules from Miku Append and the other is cat eared speakers as seen on SeeU's head. The item "Vocaltude", is based on KAITO and the hair that comes with it is based on Len. The description for the item is a reference to the Supercell song "The World Is Mine". More items in relation to Supercell is the Princess of the... series, which are "World" and "Universe", both reference the popular handrawn PV. In continuation, there are other Supercell items such as the "Ai no Taisen" which is based on "Love is War".

Two questionable items are the 'leek' item, which could reference the meme involving Ievan Polkka. and 'Devoted Spica' which some Gaians see as a blue recreation of Miku's appearance in the song SPiCa.

Google
To promote Google Chrome and Google+, Crypton partnered with the company to have Miku official featured. There are skin themes, promotional videos, and an official site.

TinierMe
The Japanese avatar community @Games has done a collaboration with Crypton Vocaloids, involving a special (virtual) dispenser machine called "Tinier Gacha" which where also transferred to the English dubbed site Tinierme. This machine dispenses random items for members to equip, they are limited edition and not available in the regular shops. The campaign started on Tinierme July 20, 2010 and ended on November 30, 2010 with a full line up of all Crypton Vocaloids. The Vocaloids performed songs on an outdoor stage and handed out album covers. Members were encouraged to listen to Vocaloid songs on KarenT, an online entertainment site, which gives musicians a place to feature their music.

With the success of the first release, additional gacha were released called Music Festa*(@Games)/Persona Gacha Vol*(Tinierme), these gacha were based upon popular outfits seen in animated PVs and artwork. The promotion for them ended in December 2010 on Tinierme but still on-going at @Games.

As of now the Tinierme site is closed. Items obtained through Tinierme and account details were not transferred to @Games so old Tinierme members are required to make a new account if they wish to play on @Games.

3DS Theme packs
Several Vocaloid related themes were added to the Japan 3DS theme shop, a number of which made it into the top 25 themes between 2-8 of November 2015. Theme packs related to Hatsune Miku: Project mirai DX have also been released in North America and Europe.

Cosplay culture
Cosplay (コスプレ), short for "costume play," is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and Sci-Fi.

For information on choosing a costume read this "How to choose your cosplay costume" guide.

See VOCALOID and Cosplay for links and discussions.

artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball
Hatsune Miku is one of the scheduled opening acts for Lady Gaga's artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball concerts. This was first announced by Lady Gaga on Twitter before being confirmed by Crypton Future Media.

Miku Hakkeijima Sea Paradise
As part of the Caveran 39 event, a series of rides at the Sea Paradise in Yokohama Hakkeijima. As part of the attraction, large models of Nendoroid figurines were also on display as well as Vocaloid related artwork.