Hatsune Miku Meets Pokemon: Exploring the Songs and Producers Behind Project Voltage
A guide to the Vocaloid producers invited for the music project spearheaded by the Pokemon team
This feature is part of This Side of Japan issue #83. You can return to the main newsletter here.
Hatsune Miku meets Pokemon—Project Voltage did not need to say anything else to reel me as a fan of both Vocaloid music and the monster-collecting games. The music side of the project began in earnest with DECO*27’s inaugural release last September, “Volt Tackle,” that showed love for Pikachu as well as competitive battling through its sample of the fight theme from the first-generation games. As of this writing, 19 producers, both veterans in the Vocaloid music scene and relative newcomers, have shared an original track for the series that pay homage to the Pokemon games. Some aim big in their respects, capturing the adventurous spirit of the franchise; some go obscurely niche, sneaking in minuscule sound effects or burying lyrical Easter eggs. But all express their love for the franchise through their go-to production muse.
For music fans who aren’t all that invested in Pokemon, Project Voltage still provides a nifty guide into who’s who in Vocaloid music. The series invites producers who’ve been around since the turn of the last decade, like Giga and sasakure.UK. You also can spot artists like syudou and Eve, who’ve been responsible for some of the biggest hits in J-pop this decade so far. And the project covers diversity in musical styles, too, with the hired guns providing frantic rock, bombastic EDM, earnest pop ballads and things in between. Like how it displays appreciation for Pokemon, the project goes in length to show the breadth of what can be Vocaloid music.
Conversely, if you’re into the music of Pokemon but not too familiar with Vocaloid producers, let the fun interpolation of tunes from your favorite game be a gateway into a rich music scene. Take it from me, who got a dip into the latter era of Vocaloid music, curiously dubbed yakosei, through this project introducing me to producer inabakumori and their post-punk-esque twist of the Viridian Forest theme—an underrated theme, imo. At its best, the love for Pokemon can lead you a new music discovery, and loops back into a renewed appreciation for the games.
As great as they are, I can’t discuss all 19 artists involved in Project Voltage due to space and energy. (A quick list of honorable mentions: Kairiki Bear, sasakure.UK, Giga, DECO*27) But here, I collected 8 of whom represent the highs of the music side of the series. I hope you can use this list to start your dive into Vocaloid music while enjoying some Pokemon media.
All tracks below feature Hatsune Miku unless listed.
Jin
“JUVENILE”
From his straightforward interpretation to the wholesomeness displayed in the music, Jin presents a solid starting point in “JUVENILE” for what to expect from a Vocaloid project inspired by the Pokemon series. The sentimental guitar riff interpolating the title theme sets the tone for the rest of the score that taps into the spirit of adventure. “Learn what’s sour, bitter and sweet / the sun rises and fades away,” the warbling voice of Hatsune Miku sings in the chorus. “Hold on to the map that’s yet to be explored.” Fitting with the lyrical direction, Jin opts for a breezier guitar tone than the tense math-rock he has honed for his solo material since 2012’s Mekakucitydays, free from jagged edges and coiled knots. It shines with an optimism familiar to the Pokemon series, though as the other contributions will reveal, it will only one of many ways to represent the franchise.
HachiojiP
“PARTY ROCK ETERNITY”
The sinister tune of the Rocket Hideout was a theme that was bound to be used. HachiojiP flips expectations in “PARTY ROCK ETERNITY” however as he arranges the corporate-terror dungeon muzak into a fist-pumping EDM banger as if to say forces of evil like Team Rocket know how to have fun, too. The dance-floor-minded direction may be par for the course for the producer, whose early electro-house singles were a big reason I personally started to dig deeper into Vocaloid music. While the big-tent synths here blare more obnoxious than those tracks from the 2010s, the bombastic instrumental only helps frame Hatsune Miku as a benevolent master of ceremonies.
