MEIKO

MEIKO is a Vocaloid DTM (Desktop Music) software created by Crypton Future Media. She is the first Japanese Vocaloid and first Japanese female Vocaloid. She utilizes the Vocaloid engine developed by YAMAHA. Her voice is provided by the Japanese female singer Meiko Haigō (拝郷 メイコ Haigō Meiko). The illustration was done by Shogo Washizu, who is often called わっしー(Wasshi) and was once a member of Crypton.

Concept
Crypton placed this product on the market with a box art which depicted a female anime character. This character had nothing to do with the singer's image, but her 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 V3 Kaito. This even led to the direction of the updates leading a totally different course of development compared to the Appends of Miku, Len, Rin and Luka.

Because Meiko's boxart hides the front of her jacket, it is difficult to tell what design it has. Because of this, there are many different designs, even for official artworks.

Her age was never given. In Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix she is usually portrayed as a middle aged woman by KEI, however, as he mentioned in a magazine interview, what he depicts in the comic are not official settings.

Spurned on by the items held by Hatsune Miku and Kaito, it became popular to feature Meiko with One Cup Ozeki (Sake).

Etymology
"Meiko" comes directly from her vocal provider's name "Haigō Meiko".

Vocaloid Releases

 * Comparison between the Vocaloid and voice provider

Examples of Usage
To our readers and editors, for section notes please read; Notes; Examples sections.
 * -|Meiko =

Marketing
The result of 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 Miku Hatsune. Of the Crypton Future Media Vocaloids, Meiko is often less likely to be promoted than some of the other Vocaloids and overall has less merchandise based on her. However she still has a significant amount in existence.

Figurines


Meiko has had a few figurines based on her. Due to being the least popular of the Crypton Vocaloids, she tends to have the least amount of merchandise overall due to poor sales.


 * For more see Figurines

Guest Appearances
In Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Meiko look-a-likes are seen in the waiting queue during the auditions of the role of Meru Meru, however they do not have Meiko's known colors. Miku (though played by Fujita Saki) is also seen actually speaking in the auditions themselves.

Food
A box of Special "Meiko Rum Chocolates" was also produced for Meiko.

Calendar
Crypton Future Media vocaloids have also appeared in 2013 calendars.

Clothing
ACOS have also produced an official cosplay outfit + wig.

manicure set
Meiko will appeared on a nail varnish set along with the other 5 Crypton Vocaloid characters. The colours within the set match the colours of the Vocaloids own nails.

Popularity
Meiko was well received and sold well compared to her counterpart Kaito, becoming the more popular of the two. For a long time, she was the best selling Crypton Future Media Vocaloid until the release of Hatsune Miku.

After interest began to occur in her counterpart Kaito, Meiko users also attempted to revive the interest in Meiko as well. The Japanese fandom has taken great measures to push her voice to its limits. This is demonstrated by the fanmade derivative "Sakine Meiko" which was part of a product of Japanese producers pushing the limits of Meiko's capabilities to produce a much younger sounding voice. Though this involves heavy investment of time to make such a big adjustment of her vocals, it does highlight the overall potential of the Vocaloid era voicebanks as the same techniques have also from time to time been applied to others of the same software with the same levels of results.

However, despite the producers' efforts, by 2010 while Kaito appeared in the Crypton ranking of their best selling products, Meiko had fallen from popularity, getting the least amount of attention of the Crypton Vocaloids overall. In 2010, Meiko was ranked as the 7th most popular Vocaloid product they sold and the process the least popular of Crypton Future Media's own Vocaloids. On 12/10/2011 Meiko, along with the Kagamine append, was the only Vocaloid software package not on the top ten list.

An independent Vocaloid search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most Vocaloids had less then 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in between July 1 and December 15, 2011. Meiko, however, did manage to be the 2nd most popular Vocaloid when a mean count was done with 423 views and 21 mylists.

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 vocaloid, many fans 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 were from a computer that generated samples that sounded like her.

Notable for...

 * First Japanese female vocal ever released
 * First Japanese Vocaloid vocal released
 * Was used in the oldest known Vocaloid related song ever released
 * First Crypton Future Media Vocaloid released
 * First Vocaloid to have an official avatar
 * First female Vocaloid released from Crypton Future Media

Gallery
[source]
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 * -|Promotional art =
 * -|Game art =
 * -|Misc. =