Hello! Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. I remember back in 2020 me and my friend brought to see Hatsune Miku in concert, but unfortunately, that trip was cancelled due to the pandemic and the world shutting down for one year. Before the era of vtubers, there was Miku and the rest of Vocaloids. Virtual idols who would entertain us by crossing boundaries and entering our world. They were popular and still maintain some level of popularity to this day. I think it’s fair to say that without of the success of Miku, vtubers probably wouldn’t be a thing in today’s culture. But getting back to my story. I was bummed that I couldn’t go, because I was a big fan of the Vocaloids and wanted to see them in concert. Four years would and I found out that they were coming back to America and I purchased a ticket since they were so close to my new location. I was excited, I was finally going to see the Vocaloids and I couldn’t be happier. Unfortunately, it was not the way I had hope to see them. This is my Miku Expo Experience.
So before my concert date, they had a few concerts prior where to the shock of everyone they fucked up. Instead of the traditional holograms that these concerts are known for, we instead got an LED screen. Fans were not happy about this. Especially since a lot of them paid a good sum of money to see this concert and to find out it was an LED screen just pissed them off. Crunchyroll, the sponsors of these concerts marketed the event as holograms and said nothing about an LED. We were pretty much lied to. What makes this even more frustrating is how Crunchyroll have yet to release an official statement explaining this change and why it took place. Now LED screens have been used in Miku concerts before and even Hololive has used them for their live concerts. However, these screens covered the whole stage and looked great. The screen used in this concert doesn’t cover the whole stage at all. It only covers a small portion of the stage and the Vocaloids are trapped. They can’t move around at all. Hence the whole #FreeMiku trending on Twitter (I refuse to call it X). It really does seem like the Vocaloids are trapped. On top of this, it looks bad from an audience perspective. If you’re like me and managed to get a ground-floor ticket the screen actually looks good. It’s not great but it looks better than the previous concerts I saw up until then. However, if you’re sitting in the stands it’s going to look bad. To make things even worse, they had limited merchandise. Only a select few people got glowsticks which was the one thing I wanted to buy. You’re in an arena and only have like 60 something glowsticks? Come on! What the hell!? They only had one merchandise stand which was run by like four or five people and it was set up outside the venue instead of inside. Get people inside first then sell your shit. There was also no fan engagement. You would think they would have professional cosplayers, mascots, or an art exhibit in the arena, but nope. Just a snack bar and nothing else. Enjoy the concert. It’s as if Crunchyroll tried to put as little effort as possible into making this a memorial experience as possible and kind of succeeded.
So right away this tour is off to a bad start. Crunchyroll essentially lied to us about the holograms and people responded with a petition demanding a full refund online. To which I say good, because they did lie to us. While they technically didn’t say this would be a hologram concert, they hinted and marketed the event as such. Not to mention from previous concerts that was the expectation on everyone’s mind. That was the selling point of these events. It’s a virtual character entering our reality and performing for us. It’s cool, amazing and a sight you have to see to believe. So when I found out about the LED screen I actually thought about not going to the concert at all. But in the days leading up to it I decided to go. Why, because I paid a good sum of money for it. Maybe not as much as some people who came from out of town but I paid a good amount and I wanted to go to this concert to have fun. Am I mad about the holograms? Yes. But instead of bitching about it I might as well go out and have some fun and enjoy myself with fans. I can’t speak for everyone but I think that’s how we all felt. Let’s make the best of what we got.
So the day of the concert finally arrives and to my shock a lot of people showed up despite the backlash online. I even saw a few good cosplayers. The show itself was good. They played a lot of good songs including World is Mine and On the Rocks as well as new songs I hadn’t heard before. To my shock, Luka got the loudest reaction for her solo performance. While the Kagamines are my favorite Vocaloids, I’ve always considered Luka to be the best singer of the bunch. So to see her get that kind of reaction out of everyone made me happy and hopefully it sends Cryton a message to utilize her more in the concerts. I know Miku’s the star and it’s her concert but still we do want to see the other Vocaloids have more songs as well to increase their popularity and exposure. Everyone was definitely into it. The people I was around were energetic, dancing, and cheering. The only downside to the ground level is that there were seats so my legs got tired. They did have cups of water available down there as well for everyone free of charge so that was nice of them.
So if I had to grade the concert I give it a 5/10. If the holograms were there the score would have been higher and I know I’m getting hung up on it but those holograms are one of the main appeal to these events. A lot of people are blaming Crunchyroll for this and I think that’s fair but I also think Cryton and the Miku Team should share some of the blame as well. They had to have known about this and signed off on it. Hopefully, Cryton and the Miku Team sees the backlash and fixes this for future events. I don’t know when the next expo is coming to the US but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them so that I don’t get lied to like this again. We want the holograms not an LED screen and if you’re going to do an LED screen do it right and tell us before hand. If you got tickets to future shows I’m not saying you shouldn’t go. It’s your choice. Do what you think is right. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
If you would like to sign the petition demanding a full refund from the event or show support, please follow the link here: https://www.change.org/p/give-us-full-refunds-we-should-ve-known-it-was-a-tv-miku-expo-2024-na-official