The first generation virtual anchor Kizuna Ai declared "death"!

If you follow virtual anchors, then you must know the major events that have shaken the circle recently?

The world’s first virtual anchor is called the "Virtual Anchor's First Emperor" by fans. Kizuna Ai announced at the 5th anniversary meeting that it will officially enter indefinite hibernation after the concert on February 26 next year.

In other words, Kizuna Ai is saying goodbye to us.

Are fans shocked, confused and sad about this? But if you think about it carefully, Kizuna Ai's retirement is completely predictable.

Rather, in today’s fast-paced and flourishing virtual anchor industry, it is already a miracle that Kizuna Ai has survived to the fifth year.

※Virtual anchor: Virtual YouTuber, referred to as VTuber. The virtual anchor of Station B is also called Vup, that is, virtual up anchor. Who is Kizuna Ai?

Even if you don’t know Kizuna Ai, you must have seen her emoticons or memes somewhere. This is the popularity of the First Emperor.

However, in 2016, when live broadcasts first became popular, the first virtual anchor, Kizuna Ai, did not attract much attention.

There were very few people at the exhibition. Even though Kizunai had been trying her best to interact with people, not many people were willing to stop for her.

At that time, people had no idea about virtual anchors and thought they were just pure virtual characters like Hatsune.

But in fact it is completely different. Behind the virtual anchor, there is actually a real person acting in real time through motion capture technology. The only difference between him and the real anchor is that she only uses a virtual image to appear.

Behind the cute virtual anchor may be a fat uncle

It can be said that the virtual anchor is a real person.

The real person (voice actor) who plays the role of the virtual anchor will only hide under the skin in order not to destroy the character, and is vividly called the "person in the middle".

Kizuna Ai’s favorite person? Kasuga Nozomi (voice actor, actor)

?

Kizuna Ai is also in the video all the time Emphasize that you are an "artificial intelligence", not a pure virtual character framed by scripts and settings.

She can make rich and realistic expressions and body movements, and can also interact with fans in real time during the live broadcast.

And because it is played by a real person, we can often see her imperfect side in Kizuna Ai’s videos, which is cute and down-to-earth.

For example, when playing "Resident Evil" live, shouting "Hua Q!".

fu*k you

He revealed that as an artificial AI, his clothes were actually projected onto him, and his real self was in a "naked" state (later revealed by YouTube determined it to be inappropriate content and was banned).

Occasionally, I will catch a hot spot and make a fool of myself.

Brainwashing Divine Song "PPAP"

I even made the mistake of biting my tongue while speaking. This awkward yet polite smile is really too strange. alive.

Of course, the most talked about thing may be Kizuna Ai’s series of mental retardation operations? And this is the reason why Kizuna Ai is called “artificial mental retardation”.

Many people have asked: Is the selling point of a virtual anchor the layer of skin, or the person beneath the skin?

The answer is actually very simple: both. All. Just like a delicious dumpling, the skin is its beautiful and iconic appearance, but the filling is what gives it its soul.

Virtual anchors are undoubtedly the perfect combination of skin and stuffing, and Kizunai relies on this superposition of virtuality and reality (beautiful girl character + excellent performance of the person in the middle) to attract countless fans.

Good expressions

Coupled with the scarcity of the market at that time, Kizunai gained millions of fans on YouTube in just one year , becoming the well-deserved NO.1 virtual anchor.

She already has the status of a popular actress. Not only does she release records, photos, and concerts, but she also participates in TV programs and accepts advertising endorsements. The development situation is very good.

Kizuna Ai once served as Japan Tourism Ambassador

However, in 2019, when Kizuna Ai's career was on the rise, a major event happened, which was recognized by fans This was the beginning of Kizuna Ai's decline in popularity, and it was also from this time that Kizuna Ai's retirement was almost a foregone conclusion. From top streamer to outdated anchor

In June 2019, Kizunai's operating company Activ8 (hereinafter referred to as A8) released the "Kizunai Clone Project". In addition to the familiar Kizunai, it will also launch 3 Kizuna loves played by different people.

They are: the original Kizuna love? No. 1 love, and the split love No. 2, No. 3 love, and No. 4 love.

Among them, Ai No. 4 is China Ai who can speak Chinese and is called "Brother Ai" by fans.

Left for China Love

Fans were confused by the sudden appearance of three more clones, but not to the point of being angry.

What really angers fans is actually the official follow-up operation: they have been hinting that your favorite No. 1 Ai is leaving since the launch of the doppelg?nger project.

Initially, at Kizuna Ai’s birthday party on June 30, only China Ai appeared at the China branch, and No. 1 Ai did not attend the entire event.

Of course, this can be interpreted as "special for Chinese fans".

However, the lyrics in the new song "sky high" released on the same day: "The prototype will eventually sleep" will make people think deeply.

In the Kizuna Ai game video released on July 11, some fans discovered that it was Ai No. 3 deliberately imitating Ai No. 1’s voice and movements.

Coupled with the fact that No. 1 Love's appearance rate is getting lower and lower, various conspiracy theories have spread that "No. 1 Love is too popular and difficult to control, and capital wants to eclipse it." What directly triggered the anger of fans was a tweet posted by Kasuga Wang, the first love interest, on July 26: "I don't want to lose to the annoying adults, I want to protect myself." ?

