The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku

by Muya Agami, cosMo@BousouP, Yunagi (Illustrations)

An all-new, official Hatsune Miku light novel!

The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku is a new light novel based on Hatsune Miku the singing, dancing, and gaming sensation that s taken the world by storm! This self-contained, original novel was inspired by the Hatsune Miku song series of the same name, a collection of tracks so popular that they forced down the servers that hosted them, earning the name The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku. Soon after, Hatsune Miku grew into a huge multimedia phenomenon, with millions of fans worldwide.

Asano is a young university student tasked with testing out the technology department s newest creation the life-like android, Hatsune Miku. Although Hatsune Miku has a lot to learn, Asano comes to see her as more than merely a piece of tech and together the two learn what life and love is all about.

"

Genres: Light Novel, Manga

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2012

Reviews

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 1 out of 5]

You have no idea how excited I was to learn that 1) a Vocaloid light novel existed and 2) it was available in English. I ordered a copy for myself a few weeks after finding out about it.

A few years ago I was really into Vocaloid (singing synthesizer software). I wasn’t interested in using it myself, just in listening to other people’s songs and reading about the various Vocaloid and UTAUloid avatars. I gradually found a few Vocaloid/UTAUloid tuners I particularly liked (kyaami is my top favorite) and developed a few Vocaloid/UTAUloid preferences (Kaito was probably my first favorite Vocaloid, and Ritsu continues to be my favorite UTAUloid).

I went into this book with an okay background knowledge of Vocaloid in general and Hatsune Miku in particular. Also, I was familiar with the song the book was based on (here's one version on YouTube), enough to know that the book probably wouldn’t have a happy ending.

The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku stars Shinosato Asano, an ordinary university student who spends his days going to class and doing tedious work at a robotics lab and his nights working as a bartender at a nightclub. He’s shocked when the professor in charge of his research lab singles him out to do a field test of a very special new android named Hatsune Miku. The professor wants a student like Asano, who’s responsible, can keep a secret, and doesn’t know too much about artificial intelligence, to see how well Miku can pass for human out in the real world. He’s not supposed to tell anyone, not even his family members, what Miku really is, and he has to make sure Miku goes back to the professor for regular data collection and weekly maintenance.

Miku’s speech and behavior is a little odd and stilted at first, but it rapidly improves. Asano introduces her to everyone as his very intelligent cousin from England (in order to explain why a 16-year-old girl whose Japanese is still a bit rough is suddenly attending university classes), takes her on a tour of the university, and invites her out to lunch. Lunch becomes their regular activity together, and Asano gradually incorporates activities relating to music once he realizes that Miku particularly enjoys it. He starts to realize, to his dismay, that he might be falling for her. What will happen once the field test is over?

I really wanted to love this. I’m generally drawn to android-human romances, and I was already looking forward to the Vocaloid aspects. Miku has never been my top favorite Vocaloid, but she had a lot of cute moments in the book, and I really felt for her. The way the author used Vocaloid-related details in the story was absolutely wonderful. The realization that Asano’s over-the-top love of green onions was a reference to the way Miku is often depicted holding green onions was nice, but there was one revelation further on in the book that I thought was particularly clever and unexpected.

That said, the romance was utterly terrible. It wasn’t so much Asano’s blandness - as much as I disliked how boring he was, it wasn’t unexpected. I did find myself wishing that Asano had more ideas about what to do with Miku than constantly taking her out to eat. I mean, right from the start he was told that she couldn’t eat much, and yet almost all of their outings involved food. It didn’t have to be anything special or expensive - they could have gone for a walk in a park, or gone out grocery shopping, or watched a movie. Pretty much anything they might have done would have been a new experience for Miku and would have provided the professor with more data.

I had two main problems with the romance. First, the way Miku based so many of the things she liked on things that Asano liked. For example, I don’t think she was able to taste food, and yet she’d tell Asano that a particular food tasted good because he liked it and therefore it must taste good. Asano just accepted these statements and was happy about them, but they bothered me - it was one of the reasons why I liked Miku’s budding love of music, because it seemed more purely hers than anything else she’d said she liked.

