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Virtual Youtuber Kizuna AI Virtual Youtuber Kizuna AI: Co-creating human-non-human interaction and celebrity-audience relationship Author: Xin Zhou MSc in Media and Communication Supervisor: Deniz Neriman Duru Examiner: Tobias Linné May 2020 Abstract As an easy entry into public attention, YouTube is encouraging individuals to become petty producers under the name of YouTuber, upload self-generated media texts, accumulate following and popularity before finally finding their way to the professional media world. While YouTuber used to refer to human presence, the virtual YouTuber trend starting in 2016 extends this way of becoming famous to the realm of virtual characters and avatars. Similarly, top virtual YouTubers follow their famous human counterparts to have transmedia presence and solid fan bases. As a new combination of human and machine, virtual YouTubers are bringing novel experiences to audiences and pushing the boundary between the real and the imagined. This thesis aims to study virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI as a specific and emerging type of internet celebrity containing disputing definitions, meanings and values to her producing company, voice models and audiences on Chinese video platform bilibili.com. By conducting semiological analysis and qualitative text analysis, the thesis displays the producers’ efforts in constructing Kizuna AI as an adorable and exotic self-claimed AI YouTuber with distinctive visual features from Japanese culture and connotations of both human and non-human qualities. It unveils the dynamics within Kizuna AI’s audience group where they have non-unified definitions over Kizuna AI, and engage Affectively, cognitively, morally with Kizuna AI with different intensities and proximities, and further demonstrates Kizuna AI’s whole form as a digital commodity involving interrelated issues of economic logics, labour relations, capital and socio-cultural values. The thesis finds the existence of push-pull relation between Kizuna AI’s producers and audiences where audiences are pulled into the non-human characterisation and appeal of Kizuna AI, while they also actively push back through individual and collective fan practices toward dissatisfactory media contents and production decisions. The research shows that virtual YouTuber is a fluid cultural category where the virtual internet celebrity’s definition, characteristics, meanings and values are always in flux and constantly being negotiated and balanced between not only audiences and producers, but also audiences and audiences. 2 Keywords: VTuber; virtual YouTuber; Kizuna AI; internet celebrity; bilibili; YouTube; non- human; para-social interaction; celebrity-audience relation; audience; media engagement; fan; anti-fan; commodity 3 Acknowledgements I would like to start with the gratitude to my supervisor Deniz Duru who has walked me through the whole process with constructive and convincing guidance in this special corona time and special thanks to Annette Hill who has been inspiring and encouraging me to increase the possibilities of my work. Thanks also to Michael Rübsamen, Zaki Habibi, Joanna Doona, Hario Priambodho for enlightening me at the early stages of my thesis project, and my MKV classmates, especially my virtual study group Yucong and Ruihao, for mutual support. Thanks to my parents and friends for generous help, accompany and encouragement along the way. I’m especially thankful to Yijun and Kaining for the games and numerous late-night talks, to Jiabei for the discussions and precious recipes, and Haidong for the debates, the songs and literally everything. 4 Table of contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Kizuna AI and the voice model incident ....................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Aims and research questions ......................................................................................................................... 9 2. Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Identifying "online" celebrity ...................................................................................................................... 12 2.1.1 Microcelebrity - The start of study on online celebrity ........................................................................ 13 2.1.2 From influencer to internet celebrity ................................................................................................... 14 2.1.3 Virtual character as internet celebrity .................................................................................................. 16 2.2 Researching Kizuna AI ............................................................................................................................... 18 2.2.1 Contextualizing Kizuna AI .................................................................................................................. 18 2.2.1.1 Japanese culture: kawaii, otaku and moe ........................................................................................................ 19 2.2.1.2 Platform: YouTube and bilibili.com ................................................................................................................ 20 2.2.2 Theoretical framework ......................................................................................................................... 21 2.2.2.1 From para-social to multi-social interaction ................................................................................................... 22 2.2.2.2 Push-pull dynamic and spectrum of engagement............................................................................................ 24 2.2.2.3 Fans, anti-fans and non-fans ........................................................................................................................... 25 2.2.2.4 Celebrity, commodity and value ..................................................................................................................... 27 3. Methodology and Methods ................................................................................................ 30 3.1 Social constructionism ................................................................................................................................ 30 3.2 Qualitative approach and case study ........................................................................................................... 30 3.3 Multi-method design ................................................................................................................................... 31 3.4 Conducting the research: piloting, sampling, data collection and analysis ................................................. 33 3.4.1 The pilot ............................................................................................................................................... 33 3.4.2 Sampling .............................................................................................................................................. 33 3.4.3 Collecting and analysing data .............................................................................................................. 34 3.4.3.1 Data collection ................................................................................................................................................ 34 3.4.3.2 Data analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 35 3.5 Ethical issues and limitation of the research ............................................................................................... 36 4. Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 38 4.1 The appeal in Kizuna AI ............................................................................................................................. 38 4.1.1 Virtuality and Japanese visual heritage ................................................................................................ 38 4.1.2 An exotic and exceptional AI YouTuber .............................................................................................. 41 4.1.3 Performing intimacy ............................................................................................................................ 43 4.1.4 Authenticity in real-time relation ......................................................................................................... 46 4.2 Engaging with Kizuna AI on bilibili.com ................................................................................................... 48 4.2.1 Building an affective space on imagination and fantasy ...................................................................... 48 4.2.2 Customizing Kizuna AI’s character postulation ................................................................................... 52 4.2.3 Recognizing and acknowledging the voice model ..............................................................................
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