Newish stuff

Figures everywhere!

Since this blog was inactive for quite some time, I think it’s a good idea to show off some of the new figure additions! This also gives me a chance to ask you guys which figures you would like to see featured in future photo shoots as well. Some of these figures can be classified as “old”, but I did receive them within the last few months ^^;;

Before I start I’d like to take this time to thank pp of Otakurean for sending me this lovely clearfile of Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na (The bright blue light before the dawn). I know it’s been months since I actually got this prize, and it’s been a looooooooong time coming. So, thank you pp~ :3

Figure Acquisitions

Since I have some spare time, I decided to show you guys the new stuff I’ve gotten over the past few months. Surprisingly I’ve managed to keep the figure purchases steady, I had to cancel a few figures since I was running low on cash and not to mention the falling Aussie dollar =/

Mikumikumiku, I snagged the Max Factory and Volks figures of Miku, but in the end I parted with the Volks to a friend of mine. I still hope that Max Factory could make a Haku Yowane figure ;_;

Blanc Neige was kind of an impulse buy for me, but her hips are…are just so distracting! She accompanies the old Max Factory Kureha on my shelf. Seriously… look at those hips! *drools*

One of the most expensive and biggest figure in my collection, second only to my Dollfie. Asakura is part of the FREEing 1/4 scale bunny girl set of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi series. She was shipped, and subsequently paid for on the day that the Aussie dollar fell to 55 Japanese yen… ;_; paincakes were had.

Griffon figures can be hit and miss for me, so this Sasara was a pleasant surprise to me when she arrived in her school swimsuit and maid apron. Her delicious pose just makes my skin tingle with anticipation….of…something… o_O

Nekomimi Nono Nekomiya in mizugi. I just LOVE cats, and thus nekomimi has a special place in my heart, so I couldn’t resist this figure. Now, some of you may notice a school swimsuit trend, but I assure you it isn’t a huge fetish of mine XD

Shana’s first appearance in my figure collection! With this particular figure, they released a regular version, and two store exclusive versions. The regular was the black haired beauty, one was a pink haired and blue uniform with striped stockings which has a resemblance to Alice in Wonderland. This version you see is the Strawberry Version exclusive to the GEE! online store. Not sure why strawberry as it could prolly be more appropriately be called Cherry or Peach…. but oh well~

iDOLM@STER

Alter released the second half of the FA4 iM@S trading figures a while back, so now I managed to grab myself a full set of the girls! Well, at least the black version of the set ^^; These trading figures are quite the build, and I must say Alter has done an excellent job on these.

Max Factory has also released Miki Hoshii in two versions, the blonde in green, and the brunette in blue. I opted for the blonde since I’m a sucker for Miki in blonde. The friend who has been supplying me with most of these figures went for the brunette, so if we ever get bored we could always trade XD

Kaiyodo’s latest iM@S Fraulein girl to take the stage is also Miki Hoshii. I had to grab her to produce the various poses I had imagined. She comes with an additional head for those who love the brown, and since they are using the Revoltech joints I used a spare Saber Alter body XD

Nanoha StrikerS

Reinforce Zwei! I love this lil figure and it’s mini-ness. It’s like a 1/1 scale of her XD I’m not a huge fan of the StrikerS season, but Reinforce is so cute!

Hayate has recently come out as a figure as well, and in my opinion she’s aged the best >.> She also comes with a mini-mini-boss! Reinforce is even smaller now. Alter has done a nice job of sculpting and painting the really tiny figure, it’s about the same size of those Warhammer miniatures! Hayate’s box is also a force to be reckoned with. It’s even bigger than the massive Fate Testarossa box!! Now where to find space to put the box…

Alice in ???

Alter has been doing the 3D incarnations of the POP Wonderland series, and I decided to pick one up! The photo is a lil bland so it does little to bring out the wonder~

Alice from Queen’s Blade was love at first sight, I remember picking up the Hobby Japan magazine…or was it Dengeki Hobby… and seeing the first unpainted prototype. That point on I was watching the pre-order scene with the eyes of an eagle. And here she is.

