I can see where you're coming from with that, it's just different cultures and what's considered "normal" differs from person to person. But I don't think that analogy works too well with what I personally find weird about the Japanese side of it - for me it's not the rampant fandom, my problems lie in the whole sexualisation aspect of it. I think a better Western analogy would be something like One Direction and those sort of bands that are obviously milking the "attraction" side of things. But I still think that reaches no where the levels compared to Japan. I personally find it much more uncomfortable knowing there is a company out there, that's juiced out the very essence of love and sold it with a laser-focused product whether that is as blatant as it is with photo books or host bars, or not as pervasive but still definitely there in Hatsune Miku. I'll admit - I don't know the inner subculture of Hatsune Miku and Vocaloids as well as I do other Japanese niche cultures, but I'm fairly certain some if not most of the fans are single, middle aged men who absolutely adore her as a character and the fact that she is a high-pitched, school uniform wearing young-ish girl helps (and all the concerts seem to be jut that). I'd be much more accepting of it if that fan base had a much wider demographic - from all ages to genders, as that would really legitimatise the music and the art form and less so the sexualisation of it. Having said that, I'm not going to criticise any individual who is into it. I just won't get it into it myself and am a little disappointed that this sort of stuff is playing up on a subconscious level this idea of basement dwelling that has put Japan into an ageing population.
I can definitely understand your frustration Hailinel and your defence towards it. I know you're not flipping a table over it and I didn't follow that Quick Look thread that much so I apologise if I'm repeating things already, but from a Western culture perspective, a lot of this is flat out weird. It's weird because it's a character that looks like a child and I think Western culture is much more protective of children and childhood. It's weird because it's a fake voice - look at how much we already criticise auto-tune. You seem like a sensible guy/girl, do you mind if you could tell me what you like about Hatsune Miku? Like, I didn't find any problems with the Quick Look because they were dismissive of a subculture of a subculture - those who are into that weird side of Hatsune Miku and Japanese perversion. I don't think anywhere they generalised it to be all "Japanophiles". A ton of viewers and commenters probably did, but hey, if they're that ignorant that no amount of discussion is going to change that.
But I definitely do like what you've said Grant - I like Japanese culture and I dislike other aspects of it, so when I criticise Hatsune Miku, that's not Japan, Japanese people and those who like Japanese things. Likewise, you can criticise that Texan example (Sorry, I'm from Australia, no idea buddy!) and you're just criticising one segment of people, you're not generalising.
There is that sexualization aspect of the fandom, but that's not something shared across the whole. And that creepiness is not limited to just male fans (the male vocaloids KAITO and Len have their pervy fangirls).
That being said, sexualization isn't the core focus of Vocaloid. It's a voice synthesizer product that offers different packages of voice banks. Miku, and most of the other characters seen in the Project Diva series, were originally created for the second version of the engine, and each voice bank is based on samples provided by a live voice actor or singer. All the core of Vocaloid is is a tool to create songs, with the notion that the character the chosen voice bank represents is singing. It's also a tool used by people ranging from amateurs to professional musicians. Ryo, a member of a band called Supercell, has used Vocaloid for background singing in addition to writing and composing songs with Miku as the lead. A couple of those songs are actually in Project Diva F, and one, Black Rock Shooter, was actually popular enough in its own right that the song itself was adapted into an anime series and a PSP game. The song itself was inspired by an original character sketch he saw on an image-sharing site and has nothing to do with Miku or the Volcaloid fandom in any way.
It's also an outlet for some more ambitious works, like what is collectively known as the Song of Evil. A series of original works that tell tales of characters in a European-themed fantasy in which the Vocaloid characters are cast as characters within the story. Examples of these works include Daughter of Evil, Servant of Evil, Daughter of White, among others. Could it have been composed for performance by live singers? Sure. On the other hand, the elements of the songs and the characters within are based on some of the popular fan characterizations of the Vocaloids. The software also provides access to singers of a caliber that amateur song writers otherwise might not have access to.
What I mean by fan characterizations is that the characters don't have any personality as defined by the people that create the software. They have a name, an appearance, perhaps an age, but otherwise, most everything commonly associated with them in terms of oddities like signature items and so forth have been sort of crowdsourced by the fandom. It's why leeks are commonly associated with Miku, or why a steamroller (a.k.a. road roller) is commonly associated with Rin and Len. They're these goofy, innocent personal touches that the fans have come up with, and have since been widely adopted to the point that it's referenced in licensed merchandise.
Similarly, there are the Vocaloid derivative characters. One of the things about Vocaloid software that might not be widely known is that the software doesn't actually lock you into any of these set characters. You're free to change elements like pitch to create new singing voices. And the fandom, taking inspiration from various sources, have sort of crowdsourced their own original characters; some of whom have also been subsequently adopted as "official" characters by the voice bank creators, even if the characters themselves don't have their own official voice banks. The DLC characters in Project Diva F, Haku, Neru, and Teto, are all characters that started off as fan creations inspired by events in and around the fandom before being adopted by Miku's creators as official.
(And yes, I was serious about the steamroller. Why a steamroller? Because Rin and Len's colors reminded people of one. I'm not gonna argue!):
So there's a sense of community to the fanbase of the software, and of the characters, where creative freedom and expression is pretty wide open. This is one of the things I really like most about it. Do you get those desperate guys and gals with body pillows? Well, sure. But then again, there are middle-aged women that are creepily into Twilight and Justin Bieber, and guys that write saga-length fanfiction about their desire to have sex with Arwen from Lord of the Rings or 1980s-era Hulk Hogan (or both). There are weirdos in every fandom. But for the most part, we don't define these entire fanbases by their most sexually bizarre.
But you are right in that no amount of discussion is going to keep people from making these judgments. (I'm sure I'll encourage a few drive-bys just by posting this response.) But if these people don't want to experience the oddity that is a song about a creepy piece of toast, well, that's their loss. (And hey, this one's in English!)
Log in to comment