Merli Character Art and Background Revealed

Today, i-style Project updated their VOCALOID3 character page to include the character design for Aoki Lapis’s older sister, Merli. In contrast to Lapis’s fair-skinned appearance and jewel accessory, Merli has dark skin and butterflies for accessories. Her voice provider hasn’t been revealed yet, but she now has a character background. According to the official website, Merli is 16cm tall, one centimeter taller than Lapis. Her personality is billed as strong-willed and tsundere; she’s a simple-minded little fiend who has a tendency to flip-flop between emotions. Down inside she has a pure heart, but since she doesn’t know much of the real world, she’d often tough it out in situations by pretending to know what she was talking about. While Lapis’s singing contains the power to bring life to things, hidden inside Merli’s singing is the power to absorb life energy.


22 thoughts on “Merli Character Art and Background Revealed”

    1. I doubt it matters anymore, the users are not forced to use it, really.

      I could turn around and say the sisters are so shy and sheltered of the world they imagined themselves to be fairies in order to get through the tough shit it takes to be popular singers.

  1. I’m proud that she should be the first dark-skinned Vocaloid! Not that I have dark skin but I can be proud for them, right? She’s going to be a thrill to draw. ^^ Let’s hope she has a contrasting voice to Lapis’s.

  2. I love her for having darker skin, it makes her the first VOCALOID to have it if you don’t count Bruno and Clara’s original skin tone. I expect much from i-Style Project since Aoki Lapis was great quality. Also just a note, Merli’s voice provider hasn’t been announced because they’re going to have an audition competition just like they did for Aoki Lapis.

    1. So,… yo love her just becuase of her skin tone?
      That is even rascist! xD, I don’t care about her skin colour, she looks like a sado-prostitute teenage girl: another teenage girl! 🙁

        1. Pretty much what J.T. said, I love VOCALOIDs for not only their voice but for their designs. Merli is new and exciting for artist, I didn’t mean to be “racist”, I love the paler VOCALOIDs as well but Merli is unique compared to them.

  3. I don’t care if she has dark skin or not, she looks bitchy! totally bitchy!
    And her design is too much specific for a Vocaloids, specially her stupid super-specific “personality”.
    She seems to have be the prototype of shoujo anime chacater, tsunderes are so overrated now, sorry: but not original.

    Anyway: why now the companies release the design of their vocaloids before thier voices?
    Only logical explanation: becuase they are only trying to sell ecchi/shoujo anime design to horny otakus and silly fangirls.

      1. I’m pretty sure you know what I mean, they are “shoujoish” ,that’s the thing.
        Specially their personalities, and that is because they are trying to sell this to crazy fangirls of sohujo who only sees vocaloid as their collection of talking virtual dolls or like a shoujo anime. -.-
        And even worst: she is at the same time, a bicthy sado-girl for horny otakus. :S

        1. Please name some “shoujo” shows which you believe are great examples of the overabundance of tsundere characters…

    1. I thought she looked calm in her art… Also Merli is completely original to VOCALOID, they’re marketing for a different area in the fandom. Plus what does it matter if the design is shown first before the voice? At least fans can actually do something with the design, with demos all you get to do is listen to them.

  4. I was expecting Merli’s color scheme to contrast Lapis’s and for them to look more alike. I’m confused, do they share the same last name? On the website, Merli’s name is just listed as “Merli.” No fancy logo or anything.

    1. Currently she has no last name, I also don’t think her logo is finished, maybe they’ll announce it later. I’m expecting something like pink princess or queen in order to contrast Lapis’ blue princess.

  5. I’m really looking forward to seeing what will be done with Merli. I really do love her design, all her colors look fabulous. It took me some time to warm up to Lapis’s design, because it slightly confused me for what they were going with, But I loved Merli’s design from the first glance. She’s going to be so much fun to draw. I hope she gets a nice husky voice to compliment Lapis’s lighter tone. As far as these new Vocaloids coming out with set personalities and backgrounds, I wouldn’t worry too much about it guys. I mean, it’s not like they’re going to FORCE us to make them our head cannons. However, I do find it refreshing to see companies trying new things. I’m all for new things!. (OWO)/

  6. Yes I know this has been said already but….omgosh a dark-skinned Vocaloid. 🙂 I like how they tried to make their design unique, I love her colors and the outfit. Lately the new Vocaloids are starting to look kand sound alike @.@

  7. Not sure why people don’t like her skin color. Makes ’em seem a little racist to me. Especially since I have brown skin myself.

  8. I hate this racist fandom. Her skin is pretty and there are actual dark skinned people in the world get over it dickwads.

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