Hatsune Mix is a comedy/parody manga based on Crypton Future Media's famous Vocaloid voice synthesizer characters, Miku Hatsune, Rin and Len Kagamine, Luka Megurine, Meiko, and Kaito. Each chapter is a stand-alone story and marks the trials and tribulations of the group of pop singers. It's written and illustrated by KEI, the artist behind the original character artwork for Miku, Rin, Len, and Luka. As the characters intentionally have no canon personality traits, the manga is considered unofficial.
Dark Horse Comics published the manga in English in 2014.
Hatsune Mix provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alternate Universe: Almost every chapter takes place in one. There's a sort of "baseline" universe established in "Abandoned Mix" and continued through most of the others.
- Berserk Button
- Anyone who eats one of Miku's leeks incurs her wrath. Or calls her a flat chest.
- That goes for Rin, too. Oh, and don't call Meiko a middle-aged woman either.
- BFS: The Kagamine twins gained these by exchanging their clothes and tails in Mermaid Mix.
- Bland-Name Product: Moeji
◊ and Momiji◊ are spoofs of Meiji chocolate.
- Canon Discontinuity: The manga is specifically called unofficial in the title, since
Word of God claims there is no real continuity outside of the basics about the characters that are given (I.E. 02 are/is fourteen years old, etc.). That hasn't stopped the portrayals in the Manga from being interpreted as canon by fans, such as KAITO being a middle-aged man despite him never officially being given a canon age or even an age range. - Idiot Hair: Kaito sports this.
- Japanese Delinquents: Gakupo guest stars as one in one chapter.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Gakupo Kamui, a Vocaloid from a different company, makes two guest appearances; once as a delinquent rival to the main Vocaloids and once as a janitor with a crush on Miku. In neither of them is he named or wearing his usual attire, presumably so Internet Company Ltd. won't sue their rival company for using his likeness.
- Magical Girl: Miku is this in the first chapter, when she transforms.
- Meaningful Name: The 'Kagami' part of 'Kagamine' is Japanese for 'mirror'; the 'ne' that is at the end of Kagamine and Hatsune means 'sound'.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapters 8, 18, and 20.
- Ms. Fanservice: Luka in her debut chapters, quite particularly in "Luka Mix". Maiko feels particularly threatened by this because she's no longer the only adult woman in the house.
- Meido: On one of the blackmail photos Miku has in "Painful Mix" we can see Len in one. He is
understandably flustered in it. - Multiple-Choice Past: Invoked. Since there's no canon, the way the Vocaloids became a family tends to vary. For example, one chapter suggests that Miku was adopted by Meiko after she somehow mistook her for a stray cat, Rin and Len just appeared out of nowhere, and Kaito was there from the beginning.
- Parody: One chapter served as a parody for 'The Little Mermaid'.
- Perpetual Poverty: In some chapter, the Vocaloid family is in various state of poorness; ranged from living in a run-down cottage to a small tent, usually from Kaito spends money on ice cream and its freezer. Miku and the twins are the one who taking up some weird jobs or selling their clothes (at one point Miku even suggested to sell the twins), with Meiko and Kaito again spend it with reckless abandon. All of it was lampshaded.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Len is sensitive, while Rin is assertive, and in the few chapters where Meiko and Kaito are related, Meiko's the mature, responsible one and Kaito is...you guessed it! (Though this does changes Depending on the Writer).
- Spotlight-Stealing Title: The manga is named after none other than Miku Hatsune.
- The Cameo: Characters from The Idolmaster make appearances in some pages.
- Theme Twin Naming: The Kagamine twins's names, Len and Rin, are Japanese puns for 'left' and 'right'. In Chapter 14; the chapter that pretty much inspired by the twins' creation itself, they were code-named L and R. After the higher-ups finally approved them both, it was Miku who named them Len and Rin because of this very reason.
- Trademark Favorite Food: For Miku, a leek/negi, for Meiko, sake, for Kaito, ice cream, for Len, bananas, and for Rin, oranges. KEI really took many of these from the fandom, although there are several times where it's Rin who is munching bananas.
