MIKU EXPO 2026 HAPPENED!!! LET’S TALK ABOUT IT!!!

HI!!!! Almost an entire week ago now (wow time flies), I went to my second ever Miku EXPO with my irl friend and had the time of my LIFE. I’ve been a vocaloid fan for over 5 years now (holy molay…) and the last time I went to Miku EXPO it was unfortunately during a really tumultuous time of my life. That kinda soured the memory of it for me long term, HOWEVER!!! I got to go again! And make even better memories :3 so yipee!!! Let’s talk about what went down…

PRE-SHOW PREP

The journey begins even BEFORE reaching the event…smiel. My friend got us both tickets to the event around late winter and she apparently got them both in the middle of class right before they sold out. Help. Also, we got extremely lucky and got an INCREDIBLY good view despite getting the cheapest seats! Initially we were gonna buy the miku expo official glowsticks but uuuuh they took forever to release Any of the merch, so instead we both bought our glowsticks whilst we were on our creative program’s trip to japan!!! I hope I’ll get to make a blog post about that someday because it was incredible and I unfortunately was so busy I could barely tell anyone about it 💀

But. regardless!!! The additional thing I obtained pre-expo was my certified Hatsune Miku Full Fit. I already had a miku hoodie I wear all the time when i’m cold and miku socks, but I found a miku shirt AND pants whilst we visited harajuku and I just knew. I knew it was fate. That would end up being my fit combo for the day of the expo…I sadgely don’t have a photo of it but maybe I’ll make a doodle of it later and add it in post. Who knows…

The ADDITIONAL last minute silly my friend and I ended up doing was we both made freebies to hand out before the event started! My friend had already been planning to do it but I did mine extremely EXTREMELY last minute. As in drew up a pin/sticker design The Day Of during study hall inbetween my break for training practice work, and then going home and making like 50 pins and a whole sticker sheet before the event. last minute. Never say I am not a man who is committed to their tasks. You can actually see my freebie design below! It’s of CONNECT: COMMUNE Miku since that was the song theme for the event :3

Following the freebie’ing, there was of course GETTING TO THE EVENT! That was pretty straight forward, we took the train lol. However there were many fun misadventures such as me introducing my friend to “truck peeling” videos. I.E those videos of trucks Not reading height limit signs and absolutely getting their tops scrapped off into oblivion as they soar on through. The horrors.

When we did finally get to our stop (after. many failed navigation attempts shhhh) we attempted to find the line. We thought we had reached the beginning, only to find out no, it was further back. And then it was further back. And even further back. And even Ok I think you get the idea the line was long as hell. I am not even joking when I tell you the line was neverending. We were truly Looping The Rooms you could say because we could not for the life of us find where we were supposed to meet. After navigating a SEA of people for like 10 minutes, we eventually gave up and stopped to ask some random girls in line for help only for them to be as equally confused as to where the hell the end of the line is. They were quite nice however and we both gave em some freebies :3

However…none of that mattered in the end ironically because. The seats were pre-assigned anyways. so when the line started moving everyone just sorta hoarded in and got into place. I did some awesome freebie exchange (which you will be able to see the haul of below) and we both ended up giving out ALL of our goodies!!! WOOOO!!! Then…we arrived at our seats for it was finally time…for the event…TO BEGIN!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THE SHOW ITSELF!!!

You’re probably thinking…”how was the set list!!!” or asking what set list we got!! was each song equally good? lets FIND OUT!!

First of all I’m going to address the elephant in the room, the screen was Significantly Better this year. I actually don’t mind the new screen set up as opposed to the glass one, however 2024’s was absolutely uhm. A Choice. in terms of how they decorated it. But this year they did a fantastic job and blew it out of the PARK. I think part of what made it awesome too was that from where we were sitting we got to see allll of the fully framed set pieces and they were all just so gorgeous. The set design was BEAUTIFUL this time round and it especially shone in songs like CONNECT: COMMUNE…which leads me into the set list!!!

