Megumi

Megumi is a character that appears in Crash Team Racing and its remake, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. She is an anthropomorphic bandicoot who presents prizes to Neo Cortex and N. Gin in Crash Team Racing. She returns as a playable character and member of the Nitro Squad in Nitro-Fueled, being portrayed as being bubbly and excitable and speaking with a Japanese accent.

Megumi is named after Megumi Hosoya, who was the product manager and marketing manager for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. for the first three Crash games. According to the old Naughty Dog website: "Megumi Hosoya, marketing genius, created the Crash Dance for Crash 1 ' s TV ads in Japan. The success of that campaign influenced Naughty Dog to incorporate the dance into Crash 2 and Warped."

Crash Team Racing
In Crash Team Racing, Megumi is one of the motorsports models that can be seen in the game upon winning a race, along with Ami, Liz, and Isabella. Megumi appears when either Neo Cortex or N. Gin wins a race. She twirls her umbrella, then waves at the camera before presenting the winner and their trophy on the podium. The game's epilogue states that she created a line of perfume called "Odecoot", featuring the scent of fermented Wumpa Fruit.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
In Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, a remake of Crash Team Racing, neither Megumi nor any other character presents trophies at the end of races. Megumi was instead added to the game as a playable racer at the start of the Nitro Tour Grand Prix on July 3, 2019, along with Tawna, Ami, Liz, and Isabella. With the exception of Tawna, they are members of the Nitro Squad, related characters that received themed skins throughout the Grand Prixes. Megumi can be purchased from the Pit Stop for 1500 Wumpa Coins. Her default Driving Style is Acceleration, and she uses Aku Aku as her Invincibility Mask. She does not have an epilogue entry in this game, likely because she was not in the game at all at launch.

Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!
While Megumi herself doesn't physically appear in On the Run!, a Megumi-themed skin for Coco Bandicoot was added in Season 4, Survival of the Fastest.

Physical appearance
In Crash Team Racing, Megumi appears to be an anthropomorphic bandicoot. Like the game's other bandicoot characters, she has orange fur on her face and arms and a peach-colored muzzle. She has light cyan hair with straight-cut bangs, tied in two buns with white ribbons at the back, and a short cyan tail. She wears a sleeveless white coat with pointed shoulder pads, resembling the lab coats of Neo Cortex and N. Gin, whom she presents prizes for. She also wears white pants and black sneakers. In Crash Team Racing only, she has yellow eyes, and carries a large white-and-sky blue striped umbrella.

In Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, Megumi is depicted with coral-colored eyes and lipstick. She also has small pointed ears visible on her head, and wears a single gray piercing in her left ear. Promotional material officially calls her a bandicoot.



Personality
Little of Megumi's personality is explored in Crash Team Racing, except that she works as a motorsports model in-game and developed a line of perfume during the epilogue. Her character was expanded in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, a remake of the original Crash Team Racing in which she is playable. Megumi's most visible trait is her excitability. On the podium after winning a race, Megumi is unable to contain her joy and jumps, cheering. She becomes similarly excited while sitting in her kart as an idle animation.

She is typically polite as well. While racing, she asks other drivers to "Pardon the dust" and "Move to the slow lane, please!". On the podium after losing a race, she claps for the winner in earnest. Her in-game lines also show that she is unbothered by losing. Megumi seems to value hard work, saying "There's nothing like a little hard work" and "A victory well-earned" after winning a race. While wearing her Nitro Pirate skin on the podium, she is shown to be clumsy, accidentally unleashing a large blast from her laser gun before dropping it off of the podium.

Trivia

 * Game data for Crash Team Racing suggests that Megumi, as well as the other motorsport models, is based on Tawna Bandicoot — her model is named "tawna4" internally.

Gallery
Main article: Megumi/Gallery