KEI was given the concept Crypton intended, their approximate ages, an image of mirror, and an image of androids, but was not given any other directions when he was asked to illustrate Rin and Len by Crypton, as Kei had already illustrated Miku before. Rin was the first one to be illustrated and Len was made to match her, following Crypton's concept. Their leg parts are designed to mimic speakers.[1][2] The keytar Len is often featured holding in merchandise is a Yamaha KX5 of which both the Kagamine designs take certain design elements from.
As they were under development, Crypton had the concept of making a pair of male and female voicebanks. The first idea of the concept was twin voices of a girl and her mirror image of opposite gender, just like twins. [3]
CFM had an intention to distribute them as twins, but this was not adopted either. After seeing many works that depict their relationships differently, Crypton announced on a magazine interview that those would meet their ideal. Crypton announced that they are neither siblings nor lovers. [4][5] During Append production, Wat described them as one soul between the 2 of them, and stated he is to blame for that.[6] During the boxart for the Append, Wat described it as making the pair seem like Twins.[7] It was due the fetal position they were in.[8] Wat also wanted the Appends to have a sense of transparency about their design to give it a transparent feeling.[9] In clarification to what he meant by this, he stated the "transparency" was in reference to their hearts.[10]
Act 2 Kagamine Rin image (left) and original design (right) side by side
As well as a new set of vocals during the Act2 release, KEI took the opportunity to fix art flaws in their artwork.
Kagamine Rin's introduction artwork
Rin has "Act2" on her arm under her "02" tattoo.
Rin's top was changed in the introductory image between versions around the armpit area. Frills were added to the bottom of her top in Act2
Her shoulder was not correctly drawn in the original version
All the yellow bands on her outfit were made bigger on Act2.
Her fringe was made thicker above the left eye.
In Kagamine Rin's artwork, her left knee was thicker and her right leg was too short. Kei corrected this in her Act2 version. Her right leg position changed and so did her Left foot position
Forearms have been shortened in Act2.
The cyber-on-normal clothing design on their detached sleeves were changed from a green bar to a blue one
Kagamine Len's introduction artwork
Kagamine Len has "Act 2" on his headphones.
The cyber-on-normal clothing design on the detached sleeves were changed from a green bar to a blue one
His fringe was reshaped, other strands were adjusted as well
Len's face, particularly around the cheekbones, have been reshaped.
His left knee has a minor tweak
Boxart changes;
Kagamine Rin's leg position was changed in their boxart so it was lifted up off the ground, the only way the previous position would have worked was if her leg was deformed or broken.
Rin's body itself compared to the length of her legs is shorter then in the original boxart, the legs longer.
Kagamine Rin's knee is rounded instead of sharp
Both had the cyber-on details changed on their detached sleeves
Their Append design and the Official Illustration of those ones were made by オサム (osamu) .
Continuing the tradition of the Item War Internet Meme, many items were preposed for the pair. In the end, Len's item was a Banana because his hair was commented to resemble a bunch of bananas, while Rin's item was an Orange since her bow gave the impression of orange leaves. Before her release, Rin had the Road Roller assigned to her by accident in a video that received many views suddenly on December 1, 2007. Kagamine Len had yet to be revealed at the time of the Road Roller meme.[11]
At the time of recording in 2007, their names had not yet been decided. Their given names of Rin and Len were said to be based on "right" and "left" according to Asami Shimoda. She later confirmed in an interview after the Append release, the name itself was based on the names of Ken and Rin from Hokuto no Ken, the names were derived from a discussion about names that were familiar from her childhood.
Their surname was from the developing code combining Kagami (鏡, mirror) and Ne (音, sound).
The Kagamine's were marketed as a "2 vocals for the price of 1" package, and aimed to catch interest of the growing Vocaloid fandom. Unlike Hatsune Miku, they were not an imediate hit, failing to meet marketing expectations despite recieving the same level of promotion as Miku was recieving at the time of their release. After the release of "Act2" sales picked up steadily and are one of the more heavily market Vocaloids, though have never met the marketing strength Miku did before them.
The Kagamines have had several figurines made for them. Some are based on one and not the other, other times they have had a model each but were released seperately and on some occasions together.
Kagamine Rin has more figurines than Kagamine Len. As well as having a standard Figma and Nendoroid figurine each, Rin has had a figurine based on the "Meltdown Hard R.K. mix" PV. She has also appeared alongside Miku and Luka in the Good smile racing figurine promotions. Pullip Dolls were released for both Rin and Len alongside Miku. Rin and Len were released as Dal's, and Miku was released as Pullip.
The pair have seen a number of Garage Kit packs as well.
They have appeared on T-shirt designs, often to promote themselves or particular albums by Producers.
