Vtubers. You've probably heard of them; they're the best (and worst) thing to come from Japan as of late. Based off of the idol concept of the still-popular Hatsune Miku, many early ones, such as Kizuna Ai, Kaguya Luna, Mirai Akari have catapulted the concept into what we know of it today; especially Hololive, which had my personal favorite, Uruha Rushia (rip) and Nijisanji. They’ve even gone as far as having collaborations in notable mobile games such as Counter;Side and Azur Lane. However, there's one territory VTubers haven't explored; TV anime. Basing it off of Kizuna AI, the most popular of the 'Four Heavenly Kings', as a main character would be a no-brainer, right?
This anime has been lying to us the entire time! Given the name of Kizuna no Allele, one would expect this anime to be mostly about Kizuna Ai. Nope, you've been lied to. She only appears in a grand total of 3 or 4 episodes. This should be a huge red flag for anybody who is a fan of Kizuna Ai. To make matters worse, they even try selling us on the concept of NFTs in the anime. Yes, NFTs, the digital stuff you can just screenshot. Oh, they also get into the idea of OtakuCoin, a cryptocurrency. The exact stuff they ban you for advertising on an average large community discord server as it’s often a scam.
The anime literally takes place when Kizuna Ai has been on hiatus for five years. Yes, five years. It wasn't even five years ago (early 2020) when the popularity of VTubers started exploding outside Japan. They use this idea to try and make a story about several girls (more on this later) who are inspired by the legacy that she leaves behind. Not the most original story, but this has worked in several other shows such as the Love Live! Franchise and D4DJ. These shows are also quite heavily based in the drive of their characters by making them distinct, fun, relatable and likable. Unfortunately, the show fails at this basis too. The idea of a story being even loses its way so much, one of the episodes turns into a generic isekai, despite simply being a VR game setting just because one character wanted ‘to discover herself’. After seeing the comedic misadventures of Konosuba and the horrifying deconstruction that is Re:Zero, any intelligent person would know that these fantasy Isekai worlds are far from the ideal world that any sane human being would want to reside in.
If you’re into VTubers, think about your favorite vtuber for a second. They can be bubbly and fun! They can be as multi-talented as Suisei! They can be extremely cute and then snap at the drop of a metal bar! They can be a complete and total dork who makes the dumbest mistakes! Whatever it is that makes them your favorite, they all have one thing in common; they’re larger than life to us. Our heroines, Miracle, Chris, Quan, Riz and Noelle, who are all essentially as flat as Rushia's chest, both visually and figuratively. Miracle is literally the most airheaded, dumb and bland protagonist you can think of who also tries to get into selling some ‘hip’ and trendy ‘stuff’, such as NFTs and crypto. She’s essentially like Ayumu Uehara from Love Live, but flatter than paper.
Oh god. Please. If you’re gonna make a music anime, please use more than one song. Can I just have the strawberry frap that Miracle so badly wanted to write a song about? It would be more interesting than the one song they just keep using.
A closing note:
If you're interested in the idea of VTubers, just go watch some vtubers and find one that suits your taste best. This anime is just not good. Why even bother wasting your breath on this anime when there's things such as college midterms? Heck, if you want to explore the dark side of being a VTuber, or any showbiz related things, Oshi no Ko is your best bet; it even aired the same season as this. This anime was doomed near the start and only made dumber decisions as it went on. There not much value in terms of watching this anime. Kizuna no fucking thanks.
Alright, I gotta stop before Rushia lashes out at me and kills me for making fun of her chest, even after she stopped her activities. Don't bother with this show. I guess I'll go bowling and practice for short patterns and targeting the 2 boar-
EDIT: I originally had this show at a 2/10. However, I realized that the show tried to also sell us on cryptocurrency on top of the bullshit that is NFTs. Gross. Yet it’s not even the worst show of Spring 2023; there’s Opus.COLORs.
