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Many times when I see images of Hatsune Miku, she is shown holding a leek or spring onion.

Apart from headphones and microphones, other popular and well known Vocaloids, such as Rin, Len, Kaito and Luca, don't seem to have any strange items like vegetables.

So why is Miku shown with a leek? And if there aren't any other Vocaloids with strange items, why is she the only one?

nhahtdh
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Memor-X
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3 Answers3

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Hatsune Miku holding a leek comes from a parody video of the Leekspin meme. The Leekspin meme is a video of Orihime from Bleach spinning a leek in one of the episodes with the Finnish folk song Ievan Polkka playing in the background.

On another note, the vegetable she is holding is actually a "negi" or green onion. However, the English dub for Bleach called it a leek.

Sources:

Hydromast
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    It's worth pointing out that video was released very soon after the software became available (8 days later according to YouTube). As it had reasonably good production and as the leekspin meme was at the height of it's popularity around that time, the video became one of the first Miku videos to gain any notable popularity. It really cemented her association with leeks long before most people had even heard of Vocaloids. It's also the origin of the derivative character *Hachune Miku*, who is in two of the images in the OP. – Logan M Feb 20 '15 at 00:09
  • +1 for correctly writing the title of *Ievan Polkka* (or *Polokka*). Would be inclined to add another +1 for each, the translation of the name (Eve's Polka) and the group whose version of the song the meme basen on (Loituma) ;) – Jan May 03 '15 at 23:30
8

Apart from headphones and microphones, other popular and well known Vocaloids, such as Rin, Len, Kaito and Luca, don't seem to have any strange items like vegetables.

Actually, many vocaloid (and other voice software) have items associated with them

enter image description here enter image description here enter image description here

  • GUMI (a Megloid) has a carrot for her item

  • Teto Kasane (an UTAUloid) has bread

  • Luka is often associated with fish, or because of her hair, octopuses.

There are more listed here

Most of these originated from fans rather than the original creators, and are not official - even though there is a casual acceptance of the character items. For example Leek shaped glowsticks are occasionally given out at Miku concerts. Character items frequently feature in artists videos also

Toshinou Kyouko
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4

The reason Miku usually has a leek with her most of the time when you see her, is because since she is a vocaloid, someone (I guess) wanted to make her sing Ievan Polkka, a Finnish song, and that's what got her popular at first.

*Luka

And as one of the answers already stated this, these vegetable pairings with Vocaloids came from the fans themselves, so it's not exactly official.

Actually, many Vocaloids (even UTAUs) have been associated with vegetables. Here are some examples:

Megurine Luka - Fish or Tuna Kagamine Rin - Orange(s) Kagamine Len - Banana(s) KAITO - Ice cream MEIKO - Sake (A traditional Japanese alcohol)

GUMI - Carrot(s) Camui/Kamui Gakupo - Eggplant

(UTAU)

Kasane Teto - (French) Bread or a Baguette Namine Ritsu - Chocolate Crisps

So Luka is paired with fish because she has a chibi head character who has hair like an octopus.

Rin has an orange for her fruit because her neckerchief resembles an orange peel.

Len was paired with a banana mostly because of his hair color and that piece of his hair sticking upwards resembles a banana, just a bit.

KAITO with ice cream because fans notice the scarf he wears and in his new V3 update, boots. People thought he seemed to wear winter-special clothes and since his hair is blue it easily resembles snow/ice and relating things, they decided his food was going to be Ice cream.

MEIKO with sake because she seemed to look older and mature so I guess they thought it'd be fun if they made her drunk (?) Not quite sure about this one.

GUMI with carrots because of her color scheme mostly, since she has green hair and orange official clothes so it reminds people of carrots.

Gakupo with Eggplant because he has purple hair and a stronger/deeper voice so I think it reminded them of an eggplant

Now, the UTAUs were officially paired with random foods because they were sorta supposed to be a parody April fool's joke. (?)

Here is a picture of them with the foods too: enter image description here

Danalog
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Arisuuuuuuuu
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    While you mention the song you don't specify how that helps answer the question. You also mention other details, and explain the other vocaloids and also the relevant reasons, the most important one, which is the focus of the question you did not explain. Consider refocusing on the question. – Tyhja Dec 09 '15 at 04:59