On Saturday of FanExpo Canada this year, I attended a panel featured around Hatsune Miku, a vocaloid. Now, you may be wondering, “What is a vocaloid?” If many of you are familiar with the vocaloids, you’ll know that they’re not anime characters nor are they from a game. Vocaloids are basically voice synthesizers that work together with other together with other audio workstations and music editing programs to create music.

The Crypton Media Hatsune Miku panel was really great because it answered a lot of questions pertaining the possibility of well, more Miku in North America. First off, it was announced that the Hatsune Miku V3 English will be officially released on August 31 – This week! The voice of English Miku stays true to the original Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita and the program will be available for both Windows and Max users.

Hatsune Miku English will come with a piapro studio vocal editor with an English database, a full digital audio workstation and more than 200 visual instruments. The download version will be released first and the entire thing costs about 149 dollars + tax.

For all you gamers out there, the Hatsune Miku Project Diva F English version, available on the PlayStation 3 will be released this week. I originally played this game in Japanese on my friend’s PSP. It’s really addicting and if you enjoy games like Dance Dance Revolution or music related games, you’ll love it! If they convert the official English version into PSP format, I might just buy a PSP just to play and own the game.

As well, there’s actually a Hatsune Miku Opera that played earlier in Japan this year. It’s called The End and features three huge screens to animate the vocaloid as she sings. Miku’s outfits were designed by the French fashion designer Louis Vuitton in collaboration with Marc Jacobs and his own studio team.

Vocaloid culture and Hatsune Miku fandom seems to be growing by slowly and steadily, accumulating fans all over the world. And it’s great! Because there are new songs being created every day with the Vocaloid programs, new designs, images and videos!

Lastly, release dates for the first official Miku books in English are going to be released this year!

Starting with CV01: Hatsune Miku Edition ($29.95) – August 28, 2013

CV02: Kagamine Rin & Len Edition ($34.95) – August 28, 2013

CV03: Megurine Luka Edition ($34.95) – October 30, 2013

If you guys are more curious as to what Miku is all about, search up the Hatsune Miku Google Chrome commercial. It’s really short and cute but it really sums up the entire vocaloid culture really well.

Here are some of my favourite vocaloid songs…

Gumi- Hey DJ!

Hatsune Miku- Story

Hatsune Miku- Senbonzakura

Megurine Luka- The Tailor Shop on Enbizaka

Hatsune Miku- Tell Your World

Gakupo- Breathe

Kagamine Rin- Romantic Escape

I hope you guys liked this mini feature. More features from FanExpo Canada to come soon!

– Cloudy

What are you pondering today?