Hatsune Miku: Virtual Idol

The title may read like a bad anime series title, but 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku) is not fictional. Well, she doesn't really exist, except for in ニコニコ動画, but she is the closest thing to a real virtual idol that I can think of.

Let me give you some background. Yamaha came out with a singing virtual vocalization program. It was released in Japan as Vocaloid. People started to make videos of it singing things, associating it with a cute anime girl character, and now all of this is exploding on ニコ動.

Imagine all those people who do karaoke on YouTube, but with a sense of shame. Why not have a virtual proxy sing songs for you. It's so meta.

I'm still amazed that they can even get a computer voice to sing. And the fact that this idol is a community created thing and not some corporation's mind control world domination plan (yet...) is something that makes me feel good about the world. The future really is here!

Here are a few of my favorite 初音ミク songs:

1. ワールドイズマイン / World Is Mine (an original song)

2.　みくみくにしてあげる♪ / MikuMiku ni shite ageru♪ (an original song)

3. Ievan Polkka

4.　ﾄｩﾙﾄｩﾙ☆ﾀﾞﾀﾞﾀﾞを初音ミクが歌って踊る / Hatsune Miku does Tunak


There are lots of covers and original songs, so go seek out your favorites!

Rikai-chan

Are you using rikai-chan? This excellent firefox extension is made by the folk(s) over at polarcloud.com. I love this program. Basically, you install it, install a dictionary, and then toggle it in firefox. Then, when you mouse over some Japanese, the dictionary will do its best to find the reading and a translation of the word you are mousing over.

Seriously, this program is a life saver for 漢字 (kanji) impaired people like myself. Give it a shot and then go try and read the perfume blog! ;)