Kagamine Rin & Len

 This is a Japanese name. The family name is Kagamine.

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Basics
Name	鏡音（かがみね） リン·レン
Other Names	Kagamine Twins
Age	14
Height	152cm (Rin) 156cm (Len)cm
Weight	43kg (Rin) 47kg (Len)kg
Eye Color	Blue
Hair Color	blond
CV	Asami Shimoda
Moe Points	Rin: short hair, loli, sailor uniform, bow-knot, hinnyū, singer, blonde hair blue eyes,headphones, hairpin, tareme, armwarmers, legwarmers, baring midriff Len: shota, sailor uniform, singer, braid, headphones, armwarmers, Tie, ahoge
From	Japan
Active in	Worldwide
Group Affiliation	VOCALOID, Crypton Future Media
Related Characters
Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, MEIKO, KAITO

Kagamine Rin & Len, a.k.a. Kagamine Rin (鏡音リン) and Kagamine Len (鏡音レン), is a dual voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media, for the voice synthesis software VOCALOID created by Yamaha. It is the second work of the Character Vocal Series, and they can also be considered gijinka for the software.

During the development, Crypton thought to set them as twins and that Rin is older, however when they were released, in order to offer larger space of creation, not only did they gave up the setting of twins, but even the setting of "Image in the Mirror" was also given up.

Now the setting of Kagamine Twins has already been accepted by fans and some creators. But "Kagamine Twins" is a secondary setting, accepted by Crypton, but not officially claimed, on the official website of Crypton the library of "VOCALOID2 鏡音リン・レン act2" is also called "fresh twin vocals" (超フレッシュなツイン・ボーカル)it's both okay to say Rin is older or Len is older.

Introduction

Kagamine Rin

Kagamine Rin is a Genki, beautiful teenage girl, who has a blond bob cut with a huge bow-knot, and a school suit with a treble clef printed on it. Her voicebank is given by Shimoda Asami.

Kagamine Len

Kagamine Len has a strong voice of teeming, blonde hair tied up short from behind, and a school suit with a bass clef printed on it. His voicebank was given by Shimoda Asami.

Information on the Capability

	Rin	Len
Gender	Female	Male
Genre	Electro, Rock pop, Ballad ~ Ensemble Pop	Electro, Rock pop, Ballad ~ Ensemble Pop
Optimum tempo/BPM	85 ~ 175	70 ~ 160
Optimum range	F#3~C#5 *Note	D3 ~ C#5
Voice of Append	Power	Power
Genre	Rock, Pop, Dance, Enka	Rock, Pop, Dance, Enka
Optimum range	F3~B4	A2~D4
Optimum tempo/BPM	65 ~ 170	65 ~ 170
Voice of Append	Warm	Cold
Genre	Lyric rock, Lyric, Pop, Folk	Lyric rock, Lyric, Pop, Folk
Optimum range	F3 ~ B4	B2 ~ C4
Optimum tempo/BPM	60 ~ 160	60 ~ 160
Voice of Append	Sweet	Serious
Genre	Basanova, French Pop, Ambient, Electro	Post Rocks, Phsyke, Ambient music, Ambient dub, Electronica
Optimum range	G3 ~ C5	A2 ~ C4
Optimum tempo/BPM	55 ~ 155	55 ~ 155

Versions

Kagamine Rin & Len Append drawn by Kasamu

The first version of "Kagamine Rin & Len" was released on Dec. 27^th 2007. The voicebank was based on VOCALOID2 engine.

On May 26^th 2008, pictures of Kagamine Rin & Len on the official website of Crypton started to leak. Two days later, Crypton published the new version of Kagamine Rin & Len called "Kagamine Rin & Len act2" on the 75th session of IPSJ Special Interest Group on Music and Computer. The new version improved the smoothness between syllables and decreased the noise. Crypton said that users who had already bought the old versions could update their libraries for free before Sept. 20^th. The demo song was released on Jun. 18^th, and the new character design was released in Jul. 9^th. A few minor changes were made on the mechanical part of their hand, etc. a.k.a glowing and the green screen on the cuff.

On Jul. 18^th 2008, "Kagamine Rin & Len act2" was officially released.