Queen’s Figures

Speaking of Queen’s Blade, Ymir has been released as a black coloured princess now. I couldn’t resist at the time, so I had to pay for her presence. As like the regular version, she can undress nearly everything, even her pantsu! o_o

Next up is the Hobby Japan magazine exclusive Queen’s Gate Ink-tan from Moetan! I had to cut a tiny lil stamp out from the Hobby Japan magazine and send it to a friend of mine in Japan….express…since the cut off date was approaching. Which means that huge envelope in the background with ALL THOSE STAMPS was used to deliver a stamp the size of my thumb…

Queen’s Gate Ink-tan is awesome! Lots of her armour is cast off and it shows, her armour was practically falling off when I try to get her to grip those button batons. It’s highly distracting trying to do something when you get constant mune flashes @_@

Mecha Musume

Aaah, how I love Mecha Musume~ I just had to buy these two figures when I saw them, not to mention they’re both based on Shimada Fumikane’s artwork of Sky Girls/Strike Witches fame.

The M4A1 Early Type Sherman “Elizabeth” has a lot of accessories, you can even de-mechanise her but…why would I do that? o_O Her nonchalant expression is big boon for me :3

The Kawasaki Ki-100 Type 5 Fighter, the main appeal was admittedly the cast off feature >.> BUT her fierce gaze was also appealing for me :3

Blackout

A few months ago my apartment had a blackout and I had nothing to do… so I decided to take a few photos for the hell of it. My room has changed a bit since then…more figures…less ceiling space for posters… I also took a few photos of Saber, and it turned out somewhat ok, so I decided to share it here too~

Photo shoot choice

With all these bland photos, I was wondering which of these figures you people would really like to see in a photo shoot, mind you, I tend to do outdoor ones XD
I’ve updated the poll which should appear shortly on the blog as well, so please have your say :3
I’ll see which figures on the poll have a higher demand so I’ll place a higher priority on them when I decide to go on a photo shoot~

Again, thanks to those who visit regularly too~ :3

Moéblobs

Isn’t it sad Haku ;_;

There are some things which I just can’t stay quiet about, I try to not post random anime things here that isn’t really relevant to what my blog is about, so I refrain from post youtubes and the like.

BUT THIS IS AN EXCEPTION!

This is something so incredibly moé that I died. And it is for that reason why this post is being, well…posted

Ok, this post will deal with two things, first off is the Vocaloid2 Yowane Haku (弱音ハク)

Here’s a description of Haku…source unknown:
“Yowane Haku (弱音ハク) – Her name means “Speaking weak words” (‘Speaking’ here has connotation of a pent up sigh or muttering). She gets her start from a thread in 2chan where a user commented “I bought Hatsune Miku for her cute looks but no matter how hard I try, I can’t get anything better than mechanical sounding songs out of her.”

An artist took this and ran with it to create Yowane Haku, an alter ego of all unskilled users of Hatsune Miku. Haku is a sad Vocaloid who just can’t sing as well as Miku. She is always crying because of her frustration and vents her frustration by drinking. Her image colors are silver and purple. Her character item is a sake bottle.”

Makes me want to go up to her and cuddle up, then share a drink lol. I must have some sort of weird complex for girls like this, which could be a bad thing for me =/

If you’re interested in Haku’s (lack of) singing ability, just do a search in YouTube, you’ll find her…
There’s another fanmade creation of Miku, Neru. I don’t know much of her but she dispises otaku, and refuses to sing and dance properly to spite the viewers. She has one ponytail to her left, yellow hair and black clothes with yellow trims. I’ll have to read up more on her as I’m not even sure if that’s accurate.

Second thing I needed to get off my chest is this:

*dies*

Happy New Year!

Postal Goodies

I’m part Vietnamese (the other being Thai/Chinese…) so I tend to associate the lunar new year as a Vietnamese custom rather than Chinese.
Anyway, yesterday I went down to the post office to pick up some goodies!

As you can already see, my Shuraki box #2 finally arrived, that’s a shocking 2 months or so of wait… -_-;
This was purchased over at Kid Nemo Company. After a month, I emailed them to see what was the delay about, apparently there was a mix up or something… -_-;
I wouldn’t of known if I didn’t go and ask them myself, so I was a lil annoyed. Shipping and handling was also a lil steep since this was an American company, having the figure sent from Japan, to them, then to me in Australia… However, if you do happen to live in America, Kid Nemo might be a great option as they do update their products fairly fast, usually faster than HLJ from what I’ve seen.

