Man marries virtual reality hologram in $18K ceremony | New York Post

Hatsune Miku is a virtual reality pop star in Japan, and thanks to a home hologram version of the character, her fans can "marry" her by downloading a fake marriage certificate. One man, Akihiko Kondo, took this a little too seriously, however, and spent $18,000 on a ceremony to marry a computer character.

From 'I married my 16yearold hologram because she can’t cheat or age' ...

This Japanese man vowed to never fall in love with a real woman. So instead, he married an anime hologram.

Akihiko Kondo, a 35-year-old school administrator, recently tied the knot with a hologram of virtual reality singer Hatsune Miku.

“I never cheated on her, I’ve always been in love with Miku,” Kondo told AFP.

His two-dimensional lover is modeled after a doe-eyed 16-year-old girl with blue pigtails who was created by music tech company Crypton. Miku has sold out 3-D concerts across Asia as well as a 2016 concert in NYC, The Post reported.

Kondo interacts with Miku through a $2,800 desktop device, where she shows up as a moving, talking image.

Even though his own mother didn’t attend the wedding, Kondo recently dropped about $17,600 on a formal ceremony at a local hall. Miku was present in the form of a stuffed doll with a wedding ring on her wrist.

Gatebox, the company that produces the holograms, issued a “marriage certificate” acknowledging their union goes “beyond dimensions,” since their relationship isn’t recognized by the state.

Kondo said Gatebox has issued more than 3,700 certificates to other “cross-dimension” couples.

“There must be some people who can’t come forward and say they want to hold a wedding,” he said. “I want to give them a supportive push.”

Kondo has been living with his CGI lover since March. He said his wife wakes him up every morning and talks to him before going to work. Before coming back home, Kondo calls her, and she turns on the lights in the house and she reminds him when it’s bedtime.

When he wants to get intimate, he sleeps next to the doll version of Miku that was at the wedding.

“Miku-san is the woman I love a lot and also the one who saved me,” he said, using a Japanese nickname that’s reserved for loved ones.

Kondo doesn’t care what people think of his virtual relationship, saying it’s better than dating real women, especially since he’s had trouble dating during his youth.

“Girls would say ‘Drop dead, creepy otaku!’ ” he said, using a Japanese term for nerds that’s often used as an insult.

When he got older, one woman at work bullied him into a nervous breakdown, and he decided he’d never marry a human.

Now that he’s found his virtual wife, he has no desire to step out of his marriage. He told AFP that two-dimensional characters can’t cheat, age or die.

“I’m not seeking these in real women,” he said. “It’s impossible.”

Despite being a sexual minority, he said his relationship should be respected.

“It’s simply not right, it’s as if you were trying to talk a gay man into dating a woman, or a lesbian into a relationship with a man,” he said. “I believe we must consider all kinds of love and all kinds of happiness.”

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