# Kagamine Rin \ Len

    _"Kagamine" redirects here. For other uses, see_

**Kagamine Rin \ Len** VOCALOID2Act2Append

|  Kagamine Rin \ Len   
---  
**Biographical information**  
Gender | 

  * Female (Rin) 
  * Male (Len) 

  
Age |  14   
Height | 

  * 152cm (Rin) 
  * 156cm (Len) 

  
Weight | 

  * 43kg (Rin) 
  * 47kg (Len) 

  
Voice |  Asami Shimoda   
Illustrator | 

  * KEI (V2) 
  * Osamu (V2A) 

  
**Product information**  
Company |  Crypton Future Media, Inc.   
Language |  Japanese   
Code |  CV02V2   
Affiliation | 

  * YAMAHA Corporation
  * SEGA 

  
  
**Kagamine Rin & Len** (鏡音リン・レン), codenamed CV02, are Japanese VOCALOIDs developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc., and were initially released in December 2007 for the _VOCALOID2_ engine. They are part of the Character Vocal Series and are both Character Voice VOCALOIDs. There has since been numerous installments such as additional voice banks dubbed 'Append' as well as an upcoming upgrade to the _VOCALOID3_ engine (information pending) 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 voice actress, Asami Shimoda (下田 麻美 _Shimoda Asami_). 

## Contents

## 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.[1]

Crypton had the intention to distribute them as twins, but this was  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. ) described them as having one soul between the two of them.[4]_Wat_ also described that the Append boxart makes the pair seem like twins,[5] 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). 

Their codename of "CV02" means "Character Voice 02". 

### 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. Their main design, of which is most noticeable on their boots, uses the YAMAHA EOS as a design base. 

Also, each Kagamine has a particular musical clef symbol associated to their design. 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. 

When Rin and Len received a new set of vocals during their Act2 release, KEI took the opportunity to fix flaws in their artwork. 

  * Act1 Rin
  * 


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.[9] In clarification to what he meant by this, he stated the "transparency" was in reference to their hearts.[10]

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.

## Examples of Usage

Music featuring Kagamines   
---  
On this wiki VOCALOID **Kagamine Rin** is featured in 338 songs and on 467 albums and **Kagamine Len** is featured in 278 songs and on 343 albums.   
There are notable listings for them. Followed by original and cover songs featuring **Kagamine Rin** , and original and cover songs featuring **Kagamine Len** . |  External search → Romaji — Kagamines |    
Written — 鏡音リン_・レン |   
To our readers and editors: For section notes, please read this tutorial. And before adding translated videos, please read this tutorial.   
マイリスダメー！   
---  
|  |  **Romaji/English** | My List Dame! (Don't Mylist Me!)  
---|---  
**Featuring** | Kagamine Rin   
**Author(s)** | Live-P  
**Category** | Original song   
ドーナツホール   
---  
|  |  **Romaji/English** | Donut Hole  
---|---  
**Featuring** | Kagamine Len   
**Author(s)** | Bibi   
**Category** | Cover song   
イカサマ⇔カジノ   
---  
|  |  **Romaji/English** | Ikasama⇔Casino  
---|---  
**Featuring** | Kagamine Rin ・ Len   
**Author(s)** | Hitoshizuku-P  
**Category** | Original song   
おこちゃま戦争   
---  
|  |  **Romaji/English** | Okochama Sensou (Childish War)  
---|---  
**Featuring** | Kagamine Rin ・ Len   
**Author(s)** | Giga-P  
**Category** | Original song   
  
More Examples 

PONPONPON   
---  
|  |  **Romaji/English** | PONPONPON  
---|---  
**Featuring** | Kagamine Len   
**Author(s)** | Giga-P, Orebanana-P  
**Category** | Cover song   
SMOKY THRILL   
---  
|  | **Featuring** | Kagamine Rin   
---|---  
**Author(s)** | Circus-P  
**Category** | Cover song   
過食性:アイドル症候群   
---  
|  |  **Romaji/English** | Kashokusei: Idol Shoukougun (Indulging: Idol Syndrome)  
---|---  
**Featuring** | Kagamine Rin ・ Len   
**Author(s)** | Haruo (Rin), Bibi (Len)   
**Category** | Cover song   
リンリンシグナル   
---  
|  |  **Romaji/English** | Rin Rin Signal  
---|---  
**Featuring** | Kagamine Rin ・ Len   
**Author(s)** | Signal-P  
**Category** | Original song   
  
## 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. 

Crypton Future Media registered both "Kagamine Rin" and "Kagamine Len" as a trademark on 29th of Jan 2015.

    Figurines

Len and Rin figma figures

The Kagamines have had several figurines made for them. Some are based on one vocalist and not the other; other times they both received a model, but each was released separately. 

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. 

    Clothing

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 Gothic Lolita clothing for VOCALOIDs, the designs were produced by the company Putumayo. Amongst the winners were designs based on the Kagamines' own attaire.[14]

ACOS have also produced an official cosplay outfit + wig.[15]

An official wig for Ren and Len was also shown in 2014.[16]

    US Debut

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).[17]

    Calendar

Crypton Future Media VOCALOIDs have also appeared in 2013 calendars.[18][19]

    5th Anniversary

Crypton Future Media celebrated the Kagamine's 5th Anniversary, along with Megurine Luka's 4th, with a number of goodies.[20]

    Manicure Set

Rin/Len appeared on a nail varnish set along with the other 5 Crypton vocalists. The colors within the set match the colors of the VOCALOID's painted nails.[21]

    iOS App

They also appear in the app "AR Vocaloid Walk", a Augmented Reality app. Several other Vocaloids, UTAU and Derivative characters also appear in the app.