Because of the great success of Hatsune Miku#Append, Crypton decided to develop the append version of "Kagamine Rin & Len act2" a.k.a "Kagamine Rin & Len Append" in early December. On Dec. 27^th 2010, "Kagamine Rin & Len Append" was released as an append library of "Kagamine Rin & Len act2". In this update, their voice became more mature. Len's voice became more present and calm, while Rin's voice became more charmful. Besides, some breathing was added to their voice in order to make it more realistic. 6 voices were appended in this update, including "RIN DB 1 POWER", "RIN DB 2 WARM", "RIN DB 3 SWEET", "LEN DB 1 POWER", "LEN DB 2 COLD", "LEN DB 3 SERIOUS", the purchases were separated, and was depended on the original Kagamine Rin & Len act2. At the same time, the character design was changed again by the official.

On Dec. 12 24^th 2015, "Kagamine Rin & Len V4X", "Kagamine Rin & Len V4 English" , which were based on the VOCALOID 4 Engine, and the bundle of the two were released. The E.V.E.C. was supported on "Kagamine Rin & Len V4X Power, and the ones who bought Kagamine Rin & Len V4X Bundle could have Piapro Studio, an editor developed by Crypton, and Studio One Artist Piapro Edition, a DAW software.

Process of Making the Library

Kagamine Rin & Len were designed and illustrated by KEI, who also designed Hatsune Miku, voiced by Asami Shimoda, a new voice actress who was popular in Niconico Douga, voiced in the same period as Hatsune Miku. A lively voice of Shimoda was recorded. The recording took 8 hours in two days and consisted of singing meaningless strings of kanas on top of background music. However, only Rin's voice was recorded at first while Len was only in the conceptual stage then. He was officially determined in middle September in 2007, and recorded on Sept. 28^th that year.

The libraries of Rin and Len were separated, and cost more to produce than Hatsune Miku, yet their prices were similar. This is because the popularity of Hatsune Miku caused a sudden increase of the beginners of electro music creating, yet the prize of 15,750 Yen was still too expensive for most people (but it's still a low one among similar software). Thus Crypton decided to add more content while the prize was the same as Miku. The software was finished on December 11^th and released on 27^th. The libraries fit rock, electro, dance, ballad, and singing pops the most, the flexibility of Gender Factor, a.k.a. GEN, is higher than that of Miku, and the component of the overtone is also more complex (because of this, a side effect of becoming trance would take place when having a low pitch). Meanwhile, Rin and Len's effect were published before the official publication of their voicebanks.

Naming

The name "Rin" of Kagamine Rin was published on November 1^st, the kanji is "铃" or "钟", which has a meaning of attracting others' attention, the surname "Kagamine" means "voice reflected from a mirror" and "the opposite gender reflected in the mirror"(some also say "the other ego reflected in the mirror"). Their theme is "world in a mirror", "the intersection of illustration and the reality". On November 7^th, due to the sell advance of the DTM MAGAZINE 2007.12 which includes the introduction of the CV02, the surname, and the CV are discovered before it was officially published. Miku is not Rin's relative according to the official setting but still calls her "sister". On December 3^rd, the library "Kagamine Len" was released. The name "Len" means "connected existence", "Rin" and "Len" also have a meaning of "Left Right". Though they have the same surname, they are not twins, neither are they set to be friends, they are only "the opposite gender reflected in the mirror". Yet still, a lot of people call them "Twins", or "brother and sister", in the official manga Hatsune Miku: Unofficial Hatsune Mix (In fact Crypton announced that it's not an official work, yet the copyright is still Crypton's) Rin was called "the elder sister".

Response

Around December 20^th 2007, Kagamine Rin & Len's market share started to increase rapidly and reached a peak of 62.2%, which is even more than the first place, Hatsune Miku. And even after the sudden rise, it's still 23.6%. About 20,000 copies were sold till July 23^rd and about 25,000 copies were sold till October 27^th. 500 videos about them had been posted before the official publication, and more than 4,000 were posted until February 6^th. Besides, though the popularity of creating with VOCALOID started at the time of Hatsune Miku, there are still a lot of users who started using VOCALOID when Kagamine Rin & Len were released, such as Hiroaki Arai, a.k.a. Signal-P, a producer in Nico Nico Douga.

