Hatsune Miku『Birthday』

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク, Hatsune Miku), codenamed CV01, was the first Japanese VOCALOID to be both developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc.. She was initially released in August 2007 for the VOCALOID2 engine and was the first member of the Character Vocal Series. She was the seventh VOCALOID overall, as well as the second VOCALOID2 vocal released to be released for the engine. Her voice is provided by the Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita (藤田咲, Fujita Saki)

There have since been numerous installments, such as additional voice libraries dubbed 'Append', as well as an upgrade for the VOCALOID3 engine, which contained an English vocal release. She received a VOCALOID4 update to her Japanese and English voicebanks in August 2016, as well as a Mandarin Chinese voicebank in September 2017.

Miku received her first voicebank outside of VOCALOID in November 2020, that being Hatsune Miku NT for the Piapro Studio NT engine. While Crypton is focusing on their own program, they are still in collaboration with Yamaha Corporation and will continue to sell VOCALOID products in parallel to the Piapro Studio editions.[4][5][6] Miku NT received an update dubbed "(Ver.2)" for the new Piapro Studio NT2 software in March 2025.

In August 2024, a refined and retuned edition of Hatsune Miku's original V4X voicebank, titled Hatsune Miku SP, was released for the PIAPRO CHARACTERS SUPER PACK, a set of Japanese voicebanks developed for the Piapro Studio for V4X and VOCALOID4 engines. This release was noted to improve Miku's overall balance of tone and pronunciation. Earlier that same month, it was also announced that Miku would be receiving an update to the VOCALOID6 engine, dubbed 'Hatsune Miku V6', in response to strong requests from creators, marking her return to VOCALOID. It was expected to release sometime in 2024, but this was delayed twice, first to 2025 and then to the first half of 2026 (with an Early Access demo trial version released in December 2025).

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Concept

Crypton had the idea to release Miku as "an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost."

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Etymology

The name was chosen by combining hatsu (初; "first"), ne (音; "sound"), and Miku (未来; a personal name that shares its spelling with the word for "future"). It thus means "the first sound from the future." Her name was based on her concept of that when a sound is first spoken.

Her codename of "CV01" means "Character Voice 01".

Her name in Chinese is Chūyīn Wèilái (Simplified Chinese: 初音未来; Traditional Chinese: 初音未來; Chūyīn Wèilái).

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Appearance

After an internet meme involving Hachune Miku, Miku was associated with a spring onion (often mistaken for a leek due to the similar appearance). This, along with KAITO's association with ice cream, started a discussion called "the Item War" within the VOCALOID fandom, where it became traditional for new VOCALOIDs to have an item assigned to them and the items were debated upon until one stuck via an Internet Meme. This occurrence has since died out.

V2: When KEI illustrated Miku, he was given a color scheme to work with (based on the YAMAHA synthesizers' signature blue-green colour) and was asked to draw Miku as an android. Crypton also provided KEI with Miku's detailed concepts, however, Crypton said it was not easy to explain what a "Vocaloid" was to him. KEI said he could not create an image of a "singing computer" at first, as he did not even know what a "synthesizer" was. It took him more than a month to complete the commission.

Miku was originally intended to have a different hairstyle, but after trying out pigtails, KEI thought they were more suitable. Her pigtails have since become an iconic part of her design. On June 22, 2012, Hatsune Miku's twin tails even earned her the title of the Twin Tail which best represented the 2000s, marking her the best set of Twin Tails from the dawn of the 21st century. She now shares her twin tail distinction with other characters like Sailor Moon (who won best Twin Tails back in the 90s period).

The digital design on Miku's skirt and boots are based on synthesizer program colours, and the bars represent actual bars within the program, following Crypton's ideas. Part of her design is based on some of YAMAHA's keyboard models, particularly the DX-100 and the DX-7. The thin squares around her pigtails are futuristic ribbons made of a special material that floats in place. As seen in KEI's art for Miku, they are able to hold Miku's pigtails in place without having to physically touch the hair itself. The ribbons are also reported by KEI to be the hardest item on the character's design for cosplayers to recreate.

And her height is 5’2 ———————————————————————-

History

Miku's initial marketing was similar to past software synthesizers and VOCALOID voicebanks, and was standard marketing for the software at her time of release. For the most part a large proportion was centered on DTM MAGAZINE, like MEIKO and KAITO before her since the readership of the magazine had greatly influenced those two past VOCALOIDs. The only pre-planned promotion was with DTM MAGAZINES November 2007 issue - due to the inclusion of a CD with the demo of Miku on it, this particular issue sold out. When Hatsune Miku was on pre-order it was noted MEIKO and KAITO had no prospect of receiving updates and that Miku would be taking over their roles going forward.

She was originally aimed only at professional producers; the amateur and Otaku market hadn't fully formed yet, and so it was not initially considered.For a variety of reasons, Miku received unexpected commercial success. Due to Miku's popularity boom, Crypton had the chance to take advantage of early technical support for Miku and several guidebooks and magazine support were released solely focused on her vocals. This type of technical coverage was even possible long after Miku's initial release and methods of adapting her vocals are the most well documented among the VOCALOID2 era vocals.

