Kizuna no Allele

“Vtubers were a mistake.”

Vtubers. You've probably heard of them; they're the best (and worst) thing to come from Japan as of late. Based off of the idol concept of the still-popular Hatsune Miku, many early ones, such as Kizuna Ai, Kaguya Luna, Mirai Akari have catapulted the concept into what we know of it today; especially Hololive, which had my personal favorite, Uruha Rushia (rip) and Nijisanji. They’ve even gone as far as having collaborations in notable mobile games such as Counter;Side and Azur Lane. However, there's one territory VTubers haven't explored; TV anime. Basing it off of Kizuna AI, the most popular of the ... 'Four Heavenly Kings', as a main character would be a no-brainer, right?

This anime has been lying to us the entire time! Given the name of Kizuna no Allele, one would expect this anime to be mostly about Kizuna Ai. Nope, you've been lied to. She only appears in a grand total of 3 or 4 episodes. This should be a huge red flag for anybody who is a fan of Kizuna Ai. To make matters worse, they even try selling us on the concept of NFTs in the anime. Yes, NFTs, the digital stuff you can just screenshot. Oh, they also get into the idea of OtakuCoin, a cryptocurrency. The exact stuff they ban you for advertising on an average large community discord server as it’s often a scam.

The anime literally takes place when Kizuna Ai has been on hiatus for five years. Yes, five years. It wasn't even five years ago (early 2020) when the popularity of VTubers started exploding outside Japan. They use this idea to try and make a story about several girls (more on this later) who are inspired by the legacy that she leaves behind. Not the most original story, but this has worked in several other shows such as the Love Live! Franchise and D4DJ. These shows are also quite heavily based in the drive of their characters by making them distinct, fun, relatable and likable. Unfortunately, the show fails at this basis too. The idea of a story being even loses its way so much, one of the episodes turns into a generic isekai, despite simply being a VR game setting just because one character wanted ‘to discover herself’. After seeing the comedic misadventures of Konosuba and the horrifying deconstruction that is Re:Zero, any intelligent person would know that these fantasy Isekai worlds are far from the ideal world that any sane human being would want to reside in.

If you’re into VTubers, think about your favorite vtuber for a second. They can be bubbly and fun! They can be as multi-talented as Suisei! They can be extremely cute and then snap at the drop of a metal bar! They can be a complete and total dork who makes the dumbest mistakes! Whatever it is that makes them your favorite, they all have one thing in common; they’re larger than life to us. Our heroines, Miracle, Chris, Quan, Riz and Noelle, who are all essentially as flat as Rushia's chest, both visually and figuratively. Miracle is literally the most airheaded, dumb and bland protagonist you can think of who also tries to get into selling some ‘hip’ and trendy ‘stuff’, such as NFTs and crypto. She’s essentially like Ayumu Uehara from Love Live, but flatter than paper.



Oh god. Please. If you’re gonna make a music anime, please use more than one song. Can I just have the strawberry frap that Miracle so badly wanted to write a song about? It would be more interesting than the one song they just keep using.

A closing note:

If you're interested in the idea of VTubers, just go watch some vtubers and find one that suits your taste best. This anime is just not good. Why even bother wasting your breath on this anime when there's things such as college midterms? Heck, if you want to explore the dark side of being a VTuber, or any showbiz related things, Oshi no Ko is your best bet; it even aired the same season as this. This anime was doomed near the start and only made dumber decisions as it went on. There not much value in terms of watching this anime. Kizuna no fucking thanks.

Alright, I gotta stop before Rushia lashes out at me and kills me for making fun of her chest, even after she stopped her activities. Don't bother with this show. I guess I'll go bowling and practice for short patterns and targeting the 2 boar-

EDIT: I originally had this show at a 2/10. However, I realized that the show tried to also sell us on cryptocurrency on top of the bullshit that is NFTs. Gross. Yet it’s not even the worst show of Spring 2023; there’s Opus.COLORs.