Famous Works

Official Demos

V2		act2
Rin	Len	Rin	Len
R-Side	L-Side	R-Side	L-Side
1:02	1:07	1:02	1:07
Dec. 18th 2007	Dec. 24th 2007	Jun. 18th 2008	Jun. 18th 2008
Demo	Demo	demo of V2	Demo of V2
Duo		Duo
Stereo		ACTION	Ocean in the Summer
1:16		1:10	1:18
Dec. 26th 2007		Jul. 4th 2008	Jul. 7th
Demo		Demo	Demo

append
Rin				Len
Startline	Supersensitive		Mermaid Princess	pulse	Sanity	Song of the moon	Tone Piece
1:59	1:35		1:34	1:45	1:33	1:29	1:29
Dec. 10th 2010	Dec. 17th 2010		Dec. 25th 2010	Dec. 17th 2010	Dec. 25th 2010	Apr. 27th 2011	Apr. 27th 2011
Demo	Demo		Demo	Demo	Demo	Demo	Demo

Kagamines' Three Tragedies

• The Evil Suite:

• Original songs posted by mothy, all included in The Evillious Chronicles, a commercial CD.

• • The Daughter of Evil uploaded on April 6^th 2008, sung by Kagamine Rin, had already owned more than 1.3 million views till October 10^th 2010, and became the third song of Kagamine Rin that reached a million views. The Re-composed version uploaded on December 27^th, had owned 90,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
  • The Servant of Evil uploaded on April 29^th 2008, sung by Kagamine Len, had already owned 2.1 million views till October 10^th 2010, and became the first song of Kagamine Len that reached 1 million and 2 million views. the Re-composed version uploaded on December 27^th 2009, had owned over 140,000 views till October 10^th 2010.

• Regret Message uploaded on May 25^th 2008, sung by Kagamine Rin, had owned more than 630,000 views till October 10^th 2010, and the re-composed version was made on December 27^th 2009.

• • Re_birthdayuploaded on December 27^th 2008, sung by Kagamine Len, had already owned over 32 views till October 10^th 2010. Some think the song is related to the main songs, yet others think it's just an OVA.
  • Twiright Prank sang by Kagamine Rin & Len, had got over 90,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
• Prisoner/Paperplane
  • original songs posted by kalalalaj
  • Prisoner, uploaded on November 1^th 2009, sung by Kagamine Len, had already owned 320,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
  • Paperplane uploaded on Feburary 16^th 2009, sung by Kagamine Rin, and owned over 270,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
  • Preface "Division"(序節「分断」) posted on August 7^th 2009, sung by Kagamine Len, had already owned over 50,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
  • Section 1 "Hero"(第一節「英雄」), uploaded on Feburary 5^th 2010, sung by Kagamine Len, had already owned over 40,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
  • Section 2 "Tomorrow"(第ニ節「明日」) uploaded on September 12^th 2010, sung by Kagamine Rin and Len, had owned 5,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
• soundless voice / proof of life:
  • Original songs uploaded by Samo (Hitosizuku P)
  • Soundless Voice uploaded on October 19^th 2008, sung by Kagamine Len, owned over 350,000 views till October 10^th 2010.
  • Proof of Life posted on November 29^th 2008, sung by Kagamine Rin, and owned over 170,000 views till October 10^th 2010.

Commercial CDs

Main Entry: Kagamine Rin & Len/Commercial CDs

Kagamine and Road Roller

After the release of their character design, since Hatsune Miku, the previous work was famous for holding a piece of leek in the song Ievan Polkka, many argued for what item should Rin be related to. In the beginning, many said suggested that it could be "yellow or orange fruit or vegetables, such as bananas, oranges, onions, yet none of them were absolutely popular. (Later Both of them had their representative item: orange for Rin, and banana fo Len) On December 1^st 2007, loadorigin, a niconico user, uploaded a video, talking that Rin matches to yellow road rollers, and the onomatopoeia of a road roller, "WRYYYYYYYN!!!" (From "URYYYYYY!!!", the mantra of Dio, who is a character in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) is similar to the name "Rin". After that, lots of pictures-themed road rollers were uploaded on PIAPRO, which is a website built by Crypton for the creators, and the same thing also appeared and became popular on niconico. It, at last, became one of the representative items of them (Yet banana and orange is more common for fandom creation, and works using road rollers are often comedies. Later in the third episode of the official manga Hatsune Miku: Unofficial Hatsune Mix, there's a road roller out of the house where Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin and Len live.

Development on Multimedia

Because of the popularity of their senior, Hatsune Miku, lots of the customers wanted Crypton to make CDs, animes, and games about them. In October 2007, some companies began to suggest Crypton make some projects around these characters, including video games, comics, figures, e.t.c. When Kagamine Rin & Len were officially released, different kinds of projects including Kagamine Rin and/or Len appeared.

