Keiki Amai

Keiki Amai (甘井 恵姫) is an independent female English VTuber who made her debut on June 18th, 2022. She mainly does gaming and casual chatting streams with a focus on food or cooking-based content. While her streams are primarily in English, her Japanese is fluent enough to engage in conversation with any Japanese viewers that might drop by as well.

Personality
Keiki has sweet and caring personality and she tries her best to create a fun and comfy environment for her fans. Keiki's humor often relies on corny food puns as well as making sarcastic remarks where appropriate. Keiki speaks with a soft and calm voice most of the time, although she does lose her temper from time to time if something extremely frustrating happens in a game.

Keiki has experience with voice acting and is capable of doing a wide range of voices. For example, Keiki's mascot animal, Rampu, often makes appearances on Keiki's streams and is voiced using a deep male voice. When playing visual novel games or games with a lot of story to read, Keiki tries her best to use a different voice for each character.

Keiki's streams are family-friendly for the most part and rarely will things become lewd. However, Keiki might act out of character from time to time, even engaging in lewd jokes herself. This is her Spicy personality and her eyes will change to a red color to represent this.

Keiki's Childhood
Keiki Amai was not always the sweet girl that she is today. Due to being the child of world famous pastry chefs, Keiki grew up with strict parents that wanted to train her to take over the family business. With such intense culinary training started at such a young age, this left no time for Keiki to do anything else that a normal kid would be able to enjoy. Worst of all, Keiki did not find any enjoyment from cooking her parents’ recipes. To Keiki, cooking was just a mechanical process that was forced upon her against her will. This resulted in Keiki being depressed for the majority of her childhood.

However, this would change during her 3rd year of middle school when Keiki made her first friend. On that fateful day, Keiki sat next to the new transfer student during lunch. The classmate’s name was Rin. Similar to Keiki, Rin was a very introverted person and had no friends. While eating lunch, Keiki noticed the castella cake in Rin’s lunch bag and Rin offered to share some of it with her. Compared to the cakes that Keiki and her parents make, Rin’s castella cake was rather bad. From just one bite, Keiki was able to tell Rin everything that was wrong with it. Even so, there was something special about the castella cake that Keiki couldn’t figure out at that time.

Rather than being mad at Keiki’s criticism, Rin was impressed by her knowledge. Rin confided to Keiki about her dream to become a pastry chef. Rin never had any kind of professional training and everything she did was self-taught. The castella cake was her first attempt at baking and even though it didn’t turn out that good, she was still proud of what she made. Keiki reveals to Rin that she is actually the child of the world famous pastry chefs, but despite that she actually resents cooking. Keiki tries to convince Rin to forget about becoming a pastry chef because she knows how unenjoyable it truly is.

Despite this, Rin was even more determined and begged Keiki to mentor her. Keiki was reluctant to do so at first, but after constantly being asked for a week, Keiki finally accepted on the condition that Rin would bring the cakes she practiced baking at home for Keiki to eat. Every day after that up until their graduation, Keiki would sit next to Rin during lunch time and she would teach Rin everything that she knew. Keiki could tell Rin was making progress since the cakes she ate were also becoming more delicious over time. Not only that, but for the first time in her life Keiki had actually found enjoyment from doing anything cooking related.

On the day of graduation, Rin offered Keiki one final piece of castella cake. Compared to the castella cake she ate when they first became friends, it wasn’t even close. It was honestly more delicious than anything Keiki could make herself and it brought her to tears. After graduating, Rin had to move away due to her parents’ job. This was the last time they ever saw each other. Before parting ways, Rin took off her hair clip and gave it to Keiki as a parting gift. To this day, Keiki still wears Rin’s hair clip as a reminder of her important friend.

In the end, even though Keiki was the mentor, it was Rin that taught Keiki the joy that cooking can bring to other people. However, it would not be until around two years later that Keiki learned what made Rin’s cakes so special.

Becoming a Magical Girl
Keiki’s high school years were full of conflict between herself and her parents. Thanks to her time with Rin, Keiki had finally learned to love cooking, but her approach to it was completely different from what her parents had taught her. Rather than trying to perfectly copy a recipe, Keiki wanted to express herself in her own way within the dish.

Keiki’s parents believe that cooking is about the pursuit of perfection. A process that has been refined by the many generations that came before them and should not be tampered with. On the other hand, Keiki believes that cooking is an expression of one’s self and that the food a chef creates should convey the feelings of the chef to whoever eats it.

