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is a Japanese
virtual YouTuber A , or , is an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar generated using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often—but not always—used to capture movement. The digital trend originated in Japan in the mi ...
(VTuber) currently part of Kizuna AI Inc., a subsidiary of digital entertainment company Activ8. From her debut in 2016 until 2021, she was the most subscribed VTuber on Youtube, with more than 4 million subscribers across three
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channels, 1 million subscribers on Chinese video platform
Bilibili Bilibili (stylized bilibili), nicknamed B Site, is a video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view and add overlaid commentary on videos. Since the mid-2010s, Bilibili began to expand to a broader audience from its origi ...
. Kizuna AI posted her first YouTube video on her "A.I.Channel" on 29 November 2016. A second channel, "A.I.Games", was opened in March 2017 for gaming content, and a third, "A.I.Channel China", opened in June 2019 for a Chinese audience. After a live concert held on 24 February 2022, she went on indefinite hiatus. Although the first channel to use a CG avatar for vlogging purposes on YouTube was the channel of English-Japanese
Ami Yamato Ami Yamato (born October 26 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese virtual YouTuber, virtual YouTube vlogger. In her videos, she vlogs from the perspective of a 3D animation, 3D-animated character who does not seem to realize that she is animated. She is ...
, who debuted her first video in 2011, Kizuna is the world's first virtual YouTuber with the characteristics as we know today, much like the one who coined the term Virtual YouTuber. Kizuna's video content is similar to many other YouTubers, consisting primarily of discussions, Q&A videos, and more traditional "Let's Play" videos, although in years later, she also began to livestream at least one time per week. Because Kizuna primarily communicates in Japanese, fans contributed translations for her videos, and there were entire unofficial communities built around these translators, filling the void of an official English community until 2020 when official subtitles began to be done. Kizuna has performed at various anime conventions, at virtual concerts, and has also worked with many game companies. She has also appeared on television shows and has starred in commercials not limiting herself to YouTube, to the point of appearing in mid-
Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷 区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...
. She has become a popular virtual celebrity worldwide. Starting in 2016, Kizuna AI was originally managed directly by Activ8, the company that created her, under the name Project A.I. In 2018, the project was moved to in-house agency upd8. Following an announcement on 24 April 2020, Activ8 announced that Kizuna AI was moved from upd8 to a new subsidiary company dedicated exclusively to her, called Kizuna AI Inc. With the announcement, Japanese voice actress Nozomi Kasuga (春日望) also disclosed her role as the voice model of Kizuna AI and advisor of the new company. Kizuna AI Inc. formally started activities on 11 May 2020, with Eriko Matsumoto (松本恵利子) as the CEO.


Production

Kizuna is an online virtual character completely constructed using software. As the identities of producers in the background are not revealed, video animators, producers, video editors, and players of games are unknown. Kizuna's
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channels are thought to be managed by an entire production crew, and the choice to remain anonymous comes from the wish to keep the concept of a virtual
idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...
intact. Though this has caused speculation regarding the operation crew and technology. Kizuna's videos are produced by Tokyo-based digital production company Activ8. All crew members known so far to be involved in Kizuna's design are already well known. These include En Morikura in character design, Tomitake in 3D modelling, and Tda in modelling supervision. Morikura is an artist well known for illustration. Tomitake has designed many 3D models, and works alongside Tda, an expert in the
MikuMikuDance MikuMikuDance (commonly abbreviated to MMD) is a freeware animation program that lets users animate and create 3D animated movies, originally produced for the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku. The MikuMikuDance program itself was programmed by Yu ...
3D modelling field. The identity of Kizuna AI's voice model had long been unknown; however, on 24 April 2020 it was announced on Twitter that voice actress Nozomi Kasuga provides her voice.


