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Kikuo (きくお), is a Japanese composer, songwriter, and arranger who has gained international attention for his work utilizing Vocaloid voice synthesizers in his music. Originally being highly involved with the Japanese Doujin music scene, he has been self-releasing his original music since 2003. In addition to his own original works he has a long history of composing for video games and has also participated as both a composer and arranger in many projects for major labels and entertainment properties since the beginning of his career.

In 2022 his song "Love me, Love me, Love me" reached 100 million plays on Spotify, making it the first Vocaloid song to reach this milestone. In 2024 he became the first Vocaloid producer to participate in a nationwide tour in the United States.

Biography
Kikuo began producing music in 2003 when he was still a junior high school student utilizing a software called "BMS Creator", a program intended to be used for the creation of custom game data for the "BM98" beatmania simulator. Despite not being a traditional digital audio workstation, he created songs by pasting individual sounds into the program and arranging each of the notes manually. He would post these early songs on the popular Japanese BBS 2channel in a thread intended for beginners to share their music in hopes of receiving feedback. In 2005 he began participating in doujin music compilations and assisting with sales booths at events such as Comiket. Through his participation in doujin compilation albums based on the Touhou Project franchise, he was able to save up enough money to drop out of college and start pursuing music full time in 2009. He released his first solo album, Yume no kane, with doujin circle Iemitsu. at Comiket 77 in December 2009.

In 2010 at the encouragement of one of his peers, Kikuo began composing music utilizing Vocaloid voice synthesizers, specifically Hatsune Miku. Up until this point he was mostly active composing music for video games, idols, and Touhou Project doujin albums. He uploaded his Vocaloid songs to Niconico to reach more listeners, and his early uploads were tagged by fans as "Vocaloid Gensokyouku Link" in reference to his often fairytale-like sound. He started posting his work to YouTube in 2011 to promote his 2nd album, Kikuoworld, In April 2023 it reached the 1 million follower milestone. In 2013 he was a featured contributor on the official Hatsune Miku album "Sakura". In 2013 he also formed the duo named Ikitama with vocalist/illustrator Si_ku.k, Kikuo would take on composing duties for their first two albums while only arranging and mastering the third. Throughout 2014 he also held a series of live performances titled Kikuolab at Shibuya Parco. On March 6, 2015 he released "Love me, Love me, Love me" which would achieve more than 200 million plays across YouTube and Spotify. Also in March 2015 he would compose 2 songs for DAOKO's first major label release on Toy's Factory.

In 2016 he created the unit Kikuohana with vocalist YURiCa/Hanatan, they have released 2 albums as of 2017 with both reaching the Oricon top 50 upon release. Later in 2016 he would perform during the Nico Nico Super Party at Saitama Super Arena. In 2017 his music was featured in the high school textbook "High School Music 1" published by Kyoiku Geijutsusha. On March 1st, 2022 NHK released a documentary titled "Professional Work Style - Ultimate Diva: Virtual Singer Hatsune Miku" in which Kikuo participated as one of the featured Vocaloid producers who spoke about their work utilizing the voicebank. In 2023 he released a self-titled best-of collection as a 2 disc analog record exclusively at the Kikuoland concert held at Roppongi's EX Theater. In January 2024 he joined English musician Bo En on a 12-stop tour of the United States, and later in March 2024 conducted his own solo US tour which included multiple shows taking place during SXSW in Austin, TX.