News

Kizuna no Allele Anime Gets 2nd Season in October

Entertainment planning company Isaribi Inc. revealed on Tuesday that Kizuna no Allele, the anime project for virtual YouTuber (VTuber) Kizuna Ai, will get a second season in October. The company revealed a visual along with the announcement.

Isaribi Inc. describes the second season's story:

Following the formation of ‘PathTLive’, members Miracle, Quan, Noelle, Cris and Riz will finally compete in the heat of battle at the Virtual Grid Awards. In the second series BRT5、VICONIC、３DM８ will also make an appearance, so you can look forward to seeing how the girls interact with each other.

The second season will premiere in October, and will stream on Bandai Channel, ABEMA, d Anime Store, and DMM TV among others.

The anime's second season will feature a returning cast and staff.

The anime stars:

• PathTLive
  • Ayumi Hinohara as Miracle
  • Rina Kawaguchi as Quan
  • Hikari Codama as Chris
  • Yuka Nukui as Noelle
  • Arisa Hanawa as Riz

• BRT5
  • Yūri Matsuoka as Niska
  • Randhi as Jessie
  • Haruka Yoshiki as Ellie
  • Hina Natsume as Sarah
  • Hinaki Yano as Halle

• VICONIC
  • Nozomi Nagumo as Jua
  • Tsukino as Thea

• 3DM8
  • Ruri Arai as Ximena
  • Nao Furuhata as Zoe
  • Yūna Kitahara as Sofia

• Kizuna Ai as herself

• Masumi Tazawa as Auris
• Kana Ueda as Ada

Kenichiro Komaya is returning to direct the anime at Wit Studio and Signal.MD, and Deko Akao is also returning to write the scripts. Shiori Asaka and Niina Morita are again designing the characters, and both are also returning as the chief animation directors alongside Mizuki Takahashi. Go Sakabe is again composing the music.

Other staff members include:

• Prop Design: Hoikei Tam
• Color Design: Mitsuko Sekimoto
• Art Director: Masakazu Miyake
• Fine Art Setting: Kazushige Kanehira, Yuri Sanami, Nariyuki Ogi
• CG Director: Ryō Sasaki
• Cinematographer: Mayuko Koike
• Edit: Junichi Masunaga
• Sound Director: Jin Aketagawa
• Sound Effects: Yui Ando

The anime's first season premiered on April 3, and ended in June. The first season will rebroadcast on TV TOKYO starting on July 4, and a marathon of the first season's episodes will start on Animax in Japan on July 2.

The Kizuna Ai YouTube channel "A.I.Channel" first launched in 2016. Since then, she has become the world's most iconic virtual YouTuber and was on Newsweek Japan's list of "globally respected Japanese people." Her main channel has over 3 million subscribers, and her "A.I.Games" channel has over 1.51 million subscribers. She has since appeared in television programs and commercials, and performed as a musical artist.

In April 2020, Nozomi Kasuga signed on as an adviser at Kizuna Ai Co., Ltd. — thus formally confirming that she is the voice actress behind the character. The company was formed out of Activ8, the talent agency that managed Kizuna Ai and other virtual YouTuber talent.

Kizuna Ai voiced cameo roles in the Ingress and Magical Girl Site anime, and she also performed the theme song in the Laidbackers movie.

Kizuna Ai's staff billed the "Kizuna Ai The Last Live 'hello, world 2022'" concert in February 2022 as her final concert before she went on an indefinite hiatus. The staff cited an update to "future activities with the goal of further developing Kizuna Ai" as the reason for the hiatus. The concert also unveiled Kizuna (#KZN), an original singing CeVIO AI. #KZN is "serving as a hub to connect with everyone and [support] Kizuna Ai and creators while she is asleep." (CeVIO is a suite of software that includes voice synthesis.) Kizuna Ai's original character designer En Morikura designed the AI with character concept art by Keigo Inoue.

Source: Press release