Unofficial Hatsune Miku Mix

This is how I got in to Vocaloid. It is a bunch of small stories of the Vocaloids from Crypton Future Media, it features the Original artist of the official art of Miku, Rin, Len, and Luka. The story has, Miku, rin, len, Luka, Kaito and Meiko. (Although Kaito is called Onii-san and Meiko is called Onee-san for some reason.) The personalities of the Vocaloids come from what a lot of people think of the Vocaloids to be especially the personality stereotypes of the early days of Vocaloid. (Except Len, because if that was the case this manga would rated 17+ at least lol.) Examplesare Meiko is a Drunk and Kaito is an idiot who likes Ice cream. There are a lot to reference to songs as well, as an example I believe Magnet is referenced at one point. There are some other charicters who make an appearance as well, Gackpo makes an appearance as well as the fanaloids, hachune Miku, Neru, and Haku. You can tell the people working on this manga were having fun. It's not supposed to be taken seriously at all. It's just something for Vocaloid fans to enjoy

I thoroughly enjoyed this interpretation of the Crypton Future Media idols: Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, Megurine Luka, Meiko, and Kaito. For those who are new to the Vocaloid franchise―DO NOT read this manga before you play the Project Diva games. There are many inside jokes and references that might seem confusing if you're new to Miku and her friends' adventures as voice-synthesizer idols. • I read the Dark Horse publication of Hatsune Mix and the back of the book introduces the manga to those who have vaguely heard of Hatsune Miku. DO NOT listen to the misleading synopsis on the back of Dark Horse'somnibus! KEI's doujin-like interpretation of the characters are for those who already are attached to the characters and have pre-formulated opinions of them and their relationships! The Vocaloid canon is very similar to the canon of the Touhou (東方) games; all of the official character personalities are based on fan interpretation. • The stories are told through short stories, erratic humor, and referential mayhem―causing many Japanese and otaku-based paroxysms to appear along the way; examples being things like itasha, daifuku, and even several nods to Hatsune Miku being Sega's cash-cow with the profitability of her merchandise. The meme-heavy, internet-based humor is faithful to many of the music videos that the Vocaloid franchise has released in the past like ggrks-ググれカス- ("Go Google It"). • Although KEI is a famous designer in the Project Diva sphere―I had issues with the way that the art looked in the first few chapters. The characters had large, black, beady-looking eyes and I was not a fan of it AT ALL. Towards the middle of the book, the art improves. The characters retain a more normal look and have a cute, sparkling, child-like glimmer in their expressions; and the panel layout later becomes smooth and less jarring. • The stories were nice, laconic, and often heart-warming―like the Valentine's Day chapters. Additionally, lesser known Vocaloids like Gackt's and Kentaro Miura's love-child, Kamui Gakupo, and the famous fan-derivative, Yowane Haku (a depressed version of Hatsune Miku), both make cameo appearances in this book! As a huge fan of the "Voiceroids" (another name for unofficial Vocaloid characters), I absolutely adored the scene where Meiko goes out to drink and sees Haku at the bar! • Overall, Vocaloid is special franchise that is not understood by the majority of people who only see Hatsune Mike's rise to fame as a weird Japanese icon that has a fixation with leeks; but underneath its veneer of superficiality there is a dedicated fanon (fan-canon) that has many different interpretations of characters that are teased in Hatsune Mix; personas that range from angsty and edgy to playful and silly―streaming together in an incredibly large pool of meta. • The relationships between characters are teased but never explored, often left to the imagination... or a well-written fanfiction. In KEI's interpretation of Miku and Luka, there are even nods to them having romantic feelings for each other, something that has been quietly speculated about since Vocaloid's sudden burst of popularity in the 2000s. Despite my praise of the manga version, I still believe that stories of the Vocaloids are best told through musical interpretation. I believe that Hatsune Mix deserves a 6/10 because of its respect for the characters and the plethora of enjoyable references in lieu of Project Diva and the many fan interpretations that have followed.