The set-list was unsurprisingly EXTREMELY GOOD! I talked briefly about my thoughts on the initial reveal, and our concert ending up getting Setlist C :3 However…obviously my thoughts have changed post actual concert so LETS TALK ABOUT THEM!

☆ Teo ☆

• Everyone knows Teo goes ASTONISHINGLY HARD, I don’t even need to tell you that. It is absolutely beautiful and hype as fuck

• I admit I think this is one of the few songs that is allowed to get away with the mosquiku effect (as me and my friend call it) in which producers tune miku to sing Obsurdly High Notes that sound like a little mosquito buzzing in your ear. This is probably cause it baaaarely is below the line of it getting annoying

• I admittedly also prefer the project sekai version with Ichika primarily because of her having lower vocals in the song, my evil biased opinion is that this song in general sounds better in a lower register but shhh

• My friend and I also agreed this would’ve made a better second song than a first song, however it was still great on the set, it got me hyped as hell starting the concert at the very least!

☆ Raspberry Monster ☆

• Admittedly a littleeeee sad that I got this instead of Kimagure Mercy…I was really hoping I’d get to see that one live but this one was also cool!

• I really liked the costuming, theres ingrained chants which is always a plus and the instrumentation live was VERY good

• Perhaps it was also for the better I didn’t know this song as well since the songs afterwards had me beginning the course to Destroying my voice

• The chorus is catchy as Hell. RASPBERRRRYYYYYY MONSTTEEEEEER like yeah girl sing it

• Post-concert this song has grown on me a lot! I’ve been listening to it a decent chunk recently, it’s extremely freaking catchy like I said like holy molay

☆ Solar System Disco ☆

• The way me and my friend screamed in unison when this came on. I LOVE YOU NAYUTALIEN!!!!!

• In an ideal world I would’ve loved to hear alien alien for the kiyospy truthers in the audience however this is also a wonderful song so I’m not complaining

• Live performance was good, no complaints! It fits as a third song.

• Sad we didn’t get darling dance though…but this was still awesome so its Ok <3

☆ AUDIENCE GREETING ☆

• MIKU AUGUHDUGHDRJGENRNMEGRT F I LOVE MIKU

• There’s nothing else I have to say really. These sections of the concerts always give me cuteness aggression. I love hatsune miku

☆ Play with Fire ☆

• I honestly was surprised how much I ended up loving this song, I usually don’t vibe with the big production sort of vocaloid songs (hard to explain, but ones that are more in line w/ giga-p’s style I mean) but this one has such a lovely unique charm to it!

• I am not biased because of the undertale esq sound motifs okay. That’s not happening here. (I AM BIASED)

• The swing motifs are SO unique and groovy as hell. I wanted to do a little dance this entire damn song

• LOOOOVED THE LITTLE DANCE MIKU DID WHEN THE BEAT DROPPED THAT WAS SOOOOO CUUUUUTE oh miku you are my everything

• This is gonna be a consistent theme I feel so I’m just gonna warn now. I really wish they made more unique outfits for songs like these because the mv outfit is Gorgeous and god. it would look FANTASTIC. However thats a small nitpick

• Also I need to talk about Miku laying on the floor like a princess. SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL. I LVOE HER SO MUCH

☆ Worlds End Dancehall ☆

• HELLO. WORLDS END. DANCEHALL. god seeing this song live was so thrilling. This song has always given fruit salad to me tbh and it was def one of my early favorites when I was first getting into vocaloid

• Still respect and will always respect how wowaka seems to show up on every setlist I come across…we owe so much to his and his bands music 🥹

• SO HAPPY THEY USED THE OUTFITS FOR THIS ONE. I looooove the worlds end dancehall outfits

• Choreo and band were on point…

• Not much else to say! its worlds end dancehall. it was great :3

☆ TYQOON ☆

• Uuuuuuuuhhhh its the meiko song. Yep its the song where meiko sings. I genuinely wish i had stronger feelings about this song i’m sorry tyqoon fans

• this song SOUNDS great though, I haven’t listened it to it much post concert but maybe I should…the chorus has a very lovely melody

• my biggest critique with this song I fear is the God Damn MEIKO tuning. WHY is she so high. My evil hot take is we need to stop making vocal synths sing so Fucking High. MEIKO HAS A NATURALLY MATURE VOICE!!! USE IT!!! IT SOUNDS GREAT!!!! stop making her sound like miku!!!! just use miku at that point!!!

