Apple II

Apple II
Character Information
Common Names	Apple II
Other Names	][-chan
Faction	Binteeji Renmei, formerly from the Apple Family
Lineage	Pre-Macintosh
Appearance
Height	127 cm (4'2")
Hair Color	blonde
Eye Color	red
Design
First Appearance	Aug 2006
Technical Information
System Personified	Apple II (and variants)
Developer(s)	Apple Inc.
Debut	5 Jun 1977
Latest release	circa 1993

Character details

The only Apple II-tan identified to date is meant as a catch-all design for all variants of the 8-bit Apple II computer. These include the Apple II, II Plus, IIe, IIc, IIGS, (and also the Apple III until a separate III-tan design was made), in addition to all the operating systems released for this platform, such as AppleDOS and ProDOS.

Currently Apple II-tan is depicted as a young girl wearing red-and-white Edo period Japanese farmer clothes, a white kerchief around her hair, and a suge-kasa (Japanese straw hat) bearing the old rainbow Apple logo. She usually has her blonde hair -- done in long twin-braided pigtails -- covered by the kerchief and suge-kasa for reasons of practicality, although when inactive she will let her hair loose or at least exposed. Her white tunic bears the logos of all the major Apple II hardware labels, whereas her red rolled-up work-pants are patterned with A's written in the old Motter Tektura font as well as A's written in Katakana. She carries few props with her, other than a pole fruit picker to harvest apples with, a basket to carry them, and a golden, apple-shaped locket bearing a black-and-white picture of her mother Apple I-tan.

She is described as beginning life as an idealistic revolutionary, but over the years has settled into a slow-paced but still stimulating life of a natural farmer. She loves hard work, talks with an accent, and has a friendly, witty and rugged personality that sets her in sharp contrast to the latest generation of Mac-tans. Though she does not live with the modern Mac-tans, she still corresponds with them and fills the role of mother figure (and at times father figure!) in Apple I's absence. She does however take care of her younger sister Apple Lisa-tan, and is still served by her long-standing disciple GS/OS-tan.

History and background

Apple II-tan is Apple I-tan's first daughter and from her mother she learned to be caring and hard-working, learned the necessary skills to succeed in the marketplace, carry on traditions, and build a better future for herself and her future sisters. The two spent a lot of time together but Apple I-tan died suddenly but Apple II-tan vowed to carry on her ideals and dreams and to keep on working hard.

However because of her success, she was so busy working that she did not have much time to spend with Apple III-tan, Lisa-tan and Mac System 1-tan (or to stop Lisa-tan from tormenting Mac System 1-tan). She was still the very busy breadwinner of the Apple Family well into the 1980's and even the early 1990's. Because she wasn't able to spend much time at home with her younger relatives (except for her disciple GS/OS-tan), she grew distant from them and felt like a stranger in her own home but still managed to keep up her work and social ethics.

In 1993 (the year the Apple //e and IIGS were discontinued), she left along with Lisa-tan and GS/OS-tan to retire from her status at the Apple Family. Her departure was for multiple reasons: With the Mac-tans well-off and independent, she started to feel useless and that she had neglected Lisa-tan for so long. The latter was the main reason Apple II-tan left, she wanted to make up for all the years of negligence. The three left and went to Apple II-tan's plantation where they lived for years until the land was donated to help establish the Binteeji Renmei. She now lives happily at the Binteeji Renmei and contributes with the daily produce, teaching natural farming practices, and her humorous storytelling.

Oddly enough, being away from the Mac-tans did not make her even more distant from them but actually brought them closer together. No longer having the overwhelming responsibility of being the family breadwinner, she has had the time to get to know each and every of her relatives well and regularly contacts them as well as the Mac-tans visiting.

Her closest friends are Lisa-tan, GS/OS-tan and two of her former rivals: Commodore PET-tan and Atari DOS-tan. Coleco Adam-tan is still her rival to this day and their rivalry gets very competitive but is a friendly and civil rivalry as both have a lot of respect for each other.

See also:

• List of OS-tans
• Apple Lisa