This really does come across as if someone asked Kizuna, Ai if she wanted an anime, and this was the result. Not that makes it bad, far from it. But from looking at it as a whole, and watching shows like it. You can start to see it's direction already, and already tell for yourself, if you wish to continue it.

Story and characters: 6
The for my book,really comes off as if it's a new gacha game, that is cutesy, and follows a story, with some under tones here or there with it. With the 'gameplay' parts, being when you're singing, as if you're playing Dance ... Dance revolution, or that Love Live game. By that, I mean you can picture yourself playing it, as it does give off that vibe if anything. There is even moments within the show itself, that really drive this feeling home for me. Reminds me a bit of Waccha if anything. Which was an alright show in itself. You've even got some challenges, and 'side events' that really give off a full blown story experience. But what is the story?

You attend ADEN Academy, which is a school that specializes in training new talent who will make their debut in the virtual world. There, students each with their own hopes and dreams work hard every day.

To touch on the characters, there is a wide bunch. So you're bound to like someone, and understand different view points upon them. Our MC really is engaging and likeable as well. The kind of sweet MC that you hope does well, and does well in her dreams. Along with many good and cute characters around her, that are colourful in their own right.

Art and sound: 8
I'm gonna give this high props, as I kinda like how they switch from the normal, to a more different style when it's time to perform. It really follows suit with the thought that your a 'Virtual idol' while you are also still 'yourself.' To dig further on the art itself, it's good. It's colourful, and seems very friendly and opening, and welcoming. The songs are very catching too, songs that'll jam to for a good bit, as like most of these. They're always done in good taste.

Kizuna is an interesting idea, that can be for you, but if you're not into these shows. Best go else where.

I don't know why did WIT studio even work on this, after so many great titles they had produced ranging from Shingeki no kyojin to Vivy to this mediocre product.. It's strange.

The plot summary is basically Miracle wants to become a successful Virgin tuber like Kizuna Ai.

the overall experience is terrible and would not recommend it to anyone, If you're accustomed to "Vtuber culture", it still doesn't have anything exciting to offer at all, you only get weird, unimaginative and an empty shell of a story. The character designs are cheap and bellow average whilst the overall animation is hella stiff and boring, a ... lot of static shots and painful brain damage.

If you despise 3D animation, then you will hate it since they use it a lot especially in the music performance sequences which is what you find on vtubers youtube channels so it's low effort from their part. Only kizuna Ai's sequences are somewhat average but the rest is really poor.

The dialogues and overall writing is bellow baby comprehension level which is one of the most cringy things I've seen so far in anime medium. Like : "Oh wow! I'm lacking the skill to speak so "I need to learn to speak better". "Kizuna Ai was the best I love her so much".

The side characters are all one dimensional and add nothing to the already boring narrative, even the ultimate goal set by Miracle is laughable. And what's worse is that they have a prize for being the best cringy Vtuber creator Which no one would ever care about.

All in all, there's plenty superior shows this spring season 2023 to watch so don't bother with this one as it doesn't have anything special to keep you entertained. The music is trash, the 3d and 2d are cheap as hell and the story is just abysmal.

TL;DR This show would have been great if they'd kept it to their youtube channel.

Trying to appeal to a huge base right out the gate was the biggest mistake - most foreign anime watchers are shonen watchers (see the crunchyroll demon slayer awards) with a smattering of people who enjoy other more common genres. Kaigai vtuber fans are often cringe and toxic....don't read chat in English usually because it tends to make my blood pressure go up. The negative reviews make sense because the people leaving them are 1) anime watchers who aren't into vtubers or 2) toxic kaigai niki's who hate on whatever ... vtubers arent their oshi or oshis friends

The closest "genre" for this show to fit into would be idol.....but 1 song, albeit with lyrical variation, in a season, is not really acceptable for that genre. Every episode should ideally have a song or at the minimum each character should, in order to stand up in the idol genre. It is kind of a school slice of life also but there isn't really much emphasis put into the school portion other than a location for things to happen. Technically a portal fantasy but the real world side is again not explored in any real depth.....

