To go back to an older example, I think that Miku is perhaps in a sense an idol in the ancient, pagan sense of the term. Actually, the whole nature of the vocaloid community does put one in the mind of ancient mythology, where you likewise had many interpreters and story-tellers at work yet having a discrete body of “canon” myths that would resonate with people and survive through repeated tellings. The totem of wood and precious metal has just been replaced by glass and light in this case…

First, Miku is less a simulation of the physical body than a caricature of it. In fact, if you compare her anatomically with Yuki Terai, Miku can even be an inferior form of virtual girl. How is it possible that a digital character that deviates so significantly from “real” human beauty, can appeal to human viewers in a similar fashion? One can claim that style is distinct from physical beauty, but I would argue here that unlike the Mona Lisa, virtual idols and game characters (composed of bodies that are designed in the same vein), actually attract and interact with human consumers, in the same way one would respond to the image of Megan Fox or a Victoria Secrets Angel.

So this leads on to the next find, that virtual bodies are not attempting to replace, or even emulate the human body. Rather they are simply animated objects possessing anthropomorphic qualities. It’s similar to other kawaii icons such as hello kitty, but with the element of human-interface interaction added into the mix. A broader question to consider would be how the simultaneous humanisation and objectification of such images would alter our own idealisations of beauty and desire…

Essentially, I do not see any fundamental difference between Miku and, say, Lynn Minmay, Haruhi or K-On! in terms of their “idolness”. I agree that people do see them as virtual idols in some sense, so we can certainly call them “virtual idols” if we feel like doing so. I am not actually opposed to this.

The thing I fail to see is what exactly is the “advancement” brought about by Miku over anime characters like Haruhi or the K-On girls to the point where we should proclaim that virtual idols are finally here, when they (idolized female anime characters) have been here for years if not decades.

The only substantial difference between Miku and the rest as far as I can see is her crowd-sourced development. This makes her a popular meme similar to Hitler Downfall videos and lolcats, and I think that that is the source of her popularity. Without the user-generated memes, she would not have become popular. While I agree that this unique attribute of hers is new and Web 2.0, I fail to see how it makes her more qualified to be a virtual idol over Sheryl Nome.

Perhaps the argument is that she exists outside of an anime, but I still fail to see what difference that makes. Does that make OS-tans idols too?

KC:

I actually agree that drawings appeal to fantasies more easily. But if you are arguing that that is what makes Miku special, then she is decades late to the game.

Jane’sTanksofWorldWarII:

You have to tell me what is “Idol 2.0″. Is it just idols plus crowd-sourcing? But I suppose my thoughts were kind of meandering on that point. Let me try to fix it.

Let’s say that being the product of a crowd-sourced effort does not preclude one from being qualified to be an “idol” (which it probably does not, but I am still sceptical about the appeals of products produced in this way). Given that past idols were not the products of crowd-sourcing, crowd-sourcing is clearly not an indicator of idol status either.

So what exactly is the qualitative difference that makes Miku a virtual idol? And what’s new about it?

I see Miku as an evolution of anime idols and community-generated memes. This certainly makes her a “virtual idol”, but it brings nothing new to the table.

What I don’t see is her replacing traditional idols in niches where they have not already been replaced by anime characters. That I believe is the original raison d’être of “virtual idols” in cyberpunk.

I strongly suspect that on a practical level this kind of hairsplitting will be moot in the future. We will see both crowdsourced and “traditionally” managed virtual idols, and people will readily acknowledge the idol status of both. Whatever works, will be the attitude. Besides, whether the studios like it or not, fandom is likely to turn their managed idols into crowdsource hybrids. The easy availability of realistic animation and voice programs will lead to a thriving fan industry of skinning, sampling and mixing managed idols. Canon it may not be, but to varying degrees it will influence how people relate to this and that studio idol.

Finally I’ll throw the odd spanner in the works. Shinto religion claims as a matter of faith that even inanimate objects have spirits in them. A number of commentators in the west have already posited that the positive view of humanoid robots in Japan is influenced by a worldview conditioned by Shintoism. Even a Japanese atheist is going to be affected by the culture he grew up in. Perhaps we with our Judeo-Christian cultural blinkers are predisposed to view constructs as fundamentally inanimate, so we have a hard time gauging how Japanese fans might relate to something like Miku.

Ridiculous.

>true virtual idol should emulate reality to a higher level of accuracy.

Phooey. 2D > 3D (actually, that is inaccurate now since there are 3D projections of Miku. Really should say drawings > real life)

But. Enough of that. Isn’t Hatsune Miku as popular as she is precisely because she’s both an idol and a character? A character from an anime is popular because they have a set personality that never changes and never fails. That’s why anime otakus can go so crazy, because they know that their favorite character is “perfect”. DM, if you’re right about how Idols are manufactured based on what the community would most like, that the fans themselves have a degree of unconscious control over what their idols are like, then wouldn’t Hatsune Miku be the perfect cross? If we the fans created Hatsune Miku, then she would be the perfect Idol. The same fan fervor that makes Idols so popular would be in effect, except that this idol would never age, would never crack up, as all real life idols do.

The reason she’s still a niche is due to two problems with this theory. First, there’s the uncanny valley. She’s still a niche for the reason anime is still a niche, most people just cannot relate to a character (or something like that, I wouldn’t know, I’m not one of those people). The other problem is that idol and the character conflict a bit in Miku’s case. She IS a bit like open-source software, anyone can contribute what they like. The reason that’s a problem is because not everyone likes what everyone else is contributing. This is in contrast with an actual anime character, where the character’s personality is almost completely set in stone by the anime.

If. If idol companies started turning out virtual idols the same way they turn out human idols right now, and the uncanny valley is overcome, maybe the perfect idol would be made. Then again, maybe not. Maybe the thing that’s so appealing about Miku is that she is almost completely fan-made. Maybe a virtual idol with a set personality created by an idol manufacturer would completely lose all the charm that vocaloid has. It’s completely impossible to predict the future, isn’t it?