## Additional information

Kagamine Rin \ Len Popularity   
---  
**Sales**  
Initially it was reported that their package sold 20,000 units, this was half the amount that the Hatsune Miku product before them sold.[23] The Kagamines' package in 2nd place, 12/10/2011._Note; MEIKO and the Kagamine Append were missing from the list_. During the _VOCALOID2_ era, the Kagamine package competed with the Megurine Luka package for 2nd place in the top 10 products. Usually, the Kagamine package managed to get the 2nd place spot, pushing Luka to 3rd place. Their Append outsold the Miku Append package 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 available for a short period of time (mostly owed, but not entirely, to pre-orders).[24][25][26] However, in June 2011, their Append had fallen to 8th place, one place below KAITO's _VOCALOID_ voicebank. During 2013, when both KAITO V3 and Hatsune Miku V3 were released, the charts were disrrupted. When the charts resumed some form of order, the Kagamines were left in the 5th or 6th spot, leaving them overall more popular than Luka was by MEIKO's MEIKO V3 release in 2014. Their Append had not been sighted for months and was by now completely off of the charts. After MEIKO's V3 release, they disappeared from the charts, leaving them as the only Character Vocal Series member with no products in the charts. By mid-2014, they, along with the _VOCALOID2_ Megurine Luka package, would only make temporary appearances in the charts before, but no longer held any form of constant ranking.   
**Reaction**  
The Kagamines were slow to gain popularity in the Japanese fandom after the backlash from their original voicebanks. In later years, although between the two of them they had gained the second-highest number of songs, they were not as popular as Hatsune Miku. In the Japanese fandom, Rin is the more popular of the two, with more related works than her counterpart, Len.   
**Impact**  
Because of KAITO's failure, male voicebanks had little demand at the time of the Kagamines' release. Len's voicebank was the only male _VOCALOID2_ vocal until Gackpo's release.[27] Their designs have spawned many producer based derivatives.   
**Miscellaneous**  
An independent search on Nico Nico revealed that most VOCALOIDs had less than 1,000 videos uploaded onto Nico Nico in 2011 between July 1st and December 15th. The Kagamines, however, managed to gain enough views to not fall into this category. Rin received 2,811 uploads while Len received 2,021. 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 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 had 1895.22 views per video and 169.71 mylists. However, when the views were based on the more accurate mean total, Len and Rin achieved 355 views/16 mylists and 349 views/16 mylists respectively per video, ranking last among the top 6 VOCALOIDs. However, the Kagamine software was the only VOCALOID package to be be in all top 6 lists besides GUMI.[28] In February 2014, Vocaloid Otaku user "Dessert>desert" decided to run a test to see how many illegal Vocaloid downloads had been made via torrent. The Kagamine package was ranked the 3rd most popular illegal of the singular package downloads, with 4,777 downloads. They were beaten by the Mayu at 11,404 and VY2v3 at 12,434 downloads.[29] In 2015 a survey was published that showed Kagamine Rin was the 3rd most popular Vocaloid in 2014 on website Nico Video. Kagamine Len was the 6th most popular Vocaloid in 2014.[30]  
  
### Trivia

  * It took 25 hours (4 hours a day) to record all the Kagamine Appends.[31]


  * 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.[32]


  * 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 



## Gallery  
  
---  
  
## References

  1. ↑ [1] CloseUp NetTube - 鏡音リン・レン特集１・発売元インタビュー (Interview with Crypton "How Rin and Len Kagamine were created")
  2. ↑ Nikkei Electronics (973) Mar.10,2008,126-127, ISSN 0385-1680
  3. ↑ "VOCALOID wo Tanoshimou Vol.2" published by Yamaha Music Media,2009, Page 47, ISBN 978-4-636-84438-2
  4. ↑ link
  5. ↑ link
  6. ↑ link
  7. ↑ [2] P-Tina - Interview(s) with Crypton and KEI
  8. ↑ VocaloidOtaku - Our Favorite VOCALOIDS: Interview with KEI
  9. ↑ link
  10. ↑ link
  11. ↑ link
  12. ↑ link
  13. ↑ link
  14. ↑ link
  15. ↑ link
  16. ↑ link
  17. ↑ [3] Vocaloidism - Hatsune Miku Live in Los Angeles: Mikunopolis
  18. ↑ link
  19. ↑ link
  20. ↑ link
  21. ↑ link
  22. ↑ AR Vocaloid Walk
  23. ↑ link
  24. ↑ link
  25. ↑ [4] Vocaloid Blog - クリプトン社発売のソフト音源についての2011年1月のトップセラー！ (Top of the January 2011 release of the software's sound on Crypton!)
  26. ↑ [5] Vocaloid Blog - クリプトン社発売のソフト音源についての2010年12月のトップセラー！ (Top of the December 2010 release of the software's source for Crypton?)
  27. ↑ [6] INTERNET Watch - クリプトン・フューチャー・メディア社長 伊藤博之氏（前編） (Crypton Future Media president Hiroyuki Itō (part one))
  28. ↑ link
  29. ↑ link
  30. ↑ link
  31. ↑ [7] Weekly Plus - VOCALOID『鏡音リン・レンAppend』発売記念インタビュー第2弾は声優の下田麻美さん♪ (Len Append, interview with Shimoda Asami)
  32. ↑ link