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Namirin (*Namirin) - VTuber

Namirin is a former Utaite who became a VTuber in 2021. She is bilingual, fluent in singing and hosting chats in Japanese or English depending on her audience. Her dream is to turn her singing hobby into a lifelong career.

Namirin's Background

Namirin, stylized as *namirin, is a bilingual Japanese-American VTuber and singer. She began posting cover songs on YouTube in 2010 under the name Nami. She is known for her soft, clear vocals with a fast, delicate vibrato. In February 2021, she debuted as a 2D modeled VTuber.

History of Namirin

Namarin launched her YouTube channel in January 2010. The following year, she launched her Twitter and NicoNico Douga accounts, both under the name Nami. Over the next three years, she gradually built her reputation within the Utaite community. In 2014, she began contributing vocals and English lyrics to collaborative albums, such as Goodbye Meat's "I am a PEN." In 2015, she officially changed her name to *namirin on all platforms.

She began pursuing a professional singing career in 2017. She released her first mini-album, 5colors, on April 30, 2017. In October of that same year, Namirin licensed the entire album to the rhythm game Osu! and joined their team as a featured artist. Her second mini-album, Koishiteiku Planet, was released on April 27, 2018. In 2020, Namirin increased her activity on YouTube with regular singing and gaming streams. She officially debuted as a VTuber in February 2021 after revealing her 2D motion capture model. As of May 2021, Namirin has over 270,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 18,500 followers on Twitter.

Physical description of Namirin

Namirin has used an anime-style avatar for her song covers since her debut. In 2014, she finalized her overall appearance, which is still used in her 2D model. She is an anime-style girl with long, coral-colored hair styled in a high side ponytail. Her default outfit features an ocean motif, including a hibiscus flower nestled in her hair. She wears a ruffled bikini top with teal, blue, and white layers, mimicking the appearance of a wave. Her matching miniskirt is held in place by a thick navy blue belt adorned with an orange bow below her waist. Orange and white bows are repeated throughout the outfit, along with seashell accents.

Namirin's Personality

Namirin has a lively and outgoing personality and enjoys joking around with her fans. Although she presents herself as bubbly and easygoing, she is proactive and ambitious. Born and raised in Hawaii, Namirin moved to Tokyo in 2019 to pursue her career in the Japanese music industry. She is a big fan of VTubers and utaite, especially utaite Kano. Although she is fluent in Japanese, she struggles with writing kanji and tweets about her embarrassing kanji mistakes in Japan.

Associated company

As of May 2021, Namirin is not affiliated with any label or agency and operates as an independent artist. She supports her content through a Patreon account accessible via Twitter and YouTube.

Notable Releases/Videos

As a bilingual artist, Namirin primarily sings Japanese songs. However, she tends to use English when performing or chatting online. She streams about two or three times a week and announces her schedule via Twitter.

Renai Traffic

Namirin gained widespread notoriety with her cover of the Bakemonogatari opening theme song "Renai Circulation." Although it was only used for two episodes, the song became a huge hit with anime fans. From 2009 to 2010, the song was a popular subject for song-and-dance covers on the app NicoNico Douga. However, many videos were removed due to copyright infringement complaints filed by Aniplex. Released on July 6, 2017, Namirin's cover uses the opening sequence as a backdrop and sings the song with a striking resemblance to the original artist, Hanazawa Kana. Many viewers have stated that they believe her version was the original music video reposted on her channel. The cover is her most popular video, with over 88 million views as of May 2021.

Games

Since her debut as a VTuber, Namirin has increased the frequency of her gaming streams. Since joining the team as a featured artist, she regularly practices the rhythm game Osu! at a beginner level. Namirin has expanded her activity to include more popular VTuber games, such as Fall Guys and Tetris 99. Most of her gaming streams are one-offs. However, she has begun broadcasting longer series to document her practice. As of May 2021, Namirin is a new fan of APEX Legends, although she admits her lack of skill. While she typically speaks English during gaming streams, she switches to Japanese depending on the language used in the chat.

*namistream

"*namistream" is the generic name Namirin coined for her livestreaming activities. She developed the term thanks to her tendency to combine the first half of her name with other words, such as "naminoob." She uses the name with a hashtag to distinguish her streams from edited cover videos. Starting in March 2021, Namirin began a weekly singing series broadcast on Saturdays or Sundays, Japan Standard Time. She announces her broadcast times on Twitter a few hours before going live.