Yuri Kuriyama
“Hyu~Dorodoro” ft. Hatsune Miku & MEIKO
In the original Red and Blue, Lavender Town has been one of the most memorable game chapters through its sheer creepiness, with the chills heightened through the level’s theme. Yuri Kuriyama takes cues from that ghostly level in “Hyu~Dorodoro” while doubling up on the songs haunted-house vibes by mixing that theme’s sharp, theremin-like synth with another ominous loop from the Rocket Hideout. That said, the producer follows a similar route as HachiojiP, and they spin this ode to terror into an all-out party track. Hatsune Miku sings at her most chatterbox as she gives cheers to drinking the fear away.
inabakumori
“Denki Yohou”
Inabakumori also grabs at an ominous theme like the above artists yet they flip one that I find rather underappreciated: the eerie track for Viridian Forest. And as the producer interpolates the loop, it’s tough to make out the sour riff as a screeching guitar or a burnt-out synth. Similar thing can be said about inabakumori’s own tracks, like “Lost Umbrella” with a jerky guitar riff that also sounds like a wheezing organ. The disorienting sounds from the misshapen instruments pique “Denki Yohou” with a sense of vertigo, and the atmosphere further warps from the zapped voice of Hatsune Miku, whose cold delivery can distract from the references in the lyrics but also the production.
Eve
“Glorious Day”
Eve seems to give up personal style in favor of concept in “Glorious Day.” The usual moodiness cast in his frenetic guitar tracks in 2022’s Kaizin, featuring the big anime hit “Kaikai Kitan,” dissipates to let in instead a sense of triumph as alluded in the title. Yet his Project Voltage contribution is far from the anonymous with it driven by a thoughtful concept that’s so meticulously executed: the production weaves each of the heart-racing champion-battle themes from every generation into one arrangement, and the lyrics, too, take inspiration from some of the champion dialogue. While the song stands tall even if the references are too subtle, Eve’s attention to detail stands as a fine example of the fun that can go into the production side of Vocaloid music.
Orangestar
“Encounter”
When it comes to concept-driven songs in Project Voltage, it doesn’t get more niche than Orangestar’s “Encounter.” If it hadn’t been for the music video, the identity behind the subject of this somber EDM ballad would remain shrouded in mystery with the song’s poetic lyrics about fateful encounters being so open-ended. And if it hadn’t been for the commenters on YouTube, I wouldn’t have figured out the nestled references to Lugia either. The 2:49 track length, for one, mirrors the Pokedex number of the legendary bird. Not only do you hear its faint cry in the intro, the flute synth in the chorus interpolates “Lugia’s Song” from the film Pokemon 2000, which stars the titular Pokemon. It’s a touching dedication on its own until you learn that it’s about so much more.
Nayutan Seijin
“Esper Esper”
Nayutan Seijin has spun out whimsy from their crooked rock music as well as the oblong warbles of Hatsune Miku, their space-themed anthems like “Alien Alien” grooving in its own quirky ways. So when they write in references to Pokemon moves into their lyrics for “Esper Esper” as the others involved in Project Voltage have also done, it instead reads like word salad picked from their usual oddball vocabulary. And the more nonsensical it sounds, the more it befits the creative voice of the producer, especially with the song being in dedication to the Psychic types: only a producer like Nayutan Seijin would portray a Pokemon type that exudes cool and mystique with such a goofy dance-punk track.
PinocchioP
“Pocket No Monster”
All the unique sample-bending and creative lyrical references in the songs ultimately tie back to the respective producer’s love for the franchise. PinocchioP captures the passion wistfully in “Pocket No Monster,” streamlining their kitchen-sink rock arrangement into a tender ballad that recycles the soothing motif of the Pokemon Center theme. As someone who still returns to the first and second generations since playing them as a child more than 20 years ago, it hits deep hearing Hatsune Miku sing a lyric like “don’t let go of the excitement of those days.” (Can anyone else also relate to the video and its nod at traveling with your Pokemon games—a big sell for the CM for the Japanese release of Pokemon Gold?) The invited Vocaloid producers bring their own perspective and artistic touch, but in the end, Pokemon comes first in the songs of Project Voltage.
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