10 Most Popular Vocaloid Characters

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Vocaloid characters may have been largely forgotten in recent years, but these digital stars paved the way for some of the biggest sensations of the 2020s. Their combination of anime-inspired character designs and human voices are commonly recognized as predecessors to the vtuber trend and to “robot” influences like Instagram’s Lil Miquela.

That said, Vocaloid characters aren’t actually characters, but voicebanks with personas attached to them. Songwriters and producers can use a Vocaloid’s voice synthesizing features to play their songs. This makes them more like instruments than actual artists.

1. Hatsune Miku

Hatsune Miku is the undisputed queen of all Vocaloid characters. Even if you have no idea what Vocaloid is, you’ve likely seen her teal twin tails before. The virtual star has been featured in commercials in Japan and performed in several international concerts, including Coachella 2018.

Her release on August 31, 2007, heralded a boom in the popularity of Vocaloid characters that made Yamaha a giant in the scene.

Hatsune Miku’s voice was sourced from Saki Fujita, a famous Japanese voice actress known for her roles in anime series such as Angel Beats!, Assassination Classroom, and Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon.

Saki Fujita’s personal popularity may also be credited for Hatsune Miku’s initial rise to fame since Japanese otaku culture tends to treat voice actors as celebrities.

Because of her popularity among fans and producers alike, Hatsune Miku is the singer of many Vocaloid classics such as World Is Mine, Rolling Girl, and Magnet.

2. Megurine Luka

A close contender to Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka is a more mature voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and released in 2009. She offered a deeper, warmer voice compared to that of Hatsune Miku as she was characterized to be in her 20s in contrast to the teenage Miku.

Like other Vocaloid characters, she was voiced by a Japanese VA. Yu Asakawa is known for her roles in K-ON!, Azumanga Daioh, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, and video games such as Azur Lane and Fire Emblem.

Megurine Luka’s mellower voice gave her a much clearer enunciation than other Vocaloids built on the VOCALOID2 engine hence her niche popularity in the late 2000s to early 2010s as a cover artist for Lady Gaga songs. Luka’s cover of Paparazzi is a great example of this.

While it might not sound impressive now, Megurine Luka’s ability to sing in English and be somewhat understandable was a mindblowing feat back then because most Vocaloid characters of her generation were not designed with an English voicebank.

That said, if you want to hear Luka at her best, you’re better off listening to Just Be Friends, Witch, and Magnet.

3. Kaito

Since Vocaloid first became relatively popular up until today, male Vocaloid characters have been rare due to lower demand from producers and fans alike. Still, one of them has stuck long enough to be a mainstay of Vocaloid’s biggest hits.

KAITO, or just Kaito, was another Vocaloid created by Yamaha. Despite gaining traction around the same time as Luka and Miku, he had a rougher voice and pronunciation because he was designed to work with the first generation VOCALOID engine.

His earlier release also meant he had a more robot-like persona hence the lack of an official last name. Fans later dubbed him ‘Shion Kaito’ to make his name suit the surname, first name naming convention of other famous Vocaloid characters.

Kaito’s voice was sourced from Naoto Fuga, a singer best known for making theme songs for Kamen Raider.

Unlike other Vocaloid characters of comparable popularity, KAITO doesn’t have a lot of original solo songs since it was more common to use him as a love interest for characters such as Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, and MEIKO.

His most popular song is Cantarella.

4. Meiko

MEIKO is a contemporary of KAITO that was also released by Yamaha. She was voiced by Meiko Haigo, a Japanese singer, hence her name.

Like KAITO, MEIKO wasn’t designed to be personified like the more popular Hatsune Miku which meant she had no surname. Fans then dubbed her Sakine Meiko and characterized her as a more mature older sister/mom person compared to other female Vocaloid characters.

Though popular, Meiko is among the few Vocaloid characters to have few original songs. If you want to listen to some of her “original” stuff, check out Evil Food Eater Conchita. She also has fairly recent covers of Vocaloid classics like Melt.

5. Rin and Len Kagamine

Ren and Len Kagamine immediately set themselves apart from other Vocaloid characters during their release on December 27, 2007, because of their 2-in-1 gimmick. The blonde duo was the only twin Vocaloids to be released by a major company.

Because of their complementary design, they shared a similar character outfit, surname, and voice source.

