| Kikuo | |
| Birth Date: | 21 September 1988 |
| Birth Place: | Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
| Years Active: | 2003 - present |
| Label: | Kikuo Sound Works |
| Associated Acts: | si_ku, Bo En, YURiCa/花たん (as KikuoHana) |
| Kikuo | |
| Channel Url: | UCq3vSkJtBZdBjC8yrG-1xmA |
| Channel Display Name: | Kikuo |
| Years Active: | 2006 - present |
| Genre: | Vocaloid |
| Subscribers: | 1.25 million |
| Subscriber Date: | July 15, 2024 |
| Views: | 340,133,348 |
| View Date: | July 15, 2024 |
| Silver Year: | 2019 |
| Silver Button: | yes |
| Gold Year: | 2023 |
| Gold Button: | yes |
| Stats Update: | July 15, 2024 |
is a Japanese songwriter and Vocaloid producer. As an independent artist, he produces the lyrics and music for each of his songs under his own record label, "Kikuo Sound Works," often with vocals provided by popular Crypton Future Media voicebank, Hatsune Miku. His unique style of music production is characterized by detailed, high-tempo sound design, with several overlaying instruments and effects to create colorful and upbeat harmonies, often juxtaposed by unsettling lyrics.
Additionally, Kikuo is best known for his song, which surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify in January 2023, the first Vocaloid song to achieve this feat.[1] [2]
Kikuo credits experiences in elementary school for inspiring him to be a creator, recalling how bullies would stop harassing him to take an interest in his creative works, such as "gamebooks," with some even calling him talented and lucky to have such creativity. In a 2023 interview with Japanese web magazine Freezine, Kikuo specifically discussed how bullying shaped his worldview and motivation to create:
Original Japanese:
Japanese: すごい前までさかのぼると、小学生のころいじめられてたけど、一人遊びで作ってたゲームブックみたいなのを見せたら、「お前すげぇ」みたいな風になって、ゲームブックやらせてるときだけ一時的にいじめが止んで、ゲームブック引っ込めたら途端にいじめられるみたいな。そういう状況から、「あ、創作じゃないと生きていけないんだ、俺この社会で」ってなって、中学のころに創作ならとりあえずなんでもいいから、自分の得意なもの探さなきゃと思って、いろんなことチャレンジしたんですけど苦手なこともでき。。。ないこともすごく多いし、めっちゃ飽きっぽかったんで、あらゆることに飽きた結果、最後に一つだけ飽きなかったのがDTMだったみたいなことだったんですよ。|italic=no
English Translation:
Going back a long way, when I was in elementary school I was being bullied, but when I showed them a gamebook that I made by myself, they were like, "You're amazing," and the bullying stopped temporarily when I was playing with the gamebook, but as soon as I took the gamebook away, the bullying started again. From that situation, I realized, "Oh, I can't survive in this society without creativity," and in middle school I thought I had to find something I was good at, anything creative, so I tried a lot of different things, but I couldn't do the things I wasn't good at...There were a lot of things I didn't have, and I got bored very easily, so I got bored of everything, and in the end, the only thing I didn't get bored of was DTM.
Though Kikuo initially used his creativity to evade school bullies, he concluded that creativity would be necessary to survive in society, too. His passion for Desktop Music (DTM) led him to start creating music in 2003, uploading songs to 2channel while still in middle school.[3] Noticing little interest in his early works, bright and flashy pop songs with dance tempos, he investigated the Vocaloid genre. Kikuo told Freezine that songs with more grotesque themes experienced greater success, leading him to make darker pieces himself.
