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This week in weird news: a 35-year-old Japanese man married a hologram of a famous Japanese “pop star”. Confused? We are too.
While dating humans is rarely simple, holograms must be an entirely different beast. Shockingly, however, Akihiko Kondo seems extremely happy with his virtual reality wife. But that’s not the full story.
The hologram in question is Hatsune Miku. Just so everyone is on the same page, Hatsune Miku is not a real person. It’s not as though Kondo married the hologram version of a famous singer. While that would still be insanely strange, it’s honestly probably been done before. Hatsune Miku is actually the digital personification of singing voice synthesizer software.
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Miku’s manifestation takes the form of a 16 year-old-girl with blue pigtails. She is praised in Japan as a virtual idol. Miku even “performs” at concerts as an animated projection. What was going through Kondo’s head when he chose to marry this “girl”? Here’s what he had to say about his decision:
“I’m in love with the whole concept of Hatsune Miku, but I got married to the Miku of my house.
I never cheated on her. I’ve always been in love with Miku-san.
There must be some people who can’t come forward and say they want to hold a wedding. I want to give them a supportive push.
It’s simply not right for me to be with human beings. It’s as if you were trying to talk a gay man into dating a woman, or a lesbian into a relationship with a man.
Diversity in society has been long called for.
It won’t necessarily make you happy to be bound to the “template” of happiness in which a man and woman marry and bear children.
I believe we must consider all kinds of love and all kinds of happiness.”
Okay, Kondo may have a point there. But he essentially married a robot. Should we be inspired or concerned?
As usual, the plot thickens even further. You’d think that the wedding between man and hologram would be a bargain right? No family to impress or wedding dress to buy! Wrong. Kondo went all out spending a whopping $20,000 on the event. Kondo even sleeps with a doll version of Miku and purchased a wedding ring custom-crafted for the doll. I think there are a few screws loose somewhere…
While Kondo is quite brave in putting his story out there and using it as a platform for equality, this seems more like an episode of My Strange Addiction than true love. Well, cheers to the happy couple.
