If you’re at all interested in the VTuber space, you’ve most likely heard about Kizuna Ai. She’s been a household name in the internet culture for almost a decade now.
Kizuna Ai is the original VTuber who gave this scene a jumpstart and brought it a lot of legitimacy. She’s not the first to do it, but she definitely was the first to reach YouTube superstardom in this niche.
Having dominated the early VTuber spaces, she’s reportedly headed to Fortnite after her post-hiatus revival last year, but the whole field has undergone major shifts while she was gone.
Who is Kizuna Ai?
Kizuna Ai is a Japanese VTuber who rose to prominence through YouTube variety content, gaming videos, and music. Her main channel, A.I.Channel, was created in 2016, and she began uploading late that year.
In retrospect, she’s often described as the world’s first VTuber. This is not an erasure of anyone who came before, but a simple homage to her paving the way for anyone who came after. She codified VTubing with consistent identity, regular upload schedule, high production values, high quality visuals and avatar, and a production team that managed to support frequent collaborations and brand deals.
This is the foundation that helped normalize the whole category. The VTuber ecosystem that exists now, with agencies, concerts, sponsored streams, crossover cosmetics, and million-subscriber talents, for better or for worse, is at least partially thanks to Kizuna Ai.
The hiatus and comeback
Kizuna Ai went on an indefinite hiatus after her farewell concert Kizuna AI The Last Live “hello, world 2022” on Feb. 26, 2022. The official reason for the hiatus was never given, but the framing was that of her going to sleep to come back even stronger.
After exactly three years, down to the day, Kizuna Ai came back with a song Kamone.
It was made to encapsulate her new beginning after a comeback.
ASOBISYSTEM’s press release for her comeback states that Nozomi Kasuga is also back to voicing her as she was before the hiatus. Kizuna Ai has always been presented as a character supported by a production setup rather than just a streamer girl with an avatar projection, but the VTuber world is quite sensitive to personality and voice actor changes.
Is Kizuna Ai coming to Fortnite?
The latest round of leaks confirms that Kizuna Ai is indeed coming to Fortnite as a skin, following an unfathomable number of pop culture characters.
This isn’t going to be her first rodeo, as she has had high-profile crossovers before. The shipgirl gacha game Azur Lane had variations of Kizuna Ai as playable characters. Square Enix’s Project Tokyo Dolls launched a Kizuna Ai collaboration with quests and collab rewards, including the themed SSR card. Super Mecha Champions even had a Kizuna Ai-themed in-game live. She’s also a DLC character in Neptunia Virtual Stars, a 10th anniversary game for the Neptunia series.
Considering how Fortnite positions itself as more than just a game, her appearance makes a lot of sense. Fortnite nowadays is an entertainment platform with live shows, game modes, crossover collaborations, and even unreleased movie tie-ins from Quentin Tarantino. Kizuna Ai will feel right at home.
Some of the leaks have already revealed her visual style, and the variations stay consistent with her visual identity. While this isn’t a direct confirmation of anything regarding her inclusion or any surrounding events or crossover collaborations, it’s safe to assume someone as huge as Kizuna Ai won’t be just shadowdropped into Fortnite as a skin.
