About

Dancing Kizuna Akari (Japanese: おどる紲星あかり) and Dancing Kasukabe Tsumugi (おどる春日部つむぎ) refer to a series of videos featuring Voiceroid^[1] character Kizuna Akari^[2] and Voicebox^[3] character Kasukabe Tsumugi^[4] dancing in rotoscoped animations.These short-loop animations went viral and inspired fan creations for other vocal synthesizer characters on Niconico in the first half of 2022. It also got featured in the video-sharing service's officials and a TV anime later.

Origin

Dancing Kizuna Akari

On March 19th, 2022, Sano (さの, @sano_nekochan)^[5] uploaded a video, "Dancing Kizuna Akari BB Materials + Examples", to Niconico^[6] and YouTube (shown below). The creator made this rotoscoped animation for the ending movie for the so-called "Voiceroid Theatre" (VOICEROID劇場)^[7], a series of user-made animated and audio dramas/skits featuring Voiceroid characters, by taking a dance video of herself in the character's cosplay in real life. "BB" in the title stands for "Blue Back," a Japanese-English word for "Blue Screen". These videos initially weren't noticed until the following month but gained over 1.4 million views in total by November 2022.

Dancing Kasukabe Tsumugi

On April 23rd, 2022, a tweet by an online artist Tasuke (たすけ, @tasuke0092001b) led to Kizuna's dancing circulating on Twitter.^[8] On the 26th, Sano noticed that Kasukabe Tsumugi, who ran Twitter and Niconico accounts as a virtual Saitama-resident Gyaru through its voice actor and VTuber Kasukabe Tsukushi^[9], mentioned her video and followed her on Niconico.^[10][11] She, in reciprocation, made the video "Dancing Kusakabe Tsumugi BB Materials + Examples" in the same method and published it on YouTube and Niconico on May 7th^[12][13] and 8th (shown below).^[14] These videos gained nearly 1 million views in total over 6 months.

Spread

Sano, the creator, reported on her Twitter that Dancing Kizuna Akari and Dancing Kasukabe Tsumugi started storming on Niconico's ranking charts shortly after uploading Kasukabe's dance.^[15][16] This surge in popularity led to the dances getting included in many user creations and fan works for vocal synthesizer characters. The number of videos tagged under the dances increased by over 600 for Kizuna Akari^[17] and 500 for Kasukabe Tsumugi^[18] by November 2022. Niconico's official streaming program, hosted by service's director Shigetaka Kurita^[19], featured the Sano's dance videos in that May (shown below, left).^[20] A 2022 TV anime, 5-Oku-Nen Button (5億年ボタン, lit. "500-Million-Year Button")^[21], featured Dancing Kasukabe Tsumugi BB in its ending movie for the 11th episode aired in September (shown below, left).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References