Story Archive

Officiated by Hello Kitty

“Miku san is the woman I love a lot and also the one who saved me,” says Akihiko Kondo about the girl he has just married in a 2-million-Yen (US$17,700) ceremony in Tokyo, Japan, in front of 40 guests. Well, not a girl exactly: Hatsune Miku is a “16-year-old” animated virtual reality “Vocaloid” (singing) character. Kondo, a 35-year-old school administrator, has been “living with” Miku — in his case, a 315,000 Yen (US$2,800) hologram; she was represented at the wedding by the stuffed plush doll he sleeps with. Real girls, he said, told him “Drop dead, creepy otaku!” (geek), but Kondo says he has loved Miku for a decade, and she doesn’t cheat on him, age, or die. (RC/Japan Times, AFP) ...Well, we’re starting to see where real girls got the “creepy otaku” idea.