Personality

Kizuna is aware that she is a virtual character, and claims that she is an independent
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
(hence the "AI" in her name). The main concept of a character in a virtual setting was created through Kizuna, so she is publicly recognized as the world's first "virtual YouTube user". An October 2018 article from BBC Capital noted a
Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...
advertisement campaign for
Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...
in 2015 with the same concept. In her first video, Kizuna introduces herself. Apart from the general meaning of "artificial intelligence", "AI" is also a pun on the
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
"愛", meaning "love" while "Kizuna"

means to bond, bind and/or connect. Kizuna is designed as a young and beautiful 2.5D animated girl with moe elements, which attracts many YouTube users. Kizuna's appearance age is roughly 16 years old, though she revealed that she is only five, with her birthday on 30 June. She has a height of 156 cm (~5'1"), a weight of roughly 46 kg (101 lbs.), and her three measurements are 85-59-83 (34-24-33). Kizuna's overall appearance uses a pink and white color palette. She has long flowing hair, coupled with a futuristic gradient hair dye of pink. She wears a pink wobbly hairband with a butterfly knot. The hairband has a double-leaf heart-shaped design, corresponding to the word "Ai", meaning "love", in her name. Kizuna's sleeveless white top brings about a futuristic feel as well. It is designed to put emphasis on her back and body, as well as to make her appear slimmer. Embroidered above her chest is the letter "A". Her arm sleeves and thigh highs are decorated with lace, while her thigh highs and shorts form a "Zettai Ryoiki" area in her design. Kizuna is a huge fan of ''
Love Live! is a Japanese multimedia project created by Hajime Yatate and Sakurako Kimino and co-produced by Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa through ASCII Media Works; Bandai Namco Music Live through music label Lantis (company), Lantis; and animation studio ...
'' and ''
Love Live! School Idol Festival (often abbreviated as ''LLSIF'' or ''Sukufesu'') is a Japanese rhythm game series. The original game, developed by KLab and published by Bushiroad's Bushimo, was first released in Japan on April 15, 2013 for iOS and June 8, 2013 for Android (ope ...
''; her favorite character is Nico Yazawa. During an interview with Panora, Kizuna mentioned that she pays close attention to
idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...
groups such as
Keyakizaka46 , formerly , is a Japanese idol girl group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group was created on August 21, 2015, becoming Nogizaka46's first sister group under the Sakamichi Series. Following the resignation of group's center Yurina Hirate and ...
and
Nogizaka46 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto, created as the of the group AKB48. They are the first group from the Sakamichi Series, which also includes sister groups Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46), Yoshimotozaka46, and ...
. Kizuna likes how idols follow their dreams just like herself. In her character design, she also likes to spend time in virtual space playing video games.


Technology used

Kizuna is able to livestream and record videos in a virtual environment; this is generally considered to rely on the freeware
MikuMikuDance MikuMikuDance (commonly abbreviated to MMD) is a freeware animation program that lets users animate and create 3D animated movies, originally produced for the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku. The MikuMikuDance program itself was programmed by Yu ...
. After the production crew designs a 3D model, they manually control the model to make certain movements. Then, they hire a voice actor to give the animation a voice. MikuMikuDance has often been used in the videos of
Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...
pop music, allowing users to import and control the 3D models of virtual characters such as
Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official moe anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise bu ...
. On the other hand, some netizens think that Kizuna's facial expressions and eye changes are done through facial tracking using facial recognition software such as FaceRig. Some feel that Kizuna is a result of applying this technology to 3D models, similarly by projecting facial expressions onto a virtual reality model. At the same time, some think that omni-directional
motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...
technology is being used. Both methods allow Kizuna to resemble real people more closely in terms of expressions and actions, overall making Kizuna's videos more similar to those of other female YouTubers.


Activities

The YouTube channel "A.I.Channel" was created on 18 October 2016, though Kizuna only started posting videos on 29 November 2016. She creates, designs and hosts a series of videos with a mix of wacky and serious elements. These videos are designed to break the boundaries between virtual and real spaces, and involves activities such as television-like show-hosting and
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
. The production crew also wishes for the audience to get in touch with and experience the newest technology, even allowing users to interact directly with Kizuna in virtual space. Kizuna posts videos almost every day on YouTube, and is recognized as an active user of the video-sharing platform. With over two million subscribers as of October 2018, Kizuna is the most popular virtual personality on the site and one of its most-watched Japanese content creators. She is also gaining traction in regions around the globe. In January 2017, Kizuna joked that because her clothes are merely
holographic Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other Holography#Applications, applic ...
projections, she is technically always naked. YouTube detected the use of the word "naked" and decided that the video contained inappropriate content, so "A.I.Channel" was banned. The content had to be posted on another video sharing site, Niconico. After several weeks, the channel was unbanned in February. Despite the ban, Kizuna's popularity grew tremendously and her subscriber count reached 100,000 on 25 February. By the end of March, Kizuna had already uploaded more than 60 videos. "A.I.Channel" had exceeded 200,000 subscribers and 5 million comments. On 31 March, Kizuna even started releasing gaming content on a new channel named "A.I.Games". "A.I.Games" was blocked for unknown reasons on 17 April but was unblocked and resumed posting videos within a day. "A.I.Channel" reached 2 million subscribers on 15 July 2018. "A.I.Games" also reached 1 million subscribers on 14 August 2018.


