Internet Explorer-tan

For IE-tan, see: IE-tan

Inori Aizawa is Microsoft Singapore's official mascot character for Internet Explorer. She has dark blonde hair, and fits into the magical girl archetype. Initially created by Collateral Damage Studios in response to -tan designs for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, she was picked up by Microsoft, where, in partnership with Collateral Damage Studios and Nanyang Technological University’s CACANi Animation, they created a 2 minute anime short introducing Inori, which was shown at Anime Festival Asia 2013, as well as posted on YouTube at the same time. She is also the most recent fan made -tan to be picked up by Microsoft, with Nanami being the last one before her.

About

Appearance

Inori Aizawa's appearance consist of her magical girl uniform. The top starts blue at the bottom, having a gradient transition to white at the top. The tail of the her top, the belt buckle, and the right collar have the Microsoft logo (current 2013 version). The glove on her left arm is fingerless and covers most her arm, and is designed after modern IE's address bar. She has the Internet Explorer logo both on her hair clip and her belt, near the buckle. She also has what could be described as a neckerchief around the underneath side of the collar of her top. The frilled skirt she adorns is dual layered, with the bottom layer being white, and the top, visible layer being dark blue. Her boots are black, with the Trident logo on the bottom, representing her rendering engine of the same name, and have 2 blue ribbons around them.

Younger Inori (ala-IE6) is depicted as a sort-of nerdy schoolgirl, wearing white socks & sandals, a blue sweatshirt, and a headband. She is seen dropping some of the four colored squares that used to be included in the Windows Logo (such as on the Windows 2000 boot screen) and the IE logo on the about IE dialog, as well as dropping info and error dialog icons. Her overall appearance is meant to symbolize Internet Explorer's earlier days as a clumsy and annoying browser, and her transformation into a magical girl is meant to represent the browser's change, that began with version 9, into a fast, easy to use, secure, and standards compliant browser.

Bio

Taken from Inori's Facebook page.

"My name is Inori and I'm an anime personification for Internet Explorer! Shall we explore the web together?

When I was younger, I used to be a clumsy, slow and awkward girl.

However, just like the story of ugly duckling, people told me that I have really matured and changed over the years. I feel confident in my abilities now, and I'm eager to show you what I can do.

Why don't you get to know me a little better?"[1]

Personal Information

Taken from Inori's Facebook page.

• Born on August 16, 1995

• Female

• Height: 1.62m

• Weight: ?

• Hikaru Aizawa, who represents Silverlight, is her cousin

• Is close personal friends with Yu (RT) and Ai (8) Madobe

• Enjoys surfing the Internet, HTML5, karaoke, cats, mint-flavored ice cream

• Hates malware, viruses, online bullies, and trolls

Creation

Like Nanami Madobe and the fan-made -tans before her, Inori Aizawa was not created by Microsoft, being the creation of Collateral Damage Studios in response to -tans for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari created by "めまして！"[2] and reposted by Danny Choo[3], or rather, in response to the lack of Internet Explorer in the drawings, to be specific. After posting an early design[4] on facebook and getting massive positive feedback, CDS fleshed out her design and Inori was born[5]. She saw a swift rise to popularity, drawing more than 20,000 likes and comments and close to 2,000 shares across all of Facebook.

Shortly afterwards, Microsoft Singapore took notice of this, and offered an extended partnership to CDS, and additionally partnered with CACANi Animation Studios at NTU to create what has been called the "Internet Explorer Anime", a short, two minute anime video introducing Inori and showing off her magical girl transformation, which was shown to attendees of AFA13, as well as to the world via YouTube.[6]

"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."[7]

Possibility of an Anime

Collateral Damage Studios has indicated on tumblr[8] and Facebook[9] that they are thinking about making a kickstarter for an anime, and were asking whether people would support it. Whether it will happen is still unknown.

Art Work

• 

  Inroi's Earliest Design by CDS

• 

  The first of four wallpapers from MS

• 

  The second of four wallpapers from MS

• 

  the third of four wallpapers from MS

• 

  the fourth of four wallpapers from MS

• 

  A wallpaper from the CDS theme zip file

• 

  A sketch by WaHa of CDS to celebrate the Anime's completion

• 

  A line and colored version of WaHa's image by an Inori Blog

Downloads

• Inori's Skydrive (Contains all 4 wallpapers from MS and the theme music from the video)
• Inori Windows 8 Desktop Theme
• Collateral Damage Studios' Inori Aizawa Theme Zip (contains a soundpack for Inori, wallpapers, and icons)
• Microsoft Inori Aizawa Theme (Windows 8)
• Microsoft Inori Aizawa Theme (Windows 7)
• Microsoft Inori Aizawa Sound Pack (ZIP)
• Microsoft Inori Aizawa Extra Sounds (ZIP)

Media

• Internet Explorer: The Anime
• "Divided Singularity" Extended (the theme to the anime short. Available on Inori's Skydrive)
• Piano Cover of "Divided Singularity"
• Internet Explorer: The Anime, Behind-The-Scenes Compositing video

Links

• Inori's Facebook (English)
• Inori's Homepage (English)
• Inori's Twitter (English)

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