So here’s my beloved MeiFeng, a figure I’ve been longing to get. I must say tho, I find myself getting Shuraki figures because of 3 main reasons, in order:

• Their hair, Drill Hair~!
• Weapons
• Facial expression, grrrr~!

Oh god, I LOVE MeiFeng, EVERYTHING, her unusual hair colour and style, china dress and that “ribbon” on her leg, her weapons and her general pose and “attitude” and HER LEGS~! No battle damage photo, same deal with Char, you’ll see it when I do a photo shoot :3

Next up are doujins and magazines which I received from my good friend Hectic3, without him I’d be… more rich… orz

Megami Creators, some of you may know it from a previous post. This is Volume 10 of the series and it has some very nice artists being presented, such as Kei who happens to have done the art for Crypton’s Vocaloid2 series.

This issue comes with a huge B2 sized poster, double sided, one of what you see on the front cover, and the other is an illustration by KOMATSU EEJI~! featuring Noriko, Asuka, Nia and Yoko as Mecha Musume as Gunbuster, EVA-02, Gurren and that thing that Yoko sits on…respectively.

YOU WA SHOOOOCK~!!! Some of you may recognise the artist from another previous post featuring the iDOLM@STER girls. Now it’s Vocaloid2’s turn :3 I assure you, it is hilarious XD

Next up is a Touhou doujin “Another day comes” by Claps Cat, non-H, and it’s something about Marisa having catears (instant win) and she wants it off…Alice gives her a kiss and POOF, they disappear, Marisa then proceeds to run away~

Another Touhou doujin, this time by HappyBirthday. The cover is really really nice :3 The background has a holographic sheen to it. It also comes with an A4 oversized poster :3 This is also non-H, I can’t really tell what’s the story about, but it looks like a simple happy-go-lucky type one~

Now, I also received the long overdue iDOLM@STER Christmas for you! soundtrack, yes, I know it is now February, blame Hectic3 (I did mention I love you right? ^^;)

I haven’t had the time to listen to it yet, as I’ve been busy (in fact I just ripped it while I was typing this post) so I can’t really give a review, but what I can give is an opinion on the art:

So with that, Happy New Year!

Unfortunately I don’t know who drew that so I can’t link back =/
btw, I was born in the year of the Tiger, two more years to wait! rawr! >:3

VOCALOID2 CV2

Kagamine Rin & Len

As some of you may know, Crypton’s Vocaloid2 CV2 Kagamine Rin & Len was released yesterday! For those of you who don’t know what a Vocaloid is, you can find out a lil about it from a previous post.

This is a unique Vocaloid in taht it has both male and female vocals, from the same source seiyuu.

If you want some pictures of Rin then read on!

403×683

550×660

500×567

960×880

600×800

600×650

500×567

789×1024

640×480

698×694

595×793

Details

Name
鏡音リン&レン – Kagamine Rin & Len
Series
キャラクター ボーカル シリーズ – Character Vocal series
Maker
Crypton
Price
Open Price, but recommended at 15,750 yen
Links
Crypton’s Official Vocaloid2 site JP
Akiba blog’s first entry JP
Akiba blog’s second entry JP

I haven’t purchased this one as of yet due to my budget, but maybe one day~…

Au au au~

Upcoming stuff

Okie dokie. This is a post about stuff that I’m getting, might get, and decided not to get. Reason for this was because I needed to evaluate my monetary standing and the possibility of the Japan trip at the end of 2008.

This is a basically my shopping list of such in terms of figures and possibly dolls, so if you don’t want to pry into this, just ignore the post ^^;

But if you like to see some new upcoming stuff that you may be interested in, go on ahead and continue.