During Keiki’s final year of high school, her parents were off on a trip to cook for the elites around the world. Keiki was tasked with running the family café until their return, once again forced to replicate her parents’ recipes for the cafe’s customers. Even though the customers were always satisfied with Keiki’s creations, she knew deep down inside that this way of cooking was wrong and was determined to prove it to her parents one day.

On her way home from school one day, Keiki found a very strange looking cat in a cardboard box. The cat was asleep and had visible injuries on its body. Keiki decided to take the cat with her back home and then went out again to buy some cat food. Upon her return, Keiki discovered that the café was a complete mess. Keiki heard noises coming from the kitchen. The logical thing to do would be to leave and call the police, but Keiki was never the type of girl to think much before acting.

Keiki slowly approached the kitchen and when she got inside what she saw was anything but ordinary. It was the cat that she brought home and it was eating all the cakes in the fridge. Even more surprising, after the cat had finished eating, it started to speak.

“These cakes were delicious, but don’t you think they’re all missing something?”

Keiki was dumbfounded about a talking cat, but deep down she was also rather excited. After being told by the cafe customers all the time that her cakes were perfect, it was quite validating to hear an alternative opinion that agreed with her own. As if reading Keiki’s mind, the cat continued to speak.

''“The way that your parents taught you to cook is quite artificial. It is not the kind of food I am looking for. In order to heal my wounds, I must eat something prepared from the heart. You must have a lot of questions, but please serve me your signature dish first.”''

Keiki never really had a signature dish of her own since she was always copying her parents’ recipes. However, there was one cake that she had fond memories of; that being Rin's castella cake. Keiki quickly baked up a fresh castella cake and immediately after removing it from the oven, the cat pounced on the cake and devoured it in a matter of seconds. The wounds on the cat started to magically disappear, and with a satisfied look on his face, the cat said: “Contract complete!”

Keiki’s entire figure suddenly glowed a vibrant pink color and when the light dissipated, she was wearing quite the bizarre looking outfit. Needless to say, she had become a magical girl!

''“My name is Rampu and I need your help to save the world! We must work together to retrieve the Sacred Ingredients before it is too late. These are ingredients with dangerous magical properties that can be used for diabolical evil if they fall into the wrong hands. However, if these ingredients are utilized by a talented chef with a heart of gold such as yourself, they have the power to change the hearts of those that eat your food. I dare say you could even change the hearts of your parents with a cake created with Sacred Ingredients!“''

Thus begins the story of Keiki Amai, an ordinary girl on a mission to make the world a sweeter place. She will have to not only master her chef skills, but her newfound magical girl abilities as well. Keiki’s adventures will eventually lead to her battling the Noodle Society, the clandestine Illuminati organization of the culinary world, for control of the Sacred Ingredients and the fate of the world.

Sacred Ingredients
The Celestial Strawberry is the first of what are referred to as Sacred Ingredients. A Sacred Ingredient is the result of gourmet ingredients that are exposed to some kind of magical force which transforms them in unexpected ways. Without the proper protection, even just being near a Sacred Ingredient can cause problematic effects to humans.

Sacred Ingredients contain a magical power known as Essence. There are five variations of Essence and the Celestial Strawberry in particular is infused with Sweet Essence. If Sweet Essence is consumed in its raw form, the resulting flavor is too sweet for the human mind to handle and will leave the victim in a delirious state akin to a coma.

The Noodle Society was in the process of studying these Celestial Strawberry when Rampu had broken into their research facility. Rampu managed to destroy the majority of their lab equipment before escaping with the Celestial Strawberry. The facility members would give chase to Rampu but eventually he was able to get far away enough to safety. However, Rampu suffered a lot of physical injuries in the process and went into hiding until he could find the girl with the pink and blue cherry hair clip.

Essence Core
Keiki's Essence Core is a magical catalyst and the source of her magical girl powers. It is the star-shaped jewel that she has attached on her waist ribbon. The Essence Core can be attuned to the five human tastes, resulting in different Essence frequencies. Prior to meeting Keiki, Rampu was able to attune the Essence Core to the Sweet frequency using the Celestial Strawberry he stole from the Noodle Society.

In order to utilize and maintain her Regalia forms, Keiki requires Essence of the corresponding frequency. Rampu has the ability to convert human emotions into a corresponding Essence type and transfer that power to the Essence Core. However, these emotions have to be expressed by people who Keiki interacts with.

