Hatsune Miku

Gender: ♀
Age: 16
Height: 158 cm
Weight: 42kg
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Company: Crypton Future Media
Distributor: Crypton Future Media
Voice provider: Saki Fujita
Illustrator: KEI (Standard\2007), Masaki Asai (Append\2010), iXima (Miku V3\2013), Zain (Miku English\2013)
Reduced no.: CV01, CV01A
Affilation: YAMAHA, SEGA

Crypton had the idea to release Miku as "an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost."[3][4] When KEI illustrated Miku, he was given a color scheme to work with (based on YAHAMA synthesizers' signature blue-green colour) and 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. [5] The digital design on Miku's skirt and boots is based off 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.[6][7]
Miku was originally intended to have a different hairstyle, but after trying out pigtails Kei thought them 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 for the 90s period).[8]
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 on until one stuck via an Internet Meme. This occurrence has since died out.
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.

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. 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. [9] 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 amongst 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, to the point where most products for their Vocaloids will usually only feature Miku's name, despite the inclusion of other Crypton Vocaloids. 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[10]. 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. Between Jan 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.[11]
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, USAmazon 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.[12] 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.[13] The main purpose of the Miku English version is to allow Japanese producers to break into the west and also expand their audiences.[14]
Crypton Future Media do 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.[15] However, Hatsune Miku sung 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.