Other activities

Apart from her YouTube channels and official website, Kizuna has also created
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
,
Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
, and
TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...
accounts to facilitate interaction with fans. She also holds limited-time events occasionally, such as a
Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...
chocolate giveaway in 2017. Kizuna accepted an interview by PANORA, a website focusing on the topic of virtual reality. The interview was divided into four parts and posted on Kizuna AI's official website. Then, on 25 and 26 March 2017, Kizuna performed and then interacted with fans live on the stage of
AnimeJapan AnimeJapan is a Japanese anime consumer show held for the first time at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center in Tokyo, in March 2014. It was created from the merger of the Tokyo International Anime Fair with the Anime Contents Expo. It is organ ...
. In April 2017, a collaboration between Kizuna and Japanese video game development company Asobimo was announced. On the newly-created "A.I.Games" channel, Kizuna would periodically post videos of her doing a commentary while playing ''Avabel Online'', a
MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
designed by Asobimo for smartphones. Kizuna would also appear directly in the game. Afterwards, there would occasionally be video advertisements for the game. Kizuna is the ambassador for one of the
Japan National Tourism Organization The , JNTO, provides information about Japan to promote travel to and in the country. It was established in 1964 and its headquarters are in Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. The JNTO operates Tourist Information Centers (TICs) as well as a website. ...
's ''Come to Japan'' campaign and appeared in endorsements for
SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...
. She has also hosted a television
variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...
titled , which aired on Japan's BS NTV channel from 6 April 2018. She also voiced Website Manager Hachi in the
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series ''
Magical Girl Site is a Japanese magical girl manga series written and illustrated by Kentarō Satō. It is a spin-off of ''Magical Girl Apocalypse''. The series is about a severely tormented, abused and suicidal high school student named Aya, who gains the ...
'', which aired from the same day. To celebrate reaching 2 million subscribers on "A.I.Channel" on 15 July 2018, Kizuna released her first
eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...
digital single "Hello, Morning". On 1 March 2019, Dutch music duo W&W released a song called ''The Light'' in which Kizuna features as a vocalist and as a dancer. In October 2020 Active8 Inc. and Gemdrops Inc. released a rhythm VR game based on Kizuna AI called Kizuna Ai – Touch The Beat. On 6 November 2020, she appeared as herself in season 2, episodes 4 and 5 of the Australian web series
Meta Runner ''Meta Runner'' (known as ''Meta Runner: The Final Season'' for its third season) is an Australian adult computer-animated cyberpunk web series created by Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul. It is produced by Glitch Productions, with production fun ...
. In the episode, she is a guide for "Pocket Gakusei", an in-universe online anime
dating simulator Dating sims, or , are Video game genres, video game subgenre of Simulation video game, simulation games with romantic elements. Dating sims are often dialog-heavy and focus on time management. The player must befriend and carefully build and m ...
. On 30 January 2021, Kizuna AI released a clothing collaboration with the Dutch streetwear brand Kaomoji. Between March and May 2021, Kizuna AI planned a virtual tour with the intention of exploring and creating new virtual possibilities. This tour consisted of 2 shows, one set in Los Angeles and one set in New York. An online DJ event "CONTACT YOU presented by DJ Kizuna AI" was held by DJ Kizuna AI. Guests for the Los Angeles live show included TeddyLoid and Nyanners who have a large number of followers in the US. In early December 2021, Kizuna AI announced that she is holding a tour in February called "hello, world 2022". She also announced that after the tour, she is going on an indefinite hiatus. In February 2022, Kizuna AI announced that a spin-off AI will take her place while she is on indefinite hiatus.


