Official Internet Explorer-tan

[Chocofreak13]

the only one i really approved of was Nanami, but that's mostly because she meshed well into the existing -tans. the problem there is that since she also fit well into MS's corporate model, they started basing their own tans off her instead of the entire -tan network, leading to their own headcanon and some pretty crappy -tans. i mean, there's no personality to it. the fact that the last one to have an "unusual" hair colour was Nanami (i don't count Lei after seeing that pretty albino girl on the train :0 ), it just kind of feels like they're making a manga about a bunch of OLs, only it's backed with a corporate sponsor SO LOUD you can't hear the dialogue anymore. :\

[stewartsage]

They're designed to be mascots for a product by the company selling the product, thus...

[Chocofreak13]

but this is where the community draws the line. are they just mascots, or do they deserve the title of -tan?

[NejinOniwa]

In all honesty - do we have any decent -tans for any of the things they've made in the first place? Nanami did take the place as the de facto Win7-tan rather well (iirc) and while I don't keep tabs on the japanese community I don't see any signs of them having made any united backing for a -tan of their own for this software. So, while we'll of course use our canon as we want it, and use these newcomers in it as we see fit - isn't it just as well to put them to use? It's not like we have any designs of our own to counter with, what with us mostly working with the older generations these days.

[Chocofreak13]

we have plenty of IE-tans, and the Windows 8-tans aren't the only ones out there (i haven't seen enough art of any intrepretation to declare one or the other "canon"), but as for silverlight and the other windows programs they have mascots for, i don't think we have -tans for them yet.

but do we really want the plastic corporate-shipped ones to be them?

[NejinOniwa]

Not really. This IE-tan design, and most of the others - all other things aside - don't really strike me as plastic or corporate-shipped by its virtue, really. And it's better to have something than to have nothing, no?

[Chocofreak13]

yes, i suppose that's true. but we've had IE-tans for years, so for there to be an "official" one seems a bit rude, to put it lightly.

[NejinOniwa]

Emphasis on the plural there. We don't exactly have one to unify the herd.

[Chocofreak13]

all the same, though, they had a pretty unified design. blue hair, white outfit, rather clueless. i don't like the label of "official" on something already well-established since it's a bit of a slap in the face to the community. "oh hey, you've already got all this stuff, but it's crap and meaningless anyway, so we're just gonna throw it the fuck out and give you a REAL one!!"

i don't expect MS to know about the IE-tan(s), but all the same, the fan community going gaga over her makes me feel a little betrayed. >>;

[Nichi]

That, and the Futaba design for IE-tan has much more personality than Nanami Reskin #95 Microsoft's IE-tan

[Chocofreak13]

agreed. -w-

[DustiiWolf]

to be fair, Nanami wasn't ALWAYS a marketing tactic, as she was originally Fan-created. though how they came up with the cash to hire Nana Mizuki, i will never know. she was the last "unofficial" tan and the only one of the "modern" -tans i really like. sorta goes with my software preferences too, lol

Correction! Inori was created by an enthusiast group, Collateral Damage Studios, and later picked up by Microsoft.

An early version of Inori Aizawa's character was posted online by local art enthusiast group Collateral Damage Studios to their Facebook page earlier in March 2013, partly as a challenge to their own skills. Within a few days, the post was rapidly picked up and shared all over Facebook. Encouraged by this initial success, CDS fleshed out their concept and Inori was born, drawing more than 20,000 likes and comments and close to 2,000 shares across all of Facebook.

This initial success led to an extended partnership between Microsoft Singapore and the Studio to officially adopt the character as a mascot for Internet Explorer. Additionally, Microsoft also partnered with Nanyang Technological University's CACANi Animation to develop a short two-minute promotional video introducing Inori. Giving life to Inori is Valerie from Asian Pop Collective, a new and upcoming Asian pop idol group, who will also be cosplaying as the character herself at AFA 2013.

...

"When we first came up with the character concept, we never expected Inori to be picked up officially by Microsoft to represent the browser," said KC Ng, General Manager of CDS. "Inori's story reflects Internet Explorer's transformation to be a modern, elegant yet powerful browser for today's modern devices. We hope that fans will be able to like and relate to the character and for those who haven't used Internet Explorer for a while, to give the browser another chance."

Source: http://komicer.tumblr.com/post/66193939726/and-it-is-completed-finally-after-two-months-of


There's also a more in depth story about this, but im having trouble finding it at the moment.

Also,

You guys are saying what I'm thinking.

Generally for me to even give a -tan the time of day she has to have some badass skills or interesting character development, these corporate-produced -tans are cute but more akin to mascots than anything else. -.-

To be honest, Inori has more character development and skills than most other official tans. She:

• Is a magical girl, with unique powers (uses an IE window as a weapon, can fly, has cool final attack)
• Character was a clumsy, annoying girl when she was young, always messing up
• Character studied the W3C standards for years so she could become standards compliant.
• Character's uniform: IE logo on belt and hair, Blue colors, glove designed after Modern IE's address bar, trident logo on boots ('cause trident rendering engine).
• Character enjoys mint chip icecream and hates bullies.
• Things ive forgotten or am unaware of

I think Inori is good for the fandom. She's fan made, but is backed by MS. She's reached the American audience more than any other official -tan (Internet Explorer was trending on tumblr even , of all places), and even has a chance of becoming something more (CDS is even contemplating a kickstarter to make a series)

Sorry for late reply. Was locked out due to system error with OSC's email system.

[NejinOniwa]

While I'm not going to vent too much on the other stuff - which may be good or bad depending on your preferences - the fact is indeed that she HAS reached western audiences more than any other -tan I've seen to date. We will only see in time what this means for the fandom, though.

[Nichi]

I still don't care much for her, and have nothing else to say on the matter that I haven't already brought up

[Chocofreak13]

*ragequits*