On October 25^th 2007, Comic Rush, a manga magazine, announced that the author of Miku's character design KEI would start to serialize a Miku-themed comic named Hatsune Mix!, Rin and Len will appear in Episode 2. Crypton said that it wouldn't be an official work, and they would try to write it in a way so it wouldn't interfere in the creation of other worldviews, and it wouldn't be animated at the present stage. When it was officially serializing, the title was changed to Hatsune Miku: Unofficial Hatsune Mix, yet the copyright is still Crypton's.

Frontier Works published a fanbook named "Hatsune Miku" "Kagamine Rin" CV series Offical Fanbook 2007winter on C73. AXIA (Almighty X Item Amusement) and COSPA would also publish related items. Souvenirs were also sold on C74 in 2008.

Turi Paradise, an online game, had an activity themed Hatsune Miku between December 21^th 2007 and January 25^th the next year. Kagamine Rin was added in January 2008, and sang the theme song of the game, Water Drop.

On December 28^th 2007, Niconico Douga held a raffle, picked 100 original works using Hatsune Miku, the authors of the works would get the software of Kagamine Rin & Len, it ended on January 7^th 2008, and the result was published on 10^th that month.

On February 25^th, Nendoroid of Good Smile Company held a pre-sale of a 10-cm-tall figure of Kagamine Rin. And the face of the figure is solicited from the audience.

On June 5 of the same year, the online game PangYa which added Hatsune Miku to the game on May 22, added Kagamine Rin. The background music during the event has also changed. On June 12, they joined Kagamine Len.

On July 25 of the same year, VOLKS began accepting orders for Kagamine Rin and Len's character models, 23cm high, the master model is designed and manufactured by ミルヒ・シュトラーセ, PVC character model was on sale on November 8, 2008, 10,290 yen per pair and they have been sold out; The resin figure model was released on May 23, 2009, for 21,000 yen per pair. Mazete yo☆Nama Voice feat. Hatsune Miku 1st Anniversary♪ was released on C74 on the same day, Contains five original songs by Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin & Len, MEIKO, and KAITO.

On August 1st of the same year, Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin & Len, are scheduled to appear as NENDOROID figures on Sega's game Virtua Fighter 5R.

They announced the production of the music game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA in late August of the same year, Kagamine Rin & Len would appear in the game, game production companies would recruit songs, illustrations, and costume designs in PIAPRO.

The CD squarewave surfers～memory of 8bit released on September 3 of the same year, which included the song "Summertime Blues-"さまたいぶー" made by act2.

In October of the same year, MAX FACTORY is scheduled to release Figma series Rin & Len and figure models. Rin is about 14cm high and Lin is 15cm high.

In October of the same year, SEGA launched the character model of Kagamine Rin, which is a prize of the claw crane, and the character model of Kagamine Rin (also a prize of the claw crane) was launched in November 2010.

On November 5th of the same year, the MOLA Leopalace Z team participated in the SUPER GT with Kagamine Rin & Len's car (ACG series car painted). On November 8th and November 9th, they participated in the final event of SUPER GT in Fuji International Speedway. Ranked 6th in the team, and won six awards including team, driver, and supervisor. In addition, GOODSMILE RACING also used Kagamine Rin & Len's car as one of the racing cars in the FSW on January 18, 2009.

On November 21 of the same year, PIAPRO announced the design of recruiting mini 4WDs. The selected works are scheduled to be made into mini 4WDs, and songs for mini 4WDs will also be collected.

On December 27 of the same year, riding on the first anniversary of the release of Kagamine Rin & Len, it was published in the PIAPRO collection of songs. The selected works will be covered by Shimoda Asami, and the election results have been announced.

On January 28, 2009, Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin & Len cooperated with the website creation software "IBM Homepage Builder". Purchasers in the cooperation event could download special illustrations, etc.

On June 29th of the same year, GOOD SMILE COMPANY released a 1:8 scale character model of Rin, which is about 17cm high and 16cm high. The master model is designed and manufactured by 远那かんし (りゅんりゅん亭).

References and External Links

Official

• (Japanese)Kagamine Rin & Len V4X
• (Japanese)MEDIA PHAGE (the blog of the staff)

others

• (Japanese)Personal blog of illustrator KEI
• (Japanese)Asapon's room
• (Japanese)Monthly issue Comic Rush
• (Japanese)DTM MAGAZINE - Tips of using Rin and Len