Because 2016 is a hellish cyberpunk dystopia we haven’t fully come to terms with, there are still cultural phenomenons with the potential to amaze. Here’s one: there’s an anime concert coming to Sydney, ‘performed’ by ‘the world’s top digital humanoid popstar’ IA.
IA is a ‘holographic vocaloid’ created by the Yamaha Corporation, which is a sentence that fell straight out of a Philip K. Dick novel, and she apparently literally sells out stadiums in Japan. Now she’s coming to perform at SMASH! Sydney Manga and Anime Show. It’s… a sight to behold. Watch her perform with real actual humans:
“Virtual popstars like IA are considered the future for pop music in Japan, regularly selling out live stadium shows and racking up millions of views on Youtube.” Said SMASH! President Andrew Qiu “This year SMASH! is celebrating 10 years of bringing the very best of Japanese pop culture to Australia and our special anniversary party is the perfect opportunity to herald in a new decade for the event by presenting IA live in concert.”
How good is late capitalism? They’ve engineered a popstar that will never have a sex scandal, or a drug scandal, who will never die and can perform in multiple places at once. Doesn’t get any more dystopian than that, folks.
SMASH! is happening on the weekend of August 20 – 21.
Photo: Supplied.
