Following The Last Live 『hello, world 2022』, there were two important notes posted by Kasuga Nozomi and Junji Matsuda which both gave insight into the inner workings of Kizuna AI. Nozomi, the voice of Kizuna AI, posted a note about her past, her regrets, and her relationship with Kizuna AI. She expresses some guilt about her identity interfering with people’s perception of Kizuna AI, but acknowledges the benefits of it. Matsuda, the originator of Kizuna AI, posted a note about the inspiration, creation, and philosophy of Kizuna AI. He mentions that unlike modern VTubers who are simply people with avatars, Kizuna AI is a virtual being who he envisioned as existing beyond the actor.
I have added copies of these posts to this project primarily due to their intrinsic importance, but also for juxtapositon. Matsuda’s note, with his desire of having VTubers perceived separately from their actor, would probably be viewed negatively in light of the replacement conspiracy. Yet Nozomi’s note shares the same view, wanting people to see Kizuna AI separately from herself.
I still believe Love-chan and AI-pii were added to the team mainly to reduce AI-chan’s workload and let Nozomi do other things, and while I do concede that a gradual replacement and eventual succession was a possible additional objective for them, I still reject the theory that Nozomi was being forced out outright.