Hatsune Miku Figma

The Figma line is an attempt to hybridize the static PVC figure with jointed action figures. I believe these were popularized by Danny Choo (at least that's where I saw the initial trend arise).

Anyways, I bought several Figma figures back when I was in Tokyo, but failed to acquire Figma #14 Hatsune Miku, which was sold out back then. I went online and pre-ordered from the December restock, but it ended up delayed all the way to March. Here she is, finally setup on one of my work desks.

For lack of better words, Hatsune Miku is also growing trend among the Japanese. She's the mascot for an advanced text-to-speech software (specifically, a vocaloid - google the term for more info) that people have been using to fill the vocals of songs they compose. Apparently, some of these songs become very popular and within the past year have been used for high school graduation themes. Even animated music videos staring Hatsune have started popping up. Personally, I find the voice too synthetic to enjoy, but "her" first compilation album has hit #2 on the Oricon charts in Japan recently. Because Oricon is the equivalent of the Billboards here stateside, you might think I'm making this up, but it's so crazy, how can I be?