GUMI: The "Discount Miku" That Was Never Generic
when GUMI dropped in 2009, everyone kind of dismissed her as "oh, the other green vocaloid." green hair, anime goggles, orange clothes. generic anime girl energy. and that reputation stuck for a while.
but there's actually a lot more to her story.
GUMI's voice is Megumi Nakajima. before becoming a vocaloid voice provider, she auditioned for Victor Entertainment's talent search and won. she was cast as Ranka Lee in Macross Frontier, released her debut single "Seikan Hikou" in June 2008, and by March 2009 she'd won Best Musical Performance at the Seiyu Awards for it.
then three months later, Internet Co. released GUMI using her voice.
so GUMI came pre-installed with an award-winning singer. nobody really talked about that part.
and here's the thing that gets interesting.
GUMI's designer is Masami Yuuki. the artist who helped create Mobile Police Patlabor back in 1988 with the Headgear collective. one of anime's foundational mecha franchises. and when he designed GUMI in 2009, he gave her the exact same color palette as Ranka Lee's signature outfit. green, yellow, and orange.
was it intentional? officially, no one's ever confirmed it. but it's hard to believe it was coincidence.
so basically:
her voice won an award before she even existed her artist was making anime history before she was drawn and her design was never random
