AirAsia jets in their first virtual idol, Aozora Kurumi, seriously

• Part of AirAsia’s Project Kavvaii programme to discover next big ASEAN virtual idol
• Brought to life by industry veterans; vocals by talent chosen from open audition

You read that right. AirAsia is set to introduce its first virtual idol, Aozora Kurumi (pic), who will be joining the VTuber craze that essentially exploded in 2020. VTubers are garnering massive popularity and profits – last year, the top VTubers of Japanese virtual YouTuber talent agency Hololive brought in more than US$4.8 million (500 million yen) in just super chats alone.

Aozora Kurumi is part of AirAsia’s “Project Kavvaii”, described as a programme to “discover and develop the next big virtual idol in ASEAN”, which was launched in March this year.

The virtual idol is designed by a renowned illustrator artist in the virtual idol community, Yueko. She was brought to life by industry veteran Iron Vertex, with vocals provided by a talent chosen from the Project Kavvaii open audition held in March around ASEAN and beyond.

According to AirAsia in a statement, the virtual idol will generate online content in gaming and lifestyle categories with live broadcasts while engaging in online and offline activities in the near future. Aozora Kurumi’s debut is set to stream on YouTube on 8 May 2021 at 8pm (GMT +8).

Aozora’s biodata is as follow: she is a female VTuber making her debut in May 2021, and is fluent in English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Korean as well as some Bahasa Malaysia and Japanese.

As her backstory goes, Aozora is an apprentice of Greek God, Hermes, and was required to travel between worlds in order to deliver messages for the gods. One day, she flew into Earth and became “fascinated with this world and enamoured with Idols.”

She then decided to become a part-time idol and streamer outside of her apprenticeship with Hermes. In her free time, Kurumi enjoys watching humans from her ‘Cloud Palace’ (her home above the clouds) along with her pet cat Jetson whom she calls her “son”.

In addition, AirAsia will be working with pixiv, the top online community for artists in Japan. There will be multiple efforts in this collaborative partnership, including an exclusive fan art contest for Aozora herself this coming September and a dedicated pixiv channel on AirAsia Wi-Fi which will showcase exclusive content from the pixivision platform.

Rudy Khaw, chief brand officer of AirAsia Group said: “We are proud to introduce our first virtual idol today which we foresee will be a game-changer in the future of streaming content in ASEAN. As a digital company, the constant change in the way people consume online content drives us to explore cross-industry innovations with Project Kavvaii to stay relevant and ahead of trends.”

Aozora Kurumi can be followed on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.