Recently, renowned sci-fi writer William Gibson of Neuromancer fame annoyed a bunch of Miku fanboys when he tweeted, “Hatsune Miku doesn’t really rock me. I want higher rez, less anime.” This was immediately parsed by some to mean that he hates all things anime and wishes horrible things to happen to otakukind and hilarity ensued.

Coincidentally, I have been spending some time thinking about the concept of virtual idols recently and just picked up a copy of Gibson’s Idoru novel that touches on this exact issue. Incidentally, it has a pseudo anime-style cover.

While Gibson’s delivery of his message was highly ambiguous (we can all thank the ubiquity of Twitter in contemporary discourse for that), I think what he actually meant by his statement is that he believes a true virtual idol should emulate reality to a higher level of accuracy. This of course includes higher resolution graphics and the display technology to match it. I think there is some merit to that argument that goes beyond a matter of personal preference.

Idols throughout history have always been artificial constructs to varying degrees, but today idol-making has become a precise science. Outfits like Johnny’s and AKB48 assemble each idol from a list of proven ingredients and find a suitable host body to bring theory to life. They are basically idol factories, managing hundreds of manufactured personas and with hundreds more on a conveyor belt ready to replace them. These idols are actors whose talents are not singing or dancing but to give the fans exactly what they want to see. Auto-Tune fills in the rest.

The real game we are playing is the illusion of intimacy. The best idols are not the prettiest or the best singers, they are the ones who can convince the most number of people that a special connection exists between them and their fans.

This argument may sound overly cynical, but it’s only slightly. I’m not saying that all idols are being intentionally deceitful in order to be popular (only most of them), and indeed many of them probably truly believe in what they do and say in front of their fans. Some of them may even feel the special connection. But that all just means that even idols themselves are human beings who are susceptible to the alluring mirage of false intimacy.

I suppose the more astute reader would now argue, “But DM, by that line of reasoning is there really such a thing as real intimacy?” Let’s not open that can of worm, but I’ll just quickly add that at the very least, I think that real intimacy cannot possibly arise from a relationship in which communication is mostly unidirectional and systematically managed.

Now the problem I have with the idea of Hatsune Miku as an “idol” is not the art style or her glass-shattering voice, but the difficulty of maintaining this illusion with what is essentially an open-source meme. Her screen-projected concerts are not so much endearing as amusing; It’s something fresh and flashy, but after the first time it offers no obvious value over watching this YouTube video twenty times. That’s because seeing Hatsune Miku as an idol requires a suspension of disbelief far greater in magnitude than that required for a typical mass-produced humanoid idol. This is why virtual idols (and I suppose this does include anime characters in general) will remain a tiny niche for as long as display and rendering technology fail to convincingly fool our brains into giving willing fans an easier time to live in our selfish fantasies.

Of course, my obsession with the idea of emotional intimacy as part of the definition of an idol is subjective and probably too stringent for some. However, I find the distinction significant because a line, hard to define as it may be, must exist somewhere between regular fame and idolatry, or the concept of idol ceases to have relevance.

This reminds me of my current addiction: Valkyria Chronicles 2

In addition, the crowd-sourced nature of Hatsune Miku further complicates the situation. Everyone can participate in the creative process and all works produced can potentially be incorporated into the collective idea of what exactly constitutes Miku. The trademark leek she holds for example originated from a Bleach parody video. Given that idols, according to my cynical worldview, consciously calibrate their self image in a way that panders to fan expectations, letting fans have direct creative control over the entire process should arguably represent the ultimate form of idol creation, at least in theory.

I am undecided on this one, but I lean towards scepticism. If fans get exactly what we want because we helped to create it, doesn’t that just makes it more difficult for us to maintain the illusion that the virtual idol is an existence worthy of our worship? After all, how can the creator idolize his creation when he can see all through all the magic taking place behind the scene?

Personally, I see Hatsune Miku as a meme. The sense of joy we derive from watching her comes from shared experiences between fans more than it comes from her. It’s more like an open-source software community where everyone contributes something and we all feel happy with the result and less like Steve Jobs coming up with an awesome iThing and we all grovel at his feet. There are tons of shaky bits in that analogy, but I think it conveys my general feeling.