One thing you should know about me before writing this review- I am a big vocal synth fan, as may be expected, as a lot of manga/anime fans are, I've found. My favourite of all time is Hatsune Miku, the main mascot of Crypton, one of the main contributors to the vocal synth community, and she's a cultural icon at this point. I'm even going to Miku Expo London in October of this year and I believe she's the most prominent character out of all of my merch collections. I've been a fan for about 3 years, for reference. So, after a bit of backgroundon me, it's time for the review. Maker Hikoushiki Hatsune Mix, or Unofficial Hatsune Mix, as it's called in Western countries, is a collection of, well, collections, of short stories that were originally released very early on in Miku's reign, throughought 2007 and 2008. They were drawn and written by KEI, who is definetly the most influential artist in the vocal synth community, being the creator of the at this point, iconic official PNGs for the Cryptonloids. The stories follow the Cryptonloids going through their daily lives and just general silly antics. My general opinion on the collection is quite mixed for several reasons, so let's start with the pros and why you should give it a try. • Some of the pages in the book are made up of these gorgeous official arts that come up after each collection of stories. They're in full colour, and, in my opinion, really show the best of KEI's iconic late-2000s artstyle, with at least one of them depicting each of the Cryptonloids. If you wanted to, you could cut them out of the book and make some amazing posters out of them, because, believe me, most, if not all of KEI's serious pieces are absolutely gorgeous. • The stories absolutely get across the different universes that can be created with the help of vocal synths. Not being limited to a singular universe where the characters have a certain age or personality type is a really interesting feature of this collection that I absolutely love. It's an absolute haven for anyone who happens to be a Cryptonloid multishipper, and is an absolute beast at proving those 'Miku is 16, you know!' and 'That can't be ___, they act/look different!' TikTok people wrong to a point. • My favourite stories were Working Mix, Chibi Mix, Celebrity Mix, Matsuri Mix, Sports Day Mix, Miko Mix, and the really interestingly illustrated extra story, Miku Goes To Sega, which uses real pictures of buildings and gameplay as essentially a cutely illustrated ad for the at-the-time upcoming Project Diva Arcade, which, by the way, and partly due to this side story, I'd love to play someday. • I loved the cameos of other characters like Gakupo, Neru, and Haku! Gakupo and Haku were probably my favourite characters in the entire collection when they appeared. I also found it quite funny that they couldn't be named, Gakupo DEFINETLY due to copyright and all that (his voice being provided by GACKT and all), and the others probably for a similar reason. Well, those are the main points I enjoyed with Unofficial Hatsune Mix. Now let's move onto the cons...or rather, the singular con. • For a lighthearted comedy series, there are some very questionable themes that might leave some readers feeling kind of, a little bit, creeped out. Obviously the stories are supposed to be bizarre and out of context, but there were two running 'gags' that I found to be a bit...wrong??? One of these was the weirdly persistent theme of KAITO being absolutely DECIMATED by pretty much all of the others characters. Like, full on abused. Yes, in the silly Vocaloid manga. He's stupid, and so he gets beaten up in every story he's featured in, I think. Obviously there's nothing wrong with dark humour, but I don't like the way that it's presented as just something to be laughed at. Haha, man gets violently beat by woman. The collection itself is pretty funny, don't get me wrong. I just found KAITO's whole gag a bit odd, and leaning towards a bad kind of odd. The other theme I wanted to touch on was Miku's constant desperation throughout the separate realities to be/look more mature. Obviously, she's presented as a 16-year-old almost all of the time, and wanting to look more 'appealing' or adult-like is, like, the most normal thing ever for that age. But I feel like it's pushed to a bit of a creepy level, especially as this whole aspect of her character is devoted entirely to her wanting a more adult-like physique. This personality trait as a whole is never presented well in manga/anime, and Unofficial Hatsune Mix is no different. So, that's my read-at-your-own-risk list. Now, for my general opinion. I think, if you're a vocal synth (especially Cryptonloid) fan, you should take the time to read Unofficial Hatsune Mix. Most of it is cute, it's got a generally nice artstyle, and there's plenty of silly moments that are worth the read. It is on the pricier side, but there's plenty of stories to get through, and if you read manga more casually, like I generally do, then you'll be on it for a couple of days (I'm pretty sure it took me 2 days to finish???). If you want to get into Vocaloid and this is your first opportunity, I would tell you to read it, as well. But, if you know nothing about Vocaloid and have no interest in it, definetly skip it. It's not the best manga in the world- I'd rank it at around mid on a tierlist- but it's fun to pick up every once in a while and flick through. I hope my little review helped you decide or gave you some insight, and look out for my other stuff in the future. Thanks for reading! [○_○] ~ Pheonix