Now deleted

This is almost the fact that Shi Chui’s No. 1 Love has been marginalized.

However, in the face of angry fans, A8 was not to be outdone. It didn't take long before it released a video of Kizuna Ai showing her Aiyan, which was very insulting.

This love is not played by Kasuga Nozomi, and the dislikes are far greater than the likes

And this became the direct cause of the famous fan defense war. fuse. In order to protect No. 1 Ai, countless Chinese fans chanted the slogan "if you love her, shut her down" and began to persuade people to shut down her in the comment section and barrage of Bilibili to put pressure on the officials.

At that time, Kizuna Ai’s account on Station B was about to exceed one million, but she immediately lost more than 200,000 followers because of this incident. In the end, the officials did relent, but it was too late.

In May 2020, a year later, A8 finally announced that it would establish a new company to independently operate No. 1 Kizunai, and No. 2 Ai and No. 3 Ai will also change their faces and establish their own channels. (Chinese love became independent very early).

Love No. 2 and Love No. 3 actually wore different hairpins under pressure as early as the end of 2019 to distinguish them from Love No. 1

At this point, the year-long struggle between fans and the company is over, and everything seems to be moving in a good direction.

?That’s weird!

Just like an artist who missed the rising stage of his career, Kizuna Kamasutra’s popularity has long been waning after this battle. If Kizuna Ai in 2016 was unique, then Kizuna Ai in 2020 is just one of the many virtual anchors. As Kizuna Ai said in her retirement declaration:

I am no longer Couldn't be more special.

Fiercely competitive virtual anchor circle

The virtual anchor industry has only gone from Kizunai’s solo struggle to today’s hundreds of schools of thought contending, but it only took 5 years.

During this period, countless new people have emerged, and countless old people have fallen. Especially in 2018, virtual anchors with different styles and positions are born almost every month.

As the first emperor of the virtual anchor, it is a miracle that Kizuna Ai can last for five years. After all, Kaguya Yue, Mirai Akira, Xiaobai, and Uncle Fox Lady, who were once known as the "Four Four Vtuber Kings" along with Kizuna Ai (isn't it common knowledge that there are five Four Heavenly Kings), have all become memories in the tide of the times.

Picture source network

Initially, virtual anchors were a product that combined reality and reality. Good-looking and interesting characters were equally important as the people in them. Even sometimes, a professional and interesting person can completely revitalize an unattractive character.

For example, Uncle Fox, which is independently produced and operated, although the modeling is rough, Zhongzhren has still won a large number of fans by virtue of the contrast between the male voice and the loli image, as well as the unique sense of vicissitudes of social animals.

The fact that Kizuna Ai is liked by so many people is closely related to Nakano Ren’s outstanding performance.

However, the reality is that many operating companies do not care about the feelings of people in the game department. In addition to the Kizuna Ai clone incident, a Japanese company also had a scandal of squeezing people in the game department, and finally gave Not only did the statement not mention compensation, it also directly replaced the original Zhongzhi person.

In addition, there are also virtual poison poisoning incidents (Vtubr poison refining draft), bat girl's retirement due to sexual harassment, etc.

From this, we can also see the difficulty of survival for people in China. Not only can they not enjoy the applause in front of the stage, but their rights and interests have been infringed and they cannot protect their rights through normal channels.

This may be one of the reasons why no professional person has developed yet. But even so, the virtual anchor industry is still developing in full swing, because with the improvement of technology and the popularization of concepts, the threshold for virtual anchors has almost become low enough that everyone can get started. For example, the two-dimensional image in the lower right (left) corner of major game live broadcast rooms looks a bit like a virtual anchor?

But is there any essential difference between such a virtual anchor and a real anchor? It’s just that they don’t show their faces. That’s all.

For the former virtual anchors, the people behind them need to play a role. Every word and action must be in the role. They are really managing the role and living for the role. But now most of the virtual anchors are just a layer of skin, there is no acting, only themselves.

This certainly reduces the difficulty of the virtual anchor's interpretation, but it also loses the original flavor of the virtual anchor.

Perhaps times have really changed. In order to maintain popularity and retain fans, Kizunai once needed to constantly use creative videos to attract users, which was indeed quite effective.

However, after experiencing a separate project, she missed the golden period of her career and had to be abandoned by this fiercely competitive and ever-changing market.

It can be seen from the videos she released this year that she is also keeping up with the trend and making some high-quality covers and game videos, but the cruel data only shows one thing: she was once brilliant. "The First Emperor", it really won't work this time.

Tens of thousands of views

When you debuted, did you laugh at yourself because of the cold scene? After all, I am not famous yet?;

When I retired, I had no choice but to admit love again: After all, you see, I am no longer special.

From being ignored to being successful and retired, five years have passed in a flash, and many things have changed, but only Kizuna Ai (the one in the center) is still full of energy and dancing as before, No matter whether she is sharing joy with you or saying goodbye.

She has never changed, she has only changed in this era.

PS: In the retirement video, Kizuna Ai called indefinite hibernation "update". Maybe we will reunite with Kizuna Ai one day in the future~