Anime adaptation

In February 2022, Kizuna AI announced that an anime project was in production. The anime project was later confirmed to be a television series titled ''Kizuna no Allele'' that will premiere in 2023. The series is produced by
Wit Studio (stylised as WIT STUDIO) is a Japanese animation studio founded on June 1, 2012, by producers at Production I.G as a subsidiary of IG Port. It is headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, with Production I.G producer George Wada as president and Te ...
and
Signal.MD is a Japanese animation studio founded in October 2014 by Production I.G holding company IG Port. Establishment In 2014, IG Port announced it was forming a new animation studio named SIGNAL.MD. Production I.G board member Katsuji Morishita ...
and directed by Kenichiro Komaya, with
Deko Akao is a Japanese singer and screenwriter. She has released 17 singles and 11 albums since her debut in 1994. Several of her songs have been used as openings and endings of anime and radio dramas. She has also written the screenplays of various anim ...
writing the scripts, Shiori Asaka and Niina Morita designing the characters and serving as chief animation directors alongside Mizuki Takahashi, and
Go Sakabe is a Japanese composer and arranger. He has provided the music for several anime series, such as ''Date A Live'' and ''Digimon Adventure tri.'', as well as television dramas and movies—especially ''tokusatsu''—, such as the '' Kamen Ride ...
composing the music.


Videos

Similar to other YouTubers, Kizuna acts as a host on her YouTube channels, creating and uploading various original types of entertainment-related videos, thereby attracting viewers to subscribe to her channels. Kizuna's videos contain much content similar to other
video bloggers A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded i ...
. Kizuna will also imitate the interesting behaviour of other YouTubers. The style of these videos is comedic and uses technology to let Kizuna move smoothly. Videos sometimes add content of a more imaginative or animated style, though bugs in the software may cause her to move rather unnaturally. On average, Kizuna's videos are about ten minutes long. Video content includes chatting, sharing life stories, answering questions, fulfilling requests, hosting discussions on trending topics, interviews, "
Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and/or a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough or strateg ...
s", dancing, challenges, and drawing. She has discussed
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
,
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
, games, things she likes, and how she wants a Wikipedia page dedicated to herself. She has also talked about buying friends with money, and what furniture she wants to have.


Games

Kizuna often posts videos of herself giving commentaries while playing games on YouTube. As a virtual
Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and/or a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough or strateg ...
show host, Kizuna's game operating techniques seem a little clumsy, though like other gaming YouTubers, she makes seemingly real comments and reactions to the games that she likes. The most viewed and most popular gaming video by Kizuna is her Let's Play of popular indie game ''Inside''. Some of Kizuna's videos involve augmented and
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
games. Using omnidirectional motion capture technology, a 3D model of Kizuna playing a game can be developed. Virtual reality games played by Kizuna include extreme sports game ''The Climb'',
first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
game ''
Superhot ''Superhot'' is an independent first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed and published by Superhot Team. Though the game follows traditional first-person shooter gameplay mechanics, with the player attempting to take out enemy targets usi ...
'', drawing software '' Tilt Brush'', and more. Kizuna has also attempted to describe English words in ''
Quick, Draw! ''Quick, Draw!'' is an online guessing game developed and published by Google that challenges players to draw a picture of an object or idea and then uses a neural network artificial intelligence to guess what the drawings represent. The AI learn ...
'', explore
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
virtually using
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
, and talk with other AI such as
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
's iPhone Assistant
Siri Siri ( ) is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and audioOS operating systems. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer questio ...
. A rhythm video game, titled ''Kizuna AI: Touch the Beat!'', is scheduled for a release in February 2023 on
PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...
and
PlayStation VR2 The PlayStation VR2 (PS VR2) is an upcoming virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 5 home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment set to be released February 22, 2023. History Sony's first PlayStation VR was released ...
, which will be followed by a release on
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
(via
Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
),
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
, and
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
(via
PlayStation VR The PlayStation VR (PS VR, known by its code name Project Morpheus during development) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. It is fully functional with the PlayStation 4 an ...
) in April.


