Thoughts on Kagamine Rin and Len NT

August 31st, 2025.

Oh my god, it's really happening!

And, apparently, it has been happening since a month ago. Do you want to know how I stumbled upon the news since I don't use social media anymore?

I learned about this because I was looking into Neocities' global activity, and I was reading someone's diary. And I immediately go "Rin and Len's NT designs? What are they on about?"

So I look it up. And I see it, right on Crypton's official website. And I can barely believe my eyes. They look SO GOOD! And older.

A ramble about the design

The first thing I notice is Len's hoodie, and Rin's bow! It now looks like little wings and its absolutely adorable. She still has another bow on her shirt, and I'm obsessed with the art style itself too.

Do you know what's a little detail that has me in love? They still have the treble clef and bass clef in their designs! But they're smaller. They're in the zippers! And I think they give the idea of opposite reflections way better than in their original designs. Rin is mostly whites and greys while Len is wearing more black. Both are wearing those cool gloves I don't know the name of, and Len is using long sleeves all the way while Rin shows her shoulders.

Our babies have come a long way.

The thing is, they're supposed to be Vocal Synths (or "Virtual Singers", as Crypton and Sega calls them), so the most important thing, at the end of the day, is their voices. And all we have to go on is a 30 second demo.

So, their voices...

I'm not a big fan.

Look, Rin sounds good. She sounds fine. Len, however, sounds a little... odd? Nasal? Muffled? I'm not sure. It might be the mixing.

30 seconds is too short to form a strong opinion. I don't understand why they haven't released a longer demo a month after.

I'm also not sure if the "Sound the Future" slogan fits Crypton. It's cute, because Miku was the one who made them famous, but that's not what the future in Vocal Synth sounds like.

The future of Vocal Synth sounds more like Synthesizer V, or VoiSona. We all love Crypton and their characters, but Piapro sounds as outdated as VOCALOID. At this point, even UTAU sounds more expressive in the right hands.

What now?

I don't know what else to say. It's weird they're not uploading more demos. If the rumours are right, we can hear the voicebanks in some songs in Project Sekai, and I'm not hopeful, because the tuning always sounds odd in that game.

I hope we get more updates soon.

Thank you for reading me. Bye bye!

-Jim.