With Kizuna AI returned to herself,
happy times are here to come
Update 2020.11.12:
Mark [Eng Sub] on videos with English subtitle.Update 2020.11.9:
Add “Important” note.
Along with the establishment of the Kizuna AI Inc., the “Multiple AI” project has come to an end in May 2020.
Thanks to AI-chan and her staff’s efforts, every day is filled with happiness. The bond with AI-chan is stronger now than ever before. I realize once again how hard AI-chan has been working for both her fans and herself, and it made me like her even more!
Taking this as an opportunity, I want to tell every fan who has left her due to the “Multiple AI” project, or people who’re curious about how AI-chan’s doing now that she is back to herself and that the fun times are here to come. I wish for fans who have left her to come back and continue to watch over her just as before. I also hope people who are not familiar about her would become interested in her.
I will be writing about how Kizuna AI becomes herself again and the fun things she is doing now. If you are wondering about what AI-chan is doing recently, please jump to content after “AI-chan restarted” through the table of contents.
Important: This article is a summary of official infomation or videos and my positive thoughts on the happy activities. It focuses on the period after the Multiple AI incident. You would not find the inside stories of the incident here.
Table of Content
- How to Differentiate Them
- What is the “Multiple AI” Project?
- Independence of Kizuna AI Inc.
- End of “Multiple AI”, New Start of love-pii
- AI-chan Restarts
- Morning AI
- Variety of Live Stream Content
- Virtual Firework Event
- “hello, world” Replay
- Concert-like Cytus II
- TikTok Public Recording
- Resident Evil 4 - Official LINE Account
- Frequent Self-searching
- Lots of Collaboration
- Fall Guys Party
- Snack AI
- AI and Hana
- Tetete Surprise Visit
- Collaboration with love-chan
- Collaboration Teaser Message - AI-chan’s VR Rhythm Game “Kizuna AI — Touch the Beat!”
- Year-end Live Concert “hello, world 2020”
- Conclusion
How to Differentiate Them
Here is the way to identify AI-chan and the girls(AI) derived from her:
Kizuna AI (AI-chan)
She owns 5 costumes as of now (Starting from the left: Default Costume, Super Gamer Costume, Elegant Costume, Anniversary Costume, and the Artist Costume.)
Main channel: A.I. Channel
Gaming channel: A.I. Games
Twitter: @aichan_nel
Black AI
Black AI is born from AI-chan due to a virus[Eng Sub] in June 2017. Her personality is opposite to AI-chan where her voice and energy are both lower.
She makes appearances on AI-chan’s channels occasionally.
On 10th September 2018 (Approximately), her costume (Default Costume) was recoloured to black
love
love-chan was installed in June 2019 who shared AI-chan’s name and appearance (Default, Super Gamer, and Elegant Costume) at the start. In December 2019, she got her own nickname “love-chan” as well as a light blue # mark as a hairpin. Starting from May in 2020, her nickname turns official, and got her very own 2D model (Right-hand side of the picture) in the very month after.
Main channel: loveちゃんねる (Former name: love-pii channel)
Twitter: @lovechan_lp
aipii
aipii was installed in June 2019 who shared AI-chan’s name and appearance (Default, Super Gamer, and Elegant Costume) at the start. In December 2019, she got her own nickname “aipii” as well as a yellow * mark as a hairpin. Starting from May in 2020, her nickname turns official, and got her very own 2D model (Right-hand side of the picture) in the very month after.
Unfortunately, she stopped her activities in September 2020
Twitter: @aipii_lp
Chinese Kizuna AI (AI-bro)
AI-bro was installed lastly in June 2019, she speaks Chinese and is active mostly on bilibili, a Chinese Youtube website.
She shared AI-chan’s name but got her own nickname “AI-bro” in December 2019. Regarding her appearance, she shares the same face as AI-chan but her costume is chinoiserie, her short twin tails, and red hair ornaments are the distinctive features.
She’s run by a Chinese Company instead called 哎咿多 (Aiyiduo).
Main Channel: AIChannel中国绊爱
What is the “Multiple AI” Project?
The “Multiple AI” project refers to the installation of the 3 new Kizuna AI back in June 2019, who have different voices and personalities but share the same identity with AI-chan. They simply refer to the current love-chan, aipii, and AI-bro. love-chan and aipii once shared the exact same appearance as AI-chan, uses the same channel, and the Twitter account. All of them shared AI-chan’s name as well. Since this project started, changes and happenings around AI-chan have always led to controversy among the community.
In December of the same year, in order for fans to support them more easily, each of the new Kizuna AI is given a nickname, while love-chan and aipii-chan are also given the hairpins.
Independence of Kizuna AI Inc.
