Miku’s Celebration Day 2012 Concerts Now Available for Blu-Ray/DVD Pre-Order

 Posted by at 8:06 pm  Hatsune Miku, Merchandise  2 Responses »
Apr 292012
 

 

A couple days ago, it was announced that the DVD and Blu-Ray sets  for the recent concert in Tokyo are now available for pre-order. The Blu-Ray has a set price of 11,401 JPY ($142 USD) and the DVD has a set price of 9,860 JPY ($123 USD). This may seem expensive at first, but these are 7 disk sets that contain concerts from both days, as well as music disks! Both products are capable of shipping internationally, despite being purchased from the Japanese Amazon site. Just click in the upper right corner where it says “Would you like to see this page in English?”. If that doesn’t work, you can always translate the page using Google.

The sets are due to ship on August 29th, roughly 4 months from now. Remember: the DVDs will have a region lock, but can be played in a PC after converting your DVD drive to Region 2 (Japan). You can only change your drive’s region 4 times, so it makes more sense to also have a dedicated DVD drive for Japanese region DVDs. You can find slim-type external DVD drives for as low as $30 or less these days.

Hatsune Miku’s Facebook page admins forgot to add the link for the DVD box set. So I made sure to add it to this article to make it easier to find.

A “Save Miku” Response From Crypton: “The Problem is Almost Solved”

 Posted by at 11:46 am  Hatsune Miku, Other  27 Responses »
Apr 232012
 

Despite the success of my message regarding the “Save Miku” movement reaching hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, there’s still something that a lot of the fans want: An official word from Crypton themselves. This is understandable, so Scott from Mikustar.com and myself have both sent messages to Crypton to ask for confirmation on the matter. We have both received the same response via email.

“Regarding SAVE MIKU Movement, the deletion problem has been almost solved and we have nothing to announce so far.”

Now, before you jump to conclusions, this can mean a lot of things. Due to how this was a global issue that had to deal with individual country’s copyright laws, it’s possible that there has been a lot of communication and paperwork done over this. These things take a lot of time, even if the initial problem of the false claims has been stopped. I’ve yet to see any new videos vanish from my own playlists for some time now, so it’s now likely that they could simply be working to finish things up.

Crypton has the intention of making an announcement once everything has been settled. So keep cool and keep and eye out for that, and stay tuned!

Followup Q&A Session With the Writer of Mikufan [CLOSED]

 Posted by at 11:13 am  Other  14 Responses »
Apr 202012
 

While I’ve spent a lot of time answering everyone’s messages on Facebook and Youtube, I realize that a lot of you who are simply reading this site may have questions yourselves. I’ll be pretty busy for the next few days, but I will take the time to host a quick Q&A article with my viewers. If you have any questions regarding my “Stop posting save Miku topics and videos” article, feel free to ask. Or if you have anything you want to ask me that may be more personal, I’ll answer those as well.

Simply post a question in the comments, and I’ll add them to this article along with my response for everyone to see. I’ll keep the Q&A open until my next blog update, which should be a few days from now. I recently received my order of the Hatsune Miku HSP ver. figurine, and I’m hoping to do a proper review.

EDIT: Questions are now closed!

 

Nuglam asks: Is there a way to contact you about topics that may or may not deserve a post? And will you implement a widget for questions or suggestions later?

Answer: I do not have a public contact email, but you can contact me at any time by PMing on my youtube channel located at http://www.youtube.com/jrharbort/. I respond to all messages. I am not the owner of Mikufan, so I will need to speak to the owner about permission for adding a new plugin. So it’s possible that one will be added later.
 

Sherlock asks: Out of curiosity, who’s your favorite V1 character? V2? V3?

Answer: My favorite V1 character, believe it or not, is Kaito. He makes a pretty excellent male companion in duets with other Crypton Vocaloids. I’m also eagerly waiting for his Append release. My favorite V2 Vocaloid is Hatsune Miku simply due to her high level of flexibility, and also due to how well she goes with Vocalectro (Vocaloid+Electro) styled music. The V3 character that has my eye right now is IA, for many of the same reasons as Miku. She’s extremely flexible in the range of genres she can work with, and she also fits with Vocalectro extremely well.
 

Makoto9 asks: I’m torn between buying Project Diva 2nd, and Project Diva Extend. Which would you recommend, and why?