By obtaining more Sacred Ingredients, it would be possible for Keiki to attune her Essence Core to unlock other Regalia forms. However, only certain kinds of Sacred Ingredients are powerful enough to do so.

Regalia Forms
All Regalia forms provide protection from the volatile nature of the Sacred Ingredients, allowing Keiki to be exposed to them without suffering any side effects. After absorbing a Sacred Ingredient with her Essence Core, Keiki is then able to transfer Essence to the equivalent normal ingredient counterpart and use the essence-infused ingredient in her cooking.

Anyone that eats Keiki’s essence-infused food will have their heart cleansed. The cleansing power of Keiki’s food is equivalent to how much affinity the person has for it. Everyone has a favorite dish and if Keiki is able to replicate it perfectly, then that would result in the maximum cleansing potential.

Cleansing the hearts of individuals is a vital part of Keiki’s mission. In order to prevent the world from descending into chaos, Keiki must dismantle the Noodle Society by cleansing the hearts of its members one by one with her magical cooking.

Each Regalia form also provides Keiki with a kitchen-inspired weapon, as well as a special cooking-based ability.

Sweet Strawberry Regalia Form
For her Sweet Regalia form, Keiki has two icing spatulas in her garter belt holsters. Although they seem harmless at first glance, these spatulas are actually enforced by Sweet Essence to be indestructible and have special properties as a result.

The straight spatula is sharp enough to cut through any kind of inorganic matter, which makes it Keiki’s main weapon. The offset spatula is extremely flexible and durable, allowing it to block attacks or deflect projectiles, which acts as Keiki’s shield. While the spatulas are most effective when wielded by Keiki, they can also be controlled with Sweet Essence to move on their own.

Despite Keiki being right-handed, she wields the straight spatula in her left hand and the offset spatula in her right hand. This is due to her sweet-hearted nature of not wanting to hurt anyone and will rarely resort to violent actions unless there is no other option.

The Sweet Regalia's special ability is called Kitchen Projection. Kitchen Projection allows Keiki to synthesize replica kitchen tools that function in the same way as their real counterparts but will disappear after being used. Sweet Essence is required to create these replica tools and to maintain their ethereal existence, so it is best for Keiki to not create too many tools at once.

Even though Keiki can replicate most kinds of kitchen tools, she cannot create anything with complex components, such as electronics. Therefore, she mainly uses this ability to create simple items like cutlery, spatulas, pots, pans, measuring cups and so on.

While the synthesized tools are meant to be used for cooking, Keiki can also use them for combative purposes if need be. For example, creating knives to throw at opponents.

Fans
Keiki's fans are called "CupKeikis", which is a pun on the word cupcake.

Trivia

 * The name Amai Keiki is a pun using both English and Japanese. Keiki sounds like "Cakey" in English, while the adjective for "Sweet" in Japanese is 甘い. Therefore, "Amai Keiki" is a Sweet Tasting Cake.
 * Rampu is named after a real life friend of Keiki who likes cats.
 * Keiki's hair colors are based on a Castella cake, which is a yellow cake with a brown top.
 * Keiki's lore is inspired by both Shokugeki no Soma as well as the Persona 5.
 * Kitchen Projection is inspired by a similar ability used by Emiya & Archer from the Fate series, both of which can use magic to create temporary weapons.
 * The Celestial Strawberry is named after the game Celeste which was also the first game Keiki ever streamed.
 * Keiki's Essence Core changes color based on which key is pressed on her keyboard. Whenever you see her Essence Core changing colors rapidly, she is most likely typing something out.
 * The colors that Keiki's Essence Core changes to are the character colors of the girls from the Love Live! series.
 * Keiki's model has 6 different expressions, which match the corresponding emotions of each Essence type. The sixth expression is her Spicy red eyes.
 * Keiki often plays Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel where she plays food-themed decks like Madolche and Suships.

Media

 * keikiamai - Twitch Channel
 * Keiki Amai | 甘井恵姫 VTuber - YouTube Channel
 * Keiki Amai | 甘井恵姫✨🍰Magical Girl Pâtissière VTuber - Twitter Account
 * @keikiamai - TikTok Account
 * keikiamai - Instagram Account
 * u/KeikiAmai - Reddit Account

Twitter Hashtags

 * #PieceOfKeiki - Fan art
 * #SpicyKeiki - Fan art (NSFW)
 * #KeikiLive - Stream & Clips