Today, it is with bittersweet emotions that we feature Kizuna Ai, one of the team’s favorite Vtubers. Kizunai Ai has announced an “indefinite hiatus/ 無期限スリープします” after her final live concert on Saturday, Feb 26, 2022. *sobs* T.T

“Kizuna” means “bond” in Japanese, and while “ai” means love, it is also a smart pun on the abbreviation A.I.. This is because Kizuna Ai herself is a super cute human-like artificial intelligence.

In our last article, we gave an introduction about the history of Vtubers, complete with a case study of Gawr Gura. Kizuna AI posted her first video in 2016, and after that, her fan base grew into millions. She has approximately 4 million subscribers across three different channels, and numbers are STILL continuously increasing. In this article, we will look why fans love Kizunai Ai so much. Enjoy!

Kizuna Ai the Legend: 8 Strategies of Fan Engagement

The main reason Kizuna Ai gave for going on an indefinite hiatus is that she wants to use this time of rest to figure out how to become a more super intelligent A.I.. This is so that she can connect more effortlessly with her fans and people globally regardless of langauge.

Kizuna Ai has noticed some time ago that we are rapidly moving into a metaverse and NFT space, and felt that she is losing her competitive advantage and uniqueness as a Vtuber as more people adopt digital avatars. That’s why Kizuna Ai wanted to upgrade/update herself. And to do so, a sleep period is necessary.

In this tribute post, let’s take a detailed look at the strategies which will help you understand how Kizuna built such a huge fan base and community since 2016. There are many methods that Kizuna AI uses to attract such a large audience and we have distilled 8 of them as follow:

#1. Kizuna Ai Targeted The Right Audience

Have you ever thought of anime characters singing songs, doing animated movements, and playing games while interacting with you? Basically, Vtubers such as Kizunai Ai does this perfectly, and also attract an enormous audience to spend money on them. Clearly, when it comes to launching a new idea, it is important to target the right audience.

As always, the Kizuna AI performs flawlessly in this phase. Kizuna AI produced Japanese language content in order to reach the Japanese audience as Japan is known as the mother of anime and has 42 million people who support the anime industry.

After getting initial attention from the Japanese, they scaled up the approach and targeted China which has top anime viewership.

#2. Flawless Image & Character 

While it comes to gaining success on video-sharing platforms, the main factor is to make visualizing and audiogenic content engaging, which appeals to the audience. So did the same Kizuna AI, built an anime character that was attractive, and was able to create a fantasy in the audience.

This gave them an advantage over the YouTubers, as Kizuna AI doesn’t have the normal physical flaws we see in real humans. There are no acne outbreaks, stretch marks, cellulite, or flat spots on their bodies. This was a key factor that enabled them to gain overnight fame over the other creators. 

#3. An Elegant Voice

The other main reason for the success of the Kizuna Ai was her voice, as it was very soft and attractive for the audience. It follows a consistent pattern of volume, pitch, support, and style at all times, making its voice very good to hear and increasing audience retention.

The other major difference between Ai and humans is that humans can show emotions through their bodies. In this case, as a top Vtuber, Kizuna’s voice was also able to convey emotions through her voice, so it never sounded robotic.

Kizuna’s voice was developed with such professionalism that she launched many songs with her voice and people loved it. Some people believe that a Kizuna Ai’s voice plays a key role in winning hearts of her fans.

#4. Highly Interactive 

Kizuna Ai changed the whole concept about the anime as the Kizuna was able to interact with the audience in real-time.

Kizuna Ai was able to answer the questions by the viewers, which appealed to them the most. Previously, the performances were only available in videos, but now it is performing live and also talking to you; it seems like a dream come true.

The other thing about Kizuna Ai was that she was able to do particular tasks and even perform dance moves on demand which impressed the audience very much. Like an anime character, Kizuna could perform anything without any hesitation, which gave her an advantage over the other content creators. And this potentially increased the viewers to send more super chats in order to watch Kizuna performing their favorite desired moves.  

#5. Perfectly Animated

Have you ever watched a YouTuber perform perfect dancing moves with singing in an attractive voice, playing games, etc.? The answer will be no, as superheroes can only do this. Kizuna Ai was launched with all of these characteristics.

From being an anime character to a most famous vtuber, her graceful moves performed a key role. Kizuna’s moves were animated in such a way as to convey emotional signals that attracted a larger audience.

Suppose a young girl with a perfect physical appearance and performing every desired move with perfection. This is enough to attract the viewers and the fans. The same strategy was applied by Kizuna AI, which led them to build enough fan base in no time.   

#6. Creating Creative & Trending Content

After making everything perfect, from appearance to voice and moves, it is time to make engaging content.

Kizuna Ai met every expectation from their fans in creating content from singing songs to playing games on live streams as they covered every trending content section that most of the people loved.

Her videos broke the boundaries between the real world and the virtual world as an anime character was doing all the things which humans traditionally do.    

#7. Collaborating With Other Creators 

As a new or famous content creator on a video-sharing platform, it is always suggested to collaborate with other creators as it gives exposure to both of them and has some new fans.

Kizuna AI did the same thing as videos were posted on a regular basis where Kizuna was collaborating with human creators, and the virtual creators as her collaboration with pewdiepie gave her an international following.   

#8. Growth-mindset

Something which is very respectable about Kizuna Ai and her team is that they believe in always stepping out of their comfort zone. Kizuna Ai never stopped innovating and improving her content, which was the main reason for her fame.

Kizuna Ai gained popularity from the Japanese audience and then tapped the Chinese audience, ranking first in having the most anime enthusiasts. Ai-chan then launched a channel on the Chinese platform and swiftly attracted millions of subscribers. 

The other example of their alteration was when Kizuna collaborated with pewdiepie, and they gained international viewers who were unable to understand the Japanese. To figure this out, they started giving captions in their videos, which helped global viewers understand the content.  

Kizuna Ai, We Will Miss You!

Ai-chan has pulled it off over the years with her attractive visuals and sounds that contributes to her high viewership. Her attractive character with professional moves is also contributing a lot.

We will definitely miss Kizuna Ai! Yet at the same time we wish her all the best and await eagerly for her new update, after a much well-deserved rest!

See you as the top Vtuber celebrity in the metaverse, Ai-chan- we will be waiting for you! 応援してます！〜