Love Island got nothing on Kondo and Miku
A man who married a hologram modelled after a computer-synthesised pop singer has revealed that they are no longer communicating.
Akihiko Kondo, 39, from Japan, identifies as a “fictosexual” which is described as “anyone who experiences sexual attraction toward fictional characters.” While most of us can probably conjure a fictional character we feel strongly about – we’re looking at you, Lara Croft – Kondo’s attraction is for a series of 1s and 0s in the form of Hatsune Miku.
Miku, also known as CV01, was created by Crypton Future Media and has been featured in over 100,000 songs, according to her website. After experiencing bullying at his job, Kondo turned to Miku for comfort, which usually involved making songs together. Kondo also purchased a stuffed doll of her likeness.
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Things took a romantic turn in 2017 with the help of Gatebox, a machine which turns fictional characters into holograms, allowing Kondo to continue with his modern-day love story by communicating with her.
However tragedy struck during the pandemic when Gatebox announced it was discontinuing its service for Miku. After returning home from work one day, her image was replaced with “network error”, bringing their relationship to sudden end.
It was a long relationship too. After 10 years together, Kondo eventually popped the question, which she allegedly responded to with: “Please treat me well.”
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The wedding was held in 2018 but many of Kondo’s friends and family did not attend. According to the New York Times, the final guest list consisted of 39 people – many of them strangers and online friends.
“When we’re together, she makes me smile,” he said. “In that sense, she’s real.”
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Now, Kondo looks to the future, where hopefully, he can be reunited with his wife in some form. On his Instagram page, which boasts an impressive 11.5k followers, Kondo continues to share images of Miku in various settings.
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