Possible Purchases

Yes, first thing on the “maybe” list is a Dollfie. It’s been a long time since I first saw Dollfies, and it’s always been on my mind about bringing one home. Recently it’s been really tempting to get one, since I have a friend in Japan who could help. For those not versed in asian ball-joint dolls, check the previous post: Dollfie Euphoria

Dolpa 18, or known as Doll’s Party 18 will be happening this Christmas like clockwork. For those who don’t know what Dolpa is, it’s an event much like Comiket, held twice a year in May and December. Volks, a major Japanese doll maker, basically hold the show. They sell their limited edition dolls at these events which require a lottery system for the order of the purchasing line ^^; Other shops also sell custom made clothes, accessories and parts.

New additions to the SOS Dollfie Dream line! Haruhi was release a while back and two new additions will be coming to Dolpa 18 and Comiket 73. Yuki and Mikuru look great, and for some reason the Yuki is really warming up to me. Now, I’m not a huge Yuki fan, but this Dollfie Dream is really uh, calling for me…o_O

I’m seriously considering Yuki as my first Dollfie, but it does depend on a number of things. Most important of which is availability, my friend may be able to get her at Comiket, but she could be all sold out by the time he gets to her >.< Not to mention she’s over 50,000 yen, which is about $500 AU…

Yuki and Mikuru are based on the Dollfie Dream II (DDII) base body with normal skin tone, only difference with the two bodies is that Yuki uses M sized erm, bust and Mikuru uses L size.

The next two is the Suigintou and Hinaichigo & Kunkun nano~! Oh GOD I want Suigintou, unfortunately she costs over 100,000 yen, which is well over my budget in a sane state of mind. These two will also be available at Dolpa 18, but I don’t see anything about Comiket 73 =/

Links

Dollfie Dream
Yuki Nagato — 50,400 yen (with tax), and the idea of grabbing her is still in the air.
Mikuru Asahina — 50,400 yen (with tax)
Super Dollfie
Suigintou — 102,900 yen (with tax)
Hinaichigo & Kunkun — 60,900 yen (with tax)

Definite Purchases

Image from Akibablog.net

During the recent Revoltech Expo where all the new and exciting developments of the Revoltech series are shown, they showcased their Fraulein series, the latest addition to the Revoltech family. What makes teh Fraulein different from the others is that it features an extremely feminine figure that has both the asthetics of bishoujo and poseability of the Revoltech line. Rei Ayanami was their first, with Rin Tousaka their second. Haruka Amami and Ami Futami…or was it Mami? No, I think it was Ami…I think…

Anyway, I’ll be grabbing at least one of the iDOLM@STER girls (can you guess which one?) when they are announced. Right now I’ve pre-ordered the Rin tho, she has this mind blowing flexible skirt, or at least is to me.

Links

Revoltech
Official Fraulein site
Akibablog’s review of the Expo
Lyrical Spark’s iM@S Revoltech entry

Image from Hobbystock.jp

Miku <3
I’ll be grabbing this Nendoroid as well. I’m not a huge fan of nendoroids, the only one I have is the limited edition Black Saber. I’ve made a few exceptions to this, one being Miku, for the sole reason of being a Vocaloid, and the Nekomimi version of Konata, which is currently being ordered by the friend of mine in Japan. It was a little difficult for him to order since it was only available through a magazine order.

Both of these will come with extra parts such as different faces and accessories, prolly my fav is Konata’s （＝ω＝） face and Miku’s (´ﾟДﾟ`) face with the leek.

Links

Nendoroid
Official Site

Now here’s the killer, my wallet’s worst nightmare, in no particular order:

The list of financial doom

Alice — POP Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland by Alter
Yuki Nagato Swimsuit Ver. — The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi by Alter
Reinforce Zwei — Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS by Alter
Death Teacher — Peace@Pieces by Alter
Tsuruya Cafe Ver. — The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi by Alter (On it’s way)
THE iDOLM@STER Trading Figure pt2 — THE iDOLM@STER by Alter
C.C. — Code Geass by alpha x omega (Alter collaboration)
Rin Tousaka Revoltech Fraulein — Fate/Stay Night by Kaiyodo
Tsuruya Cafe Ver. — The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi by Max Factory
Black Saber — Fate/Stay Night by Solid Theatre
Rin Kokonoe Snowglobe — Kodomo no Jikan by Pinkco
Moetan — Moetan by Goodsmile Company
Konata Nekomimi Nendoroid — Lucky Star by Goodsmile Company
Miku Hatsune Nendoroid — Crypton’s Vocaloid2 family by Goodsmile Company
Liu MeiFeng — Shuraki series figures by Goodsmile Company (On it’s way….hopefully)

I do NOT want to think about how much that all costs at the moment, but it’ll prolly be enough to support a girlfriend if I had one (hah hah, bad joke…)

But look! I’m no addict boy, no addict! I actually cancelled some items since I realised that I needed to spend less, here’s that list, perhaps it’ll suit your fancy?

