Kagamine Rin & Len 14th Anniversary Manga & Story Contest Now On
The Kagamine duo, originally released on December 27th 2007, are the feature of the newest upcoming illustration contest, and this time it’s a collaboration with the online art platform pixiv!
Pixiv is used by artists and creators worldwide, with the website being available in 5 languages and which includes related services such as pixiv Comic and pixiv Novel (some ways to read manga and (light) novels for free), BOOTH (a platform for creators to market and sell merchandise they’ve made) and VRoid Studio, a new feature added especially for designing and creating your own 3D models in a few easy clicks!
And now the popular website is hosting this contest in collaboration with the piapro characters! If you’re a budding artist, or have a cool idea in mind for a story, read below for how you can enter this competition yourself!
※All translations here are unofficial
Competition Details
Contest title: 「鏡音リン ♪ 鏡音レン Happy 14th Birthday マンガ・小説コンテスト」/ “Kagamine Rin ♪ Kagamine Len Happy 14th Birthday Manga & Novel Contest”
Concept: Create a novel OR manga (comic) based around Rin and Len!
Themes:
- Becoming / being “14 years old”
- “Free”
Make sure you choose ONE of these two themes for your comic/story.
Submission dates (both contests) : December 1st 2021 13:00 JST ~ February 13th 2022 23:59 JST
Specifications (both contests):
Which characters can I include in my story?
- Hatsune Miku
- Kagamine Rin
- Kagamine Len
- Megurine Luka
- MEIKO
- KAITO
- The comic/story MUST be in Japanese.
- Your comic/story must be appropriate for all ages.
- Even if you submit multiple works to the contest, only one can be chosen as a winner at the end.
- You cannot put multiple different stories/comics in one application – they must be separate to be valid entries.
- All entries MUST be previously unpublished, brand new works. If your submission has won a prize in another contest, it cannot be submitted here. “Doujinshi” works, works published to personal blogs or even other image hosting sites aside from pixiv all count as “published works” and are not allowed to be entered for this contest.
- Minors must receive approval from their parent or guardian prior to submitting an entry to this contest.
- Please be aware that if your work is selected as a winner, you may be asked to make some changes to it, or some changes may need to be made to your work prior to publication. Some changes may be made without prior contact of the creator.
- Any submissions that are edited/reposted after the submission deadline will not be elligible for the contest. This even includes correcting minor typos in descriptions etc.
- The depiction of gambling, politics, religion, smoking and anything against general public morals must not be included in your entry.
- The underage characters (Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len, of the characters allowed to feature in your comic) must not be shown consuming any products with alcohol in them. This includes sweets or chocolates containing alcohol.
- Derivative characters are not allowed to be featured (Snow Miku, Mikudayo, Sakura Miku etc.)
- Character costumes that are not limited in ownership to Crypton future Media (such as costumes from specific merchandise/apparel and game collaborations) are not permitted to be included in entries. You may not include any costumes featured in games, manga or other pre-existing novels for the characters.
- Character costumes, such as ones from official box art, are permitted. You may also design your own costume for the characters.
- Works that infringe the copyright of any third parties will not be eligible for entry.
- Works that are obscene, discriminatory and cause discomfort to third parties will be disqualified.
- Crypton Future Media will not be held responsible for any potential damage caused by your submission.
Contest 1: Kagamine Rin ♪ Kagamine Len Happy 14th Birthday Story Contest
Official contest page on Pixiv (Stories)
Winners:
- Grand prize winner (x1) – You will receive a song based around your story created by producer あ子 / Ako and your story will also be published.
- Excellence award (x5) – Your story will be published.
- Pixiv award (x30) – You’ll receive some Kagamine Rin & Len (and potentially other virtual singer) merchandise through a lottery system.
Specifications:
- Word count: must be between 800 and 10,000 Japanese characters. Please also include a brief summary or caption for your story, between 50 and 400 Japanese characters in length.
Contest 2: Kagamine Rin ♪ Kagamine Len Happy 14th Birthday Comic Contest
Official contest page on Pixiv (Comics)
Winners:
- Grand prize winner (x1) – Your manga will be published, and you will receive Kagamine Rin & Len merchandise.
- Excellence prize: (x5) – Your comic will be published.
- Pixiv prize: (x30) – You will receive some Kagamine Rin & Len (and potentially other virtual singes) merchandise through a lottery system.
Specifications:
- There is no limit to the amount of pages you can submit.
- The size of your comic does not matter when being uploaded but is recommended to be B4 size (364mm (H) x 257mm (W)).
In the case that you win one of the prizes, you may need to provide a copy of your comic which is a JPEG and at least 4000* pixels in height, or alternatively the Photoshop file/data for the comic.
Resolution: at least 600dpi - Colour: The comic must be monochrome (2 gradations)
- File type: tiff or psd
- If possible, please keep the text as a separate file to the rest of the comic, or keep another file that’s the comic minus the text as well.
*/!\ We’re aware that in regards to manga submissions, it is said in the Section Application Requirements both that
“winners may need to provide a copy of the comic which is 2048 pixels in height…”
※ただし受賞者の方には、縦2048px以上のJPEGもしくはPSDのデータ形式で作品のデータのご提出をお願いします。
and
“winners may need to provide a copy of the comic which is 4000 pixels in height…”
(※ただし受賞者の方には、縦4000px以上のJPEGもしくはPSDのデータ形式で作品のデータのご提出をお願いします。)
This may have been a typing error, although we’d advise entrants to proceed with caution and go for the higher number of pixels just to be sure.
How to upload your story/art to pixiv
Step 1. Create a pixiv account
>Head to https://www.pixiv.net/en/.
>Click on “Create a new account” and follow the steps shown.
Step 2. Go to the official contest page on pixiv for either comics or stories.
Step 3. Click on “Upload an application”.
- Click on “Upload an application”.
- Choose the theme of your comic (either “14 years old” or “free”).
- Add your title.
- Type/copy and paste it into the text box.
- Add tags. The official competition tags (either “鏡音14thコン_14歳” (14 years old) and 鏡音14thコン_フリー (free)) will be added automatically depending on your selection in step 2, but feel free to add any other tags that are relevant too.
- Click on “All-Ages” for “viewing restriction”.
- Add a cover image. Choose one of the already existing ones or click on the + button to upload your own.
- Add a caption/description for your story.
- Then you can either save the draft, preview the work or submit it!
For examples of how published novels will look on pixiv, click here!
- Click on “Upload an application”.
- Choose the theme of your comic (either “14 years old” or “free”).
- Click on the “manga” tab at the top.
- Click on the blue “select images” button and select all of the pages of your comic. Make sure they’re in the correct order before submitting!
- Add a title.
- Add a description in the “comments” section.
- Add tags. The official competition tags are “鏡音14thコン_14歳” (14 years old) and 鏡音14thコン_フリー (free), so make sure to choose the one which is most appropriate to attach to your comic. Feel free to add any other tags that are relevant too.
- Set “visible to” to “all ages”.
- Then click “post” to submit it!
For examples of how published manga will look on pixiv, click here!
While some contests on pixiv are open to submissions from abroad, this particular contest requires entries to be submitted fully in Japanese, so please keep this in mind! The contest is now open to applications, but you still have plenty of time to brainstorm ideas and get to work, so no need to rush!
Results wil be posted on the official pixiv website and social media accounts, so make sure you’re following them (links below), and good luck to everyone who plans on entering!
Links
Official contest announcement on the piapro blog
Kagamine 14th Anniversary Official Webpage
pixiv