Second, it gradually became clear that Asano wasn’t so much a nice guy as he was a “nice” guy. His reactions and feelings were more important than hers. Later on in the book, for example, there were strong indications that something was wrong with Miku, to the point that it affected her physically. Rather than noticing this and worrying about her, Asano instead focused on how he felt when he held her and her statement that she wanted the two of them to be together forever. When something drastic either happened to Miku or was done to her, all Asano could think about was how much it hurt him that Miku no longer behaved as warmly towards him as she used to. His first instinct was to abandon the field test rather than investigate what had happened to her and why.

It did eventually dawn on the idiot that he was being a selfish jerk, but it took much, much longer than it should have. I was left feeling like Miku would have been better off leaving Asano in her dust and going on to become a massively popular superstar. Considering what was done to her during the course of the story, maybe leaving all of humanity behind wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

Asano continued to be useless as the sci-fi suspense storyline became more prominent, and pretty much the only reason he was able to get anywhere was because his two friends, Aika and Juuhachi, weren’t as utterly useless as he was. The various sci-fi developments near the end of the book were pretty bonkers, and the big climactic scene was way too over-the-top and ended up feeling silly rather than dramatic or tragically romantic. Although the Vocaloid fan in me did love the bit with the mysterious file.

One last thing: although the writing/translation wasn't terrible, it wasn't great either. I noticed that the author tended to be a bit repetitive. A character would do or say something and then Asano would tell readers what that character had done or said, even though the text had just described it. Once I started noticing this, I realized it happened a lot.

If you’re a huge Vocaloid fan, this might be worth giving a shot. Like I said, the way Vocaloid details were incorporated was wonderful. Everyone else would probably be better off trying something like CLAMP's Chobits or maybe even William Gibson’s Idoru (not romance, and I don’t recall the AI having much of a speaking role, but Rei Toei is practically another incarnation of Hatsune Miku).

Rating Note:

I gave this 1.5 stars on Booklikes and LibraryThing. Deciding whether to round my rating up or down for GR was hard. On the one hand, I really did love how the Vocaloid details were worked into the story, and Miku's love of music was cute. On the other hand, Asano and Miku's love story was really soured for me by the end of the book. In the end, I decided to round down.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[لوك النباتي Luke Daniels · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is basically like a 10 year old’s dairy. Really. The writing style is so childish. The main character Asano who’s said to be a university student (*trust me he’s just a big child*) talks in long details about normal everyday actions such as eating at the cafeteria, going to the supermarket, and what people might think of him. He makes long theories and conclusions based on basic events which was really, *annoying*.
Nevertheless, I bought the book because I wanted to read about Hatsune Miku. Did I feel her presence in the book? Not at all. The character supposed to be Hatsune Miku felt more like a cute female robot cosplayed as Hatsune Miku. That’s all there is to it. There was no depth whatsoever in the characters, the storyline or the plot.
The book was based on Asano’s perspective all the way. How HE feels, what HE thinks, what HE wants, what HE needs. and Miku was just a stand-by. The book felt like a complete ‘filler’ to be honest.
I’m not really moved by ‘human and android romance’. It doesn’t make sense to me.
I don’t recommend this book to Vocaloid and Hatsune Miku fans like me because it’s only a waste of time and money. You’re not missing on anything by not getting this book.

[Liza · Rating 2 out of 5]

......



This is a book with an okay story. It's very reminiscence of Chobits with less echi.

Heck, I would call it average normally...

But this is a book about Vocaloid.

Miku Hatsune, the poster child of Vocaloid(*small voice* Gumi is the best) stars in a novelized version of Disappearance of Hatsune Miku.



The issue with using a song as a base is that the song has a story attached with it. The Disappearance was a popular song(I still think it is known today) about Miku being uninstalled from a computer due to a bug in her system. She sings out her feelings for the "producer" in the few minutes she has left. This was a very popular song due to the super fast lyrics(there have been a few more songs since then that have the super fast speed and are popular such as The Intense Voice).