Kikuo published his first Vocaloid song in 2010,[3] followed by his 2011 debut studio album, Kikuo Miku. In 2016, he performed alongside other acts at Dwango's annual Nico Nico Cho Party (Japanese: Japanese: ニコニコ超パーティー|italic=no,) in Saitama Super Arena.[4] Kikuo's work gained popularity, even being featured in the Educational Arts Company high school textbook, "High School Music 1" (Japanese: Japanese: 高校生の音楽1|italic=no), as part of a section covering the Vocaloid genre. His song "Six Greetings" was referenced in the textbook along with a lead sheet featuring lyrics and notes from the song.[5] Kikuo was also featured in a documentary by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) about Hatsune Miku.[3] As of 2024, Kikuo has created over 1,000 songs,[6] more than a dozen albums, and worked with various shows, film projects, games, and other media (see Affiliated works below). His three most streamed songs include:
The three songs belong to Kikuo's 2013 album Kikuo Miku 3 (Japanese: Japanese: きくおミク3|italic=no), and have amassed over 260 million streams collectively on Spotify, as of 2024.[7] "Love Me, Love Me, Love Me" in particular surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify in January 2023, making it the first Vocaloid song to achieve this feat, and most streamed song in the Vocaloid genre as a whole.[1] [2]
Kikuo's production process is well documented, having been recorded and highlighted in the 2012 "Miku Creator's Project" on Google+,[8] and also on the online education website, Coloso.[9] He uses a wide range of known and unknown instruments, effects, plugins, vocal synthesizers, and is known for using unorthodox samples such as crushing fruit, wrenches and machinery, squeaks of toys, and even sounds of childhood classrooms to enhance the settings of his songs. Preferring not to use MIDI keyboards to arrange notes, Kikuo points and clicks with a touchpad and mouse. When asked in an interview with Rittor's music magazine, Plug+, about how he chooses sounds to set his music apart he replied, "The philosophy I always follow when choosing sounds is that 'beauty is consistency'...For example, I believe that an orderly arrangement of bricks is more beautiful than a jumble of stones. In music, we feel that something is beautiful when the notes are arranged according to certain rules."
Japanese and Chinese software-voicebanks (collectively known as Vocaloids) provide the main vocals and ad-libs in most Kikuo songs. Recurring Vocaloids used by Kikuo include the popular virtual idol, Hatsune Miku from Crypton Future Media, and Qi Xuan (Mandarin: Chinese: 绮萱|italic=no) from Beijing TimeDomain Technology's ACE Virtual Singer (Mandarin: Chinese: ACE虚拟歌姬|italic=no). He has also made demo songs for various Vocaloids running on the Vocaloid 3 engine, including Tone Rion (Japanese: Japanese: 兎眠りおん|italic=no),[10] IA (Japanese: Japanese: イア|italic=no),[11] and Anri Rune (Japanese: Japanese: 杏梨ルネ|italic=no)[12] (see Demo songs below). In addition to Vocaloids, Kikuo has also worked with traditional human voices as in the case of his lower-tempo, collaborative album Kikuo feat. si_ku, where his friend and repeat album cover artist, "si_ku", provided vocals.
Kikuo uses Studio One as his preferred DAW with VST plugins for instruments (VSTi) and effects (VSTfx). For VSTi, he is known to use Omnisphere, Kontakt, Massive, and Addictive Drums. For VSTfx, he is known to use Fabfilter, Glitch Machines, Waves Signature Series, Ozone, and Komplete. Additionally, Kikuo acquires samples from Splice and Loopcloud, utilizing the software "Reference4" for acoustic corrections. His hardware preferences include the A7X Active Studio Monitor speaker from ADAM Audio in conjunction with Focal's Clear MG Pro headphones.[3] When asked by Plug+ about an effect he considers best for Vocaloid, Kikuo replied, "It's a pitch shifter. I think there's no point in using detailed and complicated effects because it won't be conveyed anyway. That's why I'm focusing on how to use old-fashioned retro plug-ins dynamically."
A recurring motif in Kikuo's most popular songs is that of the problem child, accompanied by lyrics which explore themes of suffering, escapism, and trauma as a result. Kikuo often uses bright melodies, audio samples of toys, and the youthful voices of Vocaloids to juxtapose the dark subject matter of his songs, a staple style of his music.