☆ Roki ☆

• Hi roki!! This song is great, and it was a neat first song for the kagamine twins!

• I admit it was a bit weird to hear len singing considering I’m used to the rin only ver but its still good!

• Loooved getting to sing along with roki roki roll and doing the growl live hehehe

• Def my favorite in the kagamine duet rotation tbh. One day they will pick adventure log or death shouldnt have taken thee as the wonderful opportunity pick…but this year was NOT that year…sadgely…

• again I don’t have much to say uhhhh roki is just a Decent Song. It’s Pretty good

☆ Wasn't able to become a Super Nuko! ☆

• Everyone complaining about the lack of a len solo needs to know that rin does not sing in this song besides just saying nyah LOL. so this is effectively a len solo

• I do get the complaints though and I honestly would’ve loved a proper len solo…first pick that comes to mind is holy lance explosion boy however thats likely never happening BUT I CAN DREAM.

• The synchronized claps were pretty neat to do live :3

• oh yeah go catboy go

☆ Sweet Magic ☆

• Good pick for a rin solo :3 I saw someone dressed as sweet magic rin at the event so I hope they were cheesed by when this song came on

• The outfit is ABSOLUTELY adorable in this song. Thankful forever they didn’t use the ugly ass bangs from project diva. we’re not talking about that.

• Someone said this is basically rin’s popipo, and yeah thats about right

• …ok not much else to say on this one either. sweet magics a decent song! I’ve been listening to a cover of it a bit recently but besides that not much

☆ Amazing Dolce ☆

• NEVER heard of this song before miku expo, but it is underrated as hell because its concept, costuming, choreo, and of course song in general is FANTASTIC

• me and my friend clocked within SECONDS that this was the same producer as bad end night though, they have such a distinctive style and I really I really enjoy it. it stands out a lot amongst other vocaloid songs!

• Glad they picked a more unconventional trio! Also that MEIKO got to sing in more of her natural tone

• whilst I havent listened a TON post-concert, I def should because this song is really freaking good

☆ Caged Flower ☆

• its the kaito song. uh. not much else to say here I’m sorry guys its just kind of Ok

• I do appreciate the spanish influences in this song though. always love when a vocal synth song is either in spanish or has hispanic music influences :3 makes me very very happy

• It did make me mourn the fact that it wasn’t miku fiesta though. I saw it in 2024 but I sadly didn’t know the song when I went!!!! which is a shame esp because of how much it means to me now. Miku fiesta is literally one of the only popular spanish vocaloid songs I know and I’ll never forget my family realizing it was in spanish and getting to sing along live

• Oh sorry this is the kaito song uhhhhhh yeeeeah. The flower decor was cute! It was a little funny though based on its placement

• Not much else to say it was the kaito song. and thank god for that because my voice Would be fucked these next 3 songs

☆ God-ish ☆

• HELLOOOOOOO GOD-ISH. What is there to say. God-ish is a fantastic song…

• As I said in my initial reactions I do mourn that we don’t get to have a god-ish specific outfit. I looooove the style of the original mv and in my HEART it will happen one day

• Choreo was sooooo fucking mesmerizing (ha). also LOVED the mixing of red and whites with the lighting. I haven’t mentioned it much but the LIGHTING was incredible in general throughout the whole show

• fun fact I was rewatching someones recording of the show and im pretty sure I can hear myself singing along in the background. HELP. I was singing really hard guys

☆ Love is War ☆

• ooooh my god HELLO. HELLO. LOVE. IS. WAR. Ok lets. How. Do i even start. ok

• this song hasn’t been played live in 10 years and debuted again At this concert. to say I freaked out would be an understatement even though I KNEW it was coming i was NOT ready

• The way I turned to my friend (who fucking loves this song) and we both screamed in unison when we realized it was playing. oh my lord

• The SYNCHRONIZED SCREAMING when miku did her iconic “AHHHHHH” was insane.