Now that's the first issue. I went into this novel with a story in mind. This book though pulled a Chobits instead.

Miku is an android and our main character is a dude named Asano. The first issue that comes up is that it is from his POV. Miku does not FEEL like a main character. In fact, I would say his friends are the true supporting cast and Miku is just...there.

That's my main problem with the book. You can take out Miku and put anyone else there. Sure they referenced Miku due to the android liking to sing and her love for green onions but that's it. Nothing about this screamed Miku. Sure the end title dropped Vocaloid but Miku WASN'T THE FIRST VOCALOID. Sure she made it popular but still.

The romance was a mess and I'm leaving that comment without going into detail because oh boy...

Then there's the issue with the climatic scene. This book pulled something that would have worked in Evangelion. It was random and I felt like it came from nowhere.

I guess she deleted herself from this world instead of her producer doing it...

So overall I guess this did not feel like a "Vocaloid" book. Sure, it told a story but when your title character feels like a plot device more than a character you know there is a problem.

[Petur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first fan fiction novel for Hatsune Miku that i have read. Because i don't read that much, it was kind of hard for me to get into it between the first 10 pages - but after that i started to like it, started to know which character was and so on. The book is laid back most of the time - but there are also moments of sadness and other kind of emotions. I liked it, and i would recommend to any Vocaloid fan who want to read something different. I think the length is good for something like this - and after you finish it - you start to appreciate it more.

[Skippidy Doo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made an account just to rate this book.

It's so bad, I'm going to return it. I WANTED to like it, mainly because the cover art is so pretty and it would look good on my bookshelf.

But hot damn, is this book a mess.
It's one of those books you look at and think "wow, it's thicc! Thicc with good story, I hope!"
But nope, it's thick with pointless descriptions of food, dragging inner monologs, and points that have been reiterated three times already.

This story is basically a self-insert fanfiction for the author. The main character is about as "Gary-Stu" as you can get. I felt uncomfortable thinking about how much of a boner the author had writing this poorly disguised fanfiction/novel. Miku inexplicably falls deeply in love with this main character, despite the fact that he does nothing, says barely anything, and (by his own definition) is very "plain" looking.

There are SO. MANY. TYPOS. So many spelling and grammar errors!!! There were two GLARING typos on the same page, even. Entire words are left out, making a sentence broken.
The translator and editor did an AWFUL job. The dialogue is really static. Not localized well at all to fit English dialogue. Which, can be done (just look at the Persona series). And there's a lot of redundancy.

The main character, Asano, is like an unsalted Saltine cracker. Just about as bland and boring as you can get (and so are the rest of the main cast). Most characters in the book are 21+ and attending college, but they act and talk like they're still in high school.
I second what someone else said about Asano being a "nice" guy. He doesn't care about Miku, just about the feelings and attention she can give him. He absolutely does not deserve to be the one field testing Miku. When something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with Miku, and scientists are OBVIOUSLY doing something bad to her, Mr. Asano can only obsess over getting Miku back to normal so her romantic feelings for him will return. Like, wooooow. You little piece of trash. He even considers quitting from his position as field tester because Miku not wanting to hop on his dick distresses him so much.

Another thing that really disturbed me was the infantilization of Miku. This book is clearly written by a dude that doesn't have much understanding about women. The main character, who is attracted to Miku, often makes comparisons to her facial expressions, actions, or emotions being like that of a "child's." Not in a criticizing way - it's phrased in a positive light. But it's creepy. Asano straight up compares Miku to his middle schooler sister. Way to slide a loli complex into this story.

There's also parts where Miku wants Asano to pick out what she eats and what to wear, and all that matters is if HE likes it. And that makes him happy. He gets off on deciding everything she should do for her. It's weird.
There's also a part where Asano's female friend is singing karaoke, gets really into it, and leans forward while wearing a skirt. Asano's other male friend starts commenting, inappropriately and audibly, on her legs and outfit. How does she respond? "You can look but don't touch."
SAID NO WOMAN EVER TO HER PLATONIC, MALE FRIEND LECHING ON HER.

