Chibi Akita Neru with ponytail curved into a heart shape, holding a yellow phone.

Akita Neru

2007fan characterclassic

Published October 9, 2026

Akita Neru is a fan-made Vocaloid character born from 2channel troll culture in late 2007, when users spamming 'I'm tired' (飽きた, akita) and 'going to sleep' (寝る, neru) on Hatsune Miku threads were turned into an anthropomorphized yellow-haired girl by illustrator Smith Hioka. Posted on November 1st, 2007, she went from a jab at suspected paid provocateurs to one of the first licensed fan-made Vocaloid derivatives, carving the official pathway every unofficial Vocaloid character followed afterward.

fan art memes japanese internet memes otaku culture memes moe anthropomorphism memes late 2000s memes

Overview

The character design folds her backstory into her look. Akita Neru wears a 'DEN2' tattoo on her left arm, a jab at Dentsu, the Japanese advertising giant that 2channel users suspected of running the anti-Miku pressure campaign6. She also carries a flip phone, since the exposed troll IP traced to a mobile-browser proxy service, and her palette intentionally mirrors Hatsune Miku's because she's defined under license as a Miku derivative1.

Fans turned the trolls' behavior into her personality. Because the original posters kept returning to the thread while claiming they were leaving, Akita Neru got coded as a textbook tsundere, and she still gets cited as the Vocaloid fandom's tsundere archetype alongside her nickname 'BOUKALOID' (防火ロイド, 'flame-prevention-loid')5. She also appears often with Yowane Haku, another Miku-adjacent fan character born in the same era.

Origin & Background

Platform
2channel (origin) / Nico Nico Douga and Pixiv (viral spread)
Creator
Smith Hioka
Date
2007

The character traces to the October 2007 anti-Miku controversy, when Japanese users noticed negative media coverage of Hatsune Miku coinciding with suspiciously coordinated troll posts on 2channel's /newsplus/ board2. Those posts repeated phrases like 'I'm tired' (飽きた, akita) and 'going to sleep' (寝る, neru) at intervals of a few seconds3. On October 20th, 2007, a trap link capturing visitor IPs exposed one of the posters as working for an online reputation-management firm, after which the trolling stopped the same day5.

Illustrator Smith Hioka (スミス・ヒオカ) posted the first Akita Neru drawing, titled 'Kakikoloid: Akita Neru' (translated from Japanese), to the same /newsplus/ board on November 1st, 20074. Her name splices together the trolls' most-repeated lines, and the 'DEN2' tattoo on her arm nodded at Dentsu, the advertising conglomerate under suspicion during the controversy6.

How It Spread

Fan artists on Nico Nico Douga and Pixiv ran with Akita Neru almost immediately after Smith Hioka's first illustration. On April 15th, 2008, Smith Hioka announced on his blog that he had struck a licensing deal with Crypton Future Media, officially defining Akita Neru as a Hatsune Miku derivative and letting fan creators upload Neru works to CFM's Piapro community under the Piapro Character License1. The arrangement set the pattern for subsequent fan-made Vocaloid characters getting official status.

Good Smile Company started selling Akita Neru figurines and plushies in 2009, and Sega added her to the Hatsune Miku Project DIVA rhythm-game series starting with its first title5. By July 2013, Nico Nico Douga hosted roughly 4,000 Akita Neru videos, with another 68,500 clips surfacing in YouTube searches for her name7. She also appeared in Vocaloid spin-off manga and novels including Ontama's 'hachune MIKU no nichijo ROIPARA!' and MINAMI's 'CHIBI Miku-san'.

Timeline

2007-10

Suspiciously coordinated anti-Miku troll posts flood 2channel's /newsplus/ board during the broader anti-Miku media controversy.

2007-10-20

A trap link capturing visitor IPs identifies one of the trolls as a staffer at an online reputation-management firm; the trolling stops immediately.

2007-11-01

Illustrator Smith Hioka posts the first Akita Neru drawing, 'Kakikoloid: Akita Neru,' to 2channel's /newsplus/ board.

2008-04-15

Smith Hioka announces a licensing deal with Crypton Future Media on his blog, officially making Akita Neru a Hatsune Miku derivative under the Piapro Character License.

2009

Good Smile Company begins releasing official Akita Neru figurines and plushies.

2013-07

Nico Nico Douga hosts roughly 4,000 Akita Neru videos, with another 68,500 clips indexed on YouTube.

How to Use This Meme

Akita Neru is typically drawn as a yellow-themed Hatsune Miku counterpart with a side ponytail, a flip phone, and a tsundere attitude. Common fan conventions pair her with Yowane Haku, or place her in duet art with Kagamine Rin and Len, whose yellow color coding matches hers. Under the Piapro Character License, creators can upload Akita Neru songs, art and videos to CFM's Piapro platform the same way they would official Vocaloids1.

Frequently Asked Questions