Activ8, the talent agency behind pioneering virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI, announced on August 6 that it is joining the Asobi System group. Activ8 will keep operating as an independent group company, and Kizuna AI, Activ8’s wholly owned subsidiary, will continue under the same production team as before.
Asobi System built its name on Harajuku street culture, launching Kyary Pamyu Pamyu internationally and bringing her to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2022. In 2024, its idol group ATARASHII GAKKO! also played Coachella, and the agency’s “KAWAII LAB.” project, launched in 2022, has grown acts like FRUITS ZIPPER. Activ8, founded in 2016, has spent a decade as a leading producer of virtual entertainment, developing Kizuna AI and producing virtual content for other companies’ IP and talent.
The two companies are not strangers. They previously worked together on Kizuna AI’s 2019 song “AIAIAI,” produced with Yasutaka Nakata, which has drawn roughly 20 million YouTube views and remains her biggest hit. They also co-developed the virtual production system “ANNIN,” staged a VRChat concert for the artist CAPSULE called “Metropulse,” and collaborated on Kizuna AI’s return to music activities after she resumed work in 2025.
The companies frame the move as part of a broader push to grow Japan’s entertainment exports. Japan’s overseas content market reached roughly 5.8 trillion yen in 2023, and the Japanese government has set a public-private goal of expanding it to 20 trillion yen by 2033. Asobi System CEO Yusuke Nakagawa said the two companies share a drive to create new culture, while Activ8 CEO Takeshi Osaka said the next era of entertainment will emerge where virtual and real-world culture intersect, rather than from either alone.
Who is Kizuna AI?
Kizuna AI is widely credited as one of the first virtual YouTubers, debuting in 2016 and helping kick off the VTuber phenomenon that has since become a major part of Japan’s entertainment industry. She built a following of millions of subscribers through gaming videos, music releases, and livestreams before scaling back activity in 2022. She resumed regular activity in 2025 and released her 10th-anniversary single “My Love” in July, with a music video produced by Nor, the creator behind “Hello, Morning,” in his first new work in eight years.
Going forward, the companies say they plan to develop new real-and-virtual idol groups, expand Kizuna AI’s music with a world tour and 10th-anniversary projects, and create new character IP alongside further virtual entertainment ventures.
Author’s Comment
Ah, the circle of Japanese entertainment life: two companies who’ve quietly been dating for years finally make it Facebook official. I love that nobody’s pretending this is a hostile takeover — Activ8 keeps its own desk, Kizuna AI keeps her own team, everyone just gets a shared Slack channel and a bigger travel budget. Honestly, this is the VTuber industry growing up in real time: the pioneer who started it all in 2016 is now getting folded into the same machine that took Kyary Pamyu Pamyu to Coachella, because apparently even digital idols need a proper booking agent to go global. Watch this space for a suspiciously well-produced world tour announcement within the year.
