Worst Ad Eva

Pizza and show for the otaku.

Hatsune Miku is mainstream. Otaku is when you know there are other vocaloids.

This is all new to me...these things do 'live' concerts, and people actually go to see them...thousands of people...WTF...vocaloids doesn't real guise...guise?

You may recognise Miku as the star of such memes as Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! before it became Nyan Cat

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQ4NDg1MjUy.html

There featuring also Len and Rin (cosplayed).

Hatsune Miku is mainstream. Otaku is when you know there are other vocaloids.

I asked a student today and she told me that there are more than 1000 vocaloid stars

Yup.

Well, technically (*puts on blue tie*), Vocaloid is a software and vocaloids are personality avatars for that software. There are or have been about 45 vocaloids in and around three generations of program. Vocaloid 2 is when the craze, centered around the personality avatar Hatsune Miku, a 16-year-old girl with permanent headphones and blue hair, went huge. Since then there's been a handful of other really famous avatars (and the associated variations in program sound) too. Composers, both amateur and professional, seem to buy into the avatars, often keeping somewhat true to the character in the works they create. And of these composers, indeed there are thousands considered stars.

They are, as the saying goes, big in Japan.

In the past couple of days I have watched online thousands of people worship a singing hologram, and also listened to a news report about how ultra-realistic sex-bots are just around the corner (both Japan-based, of course!).  Can't help but feel that the end of the human race as we know it is nigh!

http://vimeo.com/12915013

Speaking of high art...

First there was a fan fiction. It starred Miku and six other of the runner up famous vocaloids, and it was a ghost story. Miku is lost in a forest and comes upon a broken down house. The house is part of a strange village and inside are strange people, the other vocaloids. The village is a twilight zone were the same day repeats endlessly. Miku decides to kill everyone! Of course she does. She uses the stuck clock hand as a dagger and gets to slaughtering.

Now, that's interesting enough. But then it was rendered into song, like a musical number, with all the starring vocaloids singing their parts in the story. Then a still picture video was made. Then a dance sequence was developed for people to act out while the music played. Then an MMD was made of the dance.

【MMD】Bad ∞ End ∞ Night

Then the sequel was written. It recaps the first story but takes a turn. A page is missing from the script of the repeating story and it seems to be Miku's fault. A crazed villager slaughters everyone trying to escape. This time instead of (well, as well as) an MMD, Danceroid made a video.

【DANCEROID】Crazy ∞ nighT

Then the final story in the trilogy was written. The first two stories are recapped but this time Miku realizes something different must happen. Instead of killing everyone she goes down to the basement... where the coffins are! She finds the missing page and runs and runs to bring it to the villagers...

【ふふっひ】Twilight ∞ nighT 【メイト♡】

YMMV but this all is as far as I know just a bunch of people online doing art.

And advertising pizza.


There's porn too, but when isn't there?

Despite their endless economic trouble Japan still stays at the forefront of technology and art so it is still tempting to see things happening in their society and worry that this is the future for the rest of the developed world, but you always have to remember that it is Japan and they are mad.

Lol, true. And English-language vocaloid sounds crap, so we needn't worry just yet.

The last story of the Black Mirror series entitled "Where's Waldo" deals with this THere you have an animated Blue Bear that runs in a local by- election in the UK and threatens to take over due to its immense popularity.
Hints of things to come..

Speaking of Black Mirror:

The series has become popular and been well-received in China, becoming one of the most discussed series in early 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror_(TV_series)

Actually introduced a student to it yesterday and he didn't seem to get the ramifications-I mean he said he thought the first episode was "funny" so I explained the subtext a bit and I discovered that he really had not got the whole cultural/social critique side of it.
He is a bright boy graduating this year and off to postgrad in OZ. Students here really have a hard time UNDERSTANDING Western stuff. and intuiting what is really going on.

He is a bright boy graduating this year and off to postgrad in OZ. Students here really have a hard time UNDERSTANDING Western stuff. and intuiting what is really going on.

We all should keep this in mind as wee are trying to figure out what's going on here.

He is a bright boy graduating this year and off to postgrad in OZ. Students here really have a hard time UNDERSTANDING Western stuff. and intuiting what is really going on.

As a matter of curiosity, to which City in Oz will he be going? Is there any special cultural preparation for the young folk going to other Countries? I was in a lift yesterday and I made some comment to one of the Asian passengers. His response indicated to me that I may as well have been talking to a Martian. No wonder a lot of these folk can't assimilate if no one explains things to them. I also had to explain to an Asian lady (yesterday) that she had to wait her turn to be attended to by a gaming machine attendant. This woman has been here for years. The attendant thanked me and told me that this woman is always rude and expecting immediate attention. The look on her face told me that she didn't like what I told her, but she backed off.