MEIKO

MEIKO is a Japanese VOCALOID developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc., and was initially released in November 2004 for the first VOCALOID engine. There has since been a second installment 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."

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 a box art that depicted a female illustrated character. This character had nothing to do with the singer's image, but her anime-based appearance appealed to the mainstream audience and the software sold well. Wat even stated how different the intention of the CV series and KAITO/MEIKO were during the development of KAITO V3. This even led to the direction of the updates leading to a completely different course of development compared to the Appends of Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin/Len, and Megurine Luka.

MEIKO's boxart hides the front of her red sleeveless jacket, it is difficult to tell what design it consists of. Due to this factor, there are many different designs, even for official artwork. There is no official given age. Although, in Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix she is usually portrayed as a middle-aged woman by KEI, who 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 voice bank with masculine vocals.

Examples of Usage

 * -|MEIKO =
 * -|MEIKO V3 =
 * -|English =

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. Of the Crypton Future Media VOCALOIDs, while she does have a significant amount of merchandise, MEIKO is often less likely to be promoted than some of the other 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 that sounded like her.

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