Answer: Project Diva 2nd and Extend both have PV modes, and it’s true that Extend does offer far less songs (10 less to be precise). Adding all of those extra modules really took up a lot of the game’s storage space. But Extend does offer more in terms of gameplay enjoyment, such as items that can even increase the difficulty of gameplay. The song selection in Extend is also more in line with a “Greatest Hits” collection, so many of the songs are bound to be very familiar with many fans. I’ve played both, and I had a lot more fun with Extend than I did with 2nd. If I had to choose again, I’d go with Extend. The Project Diva Wiki has a lot of useful information explaining the changes in Extend.
 

Alex asks: I am curious about your line of work, social structure, and family structure. Also what your religion. Is this too personal of a question?

Answer: I work part time with one of my older brothers for the moment, since getting a proper full time job in my area has proven difficult. I’m still trying though. Social structure? I think I’m doing fairly well in that department. I had just recently hosted a large Brony meet (gasp, he’s a Brony too?!). It went pretty well. My family is Christian, although I’m not too religious myself. But I would not consider myself to be atheist.
 

gabriel razo asks: can you please make a concert in Las Vegas i dont have money to travel =(

Answer: I’d love to go to Vegas to perform for you, but I’m a horrible singer. Thanks for asking though!
 

Andrew Murphy asks: After receiving many mixed information from various websites what is the verdict of another tour and possibly within the united states. Also how successful was the tour in the states as in sales because I regret missing the buffalo concert.

Crypton and SEGA have not yet had a tour in the United States. The first live performance was in Los Angeles at Anime Expo 2011, and they even held a special conference at the New York Comic Con late last year. There has been no official announcement about a nationwide “tour” with the exception of a possible return to L.A. in 2013. But this can always change.

Quick Recap + Thank You to EVERYONE!

 Posted by at 8:01 pm  Hatsune Miku, Other  5 Responses »
Apr 182012
 

 

These past few days have been pretty crazy. Thanks to the mention from the Vocaloid facebook fanpage, my message has reached hundreds of thousands of Vocaloid fans around the world. It makes me happy that we can finally put old problems to rest, and we can continue doing what the community has always done before: Share our love and interest of Vocaloid with the many fans and artists around the world. I have taken the time to answer everyone’s questions on Facebook, Youtube, and Mikufan, and I want to thank everyone for the positive feedback!

I’ve been pretty busy for the past few days, the last couple in particular due to the unexpected attention, so I have a lot to cover. So I’ll just quickly recap some of the major news events, and express my opinions rather than going into heavy detail.

 

The Virtual Tupac Performance at Coachella Fest

I live within the Coachella Valley, so news of this spread around very quickly (here is a local article). Naturally, the thought of Hatsune Miku’s live 39’s concert performances came to mind and immediately reminded me of the Mikunopolis concert I had attended. This actually has me excited due to the fact that the music industry is realizing the potential that this technology has as an entertainment platform. Of course, the technology has never been exclusive to Hatsune Miku. So the idea that it was “stolen” is rather silly. It is a rather old concept that has been used many times before, most notably by the Gorillaz music group, and even the Haunted House ghosts at Disney Land. When it comes down to it, it’s just merely a projected image on glass. It will be very interesting to see where this leads in the future.

 

AniMiku Fan Concert to Premier at Tora-Con in New York

One of the very surprising recent announcements is that a completely fan-driven Vocaloid concert will be shown at Tora-Con on April 21st in New York. Crypton and SEGA have no official involvement in this concert, but they have acknowledged the concert and announced it to the fans to show their approval. This could very well be the first of many fanmade performances in the future. Additional information and details can be read from the linked article from Hatsune Miku’s facebook post.

 

A Chance for Miku to be Immortalized in Wax

Madame Tussauds is a well renowned London Gallery of famous people sculpted in wax, with 14 locations worldwide. One particular gallery located within Bangkok, Thailand has opened a facebook poll for people to vote for the next person or character we would like to see added to the gallery. Hatsune Miku is currently sitting with a comfortable lead with over 1,000 votes above the second highest candidate. If you can, go and place your vote to show your support!

 

Hatsune Miku Not Making an Anime Expo 2012 Concert Appearance

This comes as somewhat sad news to many expecting fans, including myself. The staff of Anime Expo has informed their followers that Hatsune Miku and the other Crypton Vocaloids will not be making a return concert appearance at Anime Expo 2012. SEGA and Crypton did, however, say that they have “other exciting plans”. These plans are still a mystery, so fans will need to stay tuned for further updates. They have also hinted at the possibility of a return concert in 2013. Regardless, I will still be attending Anime Expo 2012, and I hope to see many of you there!

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