Akage Megane is my original character and VTuber persona. She made her debut on April 8th, 2022, The creation of Akage Megane started when a friend of mine at the time was showing off his VTuber model made in VRoid Studio. Beforehand, I received advice from another friend of mine from another community about making an OC several months prior.
Akage Megane was created through VRoid Studio, which initially took about a day or two. Shortly after her debut, the 3D model underwent more changes to make it a tad bit more than just an effortless VRoid model, which VRoid sadly had a reputation for.
Originally, Akage had a generic name up until around May 22, 2022, when I experimented with translators. Akage means redhead, and Megane means glasses. Yeah, yeah, bad Japanese. I get it. Let me have fun, lol. During the time between June 2022 and October 2023, her appearance underwent more changes. Her midriff-baring crop top became shinier, and she started wearing black tights with legwear instead of pants. Not only that, but her figure was touched up using both VRoid and Blender, allowing her to have a more fit female look, including a bigger bust and a curvier butt (since VRoid doesn’t have a butt parameter). The final touches to her core design were made on October 1st, 2023, when she got new lipstick.
From her debut up until May 2024, most of the tracking was done through VSeeFace. While it does most of the work, there was no arm tracking without spending money on a LeapMotion. That all changed when I discovered XR Animator. Sincerely, this has brought more life since you can have a webcam track the arms and even the legs if far enough away. The software isn't perfect, especially since I rely on audio lipsyncing, but I improvised by having two cameras. One for VSeeFace for the core parts and XR Animator for the arms. The first video to feature this method of tracking was "Can't Port Forward? Alternative Ways to Enjoy Retro Multiplayer!". This was released on June 17th, 2024.
Akage Megane has red hair in a ponytail and blue eyes. She wears glasses owing to impaired eyesight, which contributes to her geeky computer girl appearance. She usually wears a black midriff-baring crop top with puffed sleeves, black tights, and black legwear. The crop top also incorporates an earlier Nali sign, which she discovered while playing around with an Unreal tech demo from late 1995.
She would occasionally go without her ponytail (as shown in September 2023), and she would wear various croptop designs, including red/blue crop tops and cowprint crop tops. Her condition is unclear, which is why she constantly appears to be flushed.
Akage's lore really isn't fleshed out and isn't as important to me. I portray Akage not to play a character but rather to be myself. Self-serving or not, I don't care too much as long as I am myself. Don't you like it? Well, too bad.
Anyway, here's the not-so-important story: Akage Megane grew up on an unidentified planet where having LAN parties was a joyful tradition. She was able to connect to the internet and communicate with people on Earth as well as her home planet, though, when internet access became widespread.
Akage was so motivated to share her passion for old-school video games and computers with people all over the world. Akage once changed an injoke to read, "Give 5 money, 4 booba."
She also loves the Unreal series so much; her crop top has the Nali symbol from the December 1995 tech demo on it.
As soon as my channel began to grow back in mid-2023, it caught the attention of people who are likely unfamiliar with VTubers in general or who find female avatars with male voices creepy. From time to time, I would get comments complaining about Akage Megane being shown on their screens. (some comments even being transphobic) Personally, I've grown to accept that you can't please everybody. This saying sticks to my mind, and many should stick it to their minds too. If you don't like it, don't watch it.
While you have people being grossed out over her existence, there are people who liked the character or maybe have grown to like it. I don't pay too much attention to what people think of Akage because I would rather pay more attention to the fun of making these videos and letting what I know or find out there. But I do love to see fanart of my original creation, and I am sure many would feel the same for their OCs.
