I was super pumped about this, marked it on my calendar, and planned to write about it on the Cryptonloid update thread. But when I finally watched it the day after it aired, I was super disappointed and decided to never mention it (other than grumbling on Discord). I wish I could get the time I wasted watching this back, but I guess we'll have to settle for me ranting about it instead.
But since you brought it up.... Here is my review of the NHK Heisei Net History special (well, part 1 of it anyway):
For back story, NHK is basically public access television for old people (seriously, they always have boring morning shows where they talk about high blood pressure with a doctor and have audiences of literal old people) and mini documentaries about Japan history/travel, so I don't know why I was expecting something exciting. Anyway, Heisei is the period of 1989 thru 2019 (expected to end April).
The show has a bland air about it from start to finish, not even the guests (who are related to the tech industry) seem excited to be there (Don't believe me? Check out the 1st vid at 2:03, look at their dead eyes). Their aizuchi sounds so unconvincing (you know, when the entire crowd goes "eeeh?" or "aaah" to show they're listening). Each year is presented in a dry, "Well, that happened" format. They could've had comedians or made fun of the old trends (think VH1's I Love the 70s/80's/90's), but each segment was basically "This thing started in this year. Yup." The equivalent to a visual Wikipedia article.
Now, for the Miku part (it follows the odotte-mita part). It annoys me so much that they mix pictures that aren't even from 2007 (the year she's supposed to represent)! Why would you show her V4X picture?! Senbonzakura and Sand Planet are not even from 2007, either! What does her current concerts have to do with 2007?! UG. Why bother saying you're going by a timeline when it's jumping all over? They literally just say the following (for real, you can watch the video and it's in this order with the following summaries): She's a Vocaloid that got big on nico nico, if you input a melody anyone can make an original song, people started publishing on nico nico and that's how BOKARO-P's got made and gathered, popular Bokaro-P's made compilation albums, even this famous singer guy (not gonna try to read his name) is a Bokaro-P...
The only good thing was they interviewed Wat (in my humble opinion as a crypton_watologist). They asked him why he thought Miku is popular (he says shy people who don't go out spend up to a year on a video and Hatsune Miku can have various images and it's basically good for marketing that Miku's able to be used so freely and that the works are kind of all connected). Then, they say Miku's a star overseas. Then the tech people talk about (this is in the exact order as the video) derivative works like Tik Tok, people putting good art on videos, making arrangements for songs, say commenting on nico nico made it feel like you were participating (with the comments that fly on the video), say Miku singing made humans seem obsolete cause she can sing so high. Then they talk about Senbonzakura... again. Say you can do stuff like you see at Comiket to express your love for favorite characters.
Not very earth shattering insight here. They didn't even mention Meiko or Kaito (who came 1st) or even Rin or Len (who came out in 2007, the year Miku was representing, so why couldn't they mention them as well?). Seriously? I'm so miffed just thinking about this disappointing look back in history that I had to write a giant text wall.