Hatsune Miku has existed for almost two decades at this stage, and it is a real anime icon. This despite the fact that, until 2025, she had no official anime and existed in a sort of “adjacent” status. Now, however, it is firmly cemented as one of the heroes of the medium, and it uses this popularity to help buy a video game speedster that has existed for much longer.

Despite being created by the Japanese SEGA company, Sonic The Hedgehog has never been particularly popular in Japan. This reflects the nature in which it was created, with the coarse guy with an attitude intended to counter a more pleasant plumber. Now, however, he finally got his due in his country of origin, and Miku is a large part.

Hatsune Miku is currently at its most popular

Hatsune Miku is one of the many vocaloid characters in Crypton Future MediaWith these electronic programs used to sing various songs and remix others with their now familiar voices. The conceptions of Miku and his friends integrate perfectly with the anime, despite the fact that they are not technically anime characters. For years, there were several unofficial anime featuring the character, namely the project entitled black Rock Shooter (based on an image that inspired a song by Miku). Likewise, fan arts and similar companies have seen the fans crush it with real video and anime game characters, their mutual association with pear onions Bleach manga and anime. Since then, there have been countless collectibles published on the basis of Miku, and it is easily the vocaloid with the most goods.

Some of these elements simply present it or the other vocaloid singers, while many others are collaborative links, most of which involve anime and similar brands. For example, there are now countless Hatsune Miku Sanrio products, with those who commonly associate it with the Lop, Cinnamoroll ears dog. Actually, Miku interacts much more with Cinnamoroll than she does with Hello Kitty or KuromiProbably because of their similar colored patterns. There have also been similar collectibles showing the other Sanrio mascots and the other Vocaloïdes de Crypton. The year 2025 was flooded many theme of Hatsune Miku Gundam mobile costume Offers, including model kits combining Miku and Mecha. Finally, the year also made her an anime character once and for all, with the release of the anime film Colorful step! The film: a miku who cannot sing. A great success in Japan, it has cemented vocaloid as one of the greatest successes of the brand image of the last decade. This is much more the case for her than Japanese video game icon.

The greatest character in Sega has never been tall in Japan

Image via sega

Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut over 30 years ago, and as soon as he entered the sceneHe quickly replaced the Moribonde Alex Kidd as a sega mascot. The character has definitely helped put Sega on the map in the West and the success of the original Sonic the hedgehog The trilogy assured that the Sega Genesis was just as large as its rival console, the Super Nintendo entertainment system. Conversely, Sonic was elbow with Mario de Nintendo, with various advertisements selling the blue blur outright through this rivalry.

This success was perfectly logical, because the cool attitude of Sonic and other mechanisms were tailor -made for a Western audience. Even the music and the drawings of the games reflected many trends in the West, with these songs resembling the new successes of Jack Swing artists such as Bobby Brown, while the visuals had a certain Flair Memphis Milano which recalled shows such as Bell. For the years to come, Sonic was one of the kings of industry – but a large part of this success was only felt in the West.

Largely due to the quantity of designed for Western tastes, Sonic the Hedgehog was much less popular when he made his debut in Japan. He simply had too much gross attitude to adapt to culture, and this was particularly blatant given how other cute animal characters were represented in Japan by anime and other mediums. The Sega Mega Drive, the Japanese facing Genesis, was not as tall as the Super Famicom (the Japanese SNES), so the initial Sonic trilogy had much less impact.

Ironically, the Sega Saturn sold much better in Japan than to the West, but this console was also notable not to lack everything Sonic Title (with the planned Sonic X-Treme finally canceled). The 3D era of the character did not change things, and this was also the case in the early 2000s. In fact, the Japanese anime Sonic X was only an international success, and his third and last season was only broadcast in Japan until years after its initial release. The recent Sonic the hedgehog Live films have also collapsed, despite their world popularity otherwise.

Fortunately, Sega Sonic the hedgehog OverallAnd it starts to feel in Japan. The modern Sonic Renaissance undoubtedly started with the success of Sound handle At the end of the 2010s, this retro style title bringing the 2D classic 2D gameplay, graphics and music. This has since continued remastered Sound colors And Sound generations (which combines elements of the 2D and 3D games), the new Sound borders (largely considered the best 3D Sonic game) and the newly released race title, Racing Sonic: Crossworlds.

The latter has already become a well received success, and this success, in the midst of the controversy surrounding Mario Kart World And the Nintendo Switch 2 as a whole, rekindled the Sega / Nintendo rivalry. This race title, as its name suggests, is also a crossing game, with several “guest” runners from brands beyond Sonic Games. One character in particular is probably a large part of the reason why the game wins in the field in Japan.

The anime and the vocaloid rewrite the Japanese identity of Sonic

Hatsune Miku is one of the crossed characters of Racing Sonic: CrossworldsAnd it is not the only aspect of mixing between brands. To coincide with the new game, “Project onSoku” was launched, these songs from Hatsune Miku being based on the characters and concepts of the Sonic the hedgehog series. As with almost everything Miku, the album has definitely become popular. This is particularly the case in Japan, where Racing Sonic: Crossworlds rose in the ranks of anticipation before his release.

Many fans in the West were in fact shocked by the way he became excited in Japan, with the historical reluctance towards the franchise, which turns this turn of particularly perplexed events. This trend probably started when Sound borders It was such a great success in Japan, but it is clear that Miku helps to make Sonic always large in this country.

Now that she is a real anime character, Hatsune Miku redefines Sonic as a really Japanese character. More a bad western style boy from the 1990s in Bart Simpson’s vein, the presence of Sonic worldwide feels more “authentic” in a way that avoids the “cool” hoof of the past. This makes him much more pleasant to the Japanese public, which explains the little cute interpretations of him there.

For example, the Sonic & Friends Web series and Reimagine Sonic goods and its allies like cute chibi style mascots. Given how much they look like the many characters in Sanrio, it is not surprising that this taking on the distribution of friends of Sonic was part of the popularity survey of the characters in Sanrio 2025. Conversely, many manga and manga magazines for children have promoted Racing Sonic: CrossworldsAnd this level of attention of young Japanese is something that the Sega hero has never really had before. In a way, these appearances and multisgments make Sonic a “Japanese anime character” in the same way as Colorful step! gave this feeling of cultural legitimacy to Miku.

Another character of cross in Racing Sonic: Crossworlds is a joker Persona 5Which makes sense. THE Character and wider Shin Megami Tensei The franchise belongs to Atlus, which is now a subsidiary of SEGA. Ironically, the Character The games had been boasting aesthetic for a long time similar to the most elegant anime, and there have also been many Character Anime adaptations. Thus, having joined for the journey continues the “Japanese” feeling of the new Sonic Running game.

The same goes with the presence of PAC-Man, the arcade icon belonging to the Japanese game developer Namco. PAC-Man was definitively more accepted by the Japanese public than Sonic was not historically, but now they are both in the same pantheon in the country. A large part of this is the ascending trajectory in quality for the modern Sonic Games, but it is impossible to deny the great impact that Hatsune Miku had on the hedgehog. The two brands will probably also be synonymous with each other than Miku with Cinnamoroll and other Sanrio mascots, and the help of the vocaloid singer has become the 100th proverbial ring that gave Sonic a second life in Japan.