Haruko Mint was a one-off character that I made almost a year ago. I made her in Charat, a website that lets you build cute little characters. Here’s her original design:
Back then she didn’t have a name. That came much later. I sort of went along randomly at first, picking traits here and there at random, but I eventually slowed down and spent a whopping two (!!!) hours on her. I love green so that was the motif I went with, and it progressed from there. Eventually, an artist fleshed out more of her details for me, as seen here:
I always envisioned Haruko as a Vocaloid. She even has a partnership with Queen, a pal’s Vocaloid.
She skateboards, loves the rain and the beach, dismantling capitalism, and smacking TERFs (usually with her skateboard). She’s mortal enemies with Kizunai – she knows what she did – and is best friends with Mo Qingxian too, a Chinese Vocaloid that recently made her debut as well.
She’s a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 fan, and sings fast-paced pop…even though I haven’t figured out a sound for her yet.
Truth be told I’ve built Haruko’s lore as I’ve went along, but it’s all been sort of haphazard. I don’t know if I have any further plans for her, but even though she has her own backstory, she’s come to represent me in some way.
The nice thing about the internet is that you can represent yourself however you want. This isn’t exactly a mind-blowing revelation by any means, but it’s something I’ve come to terms with myself only recently. I get to represent myself however I want, which is nice, because it’s something I struggle with a lot.
I’m straight, but Grey-A. I’m male, but enjoy cute things and aesthetics that would be considered “non-traditional” by society as a whole. I question myself because of these constant “contradictions” – who I get to be versus who I’m meant to be.
But online I get to be…whoever. In that sense, Haruko is my ideal self, an avatar that I get to present that encompasses all of my favorite things.
I suppose I’m rambling at this point but so it goes. I wanted a place to put my thoughts down about my girl Minty. If you see her around, that’s me. So you should say hi!