In order for the team to operate swiftly and respond to fans quickly, on 24th April 2020, AI-chan announced the establishment of the new company Kizuna AI Inc.. Later, on 11th May, Kizuna AI Inc. was officially established as a spin-off company from Activ8, consisting of approximately 10 people. Soon after this, AI-chan graduated from upd8, a VTuber Support Project under Activ8.
In this brand new company, there has not only been an increase in efficiency but as well as a much higher level of transparency. AI-chan was able to bring out the name of her new company’s CEO “Eriko” and “Okapii” who’s been helping her gaming channel. Her voice provider Kasuga Nozomi was also announced as the advisor of her new company which would’ve been a taboo topic back then.
Right now, AI-chan and Kasuga-san are in an unprecedented, and fantastic relationship where AI-chan can mention Kasuga-san when necessary and Kasuga-san can talk about AI-chan freely. It also made people who are fans of both AI-chan and Kasuga-san able to support each of them more openly.
*AI-chan is an Artificial Intelligence, so “voice provider” means Kasuga-san provides voice samples and AI-chan learned how to speak from the samples.
Press release of the annoucement
AI-chan:
“What do I want to achieve? The things I want to treasure?”
“I want to connect with everyone. Not just that, I want to treasure everyone who’s connected with me”(My tears…)
Eriko-san answers question about herself and her thoughts on AI-chan, as well as regarding the new company. We can see that Eriko-san is a huge fan of AI-chan.
Q: “What would you want to do if you met AI-chan in real life?”
Eriko: “I would like us to do laundry together”(That’s a rather unique answer)
Kasuga-san talks about herself becoming the advisor of the new company, clarifies false rumour of AI-chan retiring and expresses her resolve to expose her name.
She didn’t show her face in this video so if you have nothing to worry even you don’t want to watch a real person.
Kasuga-san really treasures AI-chan very well, she’s really a wonderful, kind and cute person! If you are interested, please check out her Twitter!
End of “Multiple AI”, New Start of love-pii
On 8th May 2020, love-chan and aipii announced independence from Kizuna AI.
Each of them made a Twitter account, shifted their activities to a new channel called “love-pii channel” and dropped Kizuna AI’s name. Their nickname became official.
Later, on 15th June, they obtained their new 2D model.
They do not share any feature with AI-chan anymore, and with this, Kizuna AI returned to herself.
“We are all Kizuna AI but, I am myself, aipii is aipii and AI-chan is AI-chan. And that is fine”
“It’s fine being myself”
love-chan and aipii’s words stung me deeply. Personally, I’ve always feared that AI-chan will lose her unique identity so hearing from them that they are different really puts me at ease. I would like to thank them for their words.
Since love-chan and aipii will begin their activities as themselves, they don’t have to be compared anymore and fans no longer have to quarrel over their existence.
While I was writing this article, I’ve come to notice that on AI-chan’s channels, title of all love-pii’s videos are marked with【＃】or【＊】. I am very grateful as this will help new fans who might be watching the old videos to identify them much more easily.
After starting anew, love-chan and aipii are mainly live streaming. Trying out all sorts of activities including music. love-chan has started aiming to be an idol while aipii has started aiming to be a creator. love-chan held online lives during live streaming and aipii made use of her talent of composing music to make BGM for their live streaming.
They also held meetings to discuss music composition. During AI-chan’s latest birthday event, they even made a birthday song music video for AI-chan, truly amazing.
Unfortunately, aipii ceased her activities in September 2020. Thank you so much for your work over this tough year. I hope that aipii can pursue her own dream and wish love-chan all the best in her activities.
“I have been reading everyone’s replies and tweets so far, your feelings have properly reached me. Reading those makes me realize once again that I’m supported by wonderful, wonderful people. I am truly sorry.
To everyone,
please take good care of your health and give your mind a good rest when you need it. Everyone’s support thus far had, without doubt, made us very happy. That’s why, please continue to support in the way you always have been.
I wish for everyone’s future to be one filled with smiles.
Thanks, everyone!
By aipii”
AI-chan Restarts
AI-chan’s activities have changed for the better good after the establishment of Kizuna AI Inc. AI-chan started appearing frequently just as before, lots of new videos and trying out even more things than before. We are having lots of fun content right now and I would like to introduce them to you!
Morning AI
AI-chan has started tweeting “Good morning video” every single morning now. Which means, you get to see the cute AI-chan every single day. She will inform you of the current date(Although sometimes she gets the day of week wrong). She also does morning exercises or fortune-telling depending on her mood as well as informing about an upcoming video. It sure motivates you to work or study after such an energetic greeting early in the morning, doesn’t it? If you feel down or unmotivated, watch her morning videos to beat the blues!
