Hatsune Miku and Negi (onion)

I will eat onion on Thanksgiving Day. But why onion? Because Hatsune Miku has an onion! But why does she hold the onion?

It is said that Hachune Miku (onion Miku) was created as an homage to Loituma Girl. Orihime of Bleach doing leekspin to Ievan Polkka, the traditional Finnish folk song. Sure, but what about at symbolic level? So, I googled and found several blogs claiming the answer is in The Brothers Karamazov!

In Book 7 Chapter 3, Grushenka, a business savvy voluptuous girl, finally meets Alexei Karamazov, a young monk, the youngest of the Karamazov brothers. She has long wanted to disrobe Alexei, just like some otaku fantasize undressing maid, sister, or miko. Girls with moetic costumes! Clearly she has a huge moe on Alexei. And then she tells a story of a sinful woman and an onion, referring to herself;

A sinful woman went to hell, but before she died, she did one good thing. She gave an onion to a homeless woman. So, God told an angel to dangle an onion in hell, so she could get pulled out from the lake of fire. Yet, when she grabbed the onion, the other sinners also tried to grab it. But she started to shake them off, claiming it was hers. Then, the onion broke, and she and the others all together fell in hell again. Thus, she lost her only chance to save herself.

The story is narrated by Grushenka, but it originally came from among the poor farmers (probably before farm slaves were emancipated in 1861. Coincidentally the same year, a war broke off in America over slavery.) So, to Russians, Miku must be very Russian.

Clearly, the sinful woman didn’t see the onion was open source. Hatsune Miku is everyone’s idol. Everyone’s friend is no one’s friend. So, when she fell in hell again, it’s pointless to blame, “I thought you were my friend.”

Nakajima Megumi is an angel with an onion too (or carrot of Ranka Lee). Her songs are the onion which makes my eyes tearful. That is True Tears by La’cryma. Lacrima (tear) in Latin, lagrima in Spanish. Soap Operas is called cebolleras (onion) in Spanish. So, onion is grace!

Ideally thanksgiving dish is potluck, or potlatch, the Northeastern Native American fest. The excess of food and gifts are shared by the community. Yes, that is the spirit of charity. Got nothing to share at potluck? Then, the rest of you can just rattle your onion!

Like Jesus multiplied the bread infinitely, Miku duplicates the onion infinitely. How could the sinful woman not know the onion was unlimited? Because of the limited resources, people are acting jerk to each other (even penguins!). At work, people are pressured to cut excess in the name of efficiency. And what they got in the end? Layoff and outsourcing. Yes, that’s how 3-D works! Too bad her mind was still at 3-D even after death. If only she was an otaku knowing the existence of Miku… She was born just too early!

I always thought the first kawaii idol was Matsuda Seiko or Rin Minmei, but the scepter has been passed down from Grushenka!

Thus, onion is the scepter of kawaii idols!

 

Author: Monsieur LaMoe

A refugee from Japan. Live in NAFTA. Get hooked on Moe. Moe is opium? Twitter: @MonsieurLamoe

6 thoughts on “Hatsune Miku and Negi (onion)

  1. What is awfully odd is how I would think more Japanese people would be familiar with the Akutagawa Ryuunosuke’s “The Spider’s Thread” short story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spider%27s_Thread

    Unless somehow they were aware of Ryuunosuke’s inspiration for the Spider’s Thread I think the connection with Karamazov is tenuous at best. Also what does Karamozov have to do with Finnish folk songs.

    My theory on Loituma girl is that the content originally came out of Russia where they have a folk dance with a very similar tune http://youtu.be/KTA9fe02zG8 in western Russia and that the polka is popular in Southern Finland bordering Russia. Why they use the Finnish version I am not sure though it should be noted it is a scat version of the levan polkka contains mostly gibberish so it might cross the cultural bounds more easily than a pure Finnish or Russian version. Lastly it should be noted that the traffic to the Loituma website after the flash was released came largely from Russia which supports my theory that the content originated there.

    As for Hachune Miku it’s less homage and more marketing tool since levan polkka was used in one of the early promotional videos for the vocaloid software. http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0802/25/news017.html

    1. @Taka

      Thanks for the comment! That really makes me motivated to continue writing!

      That’s very insightful about Loituma Girl. I see, though still a Finnish song, the melody can be traced back to Russian influence. So, to Russians, Hachune Miku is also very Russian musically!

      I’m amazed by your broad knowledge of the Japanese literature, since Spider Thread is a minor work of Akutagawa. I learned his famous works in school back in Japan, but not his minor works.

      Wow, how similar between Grushenka’s onion and Kandata’s spider thread! Maybe Akutagawa was influenced by Karamazov when he wrote it? As far as repayment of gratitude motif, Tezuka Osamu’s Hinotori: Phoenix arc has the similar episode. Tsuru No Ongaeshi too. But symbolically Kandata’s spider thread is different from Grushenka’s onion, since spider thread is not Miku’s scepter. So, Miku is more Dostoyevsky than Akutagawa.

      Thus not only symbolically but also musically, Hachune Miku is pretty much Russian!

  2. Don’t be too impressed of my knowledge. I only know of Spider’s Thread because Aoi Bungaku a few years ago animated an adaptation of it. It was also referenced in Mayoi Chiki this past season.

    As for whether Akutagawa read Dostoevsky the answer is yes according to one source I read. You can read about it and his other inspiration for the story here: http://www.edogawa-u.ac.jp/~tmkelly/research_spider.html

    1. Thanks for the link! Yappari! Russian-Christian fable and Buddhist fable got together.

      I see, that’s cool. That again proves that anime is a great effective tool to learn the Japanese culture! I missed that reference in Mayochiki, though it was my most favorite show from the past season. Since they animated Spider Thread, I think they should animate One Onion of Grushenka, and the guardian angel should be played by Miku!

Comments are closed.