• The speaker effect in the background was a lovely LOVELY touch, I’m really glad they added it, it really enhanced the performance. Even if it did look like a splatoon object half the time especially with the way it was floating

• The band played especially well for this song, love is war was MADE to be played live

• my arm is sore just rewatching because i cannot help but SWING TO THE DAMN BEAT GUYS. its THAT good

• Perhaps the sacrifice we needed to make for love is war to return is to take world is mine off the setlist but its ok. in my heart it will come back

☆ Patchwork Staccato ☆

• oh patchwork staccato how you tear apart my soul. the freaking Piano Solo at the start built up the perfect mood and anticipation for this song, especially considering its a more delicate one

• It was also just a good moment for the piano player to flex their skills because it was genuinely beautiful

• and then of course. MY BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS RETURNS. ohhhh my god this song live is unreal man. the instrumentation. the soft singing and dancing. god. it gets to me so bad

• I’m surprised I didn’t get choked up because this song tends to do that for me, I think I was too busy jamming but on rewatch I’m definitely feeling it. I love this song so freaking much brah

• I believe they kept her ugly ass fucking haircut as I feared however its ok because with the distance me and my friend had I didn’t have to stare at it too hard <3

• also it took seeing this live to realize she’s barefoot PUT YOUR SHOES ON

• can i say it again the instrumentation live KILLS ME. the delicate instruments in combination with the sad tone and subject kills me. as the certified friend divorce writer this song is PERSONAL. i dont CARE that it was intended for romance for me it applies in ALL CONTEXTS.

☆ Room for a Fantasy ☆

• Im gonna say something so mean. I’m so sorry guys. I completely forgot this song existed until I was looking back at the set list.

• im so sorry to the person who made this song. im sure they put a lot of time and effort into it and im sure a lot of people Like It.

• apparently this song was shat on a lot prior to its release and that is not ok obviously, so I feel a little bad for saying this but I really. think this might be my least favorite of the set 😭 upon relisten its for sure not attrocious or anything its just. the premise isnt super interesting to me and I really dont like this specific style of english miku tuning very much sadgely.

• as a huge pro though i DO like a lot of the instrumentation, its quite nice!

• apparently from what ive heard the person who produced this song is the voice provider for dex which is pretty cool!

• I will say upon comparison the live version is FOR SURE better. it is MUCH better. but its still not good enough to get it to be a consistent listen from me

☆ Wanderlast ☆

• the way I could clock the sasakure.uk from a mile away. they have such a distinctive style its crazy

• Didn’t know this song very well either but it was an interesting pick for a luka solo!

• I dont know if me and my friend were crazy or what but this song felt insanely fucking long. like Absurdly so

• However. the sound design was INCREDIBLE here and I love the unique turn from the rest of the set list, it for sure stood out a lot

• the ENDING. it was weirdly ominous as hell and I ADORED IT. honestly I wish that this song would’ve transitioned into god-ish because that would’ve made a perfect sort of ominous mood shift. but uh they kinda did the opposite by having drop pop candy play like immediately after LOL. it was still cool as hell though!

• I def need to listen to this song more, the mv visuals look absolutely stunning and I do enjoy sasakure.uk’s producing style a lot

☆ Drop Pop Candy ☆

• DROP POP CANDY RAHHDGHDHDJHTGJHJHJH LOVE this song! Its an iconic pick

• the freaking visuals here were so so cute it made me want to sob actively. rin and lukas freaking choreo was SOOOOO AOOGUGUGUGGGGH

• I think rin and luka deserve more duets ^_^ they work really well together!

• Also felt so giddy seeing the original mv visuals as part of the set design. made me so happy. like if you remmeber 4 morbillion covers and remixes of this song but with your respective fandom.