The VA's are great, though it is somewhat obvious from the awkwardness from all but Noelle's, that they are a little new to doing it. Fine for youtube but comes off a bit weird in an anime. I think they all gave solid performances despite that, but solid is not necessarily professional.

The music is good but held down by being musically the same song every episode, every time. It would be fine as a vsingers original but it couldnt be the only song they ever sang, let alone 5 vtubers.....all singing the same song just with varied lyrics.

I enjoyed the show, I enjoyed my time with it well enough despite a few frustrations. I like the characters as vtuber characters...a little less in their anime form since they feel a little hollow without chat interaction, but still they were not terrible. I find it hard to recommend this show generally, but there are a few people I know who I think might enjoy it for what it is, like I did.

If there is one thing I love and hate about Japanese culture, it's the advent of Vtubers a.k.a virtual YouTubers. Poised out of the alternative ashes of the still-popular Vocaloid Hatsune Miku to this day, it's with the world No. 1 Vtuber Kizuna AI that set the world on fire, creating a new generation of Vtubers with numerous companies spawning out everywhere to the scene of iconic ones like Hololive (my personal favourite Gawr Gura) and such.

But if there is that one avenue that the Vtuber scene should NOT have touched, is anime, and we get the long-awaited Kizuna no Allele. Courtesy of the collaboration ... between Wit Studio and Signal.MD., with an unknown director and the all-too-familiar series composer Hitomi Mieno a.k.a Deko Akao writing the scripts for the idol wannabe show, I sincerely hope that this show would be the first AND last venture of Vtubers taking the anime world by storm, because let's face it: even if Japan's reception is lukewarm, absolutely NO ONE cares for this show at all everywhere else, yours truly included.

As if a wannabe nobody wants to become just like Kizuna AI because of her fame and popularity, I'm (not) sorry to say that the ADEN Academy central characters of Miracle, Chris, Noelle, Riz and Quan, even if as a massive Vtuber fan, it's obscenely boring to watch them go about on the usual idol wannabe shticks that are prevalent on almost EVERY other idol-like show, with all bark and no bite, no substance to show for it. And if you hate Vtubers, this show has no lack of the same 3DCG interspersed view that's all too alike with watching them on YouTube, it does not make a difference at all even if at the cusp of utilizing another medium to do so to sell its music, which is repetitive at best.

Let's just put it this way: only a certain level of people love idol shows (which I can understand why), but when the narrative of the "unique, stand-out" ones breaks down, who would ever remember them again as nothing but a footnote in the anime industry's list of wasted resources trying to market to the niche, only to risk it all to get no rewards at all for a financial loss.

I always often say: "Don't blame the studio, but the people", but it's not like the financially strapped Wit Studio had any other choice to not accept work, not after losing the big IPs to MAPPA and holding on to the small ones that don't do much for the studio either. But really, Wit Studio got themselves trapped in one small woo hah of a case, and this show is already an abject D.O.A failure before its arrival to appeal to everyone, that eventually appealed to no one.

Easy pass. Nuff said.

Kizuna Ai anime.... without Kizuna Ai. Was so hyped for this, no Kizuna Ai, none of her craziness or funny quips. What was the point of this anime? theres very cringy 3d bits that just look so bad. Characters are ok tho very very cringy and like other low budget anime they don't react like a human would, so many times they just act nonsensically.

Just wanted a anime with Kizuna Ai in it coz it'd be at the very least funny, this feels like i've been tricked into watching people launch their vtube careers. Also how is it that the songs aren't all kixuna ... songs! kept watching hoping she would show up... doesn't, just some doll that doesn't speak and even if that is her that is silly.

It's just another anime, not memorable even though it could be given the main characters name and Kizuna's song with the same name, but just feels soo lazily done.

A girl wants to become a kind of virtual idol and is met with some hardships on her way. Luckily, she finds other idol-in-training friends at her school to help her overcome her struggles! I liked this anime because it was easy to watch and just gives you a good feeling. The different performed songs are really good overall. There is character development which I really appreciate and the animations are nice to look at. Do recommend for people who enjoy watching idol animes in general or for those who are looking for something cute to watch from time to time!