Anime avatars are becoming wildly popular across many streaming platforms, garnering over 1.5 billion views monthly on YouTube alone. The trend is often thought to have started in Japan back in 2016 with Kizuna AI, created by a Japanese start-up named Activ8, one of several agencies who design characters and hire actors to embody them online, earning revenue through donations using YouTube’s Super Chat function. We’ll be exploring the world of Vtubers, and asking whether they could be a signal for the next frontier of digital entertainment.

Image Credit: @projekhikayat | Twitter

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