Forgotten Friday #167 - レアン博士 / Dr. Leanne / Rean Hakase

I really liked the "romanization" of Dr. Leanne over Rean Hakase. Though, I would transcribe Leanne as リアン, I can see it being said as "Lay-anne" also, which is what the katakana says. Hakase is a suffix that means Dr. (in this case, PhD holder specifically) and not a last name. Writing it as Hakase and not Doctor implies her last name is... expert.

Forgotten Friday #167 - レアン博士 / Dr. Leanne / Rean Hakase

Rean / Leanne is an eighteen year old robot maker who makes female robots in specific. Her design is so cute I can't believe it.

Who is Dr. Lean?

official art from website

Previously on A Spectrum of Apple Skins, we learned that I like world building more than writing!

Apple Bloom was confused as Emily led her through the foyer of her new apartment building. It looked grand like she was in Las Pegasus, but it was entirely empty beyond the clicks of their shoes against the marble floor. She looked around at the yellow vaulted ceilings as they waited for the elevator door to open. She figured they were meant to look gold. Once the doors opened, Emily rushed her inside and pressed a button.

"All righty!" Emily laughed as Apple Bloom marveled at the marble walls. "Your floor is four."

Apple Bloom looked up at the panel of buttons. She turned to Emily, her eyes betraying her seriousness, "I don't know how to read numbers."

"Uh… huh." Emily reached into her pocket and pulled out a sticker sheet with stickers in the shape of apples before carefully placing one of the stickers on the button for the fourth floor.

Apple Bloom gasped. "How'd you have a sticker of an apple?!"

"Well," Emily shrugged. "I try to be a manic dream pixie girl. I heard I would have a co-worker named Apple, so I bought stickers shaped like apples. Then when I sent you a memo that was printed off, I could put one next to your name." She paused with a contemplative look in her eyes before holding out the sticker sheet for Apple Bloom. "They came from China, and I had to get like a thousand sheets to get reasonable shipping rates, so I have plenty. Take some!"

Apple Bloom nodded her head as she took the sticker sheet. The door opened, and Emily ushered her out and to the only door in a small and cramped room that was probably meant to be a hallway. Emily pulled a set of keys out of her messenger bag and handed them to Apple Bloom. "You've got your apartment key, a key to get into our office building, and a key to your office. Just a warning, I have all the same keys." Emily waited for Apple Bloom to unlock the door, but she just stared helplessly as she held the keys in her hands. Apple Bloom knew how keys worked, but she didn't know exactly how to make her hands unlock the door using the key. She was an Earth pony! She used her mouth in Equestria! But she was fully aware from her limited adventures in Canterlot High that humans used their hands. Emily unclipped her keychain from a belt loop on her skirt and unlocked the door for Apple Bloom. She cleared her throat as she opened it and explained, "We can trust people here for the most part. If you can't use your keys because of… reasons… then you can feel safe leaving the door unlocked."

"Thank you!" Apple Bloom made her way into the apartment before stopping in her tracks. It was chilly. The weather outside was tolerable and balmy, but the apartment was nearly frigid. She stared at the exposed, grey brick walls. It was just a room. That was it. There was a kitchen in one corner, a couch with a giant black picture frame on her wall across from it, and a mattress on the floor in another corner. She looked on the opposite side of the giant room, and it was just empty. There were windows, but they were covered by white curtains that only let in the dull light at the edges. She looked back at Emily with exasperation in her eyes. "I've seen barns more cozy than this."

"I know; it takes decoration to give it a homey touch. I couldn't handle it," Emily sighed. "I moved into a hotel a long while ago because the grey bricks didn't work for me." She gestured at the empty area, "I put up dividers in my apartment to give me something like a bedroom. I put a dining room where the bed was, and I moved the television and couch to the back wall beside the windows, even if it washed out the image during the day."

Will Apple Bloom learn to love the industrial loft?! Find out next time on A Spectrum of Apple Skins!

How are Leanne Hakase's banks?

Leanne has two banks: a one pitch CV bank and a one pitch VCV bank. The VCV was recorded on the tail end of 2014 and the CV was recorded a few months later in 2015 if the modified on tags are to be believed. (I took a step back and thought, wait a second, this is for banks that have been abandoned for at least five years! When this gets published, it will be 2022 and 2015 will have been a metric ton of a long time ago.)

Her voice is absolutely adorable. It's strong like Haruka Nana, but at least slightly more tempered to be less shrill.  Her VCV is very nice, but the OTOs are sloppy in places where the uniform oto doesn't fit how long some consonants are. The CV OTOs, though... Boy howdy. 

So, here's her VCV, which is very dope:

Now, I'm really torn about this next bit. I'm brain dead from the depression. Happy, but brain dead (also, I went to the doctor yesterday and hobbled all over the place speed walking in my walking boot and that took up some spoons). It's hard to do anything on this wireless keyboard. I put that aside and started doing the OTOs for the tiny section from before and... huh. "ge" was actually nge. "to" is closer to "do"... This would be a frustrating bank to make understandable, whereas the VCV didn't seem to have issues. But it has more "personality" for those choices.

Where can I download Dr. Rean?

You can download her from her website! You can get absolutely wonderful results from her VCV, but her CV could be used for a more "expressive" experience, even possibly mashing the two together and triggering the CV when you need "extra cute" samples.