In 2011, Piapro held a contest with members to design Goth Lolita clothing for Vocaloids, the designs were produced by the company Putumayo. Amongst the winners were designs based on the Kagamines' own attaire.[12]
ACOS have also produced an official cosplay outfit + wig.[13]
The Kagamines appeared in the Los Angeles Mikunopolis concert in July 2, 2011, along with Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka. Rin performed "Meltdown" in her Hard Rock remix outfit and Len performed 'Butterfly on Your Right Shoulder' (Ft. Rin).[14]
In Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei a pair of Len and Rin look a likes are seen in the waiting queue during the auditions of the role of Meru Meru, however they do not have the Kagamine's known colors.[15]
In the anime Maria†Holic Rin and Miku appear on a scene on episode 12, which can be seen on Youtube
In the manga Comic Party, during the fair there is a person wearing Rin's ribbon and has the same hairstyle as hers.
From episode 12-16 of Hyouka, there are Miku, Rin, Len, and Luka cosplayers.
Rin/Len will appeared on a nail varnish set along with the other 5 Crypton Vocaloid characters. The colours within the set match the colours of the Vocaloids own nails.[19]
The Kagamine's package in 2nd place, 12/10/2011, this is the usual place they hold in the top ten Crypton products list. Note; Meiko and the Kagamine append were missing from the list
They were slow to gain popularity in the Japanese fandom after the backlash of their original voicebanks, and although they have 2nd highest number of songs combined, they are not as popular as Hatsune Miku who came before them. Their designs have also spawned many producer based derivatives.
In the Japanese fandom, Rin is the more popular of the two Vocaloids with more related works than her counterpart Len. Part of the problem in the Japanese fandom was owed to the backlash of Kaito's failure, male voicebanks had so little demand at that time and Len's voicebank was left as the only male Vocaloid 2 vocal until Gakupo's release, and was not used as often as Rin's voicebank.[20]
A independant Vocaloid search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most Vocaloids had less than 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in between July 1 and December 15 2011. The Kagamines, however had managed to gain enough views not to fall into this problem. Rin had received 2811 uploads while Len had received 2021. Rin had the 3rd highest total views during this period of any Vocaloid with 5,327,456 views and 477,046 mylists, and Len managed with 4,555,580 views and 413,901 mylists. When sorted by average, Len was third with 2254.12 views per video, and 204.8 mylists, (which was more than Miku’s) and Rin’s was 1895.22/169.71 Mylists. However, when the views were based on the more accurate mean total number of views, Len and Rin rounded out the top six with 355 views/16 mylists and 349 views/16 mylists respectively per video coming bottom of the top 6 Vocaloids. The Kagamine software was the only Vocaloid package to be be in all top 6 lists besides Gumi.[21]
Their Append outsold the Miku Append during the period after their release. The Act2 package and Append secured 4th and 5th spot between them in Crypton's end of year top 10 Vocaloid sales despite only being released for a short period of time(mostly owed, but not entirely, to pre-orders).[22][23][24] However, they did not maintain this, in June 2011, their Append had fallen to 8th place, one below Kaito's Vocaloid voicebank.
It took 25 hours (4 hours a day) to record all the Kagamine Appends.[25]
Some call Rin and Len by the incorrect names "Lin" and/or "Ren". Though the romanized version of the word could be either, the English version has been confirmed as "Rin and Len" and since there is no dubbed version to contend with, the names remain the only official names in existence for the Vocals. This is also backed up by the origins of their names as "R" (Rin)" and "L" (Len).
Note; "L" and "R" mean "Left and Right", they are the letters you find on a set of headphones (and sometimes other equipment such as speakers). Usually there is not enough space to write "left" and "right" on headphones. "L" refers to left ear and "R" is right ear.
On the Mikunopolis website their profile reads the following statement: "The Kagamine twins are well known for their very clear and precise vocals". Considering their history of lack of clarity and/or pronunciation problems, as well as Act 2 of the software missing a pronunciation entirely, this is a little bit of an exaggeration on the webhost's part. Also the statement, "Just with a few tweaks here and there they could sing almost any other genres as well," is also somewhat questionable due to their reputation of requiring previous experience to use and often at times needed more than just a few tweaks to make them work.[26]
Rin has a G-clef (Treble-clef) on her shirt, and Len has a F-clef (Bass-clef) on his. In their Append redesigns they are found on chokers rather than their shirts.
With a total of 10 voicebanks, Asami Shimoda is the vocal provider with the most Vocaloid voicebanks for commerical sale based on any single vocaloid provider. This also makes the Kagamine package the most expansive set of vocals within the Vocaloid 2 era and to date the most of any Vocaloid package. However, as individual characters, Rin and Len have only 5 vocals each and are beaten by Miku and Gumi in total number of vocals for a character.
In piano sheet music, the Bass-clef is played with the left hand, while the Treble-clef is played with the right hand. It is believed that this is used for Rin and Len's names (Right for Rin and Left for Len). There is also a Treble-clef on Rin's shirt and a Bass-clef on Len's shirt.
Edit
Added by Angel Emfrbl
loved it! omg i have been looking for something like this for a while