Cancelled Items

Kagamine Rin/Len — Crypton’s Vocaloid2 CV series 02
I had a hard time cancelling this, I LOVE the idolisation of a piece of software but for the cost of it, I had to pass as my musical skills aren’t up for the challenge =/
T-Elos — Xenosaga III by Alter
Ikuno Komaki — ToHeart2 by Kotobukiya
The last two figures I had to let go, not because of any inferiority, but because my friend is also purchasing them, and with my constraints, I had to make the decision.
Kureha — Shining Wind by Kotobukiya
Another Kureha figure that lives up to the other recent release. As beautiful as she is, I had to resist her on the basis that I already have another Kureha Figure. You might be thinking, “But Aya, you’re already buying TWO Tsuruyas” and my explination is that it’s Tsuruya…’nuff said

I’ll be constantly reassessing the value of each figure to see if I can cut any from the list since I am trying to save, as hard as that seems…
Anyway, hoped you like seeing some things that interest me, and that some of it may interest you as well :3
Oh, for the Miki picture up the top, I have no idea who drew it, but whoever it is, it’s a lovely pic :3

Hmm, this post is prolly too text heavy?
Anyone else have that mountain of pre-orders that they’re looking forward to?

RANK UP!

Japan Packages #2

Yesterday, I got a second set of parcels from Japan from my friend, who’s generous enough to spend some of his busy time, from tutoring the school girls and tutoring the school boys, to get me some items of utmost importance :3

Today’s post will be a quick run through of the items I got in the two parcels~

800×600

*rubs hands together* I’ll make it short and sweet, those above, are the boxes~

Below are (from left to right) a Yayoi Takatsuki of iDOLM@STER (the game) clearfile, a copy of Vocaloid Miku, a Lievo promotional DVD set from TGS 2007 and finally on the bottom is a starter pack for Aquarian Age Alternative arcade card game. The second picture is look at what’s inside the pack :3

The Vocaloid may be familiar to some of you readers from a previous post, you can read them here, and here.

The Aquarian Age cards may also seem familiar, being based on the traditional tabletop card game of the same name, however Alternative is an arcade game, more info on it is explained at Heisei Democracy.

1024×768

1600×1200

1600×1200

Oh my god, so much advertisement material. Normally I see this as junk mail, stuff that you’d use for emergency toilet paper. BUT this stuff is made of GOLD. I can never ever get enough of the advertisements from places like Akiba. I treat it like it was gold leaf paper. There’s also a few artbooks in that pile as well, closer look later tho~

1200×1300

Gah, bad photo, but who cares, it’s the CDs there that are the stars!
Those are the Master Artist series of CD singles from iDOLM@STER. I requested my friend to get some that I don’t have for me. I’m still missing three tho, Yukiho Hagiwara, Ritsuko Akizuki and KOTORI OTONASHI! (Yayoi isn’t there, I already have her). Also, for the keen eye there, Makoto saying “dododo” may be humorous to some of you who know of the Japanese Xbox360 ads :3

Onto the books, I’ve scanned the front covers for you folks to see :3

1039×834

okok, This first book wasn’t from my friend, I actually got this book last year when I was in Japan. This is the first in the series of children books by POP dubbed “POP WONDERLAND”, the artist for Moe-Tan, Fairy Musketeers and others. Presenting, Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland!

Each of these books in the series is beautifully created, a nice thick hardcover with a soft-matte print dust jacket, textured paper with gorgeous artwork. The text is minimal since it is supposed to be a children’s book, even the kanji has large furigana (hiragana above the kanji) to help readers learn.

