She has almost a million fans of Facebook. She’s sold out concerts worldwide from L.A. to Hong Kong. She’s collaborated with various companies and artists; including SEGA and Pharrell Williams. She’s one of the most recognizable digital Pop stars in the world. We of course are big fans of this internet celebrity, and many of you know who we’re talking about. Tonight’s filler post will take you through the brief history of the one and only, Hatsune Miku, as told by the guys of D&A Anime Blog!

So question number one? What exactly is Hatsune Miku, and who created her? That answer is easy, just ask the guys behind Crypton Future Media. As for what Hatsune Miku is, she’s what’s called a Moe Anthropomorphism. (In anime; a non-human being or object that has been given moe-like qualities.) Miku, as many of us know, is a Vocaloid voicebank created by the aforementioned company, and her name actually means “the first sound of the future”. Her synthesized singing voice is modeled from Japanese voice actress, Saki Fujita, and is the first Vocaloid in Crypton’s “Character Vocal Series”. (But the third to be sold commercially, following ‘Meiko’ and ‘Kaito’.)

She was built using Yamaha’s Vocaloid 2 technology; of course her name wasn’t really conceived until after the Vocaloid 2 announcements. Hatsune was released by Crypton on August 31, 2007 and was again released August 31, 2013 on Vocaloid 3. Fast-forward ahead to MMD (or MikuMikuDance) where fans could create fan-made animations, and trust us, there’s tons of em’ out there! Since 2008 our favorite blue-haired, pig-tailed digital pop star has been heavily marketed and promoted, and originally aimed at musicians. Her success can be credited to Vocaloid being a cultural hit in Japan, but it didn’t stop there…

Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese site akin to YouTube, played a major role in propelling Vocaloid (and Hatsune Miku) to the level that it’s at today. Since 2011 Miku has made several cameos in anime titles, has showed up in Super Bowl commercials, and has over 100,000 songs and has done various collabs with famous artists like Big Boi from Outcast, and “Happy’s” Pharell Williams. Fans from all over have produced original mixes and remixes featuring her on them, and Hatsune Miku even made her first ever live television broadcast October 8, 2014 with her song “Sharing the World” on The Late Show with David Letterman.

From concerts all over the world to being featured on original tracks by up-and-coming DJ/Producers, Miku has become a worldwide phenomenon. If you head to an anime convention anywhere in the world, you’re bound to find not just Miku, but all of her Vocaloid friends as well. It won’t belong before we start seeing her Djing her own tracks, let’s just hope Crypton Media is thinking what we’re thinking.