So that’s why they named her Apple…

So all in all, I do not see Hatsune Miku as a virtual idol. She’s more like the Laughing Man except less anarchistic and more merchandising. But in all likelihood, the idea of idol itself may be the one that is changed in this great social experiment. We’ll see.

Actually, I wonder why no one has yet to make a serious attempt at manufacturing a classic virtual idol. We already have the technology to render photorealistic people (at least for the purpose of making music videos or advertisements). Throw in some anonymous voice samples with Auto-Tune and some masked body doubles for concerts (perhaps even special effects make-up or plastic surgery) and you have an everlasting star who will work for as long as you need and who will never betray your corporate interests… Hmmm.

As for William Gibson, he eventually tweeted a follow-up message and said, “Hatsune Miku is clearly a more complex phenomenon than I initially assumed. Requires further study.” I wonder if he truly believes that or if he’s just saying that to get the fanboys to get off his back.

P.S. It’s interesting to note that a lot of Miku fan art is basically recoloured/traced illustrations of other anime characters. Perhaps Miku is more like the Borg: she absorbs and assimilates all our individual fantasies…

So all the cards are finally on the proverbial table. In addition to whatever was announced during the first press conference, the final details for Anime Festival Asia 09 was released this Wednesday (or last Wednesday depending on your preferred usage) during a blogging conference (hurray new media?). Being really short on free time these days, it naturally took me three whole days to write this post. You know you are getting old when you no longer care about first post.

Refer to my previous post for the prior announcements. The new details are as summarized below:

• “Live” performance by Hatsune Miku. You can see how it will look like here.
• Live dubbing by K-ON! seiyuus
• Showcases by Tatsunoko Productions and MADHOUSE Studio
• COSPA retail presence
• Weiβ Schwarz Grand Prix (it’s a moe anime TCG game)

In addition, the anime song performances will be split between the two days of the event, with Ichirou Mizuki, Shoko Nakagawa and Hatsune Miku on day one and Yoshiki Fukuyama and Mayâ€n on day two. The concert tickets are priced at S$188 for two days and S$108 for one day. You can also purchase regular entry tickets to the event for S$15 for one day or S$25 for two.

I think the most interesting thing to me is probably the joint performance by Yoshiki Fukuyama (who performed as Basara, the lead singer of FIRE BOMBER, in Macross 7) and May’n (who performed Sheryl Nome’s songs in Macross Frontier).

Think about it: quite a few of FIRE BOMBER’s songs are duets. The AFA organizers aren’t wiling to confirm anything, but it’s not inconceivable for May’n to assume the role of Mylene and perform a few classic Macross 7 pieces with the great Basara himself. That’d be awesome. If it happens anyway. Planet Dance!

Still, the ticket prices have gone up this year. Since I have effectively zero income right now and still have an expensive college education to save up for, choices will have to be made with the utmost prudence. Hmmm…

Crypton, the creator of VOCALOID2 software Hatsune Miku and the upcoming Kagamine Rin/Ren, sent a cease-and-desist order to doujin circle CLOCK☆HEARTS.

The circle was taking preorders on its website fan-made dakimakura covers of Miku and Rin. (Sort of NSFW: Hatsune Miku | Kagamine Rin) In response, the circle has taken down the pictures of the covers and will be refunding all the preorders.

[ Source: 痛いニュース ]

Short commentary after the break.

Some 2ch posters are calling this the end of the VOCALOID phenomenon. Miku’s popularity online is largely viral in nature and depends a lot on the fans to continue to spread the meme and create new ones that prolong the franchise. As with all 2ch memes, becoming a part of Comiket is a natural process and indeed it is completely expected. Having doujin works based on your product is in a way a validation of its popularity and is part of promoting a lively community that creates room for the original IP to grow.

Walt Disney is well-known for its strict policies against doujinshi: you won’t find any Disney characters in Comiket. This doesn’t hurt them a bit because their fanbase doesn’t depend on the kind of grassroot support that many small Japanese studios live off. Moreover, the Comiket-going demographics and Disney’s target audience seldom overlap, so it really doesn’t make sense for Disney to risk damaging the public image of their IP by condoning doujin works with questionable content in exchange for no tangible gains.

But of course the same does not apply for Crypton. They very much depend on the tech-savvy otaku crowd for the success of VOCALOID2 and, with such a target audience, doujinshi is implicitly part of the deal. So it’s understandable why some people are upset over this.