To be clear, though, “twin” is a very loose way to describe Kagamine Rin and Len. Though Crypton Future Media originally intended for them to be released as siblings, this was never followed through. Instead, the company waited to see what producers and fans would do with the information they were given about the voicebank.

This move allowed songwriters to be more creative in how they characterize the Kagamines since a lack of an official “twins” label kept them safe from the stigma of writing incestuous love songs. However, it also means that songs tend to change wildly from depicting them as a couple to siblings.

In Kokoro, Kagamine Rin is a robot designed by scientist Kagamine Len. The famous Servant of Evil and Daughter of Evil duology depicts them as near-identical twins. Meanwhile, Feathers Across Seasons shows the two as a married couple.

6. Gackpoid

Now we’re getting into the more niche category of Vocaloid characters. Though popular, these voicebanks are not as famous as the earlier ones since they typically have fewer media and advertising exposure.

So, if you’re familiar with Gackpoid, chances are you actively listen to Vocaloid characters.

Gackpoid’s niche popularity is actually strange when you take into account that his voice source is Gackt, a famous Japanese singer known for being a pioneer in visual Kei-related genres. His music has been featured in games like Final Fantasy.

Released on July 31, 2008, he was introduced as Camui Gackpo, sometimes written as Kamui, with a design drawn by none other than Kentaro Miura, the artist behind Berserk.

Gackpoid brought a much deeper, more masculine voice to the table that easily dominated the vocals of other Vocaloid. This has made him a staple of serious, and often grim, Vocaloid songs involving female characters, particularly for his suggestive tone.

The Madness of the Duke of Venomania is one of his most iconic songs.

7. Gumi

GUMI is another VOCALOID2 engine voicebank. Unlike most popular Vocaloid characters, GUMI was developed by Internet Co., Ltd. and released in 2009. Her voice was taken from Megumi Nakajima, a Filipino-Japanese voice actress known for her roles in Macros Frontier and in the video game KanColle.

GUMI’s close release to Gackpoid has led fans to call her “Megpoid” or “Megpoid Gumi”. Her bright orange outfit is said to be based on Ranka Lee, a character that was voiced by Megumi Nakajima.

While she was never as popular as other female V2 Vocaloid characters, GUMI managed to become Internet Co., Ltd.’s most famous Vocaloid.

Like Luka, fans quickly noticed that she could be made to speak English using her Japanese voicebank. This feature was later improved with the release of an official English voice back in 2013.

What sets her apart, though, is the approach that her developers took to designing her appends. An append in Vocaloid-land refers to customizations made to the original voicebank that makes the voice softer, more powerful, raspier, etc. Mixing several appends can result in a more natural voice, hence the variety of appends released for popular Vocaloid.

In GUMI’s case, Internet Co., Ltd. gave her voice variants as well as age variants that allowed users to choose an older, more mature voiced GUMI.

8. Miki

MIKI or SF-A2 miki was one of the later VOCALOID2 releases. When she was first released, she was her developer’s only Vocaloid character, putting her out of the story loops imagined by fans and creators for more popular characters.

That said, SF-A2 miki had a unique draw in that her voice was a more faithful copy of her voice source, Japanese musician Miki Furukawa. This was considered unique at the time since voicebanks would typically have slightly altered voices to separate them from their voice sources.

While it might seem counterintuitive to have voicebanks that didn’t sound exactly like their source, this is because many of the voice sources worked as seiyuus or Japanese anime voice actors.

Miki was purposefully designed to look more like a robot hence her sci-fi-inspired character design.

SF-A2 miki has had few original songs but you can check Satellite and Miki Miki Romantic Night to hear her at her best.

9. IA

Another fairly recent addition to the Vocaloid characters’ hall of famers, IA is among the first few VOCALOID3 engine voicebanks to be released. She was introduced by 1st PLACE Co., Ltd. in 2012 with a name drawn from her voice source, Lia.

Lia is another Japanese singer whose songs have been featured in anime and games. Her focus on techno-related genres shows in the design of IA who has a much more casual appearance compared to other Vocaloid characters.

Among her most popular songs are Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story and A Realistic Logical Ideologist.

10. Lily

Another Vocaloid from Internet Co., Ltd., Lily is among the few Vocaloid characters specially designed to handle singing high-energy songs. Her voice provider was Yuri Masuda, a popular J-pop artist from whom her name was also taken as Yuri translates to Lily in English.

Her release overshadowed that of other Vocaloid characters of her generation when Lily Lily Burning Night skyrocketed in popularity shortly after release.