Animelo is an annual summer multi-day concert featuring theme songs from a variety of anime series and video games, plus special collaborations between some of Japan’s musical superstars.

This year’s event, titled -infinity-, will be hosted at the Saitama Super Arena over two days (August 25th and 26th) and will feature over 35 artists, including May’n, LiSA, Hatsune Miku, Yui Horie, and Daisuke Ono.

Now, if you’re like me, and don’t live in Japan, or have the funds to fly over, NicoNico has you covered. Not only will they live-stream both days of the concert series, but in order to get fans hyped up, NicoNico will also broadcast live footage of Animelo 2011 and 2010 for three days before the 2012 concert.

Like all good things, there is a catch. The 2010-2011 footage will stream for free starting August 21st at 9pm JST, which is about 5am PST. And if you want to watch the 2012 live-stream, you’ll have to pay for it. More info is available on Animelo’s website.

If you have never watched Animelo before, now is the time to see what you’ve been missing.

Are you planning on staying up to watch?

Japanese store chain FamilyMart have been very Miku-friendly this year. They remodeled four of their stores and launched a crowd-sourced campaign to promote Miku’s “Many 39′s Giving Day” concert earlier this year. Recently, FamilyMart has been announcing Miku-based food items, such as “Mikuman” meat buns and “Peyoung Dabaa” yakisoba noodles. On Monday, they revealed their latest item: a vegetable drink based on the extremely popular “Po Pi Po” tune sung by Hatsune Miku.

FamilyMart has yet to reveal it’s sale date, or even the drink’s name, but I’m sure it will be revealed really soon. [UPDATED] The drink, will be available at Family Mart in Japan from August 14th through September 10th…but the price is not 200 yen, its 158 yen. 

Miku’s Facebook page has posted a (very small) un-pixelated image of the bottle, along with a pic of the “Mikuman” meat buns.

What other Miku-based items would you like to see?

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, or just want to enjoy this classic tune again, click past the break for the music video of Lamaze-P’s “Po Pi Po!”

Many of you drool over the possibility of owning a PS Vita, but then reality (and an empty bank account) hits you upside the head, and that thought drifts back over to your dream collection. Yet, after saving up for months, you’re finally ready to buy a PS Vita! Granted, you can barely afford the base model wi-fi version, but who cares! Life is great! You start to fill your mind with thoughts of what games to play first while browsing your usual websites.

Then you come across this…

Ok, it’s a white PS Vita. No surprise there, most electronic products nowadays either come in piano black or ivory white. Wait…is that…Miku on the back? Yes it is. This is Sony’s latest version of their handheld system, adorned with the most iconic Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku! This limited edition will also include Next Hatsune Miku Project Diva, a 4GB memory card, a screen-protector film with an original design, an augmented-reality card (also with an original design), a USB cable, an AC adaptor, a power cord, and print documentation.

Your hands start trembling at the thought of being able to touch Miku’s soft…thighs (or whatever else your lust is set on). You vision starts to go blurry as you scramble to find where you can purchase this limited edition masterpiece. Alas, it’s not available until August 30th. No matter, you want to pre-order it anyways. It can’t be that much more than a standard…oh…

The 3G/Wi-Fi version will run 39,980-yen (about US$500), while the Wi-Fi only model will cost 34,980-yen (US$437). You look in your wallet and see the $300 you’ve saved up for so long. You start to contemplate if you can save up the difference before its release date when all of a sudden, your room goes dark.

You forgot to pay the electric bill again. With a heavy sigh, you head off to bed, still trying to figure out how to afford this limited edition Miku…and keep the lights on.

(check out past the break for Sony’s commercial on the new color and the limited edition Miku version)

Music label ‘Exit Tunes’ introduced at their 10th anniversary event a brand new Vocaloid character. ‘Mayu’ is a middle school student with a ‘yandere’ character type. For those who don’t know, yandere is a character is who at first seems gentle but is actually mentally unstable and often violent. Exit Tunes have created a teaser website with free avatar and wallpaper downloads. Fans right off the bat will have permission to use Mayu’s name and image for derivative works (with the exception of the original logo and illustration).

So…. I understand that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Vocaloid characters out there (I personally call the characters created by Crypton as the official Vocaloids). Most of these creations may have unique designs, but the majority of them share a similar character archetype. This is, to my knowledge (and I’m sure I’ll be quickly informed that I’m wrong), one of the first with a yandere archetype. And that scares me… We now have a Vocaloid character that is a ticking time bomb. If anything, the fan art will definitely be interesting.

What other character archetypes would you like to see in Vocaloid characters? (Tsundere, Kuudere, etc…)

Hatsune Miku can been found everywhere in Japan these days; from video games to cosplay to tons of music. She now finds herself in a place nobody thought she’d ever end up; a 4-page photo spread in Weekly Playboy Magazine. Now before you start locking your door for some “me” time, let me explain that Shueisha (the company that publishes Weekly Playboy) shares the trademark name with Hugh Hefner’s empire, but it is nowhere near as explicit. Titled “Pixeloid: 5th Dimension Girls”, Miku is joined by real-life idol, Risa Yoshiki, for a mix-up of both 2D and 3D beauty (hence the 5th dimension title).

Check past the break for additional pics and a promo video for the feature.