Merlin-chan
| Software Personification | |
|---|---|
Normal Magical Girl   | |
| General Information | |
| Name | Merlin-chan |
| Alias | Merlin |
| Universe/Origin | Dive Girl Bigblue Merlin-chan |
| Designer | 🇯🇵 Yamamuro |
| Debut | 2000-11-02 |
| Representation | |
| Represents | OS/2 |
| First available | 1987-12 |
| Developer | 🇺🇸 IBM 🇺🇸 Microsoft (version 1.0–1.3) |
| Appearance | |
| Hair Color | Blue Grey (Normal) , Lilac (Magical Girl) |
| Eye Color | Violet (Normal) , Pink (Magical Girl) |
Merlin-chan (Japanese:ま～りんちゃん) is a magical girl character who personifies the OS/2 operating system.
Design
Merlin's first design concept dated back to November 2, 2000[1] which is assumed to be her first online appearance.
In her final design, Merlin's normal form has blue grey hair styled in twintails, and violet eyes. Her attire consists of blue and white school uniform with yellow tie, dark blue socks, and brown loafers.
Her magical girl form has lilac hair and pink eyes, and her uniform is mainly white, blue, and yellow with red and green details. Both her normal and magical girl design have round glasses.
Character
Merlin is a diligent honor student with excellent grades, however she tends to rank second in her class. She is cynical and very mature for her age, and often described as an "iron man" (Japanese:鉄さん) due to her tough demeanor.
She was said to be born from a union of IBM and MS, however MS had an "affair" with DEC, resulting in the birth of NT-ko (Natoko), who represents Windows NT. Merlin and Natoko were rivals in class, but neither were aware of being blood-related.[2]
Trivia
- Merlin's first design features a baseball bat, however it was scrapped in the final design.[1]
- Merlin's name may reference OS/2 Warp 4's codename Merlin.[3]
- NT-ko and Merlin-chan being blood-related may reference the IBM-Microsoft alliance. OS/2 was jointly developed by IBM and Microsoft from version 1.0 in 1987 until version 1.3 in 1990, before the breakup of the alliance.
- The "affair" may reference how Windows NT was heavily influenced by DEC's MICA operating system.
- There are Q&A sessions in Dive Girl Bigblue Merlin-chan's website, which mentions that if Merlin-chan had a voice actress, it would be Maria Yamamoto.[4]
External Links
Notes and References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Merlin-chan's early sketch, which has a baseball bat
- ↑ Merlin-chan Cast
- ↑ OS/2 Warp 4 - os2museum.com
- ↑ Merlin-chan Anime Q&A session, Ｑ：キャスティングはどうよ？Ａ：麻里安ちゃんきぼーん (Q: What about casting? A: Maria-chan, definitely!)