Subtitles

The language used in all of Kizuna's videos is Japanese. This made it difficult for a large portion of viewers to understand specific content of videos. Afterwards, "A.I.Channel" and "A.I.Games" allowed bilingual fans to translate Japanese in videos to other languages. With the help of translations offered by fans, Kizuna's channels were able to offer content in many different languages including Japanese, English, Korean, Spanish, and many others. This has allowed global audiences to understand the comments made by Kizuna in her videos, and has helped to grow her audience outside of Japan. Korean and English comments take up similar portions in the comments section of Kizuna's videos.


Impact

Kizuna, also known, "AI-chan" among her fans, is the spearhead of the virtual YouTuber trend. Kevin Allocca, YouTube's head of cultural trends, singled out the meteoric growth of A.I. Channel over 10 months as an example of the growth of virtual personalities on the platform. Allocca also noted that the trend's popularity was mostly contained to Japan. Character designs such as Kizuna are seen as a revolutionary concept, and could be the precursor of a new trend in
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
, virtual YouTube users and live-streamers. 2D virtual characters such as
Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official moe anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise bu ...
have been getting more popular, and the audience of 2D has been widening. Therefore, the concept of Kizuna as a YouTube video host is becoming more widespread. The profession of live-streaming usually requests for the constant production of original or exclusive content for the audience, and 2D live-streaming can be a method of doing so. Also, in the regular YouTube market, virtual streaming can be an alternative for those who are unable or do not wish to reveal their face in front of the camera, because exquisite character designs can make up for the imperfections in real people. Virtual streaming also allows the production crew to create more than one character. For example, Black AI is another artificial intelligence who appears several times in Kizuna's videos, and seems to be animated in the same fashion. ''
Tubefilter Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. Tubefilter is best known for Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, pro ...
'' writer Sam Gutelle thinks that even though characters like Kizuna may be seen as oddities now, they will become more common in the future. ''
The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...
'' columnist Rich McCormick feels that Kizuna is different from other content creators as she can technically play games as long as she wants without the need for food and sleep. This will bring channels more flexibility, and these types of videos may even be the future of YouTube. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
thinks that the selling point of virtual characters is that they are not like other YouTubers, as their appearance will never age and related development is still in its beginning stages. In 2018, Kizuna appeared on a program on
NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...
interviewing the Japanese
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners, which sparked debate on social media over female objectification, with several scholars deeming her appearance as inappropriate. Yuki Senda, a professor at
Musashi University is a university in Tokyo, Japan. The university grew out of the leading boys private high school, Musashi Junior and Senior High School, first established by businessman Nezu Kaichirō in 1922. The university has faculties of economics es ...
, claimed that Kizuna nodding along with the panel instead of contributing constructively to the conversation was more of an issue than her character design, due to her mannerisms reinforcing gender roles in women. Junko Saeki, a professor at
Doshisha University , mottoeng = Truth shall make you free , tagline = , established = Founded 1875,Chartered 1920 , vision = , type = Private , affiliation = , calendar = , endowment = €1 ...
, also suggested that Kizuna's quietness may be perpetuating a new wave of
orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
because of her role as one of Japan's primary cultural exports.


Fandom activities

On 25 December 2016, Kizuna's producers decided to put up her
MikuMikuDance MikuMikuDance (commonly abbreviated to MMD) is a freeware animation program that lets users animate and create 3D animated movies, originally produced for the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku. The MikuMikuDance program itself was programmed by Yu ...
3D model for free download and edits on her official site. This was to allow interested fans to produce '' doujin'' products. The 3D model can be used in MikuMikuDance,
Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...
,
Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres ...
and other spaces. The developers even made the model compatible with virtual reality. The virtual model is allowed use in videos and games, but for business purposes it is required that the developers are contacted. Finally, the use of the model in political, racial or religious settings or to create other models is prohibited. The derivative work of some fans is shared to the rest of the fanbase on Kizuna's social media accounts. On YouTube, there are many users who name their accounts "Kizuna AI", "" or other related names. Some repost her videos but only the official "A.I.Channel" offers subtitles for many languages. There are also dancing-related videos.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 2023 anime television series debuts 21st-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers Fictional gynoids Fictional robots Japanese female YouTubers Japanese voice actresses Japanese YouTubers Signal.MD Upcoming anime television series Virtual influencers VTubers Wit Studio