In something that's better understood through video and not words, virtual idol Hatsune Miku performed on David Letterman's show last night. It wasn't awkward at all! (Okay, it totally was, but it also kinda cool.)

If you're not familiar with Hatsune Miku, why don't you let the experts at Giant Bomb get you up to speed?

When this was broadcast last night, I couldn't even tell the song was in English.

oh

This is kind of off-topic, but I guess there a video games with the title "Hatsune Miku"

Now I want some pizza for dinner.

EDIT: Holy shit, pizzasheets posted above me. This is destiny!

It's in English? I don't believe you?

Wait, that song was in english???

The harbinger of the Japanese Invasion has arrived.

Letterman + Hatsune Miku + same stage = wonderful times we live in :)

Seeing all of the ardent anime fans on my Twitter feed unironically scoff "who even watches shows like this" was my favorite part.

@alavapenguin: @koolaid: It technically is I guess. Here's the official PV with lyrics.

I picture Letterman's life to be entirely ALL-AMERICAN-- playboy magazines, Chevys, Cheeseburgers and fries, blondes and red heads.

I always imagined that anything that is not ALL-AMERICAN would literally disintegrate from Dave in an 100 yard radius.

Serious question: Were the lyrics to that song being sung in Japanese?

Because that would explain why nothing she said sounded like real words. I thought I could occasionally hear one or two words in English so I wasn't sure.

Also who controls Hatsune Miku? She's not a robot or an AI, there must be a puppet master right? is it one person or a group? What corporation is underneath those sparkling blue eyes?!

Letterman has a look on his face that says: "If THAT'S the future, I'm glad I'm retiring now!"

Feel like this would have fit in better with Fallon.

Morning Musume, arguable the top idol group in Japanese pop history (definitely top 3), performed their first ever US East Coast concert in New York this weekend, and THIS is what gets the coverage?

Stupid fake holo-waifu...

so if I smoke one of those marijuana cigarettes, will Hakusa minuku appear and dance for me?

This is just so bizzare to see unfold. It's like mixing peanut butter and pickles.

Man now all I want is Genki Rockets on late night tv, and I want them to tell the story of Lumi.

They should have just used Luka if they were trying to do English. Unless they were going for "Japanese person trying to sing English."

why on earth did they go with letterman? wouldn't it make more sense to do it on fallon or something, who isn't like 80 years old?

Giant Bomb anime editor David Letterman

@vikingdeath1: Sega controls her.

This wouldn't have been a story if she was on the Tonight Show. Kidding

I'll just say what I said in the topic, terrible song choice (even if it's the OFFICIAL SONG OF MIKUMANIA), better performance than digital Tupac and Michael Jackson.

Holy Guacamole.

CBS Cross-Brand Synergy.

I really love that this happened but man... Letterman is arguably the worst audience for it. Or not, who knows. It might not have gone over so well with any American late-night audience anyway.

For what it's worth, this is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, verypoor attempt at using Vocaloid with English lyrics. I'm personally not a fan of the software (despite owning a physical copy of it?) but it's been done by several other artists incrediby well, most notably Porter Robinson's "Sad Machine".

Also while it's not in English, it's still worth checking out The M Machine's "Superflat," which I had no idea was Vocaloid. Figured it was just really good vocal editing.

@m1k3: Really? I thought she was "open source" in that she comes with some vocaloid software and anyone can make songs/animations with her. Or is that just how she started? I guess things might have changed since she got her own video games.

To quote Jeff: "WARNING! Not what you're looking for!"

If she's wearing a headset AND holding a mic shouldn't we be hearing virtualized feedback?

Will Dan Ryckert's final evolution be David Letterman then?

It's English, that's why it sounds so weird. Vocaloids sing Japanese much better than English.

I think Crypton Future Media owns her.

Huh. Funny, Tetsuya Nomura's version of Hatsune Miku was also a thing that happend recently, too.

The thing missing from that video is the camera pointed at the audience. I want to see their faces. I want to watch the old guy who has gone to every single Letterman show realize what he is seeing and go insane from the revelation. Or just become very, very confused and distraught. I want to see that.

Also yeah, that was terrible synthetic English. They should really work on that before doing this again.

This is like the Beatles being on Ed Sullivan. Soon Mikumania will take over the United States.

ya know give it up to those musicians for rocking out even though no one in the crowd is into it

"It's like being on Willie Nelson's bus."

What the hell does that mean?

This whole thing really just feels like a way for a corporation to own a singer instead of having a person with that pesky free will. I hate being the old man, but I just don't get the appeal.

You forgot "underage".

@milkman:

I can only imagine it's the feeling of not having smoked weed but somehow being high anyway.

This is amazing in a terrible, terrible way.

Hooray! This can only mean the end of the world is coming and we're all going to die!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *fan girl squeal* This is so cool! *cough* I mean..yep super awkward for poor Letterman. The appeal is that the songs she sings (as well as the other vocaloid characters) can be created with anyone using the vocaloid software. Most the big artists who use the program are people who just hit it big on Nico nico or youtube.

@aurahack: holy SHIT that Superflat one is a BIG tune

I love everything about this.

That next game is out next month too. Good times.

We did it

I have a lot of questions. Firstly, I don't think that song is in English. I know that isn't a question, but I just don't here it. Did they fly the band members out? Do the band members add anything? I didn't know vocaloids needed a backing band. Basically I'm just very confused.

@asko25: It goes on for a little longer than I wished, considering succinctness was always their strength, but yeah man, it's massive. It's stylistically very different from their other work but they're worth looking into if you've never heard of them before. They're easily one of my favorite groups in the scene right now.

We all wanted flying cars and jetpacks, but instead we got holographic anime girls. What a time to be alive.