Childhood trauma is a common theme throughout Kikuo's discography, but notably so in his most popular songs, highlighting the theme's popularity among the fandom. The lyrics of Kikuo's most streamed song,, for example, depict a toxic relationship between a child and an unseen character. The song is claimed to depict "good child syndrome", a subset of dependent personality disorder (DPD) where a desperate child will do anything they can to please someone (usually parental figures) in return for an often unrequited love.[13] Similar themes are conveyed in Kikuo's, where a child struggles with feelings of worthlessness in the eyes of a verbally abusive parental figure. The lyrics suggest physical abuse and self-harm in response to such criticisms.[14]
Darker examples of childhood trauma are found in Kikuo's, a song which focuses on themes of sexual abuse. The lyrics (from a child's perspective) convey sorrow as they express guilt and apology during such situations.[15] The theme of the problem child is continued in Kikuo's . The song describes a child who takes pleasure in the vandalism of personal belongings with attached memories and sentimental value. Some interpretations of the song label the child's behaviors as sadistic or as exhibitions of rage and attention seeking, while others attribute the destructive tendencies to innocent, child-like clumsiness or similarly, dojikko.[16]
Escapism is explored in many of Kikuo's songs, often in response to the aforementioned themes of suffering, with lyrics offering the elusion of pain and even reality altogether. The lyrics of Kikuo's, for example, describe children at play in an inescapable and claustrophobic world of holes. Interpretations attribute the suffocating feelings described by the song as representations of overbearing romantic partners, helicopter parents, or even Japanese work culture.[17] The song also encapsulates tropes of both Denpa (characters often disconnected from reality) and Hikikomoris (extreme social recluses), terms primarily recognized and criticized in Japan. Kikuo's explores a darker approach of escape, with lyrics that describe a rhythmic dance of corpses, marching toward the underworld. The song's narrator describes the dance as tempting, hinting at suicide ideation and self destructive behaviors in response to adversity and hardship.[18] Much like with an unreliable narrator, the child-perspective of many Kikuo songs allows for varied interpretation of Kikuo's lyrics. The examples of escapism addressed above, for example, may simply be descriptions of a play-pretend world and delusion or, more harshly, reclusion and death.
| Kikuo Miku | Japanese: きくおミク|italic=yes | Kikuo | 00:46:37 | 12 | August 13, 2011 | ||||
| KIKUOWORLD | Japanese: KIKUOWORLD|italic=yes | Instrumental, (stylized in all caps) | Kikuo | 00:29:08 | 11 | December 31, 2011 | |||
| Kikuo Miku 2 | Japanese: きくおミク2|italic=yes | Kikuo | 00:45:59 | 12 | August 11, 2012 | ||||
| KIKUOWORLD 2 | Japanese: KIKUOWORLD2|italic=yes | Instrumental, (stylized in all caps) | Kikuo | 00:22:53 | 7 | December 31, 2012 | |||
| Kikuo Miku 3 | Japanese: きくおミク3|italic=yes | Kikuo | 00:51:19 | 12 | August 12, 2013 | ||||
| KIKUOWORLD 3 | Japanese: KIKUOWORLD3|italic=yes | Instrumental, (stylized in all caps) | Kikuo | 00:38:24 | 1 | December 31, 2013 | |||
