Virtually a star
Japanese company creates digital teen idol
February 4, 1997
Web posted at: 6:00 p.m. EST (2300 GMT)
From Tokyo Bureau Chief John Lewis
TOKYO (CNN) -- Kyoko Date is becoming a real hit -- despite
the fact she's not real.
Kyoko, who calls the World Wide Web home, is virtually
16 years old, give or take a few gigabytes. She struts her
stuff outfitted in 8-centimeter-long short-shorts and a
skimpy top.
Kyoko Date music video
(873K/18 sec. Small QuickTime movie)
(3.3M/18 sec. Large QuickTime movie)
And she seems to be pushing all the right socio-psychological
buttons in Japan -- she has just that desired mix of purity
and lost innocence, she has the cute pout down pat, and
she's fashionably slender in all the right places.
She's perfect, her creators say.
"She is what we think the ideal idol should be," says
Yoshitaka Hori, vice president of Hori Production. "There is
no perfect real person. Some can sing well but are not good
looking. Others are good looking but can't sing. Kyoko is
both. "
Kyoko is also a computer graphic image. That, however, has
not seemed to stop her. It did give her creators pause,
though. Hori says creation of a computer figure this real is
not easy.
"We're not to totally satisfied with her yet," he says. "It
took us half a year just to make her smile."
But, since her launch, Kyoko has brought smiles to many.
She's not only a singer; she also hosts a late night
radio program -- with a mysterious real-life woman giving
voice to the virtual star.
Kyoko's picture is appearing on more than her home page, too.
Advertisers are getting into the act, and she's being used to
boost magazine sales.
But Kyoko's not the only computer-generated character
attracting the attention of Japanese cursors. Shiori
Fujisaki, a featured character in a popular video game, has
make the jump to real life -- sort of. Wide-eyed Shiori, with
human helper, has taken her bits and bytes on the road,
proving popular with a certain segment of Japan's youth.
Some real entertainers are also starting to dance their way
into the computer age. Pop idol Namie Amuro is one example:
staking a claim to digital reality with an extensive home
page.
But from whichever side of the reality divide they approach
it, Hori says there is one constant.
Namie Amuro music video
537K/12 sec. Small QuickTime movie
2M/12 sec. Large QuickTime movie
"We can play games, but virtual idols are merely a substitute
for real people," he says. "The virtual idols will never
replace humans."
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