Manga Review – Hatsune Miku: Acute

Hatsune Miku: Acute

Hatsune Miku: Acute
Acute
KurousaP / WhiteFlame (original song); ASAHINA Shiori (art)
Shoujo – Drama, romance, tragedy
1 Volume (complete)
Dark Horse

Summary:

Miku, Luka, and Kaito were the best of friends. When the girls realized they both liked Kaito, the two swore to never their feelings to him. But as Kaito and Luka head off the college, Miku feels increasingly left behind. When emotions burn like fireworks, what will happen at the end of this twisted love story?

Review:

Okay, I’m not really going to avoid spoilers for this review. That’s because Hatsune Miku: Acute is based on this popular Vocaloid song:

It can also be played in some of the Project Diva games, but if you need a translation, here you go. (It’s not perfect, but it also translates the in-between sections.)

English version:

There are also plenty of subbed versions and covers on YouTube as well.

So, if you’re interested in Acute, I’m going to assume you’ve seen watched at least one of these videos. Also, “Acute” means the song, and Acute means the manga. (Note the “Hatsune Miku” part was added to the English version’s title to help attract attention from Vocaloid fans.)

Now, Vocaloid lyrics are often abstract or borderline nonsensical, so it is often up to personal interpretation as to the true meaning of the song. “Acute” may not tell the whole story, but the general idea is pretty straightforward: Miku, Luka, and Kaito are friends now in a love triangle. Reading between the lines, Kaito seems to be dating Miku, but he’s also been seeing Luka. This knowledge eventually leads Miku to her breaking point. In my opinion, Acute is quite a different take than what I had pictured in my head. Obviously, the song had to be expanded upon in order to create a full narrative, but the manga is definitely not just a play-by-play of “Acute”.

Acute is broken up into four chapters, one narrated by each character before showing the final events of the story. In the opening chapter, Miku makes Luka promise that neither will confess so that they can stay friends forever, but she discovers that her two older friends have been dating behind her back. Kaito still carries scars from his childhood, and although he loves Luka, he agrees to Miku’s proposal to sleep together once as a memory. Then Luka and Kaito become increasingly disturbed by Miku’s behavior, but they resolve to get “their” Miku back.

Acute paints Kaito and Luka in a far more sympathetic light than the original song. So good news Kaito fans: he’s much less punchable in this song! However, this comes at the expense of Miku. I’m not saying that swinging a knife is the answer to someone cheating (it’s absolutely not), but “Acute” Miku’s rage was understandable. Acute has her going off the rails long before her final breakdown. By extension, Luka is more of a tragic heroine than waiting mistress. Yes, Luka shouldn’t have broken the girl code and snuck around her best friend’s back, but she blames herself for the entire situation. It’s a bit bizarre to have Luka martyring herself considering both she and Kaito are single, consenting adults. The other Luka knows she’s lying and is probably being lied to but continues the relationship anyway; this Luka panics as Miku invents a relationship with Kaito.

Yes, that’s right. Invents. Again, “Acute” Miku is a woman scored; Acute Miku is a crazy hookup. It really changes the dynamic when cheating is not a central part of the story. I always felt like the song’s titled referred to all three characters having shallow feelings, not being able to like each other in the “right” way. But the darker elements in Acute are far more centered around Miku, and even the ending isn’t nearly as tragic as the original song. I can imagine the difficulty in preserving the dark elements in a full-length manga while also trying to make the characters tolerable and/or likable. But I wish Kaito and Luka kept more of their selfish “Acute” selves instead of focusing so much on the shoujo-filled “true love” aspect.

I had never heard of Asahina before, but I assumed she was a doujin artist. Before Acute, she did publish a multi-volume manga adaptation of a novel. As such, she isn’t just someone coming off of artist alley like a lot of these publications. Acute looks like an actual volume someone put out instead of a glorified entry into a manga contest. Asahina doesn’t try to overload readers with too much dialogue to pad the story, a pitfall many authors fall into in short series. Crazy Miku is also fully represented here in a variety of styles to show her slow descent. My favorite symbolism is when the strands of her pigtails blow in the wind at pivotal moments, unraveling like her state of mind. Acute SampleAnother time, we see her shadow as she chats with Luka. It’s a perfect metaphor for someone who is only a shadow of her former self. But I must add two notes: Asahina seems to love big hair and blushing. Big hair on every page, blushing on almost every page — it gets a little tiring in such a darker manga like this.