Variety of Live Stream Content
AI-chan started to live stream twice per week now! She mostly streams on her main channel on Tuesday and her gaming channel on Saturday. Besides the usual casual talk and game streaming, she’s doing a variety of stuff too.I will introduce some of those. Most of them are archived so check them out if you’re interested!
Usually each time after streaming, she will also do a membership-only stream. Now just by subscribing to the membership to either of her channels, you will be able to watch it in both channels! How kind!
Virtual Firework Event
Lots of events were canceled due to the global pandemic this year but in return, we get to watch fireworks with AI-chan virtually! You get to see AI-chan playing with a sparkler up-close. Unlike the usual pure white space, this nightly surrounding accompanied by the sound of evening cicadas, it sure felt like a date in Summer! It was surely an unforgettable moment of the year! I am looking forward to watching the fireworks together again next year!
“hello, world” Replay #アイちゃんとおうち時間
Speaking of “hello, world”, one would remember about AI-chan’s first live concert event. Although the archive of the replay only lasted one day but you could actually watch it for free with AI-chan! It was wonderful reminiscing about a memory together with AI-chan. AI-chan was being all excited about her past-self displayed on the screen and was called the “Right bottom Otaku ‘’.
The archive is not available anymore but, “hello, world”’s footage was recorded in the 1st Album “Hello, World” (Live DVD). Take a look if you’re interested!
Concert-like Cytus II
If you don’t own the Album but want to experience her live concert, this is a must-see game streaming!
AI-chan has collaborated with the rhythm game “Cytus II”. She sang while playing her music in the game to recreate the atmosphere of her live concert! She changed her costume from one to another, making it even more exciting! It is incredible that she managed to sing and play the game simultaneously. It’s also a very refreshing experience to see her playing games in the Artist Costume. She also reproduced the Abraham song conversation that happened in “hello, world” live.
TikTok Public Recording
AI-chan is on TikTok but, this time you can get to see AI-chan recording and editing her TikTok videos live, as well as facial expressions you have never seen before! I believe it is a rare chance to see how she creates videos.
Resident Evil 4
AI-chan’s first-ever live streaming that’s over 12 hours, she cleared Resident Evil 4 in a 12 hours and a 7 hours long stream. It’s really interesting to see the up and downs of her performance throughout the game. She mishears the enemies’ who were speaking Spanish into some Japanese phrases. And as always, she is weak to the beauty of Ada Wong.
The scene I laughed so hard is her controlling Ashley in the game. Due to a sudden change of the control method, Ashley’s movement was all weird under AI-chan’s control. Ashley started moonwalking and walked reversedly towards enemies instead of away. Since it’s a very long stream so you might be able to find some highlight clips of this scene somewhere… hopefully.
Official LINE Account
AI-chan has an official LINE account now! She will reply to your messages randomly and send special messages in response to specific messages. There are times where she will send something to you by herself! It sure gave me a scare when she sent a screaming LINE stamp all of a sudden. It’s pretty fun talking to her on LINE so please give it a try!
Frequent Self-searching
AI-chan has become much more active on Twitter! Replying to fan’s messages and liking their tweets more frequently now. She also likes the comments on Youtube much more often.
I would like to share with you a conversation between AI-chan and a fan after the fireworks event. The fan tweeted about how his daughter has a phobia of fireworks but overcame it because of AI-chan’s event. Surprisingly AI-chan took a special short video as a reply! Just witnessing this warm conversation puts a smile on my face. AI-chan is such a kind-hearted AI!
Lots of Collaboration
AI-chan started to collaborate with lots of other VTubers! I will introduce some of the collaborations to you
Fall Guys Party #VFGパーティ
Fall Guys Party is an event where VTuber participants are grouped into teams up to 4 and compete in a game called “Fall Guys”. AI-chan, together with Siro-chan, Hinata-chan, and Aoi-chan, belong to Team A. Truly A(Amazing) Team. It is also named the “Virtual Wolfy Club” Team (converted from “Virtual Elderly Club”) #バーチャル狼人会.
Before the actual tournament, Team A gathered up and streamed 2 practice. In the first practice everyone was just getting beaten up but from the second practice onwards, everyone became much better at the game. Their teamwork is so heart-felt at the Seesaw stage in the game! When AI-chan was practicing alone, she always talked about “As the leader, I can’t drag everyone down!” “I have to practice hard!”, this serious side of her is too cute and precious to not support her in what she’s doing!
During the actual tournament, unfortunately, they had bad luck at the beginning but during the 4th round, everyone got into the finals and everything’s starting to get intense! So much that it should be made into a Manga! Sadly, they couldn’t take the 1st place crown in the end however, it was really fun watching them fight this hard among everyone! This is the kind of youthful feeling you get during Sports Day back in school. Even though I don’t watch soccer, maybe this is what it feels to watch soccer matches.
