Hasta La Gadget!

When politicians get desperate they turn to otaku for help.

For a while there were rumors floating around that the ruling DNP party was hoping to use virtual character Hatsune Miku in promotional videos for candidates. Well, it seems that the makers of Miku weren’t keen and denied the rights.

However, J-Cast reports that MP Kenzou Fujisue, who is pretty tech-savvy for a statesman, has claimed that he has a “secret plan” for trying to make the July election more accessible to the younger generation.

[Pics via Reuters and Vocaloid Wikia]

Hatsune Miku was originally a software release for the Yamaha Vocaloid 2, a sound system that allows you to synthesize singing by typing in your own lyrics. Since then she has become very popular, spawning manga, robot versions and legions of cosplay copycats. The politicians clearly wanted to use Miku to push their propaganda message.

In the end, Fujisue used cheerful “Minshu-kun”, the DNP’s own red mascot character, for a YouTube promotional video. However, keen listeners will detect that the theme song “We are the ONE” is in fact sung in Miku’s voice! Apparently, though the rights to use the actual character were not granted, it was fine to use her voice as long as you did not identify her by name.