MikuCover

Hatsune Miku has been portrayed in nearly every way imaginable, from highly detailed Final Fantasy-esque character model to gorgeous anime-style re-imaginings. She’s also one of the more popular characters for cosplaying, with results that range from the adorable to the slightly insane, so if you want to show your love for the animated singer, you’ll need to put in a bit of extra work to stand out. But don’t worry, we have just the thing to help the next time you plan to don a teal wig: A glowing Hatsune Miku skirt!

Some things are best seen live–but when you can’t fly to Japan and break into a “fun-loving enterprise,” as Kanagawa-based technology company Kayac describes itself, there’s always video. Check out the glowing Hatsune Miku skirt in action!

▼Shiny!

http://youtu.be/GXPfhq60XPY

Created by Kiyoyuki Amano, Kayac’s creative director and author of the Space between Real and Virtual blog, the skirt isn’t exactly super complicated, we suppose. Kiyoyuki simply connected an arduino to a few LEDs in order to automatically control the lights as they lit up.

“I made a skirt combining fashion (cosplay) and technology. Light illuminates the zettai ryoiki. It’s a komorebi (sunlight filtering through trees) ryoiki!!”

Well, it certainly is a ray of light in the dark, we suppose. In case you haven’t seen the word before, zettai ryoiki refers to the exposed skin showing between the bottom of a skirt and the top of the wearer’s socks. If you translated it literally, the phrase would be “absolute territory,” but Kiyoyuki’s creation turns into a “region of sunlight filtering through trees.” This might be one of those cases where not translating everything is better!

MikuSkirt (2)

Here’s a closer look at the skirt. The white strip on the bottom of the garment (on the left side of the photo) is the LED lights, as you can see in the next picture.

MikuSkirt (1)

▼Preeeeeeeetty!

MikuSkirt (1)

▼Imagine being a moth in this room…

MikuSkirt (3)

While it’s a bit late for Halloween, at least you now know what you’ll be dressing up as next year! We’re not sure Kiyoyuki will be willing to share his creation, but we’re betting someone can reverse-engineer this and post instructions in the comments. Though “attach LED light with duct tape and connect to power source” might be all you need to get the basic look going, we imagine there’s a lot more that can be done. Maybe a skirt that provides heating for those cold winter days would be a step in the right direction!

Sources: Kai-you, Space between Real and Virtual, Twitter, Kayac, YouTube
Images: Space between Real and Virtual, Twitter, YouTube