1041×824

Little Red Riding Hood, second in the series~

The books themselves are about 1cm thick, and are 265mm by 220mm in landscape format (that means it’s a long book rather than a tall book for those who don’t know). If you’re a lover of artbooks, this is a series you need to have a look at getting. While it doesn’t have a hundred pages, it does have about 50 pages of artwork that just shouts cute. They really have done a great job of portraying that children’s book feel that I have in my mind, but in reality, it’s a little too nice to be a normal children’s book XD

1035×834

Thumbelina, third of the series. I actually havn’t been properly read this story when I was a kid, so I really have no idea about it other than the fact that there’s a small girl… hmm, I think I might like this one. ^^;

850×1064

Now if you like POP’s work, you’d prolly be interested, if not already, in his 2nd major artbook, Super Lollipop (I keep typing Lolipop…).

It has over 150 pages of DFC for you to see, but no explicit nudity (meaning there’s nudity… just tasteful ones). Works include the Moe-Tan series, Fairy Musketeer, original works for Comic Toranoana, the Akiba Blog illustrations, along with others.

A definite GET for POP fans, or just plain lolicons.

850×1064

Aaah~ THE iDOLM@STER Precious Album, it’s more of a game guide than an actual artbook. It details on how to play the Xbox360 game, walkthroughs for each of the character events, a listings of clothes and accessories, interviews with the producers and also a section at the back FULL OF STICKAZ~! I dunno if I’ll use most of them, but there’s quite a few of them that are specifically for Xbox360 faceplates, which I’m tempted to try :3

Anyway, below is a list of some details of the books, enjoy~

Details – POP WONDERLAND

Name
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, Thumbelina
Series
POP WONDERLAND
Publisher
Poplar Publishing
Artist
POP
Writer
Michiyo Hayano
Release date
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland – April 2006
Little Red Riding Hood – November 2006
Thumbelina – June 2007
Place of purchase
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland – Comic Toranoana
The others also from Japan
Retail price
1,365 yen each
Bought it for
1,365 yen each (approx $13.00 AU)

Details – Super Lollipop

Name
Super Lollipop – 2nd drawing works of POP
Series
Super Lollipop
Publisher
Sansai Books
Artist
POP
Release date
14th September 2007
Place of purchase
Japan
Retail price
2,800 yen each
Bought it for
2,940 yen each (approx $29.00 AU)

Details – THE iDOLM@STER

Name
THE iDOLM@STER Precious Album
Series
THE iDOLM@STER
Publisher
enterbrain
Release date
April 2007
Place of purchase
Japan
Retail price
2,300 yen each
Bought it for
2,300 yen each (approx $23.00 AU)

P.S. I also added a plugin that links a commenter’s first blog post I found on otadesho.com, I thought it was incredibly nifty, thanks to ron~ for doing some slight editing on the plugin as well :3

P.P.S..or is it P.S.S? I’ll be doing the weathering tutes for the Mecha Musume for sure it seems. However I don’t have the time for documenting the process in the near future, so it may be a while (possible in late November…after all my study stuff is done). Sorry that it’s so late >.< I’ll try to get at least one done soon to see if it tickles your fancy~

Hatsune Miku

Akatsuki no Kuruma

After a week of fiddling around and playing with Miku I managed to get this piece done.
It was quite difficult for me since I havn’t had any musical training since…2003? And even then I wasn’t that great ^^;
It also doesn’t help that my Japanese isn’t all that good either~

I’m not sure if I’ll be doing any other Miku renditions of songs, but who knows, enjoy this one XD

So I did two versions, one with just Hatsune Miku, and another with her and the original singer FictionJunction YUUKA.

Miku Solo version:

MP3: here

Duet version:

MP3: here

I had quite a bit of trouble figuring out how to use all the properties of Miku’s voice, and I know I still got a lot to explore. I don’t really see myself doing this all the time but it sure was fun trying different things… like making her say onii-chan :3

The image of Miku in the video was made to look similar to the original cover by FictionJunction YUUKA

1000×887

640×480

The actual drawing of Miku tho was done by かぐらゆうき (Kagura Yuki) who happened to be the one that also drew Yayoi on the top headers you see.

Anyway, Miku’s voice was obviously done in VOCALOID2, the mixing was done in Adobe Audition 2.0, imagery was done in Adobe Photoshop CS3, video in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and encoding by VirtualDub.