Another thing that really bothered me: Why are Asano and Aika doing monotonous, repetitive, unfruitful experiments with a robotic hand when scientists have literally already created a whole, functional goddamn android???

Thank god I kept my receipt. I'm going to return this in exchange for an actually good book.

[Ahrson Florida · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is very inspirational novel that I ever read & I'm also listening this song from Hatsune Miku, the very first digital celebrity I ever discover..So I wanted to listen to her songs & I decided to search it from Google or Youtube or any kind website that I visited to find her songs,When I'm spending my time to search,One of the first song that I listened is "Ievan Polkka",that called my attention and got me into vocaloid music.When I currently listen this, I feel like...."WTF did I just listen!!??"I'm also confuse and frustate this song and I can't even don't understand what is she singing(Unidentified Lyrics)...

In July 13 2009 I'd continue to find more songs of her one by one,Then I discovered one of the best,beautiful, and also irritating song I ever heard in my whole life..."The Disapearance of Hatsune Miku".Then continually listen this and after that I can't really understand what kind of message or meaning that towards to us,But I search in Google, find the meaning of this song, And then one of the artist from DeviantArt tells us about the story of a person (in this case a vocaloid) who is afraid of losing someone they love. This song is really touch my heart & cried a lot of sorrow I feel so bad from Miku that she is being uninstalled for treating her like a toy. For a long time of all the music I ever heard in my entire life,Only Hatsune Miku I can't stop listening this songs & I'm really enjoying it & I completely understand why we won't delete or stop listening Hatsune Miku..

So please give respect for this song

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was extremely excited for a clear description of the events described in the apparently complex Disappearance series. I was shocked to learn that there were more than two songs in that series... but if that's all you're looking for in this book, you won't get it.
This is a romance novel, plain and simple. It stars a few generic and unrealistic anime characters that interact with Miku... and of course, Miku falls for the protagonist. Miku is not even the protagonist of this book.
I was a bit disappointed that this novel had sunk so low to see that it had completely turned to fanservice, but after dropping my expectations, it did still turn out to be an enjoyable read. It was fun and dramatic and even featured some beautiful art. The writing style was very surface-level but, once again, this is a romance novel created for fanservice. You can't expect much depth.
Overall, it was an... alright read. It is only enjoyable if you're not looking for answers to the original song series. It definitely could have done better had it been approached and written differently. Still worth your time just because it supports cosmo-P.

[Aura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books contents had made me think of some very complex subjects shown in here, about the lines between an AI and a human mind being blurred to the point that you really cannot differentiate between the two at some point, how growth of a mind works, and it really does pull on some heartstrings sometimes, it feels like a bit of cliche mixed in with a really good plot, i do have to admit, you might have to find the lyrics of the song this book is made about in order to understand some of it, but for most of it, the authors, most notably cosmo@bousou-p, has shown his proficiency in his style of songwriting that is a bit of a veiled storyline that is like unwrapping a present, even though the contents of the present can be real sad at times, the contents are always methodically written and leaves you wanting to think about them, i enjoyed the book, but a part of it is knowing what the song is about, keep that in mind, a remaster of the song with subtitles is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWVtI... but the only thing i really wanted from this book was some more pages to it, it was a short book for me at the least.

[Larissa Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Vocaloid, and the songs people produce using the program. This book was good, but not as good as I expected it to be. Of course, it was translated from Japanese, so not everything will be spot on translation, and there will be a few errors. That was to be expected. It was still overall pretty well written. They did occasionally refer to language rules of Japanese, so it might be hard for people without background knowledge to understand. I didn't get a lot of the terms they used when describing certain aspects of the technology used in the book, but I could get the basic idea of it. The story had its own take on cosMo@BousouP's original song, which I loved. The way Miku was portrayed was beautiful. The artwork was also stunning! I enjoyed it. Everyone who worked on this story did an amazing job!

[Katsuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay, but not great. Miku herself got too little attention, the translation was riddled with typos and other errors, and the tone of the story and characters was a bit too naïve and childish for my taste. To be more concrete--the characters are the kind of people who'll say things like "I believe in you, because you're my friend, and your smile is precious to me!"

And it doesn't help that the writing keeps pointing out things that were already obvious. Like, for instance, "'We need to go right now!' I said. We had to go immediately."

In short: Read if you're really into Miku or light novels, otherwise give it a miss.

[Melinda Graeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a fan of Vocaloid, I sincerely loved this book with all my essence and being. I've read it twice and every time it made me cry. The writing is beautiful, but some jokes might go over those's heads who don't have a basic knowledge of Japanese. When the boy refers to Hatsune Miku saying "boku" instead of the formal way of referring to yourself, "Watashi." Most people wouldn't get that in the English translated version of the book. The ending would also be odd to people who don't know the song or music video. I most likely will recommend this to a lot of people, it is a very beautiful, impactful and amazing story.

[Lils · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book in 6th grade which looking back at it was a long time ago. I genuinely enjoyed this book. Once it was in my hands, I didn’t want to let go. The friendship with Hatsune Miku and the main character was so cute, and the ending actually did make me tear up in class. It’s a really long book so I did end up just binging this everyday in class. Do I regret it? No. Do I wish to forget everything and reread this from the start? Definitely. This was worth my money. Man don’t make me cry like that. 💔 But on a serious note, every scene was captivating, and it provided so many details that allowed me to convey what was happening in my mind. A book worth picking up 100%.

[Wapoose · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember trying to read this in middle school, not liking it. Stayed that way for 3 years till I decided to try it again. Believe me I really wanted to keep it, cuz look at that art! Looks gorgeous on a shelf, very disappointed it's filled with a generic android-girl-relies-on-human-boy love story. Not for me, had to return it. But if you're into that kind of romance, bite. Cuz this was written for you, and in a way I'm jealous of your enjoyment.

[Johanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I, just like the other reviews I read on this book, really, really wanted to like it, since I love vocaloid and Hatsune Miku. But this book really just wasn't for me. The plot was really basic, and the writing felt really weak. (I couldn't think of a better description, ironically) It wasn't the worst to read, but did not leave an impression on me at all.

[Yuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Don’t cet why this book has so much bad reviews! For me,even if sometimes there was a scenario facility, the story was amazing the characters were attaching and I didn’t expect having few plot twist in the story, which is a good point! I recommend this book, it’s not complicated to read (as a non native i understood everything)

[Ooi Shi Qi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit boring and long for me.The novel is full of details but in the same time have many Scientific rules that an art friends like me found very boring.Besides that ,the front half of the novel is the details about Asano life with Miku which to be very long and repetitive.

[Piper Winchester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.
Thought it would be more Miku.
It was cute seeing her acting like a human and making friends

[Christin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing! It has a few pictures as well that are amazing! The story puts you through lots of emotions! I also like how the whole story is put into days and hours.

[TheOneWhoHasHatsuneMikuAsTheirGirlFriend · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun Fact: Hatsune Miku is my gf and I love her!

[Dino · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY GOOD BOOK!!!
its a sad story and made me cry but I recommend you read it.
(no spoliers)

[Bailey · Rating 2 out of 5]

dis book genuinely sucked 💔 it's ok bcs it's miku

[Lisa Firek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t understand why I’m seeing so many bad reviews of this book I thought it was really good I really enjoyed it sure there was a few errors here and there but it was a really good read I love Hatsune Miku so I was very surprised when I saw there was a light novel.

[Yoana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it! The relationship between the two main characters felt so pure and it was very cute.

[ScroogeMcduck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book! If your a big fan of Hatsune Miku, I suggest reading it! it does get boring reading the first couple of chapters, but I did enjoy it!

[Mj =] · Rating 1 out of 5]

I. Couldn’t finish this book. It was just. No for me. 😭