“This is my wife, Miku,” the 39-year-old school clerk said, showing a life-size Miku doll sitting ... putting fictional characters over real people,” he said. “But now I feel better.

But a German resident of this northern town played a key role in taking the virtual idol to such heights that she “costarred” with Lady Gaga, a real-world diva of global renown. Hatsune Miku ...