Since the success of her voicebank led to an expansion of marketing possibilities, most of the mass marketing has come after her initial release as a response to her popularity. Even with the addition of other Character Vocals, Miku's name continues to be used as the primary source of marketing for Crypton Future Media. In March 2012, the Nomura Research Institute estimated that the sales of all "Hatsune Miku" brand goods added up into the region of ¥10,000,000,000 since her release in 2007.[23] Miku's name is now the easiest of all VOCALOIDs to market. Also owed to her popularity, many VOCALOID related products such as piano sheet music packs, books, and magazines carry her image on the front cover. Around January 28, 2013, a 3 day survey was run by Tokyo Polytechnic University. During the survey (based on ages 12–38) 95% of those entering reported knowing who Hatsune Miku was, in comparison participants barely knew who Megpoid, IA, or Aoki Lapis were.

Corolla Miku, presented in 2011, wears slightly different attire compared to KEI's original design: instead of one skirt stripe and single floating ribbons, she now has two, as was intended by the client.

In 2011, Crypton began to focus on marketing Miku to U.S. audiences. On May 7, Amazon placed a preview of Supercell's hit song, "World is Mine", as a single. When the song finally went on sale, it came 7th in the top 10 World singles list on iTunes in its first week of sales. The entry was presented as "The World is Mine Feat. Hatsune Miku". Crypton had to consider who they were aiming the advertisements of Miku at (mostly the web fanbase) and had to check the differences between the Japanese and English fan communities. Since Crypton had always sold Miku as a virtual instrument in Japan, they asked their Japanese fan base if it was acceptable for them to sell her as a virtual singer to the new market audience. The main purpose of the Miku English version is to allow Japanese producers to break into the West and also expand their audiences.

Crypton Future Media does not approve of using Miku in politics. This is, so far, one of the biggest areas of marketing that Miku has avoided being used for.However, Hatsune Miku sang the theme song for Japanese National Election candidate, Yoshikazu Tarui. Despite this, her mascot was not used; instead, a pink twin-tailed girl dubbed Android Rui replaced her.

Crypton Future Media also applied for trademark on the 26th of June 2012.

When the tsunami hit Japan in 2011, Miku was chosen as a character who would help represent Japan. This was because of how common her image was appearing with many younger people knowing who she was. She was already in music based textbooks and her influence on music was heavily known by the Minister for Education for Japan.

The fact that products with Miku can sell out quickly makes her attractive to even slow growing industries. Products with Miku on them can even sell out in public events within 30 minutes of events opening to the public. This helps fuel marketing in even handcrafted trades, as fans are attracted to these "one of a kind" products.

Starting on March 15, 2021, Crypton Future Media announced a collaboration with the "Hatsune Miku Chronicle" (初音ミク・クロニクル, "Hatsune Miku Chronicle") art exhibition event titled Hatsune Miku Chronicle × piapro “What If You Draw? "Hatsune Miku" Software Package Illustration Recruitment!” (もしもあなたが描いたら？「初音ミク」ソフトウェア パッケージイラスト募集！, Hatsune Miku Chronicle × piapro “What If You Draw? "Hatsune Miku" Software Package Illustration Recruitment!”), a special recruitment for users to draw their own original character named "Hatsune Miku" while keeping the basic profile, image and color settings used for Hatsune Miku's initial artwork in 2007 with the winning illustration being made into a special software package based on the submitted work. The award-winning works would be exhibited at the art exhibition "Hatsune Miku Chronicle" scheduled to be held in 2021. Over the course of four months users were able to submit artwork to Piapro using the "#クロニクル＿ミクｉｆ" tag. Coinciding with the recruitment, Good Smile Company announced a new Nendoroid figurine based on Hatsune Miku's original concept design now known as Hatsune Miku if Ver. (初音ミク if Ver., Hatsune Miku if Ver.). A finalized illustration of the original design by KEI was also announced. On June 29, the contest concluded and three finalists were selected. Three awards were given: the "Best Award" was awarded to 千代, the "KEI Award" was awarded to 梨伊荼 AND the "Saki Fujita Award" was awarded to ろきの.[45] Pre-release images of the Hatsune Miku if Ver. Nendoroid were revealed on July 14th and the illustration by KEI was revealed as well as the announcement of Kagamine Rin & Len if and Megurine Luka if proposals. The Nendoroid was placed up for pre-order starting July 15th on the official Good Smile Company store and more pre-release photos were added.

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Personality

Optimistic & Cheerful: Miku is generally portrayed as a sweet, bubbly, and positive young icon. She is often shown with boundless energy and a friendly, encouraging disposition. Playful & Sassy: She has a mischievous, teasing side, especially when interacting with fellow Vocaloids. The "Blank Slate" Effect: Fans agree that her personality largely changes based on the specific song or story she is in. She can be an innocent pop idol in one song, and an assertive, edgy character in another