• I should be thankful I was allowing myself to rest a bit during this song because of what was Coming Next. in fact….let us get to that.

☆ Ohedo Julia Night ☆

• Hello ohedo julia night I love you ohedo julia night. I’m not kidding one second into rewatching the set I almost teared up hearing the intro to this song. Can you imagine how I reacted live. Well. It was defienetly somethign similar!!!

• I expressed my love for this song already in my initial thoughts post but oh my god, how I adore this freaking song. Ohedo Julia Night has such a special place in my heart and it is one of my all time favorite vocaloid songs ever. It was my absolute DREAM to get to see this live, so when I did uhm Well lets say I lost it

• where do i begin. THE SET DESIGN. THE LIGHTING. THE CHOREO. THE OUTFITS. THE FUCKING DRUM MIKU PLAYS PARTWAY THROUGH. THE VOCALS. THE EVERYTHING. this song is sheer perfection, especially live. i feel ive repeated these points ad nauseum for the other songs but i especially mean it here. this was a 10/10 performance. I actually almost cry thinking about it. it was so beautiful. I. LOVE. VOCALOID.

• Fun fact! I SCREAMED so LOUD whilst singing along to this song that you can hear me full on METAL SCREECHING in various of me and my friends recordings of the song. it is insane how I was even able to do that. my enthusiasm for this song cannot be understated

• I could go on forever about how much I adored seeing this live but I need to be fair to like literally every other song. SO! Long story short, ohedo julia night changed my life and i will never be the same man again. fucking love this song FOREVER. WHIMSY AND JOY WINS ALWAYS.

• now if only they’ll add it into project sekai as they SHOULD

☆ Band Introduction ☆

• not much to say about the band introduction except for the hilarious bit my friend and I had where my friend kept saying after every. single. song. that this one would be the band introduction. Thank god it was placed here because my voice needed at least a second for the NEXT. BOMBSHELL.

☆ Magical Cure Love Shot ☆

• What is there to say about magical cure love shot that hasnt already said. it is the PERFECT song to see live. for christs sake it has probably one of if not THE most iconic vocaloid chant ever. miku miku beam is UNMATCHED

• the full on METAL SCREECHING during this song that both me and my friend let out. im thankful she recorded it because I was too into the song that i forgot to LMFAO

• the freaking outfit and choreo in this song is some of my favorite ever, its gorgeous and adorable and UNIQUE and it IS SOOOO LOVELY. I LOVE YOU MAGICAL CURE LOVESHOT

• The DRUMS were EXCELLENT in the buildup to miku miku beam

• i think its funny that me and my friends miku miku beams were less of an EAAAAA- sound and more of a ARGUUGDUDHUGHUDHG. it really embodies the feeling of miku miku beam to just scream instead

• Just so happy in general i got to enjoy this song proper this time, i didnt know it well when i saw in 2024 so im OVERJOYED that its back because its just. well. magical. Heh. see what i did th (i am taken out to the hills to never be seen again)

☆ Catch the Wave ☆

• Love the general aesthetics of this song however I gotta say I am thankful this song was kind of lower on my priority list to sing along to because my voice was Destroyed at this point and I needed to rest especially since there was one more song I really wanted to tear my lungs apart for

• also where on earth did that weird ass squeaky sfx come from. this is my first time actually hearing it listening back Who is he

• reminds me of project diva so it gets extra points

• Uhhh besides that theres not much I got to say. its alright!

☆ Shake it! ☆

• Cute final non-miku appearance with the kagamine twins tagging along but i dont have very strong feelings on this song. It was good!

• len doing weird ass tricks was very funny and entertaining. What is his problem. Go japanese boy go I guess

• The “oh yeah” was awesome to sing along to, i also love the silly ass dances in general in this song

• Not much else to say, it was good :3

☆ 39 ☆

• You can never escape DECO*27 in a vocaloid event he is always there

• Makes sense they picked this song to be on the set list and it is for sure quite cute and its def grown on me a lot more post-concert

• I believe it was in this song so correct me if im wrong but the little flashes of different vocaloid songs throughout the years actively made me want to cry and was a lovely surprise. I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY SO BAD

• Uhhh…not much else to say! It was nice!