That said, the fact that Crypton is not sending ceast-and-desist to other doujinshi circles indicates that perhaps this particular issue has more to do with the product itself rather than the 18+ content. I’m pretty sure there are quite a number of C73 publications being planned for Miku and her little sister (poor girls), and yet there doesn’t seem to be any indication that any other groups have received notices from Crypton.

If you take a look at the C73 product page of the doujin circle in question, it says that the covers come in two types of material and cost ï¿¥10,000 or ï¿¥14,000 respectively. That’s a frigging lot of money, especially when you consider that COSPA’s officially-licensed dakimakura covers cost around ï¿¥9,000 to ï¿¥10,000.

It is therefore questionable as to whether this kind of doujin goods really embodies the spirit of fan creations. Doujinshi and fan art allow aspiring artists to showcase their works and their love for the characters. Sure, they make money off selling the books, but the measly profit that can be made from selling a few hundred books at an annual event, after weeks/months of hard work, is really not the primary motivation behind doujinshi creation. And it’s not supposed to be.

Of course, when it comes to fan-created products, it is sometimes difficult to draw a clear line between reasonable compensation and overly-commercial interest. But in this particular case, I am leaning more towards Crypton’s side of the argument.

For one thing, I believe that doujinshi and doujin games exist to answer certain needs that cannot be fulfilled by the original right holders, whether due to the nature of the topic (i.e. 18+ material) or the lack of commercial interest to do it (i.e. 99% of doujin games). That is the value which they add to the community.

But does anyone seriously think that Crypton isn’t well on its way to creating every merchandise imaginable for its still-fresh cash cow? There are already Miku T-shirts on COSPA, an official dakimakura cover can’t be that far off. There just isn’t a need for an unofficial third party to come in, especially when it concerns a huge amount of potential profits for the original right holders.

The difference between a doujin artist and a bootlegger lies in the creativity embedded in the finished product and the intention. I think that making an overpriced dakimakura cover, with predictable art designed to locate the shortest path into the wallets of Miku fanboys everywhere, crosses an important line somewhere.

P.S. Please don’t sue me for the banner. T_T

Mika-tan, an employee of GSC, posted some new “product testing” pictures (what an awesome job) of this wonderful creation on her blog today. Chibi Miku stetching out her hand while holding a negi is so cute, it hurts my tooth. (Or maybe it’s just my tooth decay.) I did preorder one some time ago. Hopefully I can get it.

[ Mika-tan’s Blog ]

Excerpts from 33 songs sang by 14 people and Hatsune Miku mixed into 10 minutes of back to back pure concentrated awesomeness. Truly epic. Tokachitsukuchite!

Hatsune Miku

Well, I’m in love with the song all over again thanks to this YouTube video and a crazy piece of software called VOCALOID2. Embedded after the break.

The singer is Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) from Crypton’s VOCALOID2 software. It’s basically a music creation tool similar to MIDI composers except that instead of synthesizing instruments, it synthesizes vocals. That said, it doesn’t actually generate the voice using any magical algorithm; the vocals are actually pre-recorded (the voice belongs to Saki Fujita, an obscure seiyuu with few titles under her name).

What Crypton did was to record all the necessary pitches and consonant-vowel combinations needed for a typical J-Pop song and let the user combine them into coherent pieces. It works surprisingly well due to the fact that the Japanese language has only fifty or so possible sounds and words are always read the way they are written. It’s hard to explain, so here are some YouTube videos.

When I first heard of this some time ago from Kotaku, I thought it was something related to IDOLM@STER, especially since Kotaku seems obsessed with anything to do with the anime pop idol management simulation for Xbox 360. And after watching a few YouTube videos, I realized that I was right, just not in the way I had imagined. Just imagine if Namco Bandai decides to license this for use in IDOLM@STER…

I think this is the beginning of the end of the anime song industry as we know it.

I kid, I kid. Your favourite seiyuu isn’t going jobless just yet. At least not until VOCALOID-9000 achieves sentience and figures out how to synthesize new voices without the aid of puny humans… >_>

If you are interested in trying out VOCALOID2, you need to either fork out ï¿¥15,750 (about US$140) or wear an eye patch and get a pet parrot.