Earlier this morning U.S. time (and last evening in Japan), Good Smile Company had a livestream event which included the fan vote for next year's Snow Miku design. Thanks to Tomopop reader Drew, who stayed up and watched the stream as well as voted, we have the results of the fan vote:

• 1. Option 4 (32.7%)
• 2. Option 2 (31.3%)
• 3. Option 1 (27.7%)
• 4. Option 3 (8.4%)

Really close at the end there! But that means the winner is the Strawberry Daifuku Hatsune Miku! Congrats to the winning artst, Nijita, for designing a really good looking Miku that we'll all have a chance to buy in the near future.

But Brian, you are asking, how is Miku in a kimono in any way based off a sweet? Well, as mentioned, the full name of design number 4 is the Ichigo Daifuku (or Strawberry Daifuku) White Kimono Hatsune Miku Nendoroid. Daifuku (or daifukumochi) are what most folks outside of Japan refer to as mochi (mochi itself is just a glutinous rice cake). The ichigo daifuku features a whole strawberry inside of the mochi, which explains the inside being a strawberry pattern with the outside a pure white color and a daifuku/mochi-shaped hood complete with strawberry leaf on top. It's actually quite in that it blends both a traditional, unique look with the sweets theme. Most importantly, it's not more of the same.

So we can expect to hopefully see a Snow Miku that looks like this next year for WonFes Winter 2013 in February, along with the Sapporo Snow Festival. I'll be picking one up for sure; I just hope my Fluffy Coat Miku is here by then ...

[Additional info via PiaPro blog]