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posted by martyb on Friday October 05 2018, @01:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the animated-participants dept.

The virtual vloggers taking over YouTube

A young Japanese woman sporting a giant pink bow and white opera gloves looks into the camera and gleefully greets her YouTube audience. She's about to try and solve a puzzle. Before diving into the game, she boasts with a smile: "Well, compared to all you humans, I can clear it much faster. No doubt about it!"

Yes, this YouTube personality isn't a real person. While she's voiced by a human, she's a digital, anime-style cartoon. Her name is Kizuna Ai, and she has more than two million subscribers to her channel. She's the most-watched "virtual YouTuber" on the site. Kizuna Ai is part of an emerging trend where 3D avatars – rather than humans – are becoming celebrities on YouTube, with dedicated fanbases and corporate deals. It's becoming so popular that one company is investing tens of millions in "virtual talent" and talent agencies are being established to manage these avatars.

It's a movement that has big implications for the future – it could change how brands market their products and how we interact with technology. It could even let us live forever.

Yes, that's right. It could let you "live" forever. The true immortality: being remembered only as an anime girl.

Come to Japan.


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  • (Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Friday October 05 2018, @02:48PM (3 children)

    by Kilo110 (2853) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 05 2018, @02:48PM (#744634)

    I remember being astonished that an animated character that sings was selling out music concerts.

    I don't remember its name but I'm pretty sure it's also a Japanese thing.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @03:21PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @03:21PM (#744644)

    Those would be the vocaloids, of which the most well known is Hatsune Miku. To think they've been around for over 10 years now! Quite a novelty at the time too, I even remember playing around with the software to make it sing whatever I wanted it to.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @05:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @05:38PM (#744718)

    Is there really all that much difference between an animated character who sings, and the supposedly 'real' humans who get on stage and sing?

    Yes, the humans have biological functions; but I mean from the point of view of the audience. The singers up on stage, like Madonna, or Pink, or whomever is hot these days (yes, I'm showing my age here), what is shown up on the stage is a carefully crafted fiction. It's their persona that's before the audience, and personas are managed and massaged.

    So from the audience's point of view, what's the difference? Good music is still good music, isn't it? Isn't the "concert experience" the same? (I admit that I don't know myself, as I abhor being in large groups of people, so I've never been to a concert)