Kagamine Rin & Len

Kagamine Rin & Len (鏡音リン ・レン) are Japanese VOCALOIDs developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc., and were initially released in December 2007 for the VOCALOID2 engine. There has since been numerous installments such as additional voice banks dubbed 'Append' as well as an upcoming upgrade to the VOCALOID3 engine which is said to include an English vocal release. They are the second set of vocals for Crypton's VOCALOID Character Vocal Series.

Their voices are provided by the Japanese female voice actress, Asami Shimoda (下田 麻美 Shimoda Asami).

Concept
The development of the Kagamines began when Crypton formulated the concept of making a pair of female and male voicebanks. The first idea was for two voices of a girl and her mirror image of the opposite gender, just like twins.

Crypton had the intention to distribute them as twins, but this was not adopted. After seeing many works that depict their relationships differently, Crypton announced in a magazine interview that those would meet their ideal. However, Crypton's final announcement was that they were neither siblings nor lovers. During Append production, Wataru Sasaki (aka. Wat ) described them as having one soul between the two of them. Wat also described that the Append boxart makes the pair seem like twins, due to the fetal position they were in.

Etymology
When the Kagamines were being recorded in 2007, their names had not yet been decided. Their given names of Rin and Len were said to be based on " ri ght" and " le ft", according to Asami Shimoda. She later confirmed in an interview after the Append release that the names were based on Ken and Rin from Hokuto no Ken, derived from a discussion about names that were familiar from her childhood.

Their surname was derived from the developing code combining Kagami (鏡, mirror) and Ne (音, sound).

Appearance
KEI was given a concept by Crypton that included Rin and Len's approximate ages, as well as the idea of them being 'mirror images' and, like Miku, androids. KEI was not given any further direction, as he had already drawn the art for the first release in the Character Vocal Series, Hatsune Miku.

Rin was the first of the Kagamines to be illustrated and Len was made to match her, following Crypton's concept. Their leg features were designed to mimic speakers. The keytar Len is often featured holding in merchandise is a Yamaha KX5, from which the design of both Kagamines take certain elements.

When Rin and Len received a new set of vocals during their Act2 release, KEI took the opportunity to fix 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 the position of her left foot.
 * Forearms have been shortened in Act2.
 * The cyber-on-normal clothing design on their detached sleeves was 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, was reshaped.
 * His left knee had a minor tweak.

Boxart changes;
 * Kagamine Rin's leg position was changed in their boxart so it was lifted off the ground, the only way the previous position would have worked was if her leg were deformed or broken.
 * Rin's body itself compared to the length of her legs is shorter than in the original boxart, while the legs were longer.
 * Rin's knee is rounded instead of sharp.
 * Both had the cyber details changed on their detached sleeves.

For their appends, Wat wanted them to have a sense of transparency with their design. In clarification to what he meant by this, he stated the "transparency" was in reference to their hearts.

Their Append design and the official illustration were made by オサム (osamu).

Continuing the tradition of the Item War Internet Meme, many items were proposed for the pair. In the end, Len's item was a banana, because his hair was commented to resemble a bunch of them, 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.

VOCALOID Releases

 * The Kagamines have songs in the Nico Nico Douga Hall of Fame
 * Book on how to use Hatsune Miku & Kagamine Rin/Len

Examples of Usage

 * -|Kagamine Rin\Len =
 * -|Act2 =
 * -|Append =

Marketing
The Kagamines were marketed as "2 vocals for the price of 1" and were aimed to catch the interest of the growing Vocaloid fandom. Unlike Hatsune Miku, they were not an immediate hit, failing to meet marketing expectations despite receiving the same level of promotion as Miku was receiving at the time of their release. After the release of their "Act2" voicebanks, sales picked up steadily and the Kagamines eventually became one of the more heavily marketed VOCALOIDs, though have never met the marketing strength Miku gained before them.

Popularity
Google Trends "Kagamine Rin"

Google Trends "Len vs. Rin" in Japan

Trivia

 * It took 25 hours (4 hours a day) to record all the Kagamine Appends.


 * 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". 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 somewhat questionable due to their reputation of requiring previous experience to use and often at times needing more than just a few tweaks to make them work.


 * 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.


 * A total of 10 voicebanks makes the Kagamine package the most expansive set of vocals within the VOCALOID2. They are currently second in the total number of vocals released.

Notable for...

 * First dual voicebanks released with two "VOCALOIDs" in one package
 * Only dual voicebanks released for VOCALOID2
 * First male (Len) released for VOCALOID2
 * First VOCALOIDs to be updated
 * First vocal (Len) released not to be the same gender as the provider
 * First male (Len) to be Appended