Item War

A heated discussion or argument concerning items to be wielded by a character is commonly called an "Item War." (持ち物戦争, Mochimono Sensou)

Why Give Items?
Items are given by fans as a method of aiding in creating songs, the item also becomes part of the personality building of the Vocaloid. Fans often make videos featuring the item. Items may change due to opinions over time so nothing may be set in stone although Miku, Kaito and Gakupo's items are the most universally accepted items amongst Vocaloid fans. For the Crypton Vocaloids at the very least, character items have been used as a selling point, and a number of figures of Miku come with leeks as an additional item, or as part of the figurine itself.

Orginally, it was a item of food due to part of Kaito and Miku's item origins, however when items were applied to English Vocaloids, a number of English fans distressed the dislike for the items always being food. So therefore, while Japanese vocaloids often aquire food based items, English Vocaloids aquire more materlistic items instead. The exceptions to this rule is Prima and Tonio, whose singing style is lined to the upper class lifestyle so therefore Wine and a Martini, both considered or linked to the upper class lifestyle, are better suited to act as their items.

Each character may go through a process of of arguments wherein items are preposed until one or more is agreed on. During the process, other surprising results may occur such as seen with both Luka Megurine and Big Al, who recieved animal additions as part of this process.

For Fanmade Vocaloids and others, character items are often allocated by their creators and seldom by fans.

List of Character Items
Please note; due to the nature of the fandom, this is subject to change depending on current opinions.

Vocaloid

 * Leon; Because of the promotional video, "The Farthest End" (Saihate), Leon is often depicted with tulips which eventually became his character item.
 * Lola; Frying pan, reason unknown.
 * Miriam; Upon entering Miriam Stockley's webpage, a tube of lipstick would pop up on the screen which then writes out Miriam's name. For this reason, her character item is thought to be a lipstick.
 * Meiko; One Cup Ozeki (a sake widely available through vending machines) often serves as her character item in some videos.
 * Kaito; Ultimately, Kaito is a prime example why items are applied to Vocaloids. Before this, Kaito had fared poorly in sales, his character item helped boost sales and remove his "failure" status. His character item is ice cream.

Vocaloid 2

 * Sweet Ann; Fried chicken, a dig at her "demonic" looking boxart.
 * Miku Hatsune; Leek, although this is a prevailing misunderstanding. Her item is spring onion accurately. Its origins comes from the song "Ievan Polkka"
 * Len/Rin Kagamine; The first big dispute about character items happened at the time of release of Rin/Len Kagamine. This dispute produced the unexpected item "road roller" that is to be wielded both by Rin and Len. A number of items have also been argued, and currently, Orange for Rin and Banana for Len are the proposed character items.
 * Prima; Wine, due to the culture of the opera culture. But due to her yandere personality, weapons also serve from time to time as her items.
 * Gakupo; Eggplant, due to his purple hair.
 * Luka Megurine; The discussion about the character item of Luka Megurine was very intense. This "Item War" of Luka ended by the appearance of Tako Luka. Though eventually tuna became her item, it was proven to be one of the most important moments in the item war history.
 * Gumi; Carrot, this is due to her hair being green and her outfit orange.
 * Sonika; similar to Gumi, Sonika was given pineapple due to her teal hair and its orginal style and her yellow outfit. However, the english fandom also argued for a ring due to her name being simular to Sonic the hedgehog and a bell due to her demo song "ring my bell". To date, there is no definate confirmed item.
 * SF-A2 miki; Cherry, due to her hair colour (red).
 * Yuki Kaai; apples, due to her height and weight being done by height and weight of apples.
 * Kiyoteru Hiyama; not decided.
 * Big Al; lengthy discussions in his pre-release topics produced a race car due to his attaire being descibed as looking like a racing driver, although the Japanese fandom thought it made him resemble a Mecha pilot instead. Also, a pocket watch was preposed due to his lateness. Ultimately, the only definate thing that has stood as being linked to him is penguins due to the video "Born Again". This is because of his hair and attaire resemble several species of crested penquins (although offically, its the Western Rockhopper Penguin thats named specifically as the species due to the fact it has already a number of links in music).
 * Tonio; a Martini is already preposed for his item.
 * Lily; Lemon is preposed. She is also seen regularly with chicken chicks.