For years we’ve seen Hatsune Miku’s derivative design “Snow Miku” featured in sports and festival collaborations in the Hokkaido region of Sapporo, Japan. But she seems to want to break free of Winter’s boundaries, and wants a little fun in Summer events.
Earlier this month, a collaboration was announced between Snow Miku, and Hokkaido’s own Hokkaido Nippon-ham Fighters baseball team. Such promotional collaborations in Japan are quite common, and you often see cross promotions between sports teams and various anime for boosting a team’s popularity. Hatsune Miku was “born” in Sapporo, however, so this collaboration feels more at home for the locals of Hokkaido.
First collaboration announcement poster featuring Snow Miku and Fighters outfielder, Yang Dai-Kang. Illustration by @tatsuwo1984.
The collaboration itself will help promote Asian Fest 2015, a festival that celebrates Japan’s neighboring East Asian countries. Asian Fest will be held from July 31st~August 2nd. It seems the celebration started a little early, however, and Snow Miku already sang the Fighters theme song at their game on June 9th, with the vocal work produced by Waka.
“Snow Miku” version of Fighters theme song.
The details of the collaboration were announced as follows:
1: Shirts and Postcards.
For fans of Snow Miku and Nippon-ham Fighters, there are various goods announced for sale at the event. The first of these are limited availability T-shirts and postcards, each with a daily limit of 390 (or 1170 across all 3 days). You’ll have to be quick to secure your own!
2: Collaboration Goods
Additional Snow Miku x Fighters goods include jumbo fans, towels, key chains and more!
3: Snow Miku Twin Screen Performance
Remember the theme song played above? An animation featuring Snow Miku will accompany the song on the Sapporo Dome’s two giant twin screens. There will also be a celebratory balloon release.
4: Opening Dance, Snow Miku Theme
Every game opening features the Fighters Girls performing the opening dance, but this time it will be carried out in Snow Miku outfits!
5: Snow Miku Bus @ Sapporo Dome 1F Concourse Hall (Exhibition)
A snow Miku themed exhibition will be set up at the concourse hall of the Sapporo Dome on 1F, and will be open for only the three days of Asian Fest. Among the exhibition attractions will be the Snow Miku bus!
One of the most recently announced goods is a full graphic “Snow Miku meets Fighters” T-shirt, priced at 6500 Yen. It also comes with the honorary “Miku 3939” name and jersey number printed on the back.
Lastly, here’s one of the cute promotional posters illustrated by @tatsuwo1984 in promotion of the collaboration. Update via Hatsune Miku Blog.