| Whereabouts of the Living Being's Soul | Japanese: いきものの魂のゆくえ|italic=yes | Collaborative Album | Kikuo feat. si_ku | si_ku | 00:37:28 | 7 | December 31, 2013 | ||
| Kikuo Miku 0 | Japanese: きくおミク0|italic=yes | Pre-Vocaloid songs from 2005 to 2011, special selection of 28 songs from over 1,000 | Kikuo | 11 artists | 01:13:35 | 28 | August 17, 2014 | ||
| Kikuo Miku 4 | Japanese: きくおミク4|italic=yes | Kikuo | 01:12:59 | 15 | December 30, 2014 | ||||
| Act 1 | Japanese: 第一幕|italic=yes | Collaborative Album | KikuoHana (Japanese: Japanese: きくおはな|italic=no) | YURiCa/Hanatan | 00:45:39 | 12 | March 30, 2016 | ||
| Kikuo Live | Japanese: きくおLive|italic=yes | Live Album from Nico Nico Cho Party | Kikuo | 00:27:54 | 4 | August 14, 2016 | |||
| Act 2 | Japanese: 第二幕|italic=yes | Collaborative Album | KikuoHana (Japanese: Japanese: きくおはな|italic=no) | YURiCa/Hanatan | 00:48:09 | 12 | March 31, 2017 | ||
| Kikuo Miku 5 | Japanese: きくおミク5|italic=yes | Kikuo | 00:49:54 | 10 | December 29, 2017 | ||||
| Kikuo Miku 6 | Japanese: きくおミク6|italic=yes | Kikuo | 00:47:47 | 12 | November 6, 2019 | ||||
| Kikuo Miku 7 | Japanese: きくおミク7|italic=yes | Kikuo | 00:42:02 | 11 | March 21, 2023 |
| "Voices of Svaahaa" | "Japanese: ソワカの声|italic=no" | "" | Promotional for Kikuo Miku 7 | Kikuo | 00:05:34 | 1 | October 2, 2021 | ||
| "Astral Travel" | "Japanese: 幽体離脱|italic=no" | "" | Promotional for Kikuo Miku 7 | Kikuo | 00:05:23 | 1 | March 21, 2022 | ||
| "Knife, Knife, Knife" | "Japanese: ナイフ、ナイフ、ナイフ|italic=no" | "" | Promotional for Kikuo Miku 7 | Kikuo | 00:03:24 | 1 | May 1, 2022 | ||
| "My Time OMORI ver. (Kikuo cover)" | Collaborative Cover of Bo En's "My Time" from Omori, Promotional for Kikuo Miku 7 | Bo En | Kikuo | 00:02:46 | 1 | October 19, 2022 | |||
| "In a Deep, Dark Forest" | "Japanese: 深い森のなかで|italic=no" | "" | Promotional for Kikuo Miku 7 | Kikuo | 00:04:57 | 1 | November 24, 2022 | ||
| "Good Kid and a Fox Spirit" | "Japanese: イイコと妖狐|italic=no" | "" | Promotional for Kikuo Miku 7 | Kikuo | 00:03:53 | 1 | December 31, 2022 | ||
| "Kara Kara Kara no Kara STuPiD DaNCe ReMiX" | "Japanese: カラカラカラのカラ STuPiD DaNCe ReMiX|italic=no" | Kikuo | 00:06:37 | 1 | August 23, 2023 | ||||
| "As it is, As it is, Without Change" | "Japanese: そのまんまそのまんま、そのままずっとそのまま|italic=no" | "" | Kikuo | 00:03:44 | 1 | August 28, 2023 |
| "Pokkan Colors" | "Japanese: ぽっかんカラー|italic=no" | "" | Re-released as eighth song on Kikuo Miku 2 | Kikuo | Tone Rion (Japanese: Japanese: 兎眠りおん|italic=no) | 00:03:22 | 1 | January 11, 2012 | |
| "Dust Dust Curse" | "Japanese: 塵塵呪詛（チリチリジュソ）|italic=no" | "" | Re-released as seventh song on Kikuo Miku 2 | Kikuo | IA (Japanese: Japanese: イア|italic=no) | 00:03:46 | 1 | January 27, 2012 | |
| "Hallelujah Super Idol" | "Japanese: ハレルヤ・スーパーアイドル|italic=no" | "" | Kikuo | Anri Rune (Japanese: Japanese: 杏梨ルネ|italic=no) | 00:03:56 | 1 | June 29, 2013 |
Works and side projects unrelated to Kikuo's mainstream discography are found below:
Kikuo has made several appearances in Japan over the years. His first world tour, "Kikuoland-Go-Round," will occur between 2024 and 2025.[3] [33] [34] In an interview with Plug+, Kikuo explained his motivation for touring overseas, "I knew I had fans all over the world, so I thought 'I can do it' [laughs]. I don't think a Vocaloid producer has ever performed overseas, so I wanted to do something unknown that no one has ever done before."
Kikuo:
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