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Miku Fans Rage at Shinkansen Snub

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Hatsune Miku fans have been enraged by the decision of Japan Rail East to throw out the top voted names for its new E5 Shinkansen, which included “Hatsune,” instead picking the name which came 7th with just 2% of the vote.

JR put the naming of its new locomotive to the vote, and the train soon captured the attention of Miku fans with its familiar green styling, causing them to flood the poll with “Hatsune” votes.

In the final count, 150,000 votes in all, “Hatsune” came second, with first place going to “Hatsukari,” the name of a scrapped train, likely block-voted by creepy train otaku.

However, organisers ignored these and selected “Hayabusa” (“Falcon”), which came 7th with only 3,129 votes, saying they liked its “sense of speed” and its “friendliness.”

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2ch was generally displeased:

What was the point of voting?

I get the impression they decided on Hayabusa beforehand…

What, 7th? Make it Hatsune, god damn it!

Thank god it wasn’t Hatsune!

If they’re just going to pick 7th, what’s the point of voting? Who cares if they don’t pick Hatsune, but what is up with that?

Don’t knock otaku pressure – they got a space shuttle renamed “Enterprise” in the US.

Nice one JR, serves those creepy otaku right!

Leaving aside the issue of whether or not the organisers were right to stage a vote and then throw out all the entries in favour of an utterly trite and forgettable name, by passing up “Hatsune” they seem to be passing up a huge marketing coup – hardly a display of good commercial sense.

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