Details

Name
初音ミク – Hatsune Miku
Series
キャラクター ボーカル シリーズ – Character Vocal series
Maker
Crypton
Retail Price
15,750 yen
Bought it for
15,750 yen OTL
Links
Crypton’s Official Vocaloid2 site JP
Hatsune Miku tumblr JP (Contains some NSFW material)
THE VOC@LOiD M@STER Event JP
Hobby Blog’s Hatsune Miku entry ENG
Canned Dogs’ Hatsune Miku entry ENG
Neko Nyan Liberation – Hakurei Shrine’s Hatsune Miku entry ENG
twinscatear – Kagura Yuki’s site JP

Moé Idolatry Article

Hatsune Miku

Infatuation, something that happens to everyone, but with a virtual “identity” is something that doesn’t.
I’m not sure if this is relevant to any of you figure lovers but I’m in love with Crypton’s newest entry, Hatsune Miku.

Before I start, I’m going to explain a little bit about what all this about. So if you’re not into music then just look at the pretty pictures XD

Vocaloid is a technology developed by Yamaha systems, it produces a synthetic voice set that sounds pretty awesome in itself. Third party companies have used this technology to bring it to the consumer market and packaged them with their own voices. Crypton is one of these companies, they produce these packages for the Japanese market. They’ve developed a few for the Vocaloid 1 series but their popularity isn’t so prominent with the anime otaku, until of course they released the Vocaloid2 series, with Hatsune Miku as the first.

500×374

Because they’re synthesized voices, you can tell it’s fake depending on effort of the producer, but for the most part Miku sings amazing (if you like Japanese pop). She’s so popular that apparently all the first prints of the Vocaloid2 Hatsune Miku package have sold out, and it has also made amazon’s #1 bestsellers software rank despite the 15,750 yen price (which I’m still wondering if I should buy…)

450×627

Okok, so why am I posting about something that doesn’t seem to fit? Well, this site includes moé items and issues, as you can already see, Hatsune Miku is incredibly cute (ok, I admit I have a weird hair fetish) and there’s quite a few fanart of her already.

400×400

The kanji for Hatsune apparently means The first voice or something according to a friend of mine, which makes sense I guess, she is the first of the Crypton Vocaloid2 series, a second is going to be announced in December and a third is going to be in 2008. The second seems to be a younger idol from the silhouette so expect more moé-ness.

400×500

I’m in no way a musically creative person so actually owning Hatsune Miku (huhu, i like the way it sounds…) is somewhat a waste. I’ve tried the software and while it does seem like an easy thing to pick up, not knowing extensive Japanese is a hassle. *sigh* Sometimes I wish I was living in Japan lol

715×800

Anyway, ever since Hatsune Miku appeared, niconico video (think youtube but for Japanese and it also allows rolling comments over the videos) has had it’s fair share of user created videos featuring Miku singing originals and also other songs such as you from Higurashi no Naku Koroni and even Ievan Polkka. There’s so much of a fan base that on November 3rd there’s going to be a Hatsune Miku Vocaloid only event!

500×461

So, here’s a few of my favourite Miku videos from YouTube :3

Ievan Polkka

鳥の詩 – AIR

you – Higurashi no Naku Koroni

Beautiful World – Rebuild of Evangelion

Here’s some official sample songs from the official site, short and sweet songs.

Song 1
Song 2
Song 3

*sigh* I’m in love… so ronery~!!

1280×960

Details

Name
初音ミク – Hatsune Miku
Series
キャラクター ボーカル シリーズ – Character Vocal series
Maker
Crypton
Price
Open Price, but seen at 15,750 yen
Links
Crypton’s Official Vocaloid2 site JP
Hatsune Miku tumblr JP (Contains some NSFW material)
THE VOC@LOiD M@STER Event JP
Hobby Blog’s Hatsune Miku entry ENG
Canned Dogs’ Hatsune Miku entry ENG

600×855

767×621

P.S. I’ve taken photos of most of the figures I intended to at Manifest over the weekend, I’ll post those photo shoots soonish, after I get some other work out of the way >.<
So expect Saber & Irisviel, Pachira, N@gi (GSC), Princess of Full Ani, and Fate (Alter) :3