☆ MC ☆

• The interaction before connect: commune was so cute miku you make me so emotional.

☆ CONNECT: COMMUNE ☆

• oh my goodness GRACIOUS. I gotta say. I knew flavor foley would do a good job but oh my goodness this SONG. LIVE. is INCREDIBLE

• The set design here was absolutely remarkable just so you know, the tv set up was the most immersed i felt the entire damn concert, they also animated miku so beautifully here she felt incredibly real like I could Reach out and probably Touch Her real. it was Insane

• This song is absolutely beautiful and it has a simple but heartfelt message to it, miku truly has connected us all brah im so happy to be a VOCAL SYNTH FAN!!!! VOCAL SYNTHS ARE SO AWESOOOOOOME

• The costume for this song is absolutely adorable by the way. I love this miku design sososo much, all the little communication references are excellent as to be expected from flavor foley song designs but god

• While I usually hate on songs that have the mosquiku effect this song gets a pass because it definitely strikes a decent balance with it, especially because they Let Miku Sing Lower thus making the higher bits hit harder.

• what else can I say miku you are awesome and everything to me i LOVE HER SO M

☆ Encore ☆

• the encore was….unfortunately not my favorite listing of songs but thats also mostly just cause I didnt know any of them very well LOL. but it was still lovely visually!

☆ Artifact ☆

• Uhhh…not much to say! It looked very pretty and sounded decent, maybe i need to listen to this one more and see if itll grow on me

☆ DECORATOR ☆

• this one was an absolute TREAT visually even though i didnt know the song very well lol

• the gang all coming together was giving WE ARE VOCALOID but in a good way. it was very sweet 🥹 also im an absolute sucker for cheesy stuff like that so it got to me ok!!

• but yeah! it was cute. i likey it. also loved the actual background instead of The Black Void

☆ Odds and Ends ☆

• People will fry me at the stack but I think odds and ends is just kinda alright. maybe it hasnt hit me yet nad itll become a beloved song to me as it is to many others but I just kinda feel eh about it

• I think part of it is just the changing sort of tone throughout, the song goes very slow and very fast in weird places to me and it makes it hard for me to get into it

• The performance was definitely a beautiful end to the ngiht though! ALSO I GOT CONFETTI FROM THIS ONE SO YAAAAAY thank you to my friend for snagging some for me

CLOSING THOUGHTS

...SO THAT IS THE SET LIST!! WOOO!!! As some other misc highlights, me and my friend kept joking about the vocaloids Returning to the orb everytime there was a transition. Was for sure cheesed by that. Also loved the people who screamed “I LOVE (insert thing here)” at the start of the concert. you were all awesome. me and my friend screamed “I LOVE KASANE TETO” in case anyone was curious. A shockingly large amount of people dressed up and I thought id be doing too much with my full miku fit LOL, but it was genuinely so so lovely to see and just…yeah! Also shout out to the guy who was showing people how to do the light stick gestures at the start of the concert you were very cool

POST-SHOW REFLECTIONS

Miku EXPO 2026 was an absolute blast for me and will definitely be a core memory for me for a very very long time. It means a lot to me that I got to not only go AGAIN but to go with a dear friend of mine. Even if it was smooshed in a uh…very Work heavy period, it was an absolute blast and it honestly hasn’t worn off that it happened to me just yet. like oh my god. I SAW OHEDO JULIA NIGHT LIVE. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE. the world may be healing after all…

but yeah!!! That’s all for now :3 I really hope to go to Miku EXPO next year! Who knoooows maybe you’ll also be there and obtain a freebie from me…WIAOW!!! We shall see…only da future can tell!

Thank you for reading! Hopefully more big blog posts like these will become a normal thing for me because I like getting the chance to memorialize stuff like this! And hopefully you like reading it too! Goodbye for niow but thank you for tuning in :3