Snack AI
Long ago AI-chan had this series called “Snack AI” on her channel where she will do consultation for your daily worries or concerns. Recently she brought this series back, collaborating with people and consulting for real life problems they encounter. You can talk about any kind of problem you are facing with her and she will listen to you.
It’s interesting to hear some topics here which you may have never heard before. For example, the famous cosplayer, Enako is very professional about things so much that she’s even paying attention to the way she’s sitting during her session with AI-chan.
AI and Hana #愛と花
AI-chan and KAF-chan’s collaboration CD “AI and Hana” is now on sale! AI(Love in Japanese) from AI-chan and Hana(Flower in Japanese) from KAF-chan, the names match together so sweetly!
Both songs “Loveshii” (Enon Kawatani) and “Karisome” (Hideya Kojima) are very wonderful and stylish, please check them out! My personal favourite scene from the music video “Loveshii” is AI-chan’s big sisterly’s singing voice on top of the height difference between these 2, it was such a magical and godly video that it made my heart skip a beat.
Aside from this, KAF-chan had also visited AI-chan’s VMZ music programs and AI-chan also made an appearance in KAF-chan’s 2nd live “Fukakai 2Q1”. Although KAF-chan’s live is no longer available but you can always watch their Studio live[Eng Sub] in VMZ at any time so please feel free to check it out! Unlike AI-chan who likes to talk a lot, KAF-chan is very shy, this difference between them is really cute. KAF-chan would sometimes turn to AI-chan and laugh softly, what a great pair…
AI-chan is a huge fan of KAF-chan that she tried to boast about how she shortened the distance between her and KAF-chan during her live stream.
Tetete Surprise Visit #凸撃キズナアイ
Here AI-chan make a sudden appearance in various VTuber’s live streaming during the BS daily TV program “TeTeTV” where she was the MC. I only saw one of the visit in real-time but it seems fun seeing fans tracing AI-chan around in different channels! Thanks to this, AI-chan also got to collaborate more with Tenkai Tsukasa.
Collaboration with love-chan
AI-chan’s first collaboration with love-chan since she got her new model! It’s so exciting to see both of them play together after restarting.
Collaboration Teaser Message
Let’s have a look at this first
Then this.
Have you noticed it? If you read the first characters vertically, it spells “Mirai Akari” and “Kizuna AI” respectively. This means! Yes! They are fulfilling the promise to collaborate back during the birthday party! What a spectacular way to tease a collaboration!
It still hasn’t happened yet when I’m writing this article so I’m looking forward to it!
AI-chan’s VR Rhythm Game “Kizuna AI — Touch the Beat!”
AI-chan’s VR rhythm game is released! In the game you hit the coming notes with the lightsticks while the cute AI-chan dances in front of you.
It will be free for 3 months after the release date (October 12th). Would be a waste to not get it! There will be an update on October 27th too. It’s exclusive on the Quest platform so if you own a Quest headset, don’t miss it! I took this as a chance to buy my first VR headset too. You can enjoy great VR experiences from this game even if you are not a fan of AI-chan.
Year-end Live Concert “hello, world 2020”
AI-chan’s 2nd live concert #hello, world2020 has finally been decided to be held on December 29th! And what’s more, is that it’s free! Anyone can watch it on Youtube! It will be in the form of a XR (Extended Reality) live concert.
AI-chan’s thoughts and wishes will reach you for sure and she is preparing so hard that you will never regret watching it, so i really hope you would watch it.
By the way, the “2020” in “hello, world 2020” is not read as in Japanese but in English’s “twenty-twenty”, AI-chan’s pronunciation of the English twenty-twenty is so cute!
For the new costume as shown in the key visual, the dress seems to be inspired by the aurora reflective material, and there will really be goods made from this kind of material. The “hello, world” word on the shirt will glow if you flash it with a photo and the mask too which is really amazing. What a genius design on the goods, as expected from the very person who designed the clothes, Morikura En. There are even other shirts that are available for kids’ sizes. So considerate!
From her collaboration with Tamaki, she said that the live concert was supposed to be paid but she was the one pushing the free policy so to present the concert to everyone not limiting to her fans. No wonder she’s the Oyabun of VTuber…
Conclusion
AI-chan has been full of kindness and trying all sorts of things ever since her restart, making contents that anyone can enjoy.
AI-chan has worked hard to respond to people who are connected to her so I really wish for people who left her to come back once again and watch over her. If you are still feeling uneasy, you can always watch her over some distance, I guarantee you that it will be fun! I also wish you can watch her year-end live concert as well.
Thanks for reading such a long article! I hope you will take an interest in AI-chan even if it’s just by a little.
Translated by @kizunaaiss
Original article in Japanese: キズナアイが一人に戻り、楽しい時代が来た
