OK, I need
to come clean... I can't function without it, it has become part of
my life, whether I'm at home or at work, whether I'm gaming or
cleaning, it's even creeping into my writing for Niche. I try to make
my friends and family understand but sometimes it is easier to hide
it from them. It's been over a year already and it has changed my
life. My name is Mulukh, and I'm a Miku addict.
Hatsune
Miku, if you don't know is a Japanese Vocaloid and Virtual Idol.
Vocaloid is a kind of synth voice used to create natural sounding
words and full song lyrics, and virtual idols are the ultimate in
manufactured pop stars... what with them literally being designed and
then created usually with CGI anime stylings.
I first
realised I had a problem when I noticed I was (attempting) dancing around the kitchen singing along to a song several octaves above my
hearing range, in a language I haven't learned with lyrics I don't
even know. That fact that the song was by a make believe, green haired, teenager
from another country makes that a little stranger, the fact that I'm
a mostly fully grown, 30ish year old guy might just push it over the event horizon of unusual. There's no coming back.
OK, I'm
not really saying this is a bad thing, I wouldn't suggest anyone be
ashamed of their musical tastes, but I have found this has grown into
somewhat of an obsession for me. It started with a single game demo,
but since buying the full game I've put hundreds of hours into playing
these tracks, over and over. They were in my head so much I started
using the in-game music player instead my usual music app. And then came
the inevitable humming of songs that no one recognises. Since then
I've sought out albums and compilations, widened my scope a bit more,
found some awesome cover versions by real life humans but Miku
herself is where it started and nothing compares. I'd even say that if I was offered the chance to see anyone live in concert... it would be Miku. Holograms FTW.
It's the
catchy and often uplifting music that got me hooked (although there's
some beautifully mournful pieces), the addictive nature of the games helped but the character herself is also worth mentioning. Miku epitomises "cute anime girl" with all the style, expressions and gestures you'd expect, so cute damnit. It's not like I even find her attractive, my obsession isn't born from some moe crush. (There might be one part of one song where I always miss notes, getting distracted by the background video. Girl can dance.)
Even
without knowing the words to these songs it is almost as if they have
helped me "get to know" Miku, despite most of the songs I
know having different creators, I'm not even sure Miku has a defined
personality or if it changes to suit each song. Somehow she always seems familiar and likeable. I need to give credit
to the creators of the songs and music videos, those are some
talented folks and without them I don't think I'd be in this
situation.
So here I
am, dancing around, feeling good and I'm ok with that. One last
thought...I'm partly glad/disappointed I'm not really a cosplayer, I
think a gender-bent Miku karaoke would be an epic thing I'll never
do. If you'd like to know about Miku's rhythm action games take a look back at Niche: Treat Your Geek Issue 9.
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