Translation:

As with some other Dark Horse manga, I was worried this manga would be unnecessarily altered. Hooray, it isn’t! The song lyrics are written to be a bit poetic, but a couple of times I laughed since they sounded… well, like faux-Shakespeare or Middle Ages fantasy: “my now-rusted heart, which springs forth with vengeful vigor I thought not possible, cannot be stopped”. Doesn’t that sound like something a Thor-like character would say? “I have arrive with VENGEFUL VIGOR!” Or maybe it’s an ability in an RPG: “Level up! Learned ‘Vengeful Vigor’: ATK rises after being healed from critical HP”.

Final Comments:

I enjoyed the manga (more than I thought I would in fact), but I don’t know if it really felt like “Acute” to me. The manga definitely has shoujo manga’s fingerprints all over it. I guess how well you will like Acute will depend on how sympathetic you are to Miku versus Luka/Kaito in the original song.

Some of Kurousa-P’s works can be purchased through Amazon or iTunes, but “Acute” is not currently available. The song has a sequel titled “ReAct”. Dark Horse has published several other Vocaloid manga.

Reader Rating


4.29/5 (7)

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12 Comments

  1. dreager1

    I really know next to nothing about the Hatsune Miku franchise, but it’s really hard to picture her acting as violent and intense as she does in this manga. The only bits I’ve seen of her, she’s always been such a happy and upbeat character. Granted, it sounds like she wasn’t having a fun time in the original song either. I guess I’d probably still be rooting for her here since I never like seeing two friends backstab someone like with the cheating angle, but murdering them certainly isn’t the right option either. Sounds like an interesting manga to check out someday

    Reply
    1. Krystallina (Post author)

      There are some very dark Vocaloid songs out there. Just do a search for “dark (or creepy) Vocaloid songs” and you’ll find list after list. Of course, they don’t all star Miku herself as the crazy one, but psycho Miku is out there aplenty. I don’t usually prefer that type of music and/or lyrics though.
      Would love to read your own review of Acute someday!

      Reply
      1. dreager1

        I went and looked up a video of 5 or so dark Hatsune Miku songs. They definitely do get seriously dark. I clearly had only seen a small edge of the Vocaloid franchise, it’s really interesting. The manga definitely sounds worth checking out!

        Reply
  2. The Otaku Judge

    This sounds like the Vocaloid version of School Days. I’m surprised that a tale featuring Miku could get this dark, but then again Black Rock Shooter was based on the character and that is pretty gritty too.

    Reply
    1. Krystallina (Post author)

      Vocaloid can get pretty dark. There are some definitely creepy Miku songs.
      But hey, at least Kaito is only torn between two girls and not every girl that comes his way like Makoto.

      Reply
  3. Sunny

    Huh, I didn’t know Acute got an official release. They originally translated it on bookwalker/comicwalker and stopped at chapter 1. Glad to see that Dark Horse finally did something about it.

    It was an interesting manga to translate back when I was doing manga translations over at Vocalations but I personally found it a bit too immature for my taste.

    Reply
    1. Krystallina (Post author)

      I didn’t know Bookwalker started translating it first. Vocaloid manga seems to sell quite well for Dark Horse, so I guess it isn’t a surprise they would pick it up. I prefer Future Diary the best myself.

      By the way, I use Cute Kaomoji all the time!

      Reply
  4. Daisy

    wait… what happens after all of this? are they friends again? who dates who? (sorry if this seems obvious, I’m new to all of this)

    Reply
    1. Krystallina (Post author)

      There’s no manga adaptation of the song ReAct, which is the sequel to the song Acute. Of course, there are differences between Acute’s song and manga adaptations, but you can see how everything turned out there.
      If you just consider the manga alone, Luka makes it clear that they always have been and always will be friends, and Kaito’s feelings have been obvious since the start and never wavered from who he truly likes.

      Reply
  5. Tepperz

    haven’t read this one, even though i’ve seen the videos and liked the songs xD The RPG parts in your review made me laugh

    Reply
    1. Krystallina (Post author)

      Well, with all your lovely comments, I feel like I just had Curaga and Cheer cast on me! 🙂

      Reply
      1. Tepperz

        No problem, desu~~~! I’m really glad to read your lovely works!!! You put so much effort into sharing, I’m happy that i get to comment when i have something to share! Curaga, curaga!

        Reply

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