Ketsumeishi AI Makes 3,500 Song Intros & Support for a ¥3.9T Market | Oshi News (Apr 24, 2026)
Here is our roundup of the week’s key stories in corporate oshikatsu (fan activities supporting a favorite idol, artist, or character) marketing and fan business from April 17 to April 23, 2026.
This Week’s Highlights
The defining theme this week was oshikatsu beginning to be discussed in hard numbers as an investment target.
Brave group raised over 8 billion yen in its Series E funding round, bringing its cumulative funding to approximately 14 billion yen. Through a group subsidiary, GREE Holdings became Brave group’s largest shareholder. That same week, A3 Co., Ltd. launched a corporate support service called the “A3 Oshikatsu Department” (A3 Oshikatsu-bu). A3 estimated the domestic oshikatsu market size at approximately 3.9 trillion yen, with roughly 19.97 million people actively spending money on their oshi (favorite).
On the technology front, practical AI implementations moved forward. The hip-hop and pop group Ketsumeishi ran an interactive fan campaign using “D-AI-ZO,” an AI recreation of a member’s voice. Within a single week of launch, fans generated over 3,500 original spoken song introductions (kyoku-furi). Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya’s AI voice project took on its first voice acting role in a live production staged at a new venue in Takanawa, Tokyo.
- Approx. 3.9T yen
- Estimated domestic oshikatsu market size across roughly 19.97 million spenders (A3 survey)
- Over 8B yen
- Brave group's Series E raise, bringing cumulative funding to roughly 14B yen
- Over 3,500 spoken song intros
- Custom spoken song intros generated in one week via Ketsumeishi's D-AI-ZO voice AI
- 89.9%
- Survey respondents who answered they "dislike" or "strongly dislike" blind-box goods (Hamaru Strategy)
Source: The Oshi Lab's summary of the article
AI Voice Recreation Built New Touchpoints with Fans
Ketsumeishi x D-AI-ZO — AI Voice Generates 3,500 Song Intros in One Week
On March 27, Ketsumeishi launched “Ketsumeishi’s #SoredewaKiiteKudasai” (“#NowPleaseListen”), a project powered by generative voice AI. The campaign was timed to coincide with the group’s 25th-anniversary national arena tour, which kicked off in April 2026. When users entered a personal message on the special campaign website, the system generated a custom video. In each video, “D-AI-ZO”—an AI recreation of group leader Daizo’s voice—read the user’s heartfelt message aloud over the intro of a Ketsumeishi track. On X, fans continuously posted their custom videos using the hashtags “#ケツメイシ” (#Ketsumeishi) and “#それでは聴いてください” (#NowPleaseListen). Within one week of the service’s launch, the number of generated song intros surpassed 3,500. Creative director 安本一優, who led the campaign, explained: “We thought about whether we could create a new mechanism that draws out each person’s personal feelings toward Ketsumeishi songs and encourages them to share those stories even with non-fans” (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: What made this work so well is that the AI recreated a speaking “voice” rather than singing. By designing a system where the group leader’s voice reads out each fan’s personal memories, the project significantly lowered the barrier to participation. The longer-selling an IP a company holds, the more room there is to adapt this kind of mechanism to unearth and archive fans’ personal memories.
Yumi Matsutoya x MANGALOGUE “Phoenix” — AI Voice Takes On Its First Voice Acting Role
On April 22, “MANGALOGUE: Phoenix” (MANGALOGUE: Hi no Tori), an experiential live performance based on the “Future” (Mirai-hen) arc of Osamu Tezuka’s manga Phoenix (Hi no Tori), opened to the public. Held at MoN Takanawa, a multi-purpose museum complex in Takanawa Gateway City, the production ran through May 16 with tickets priced at 4,500 to 5,500 yen. The event was planned and operated by the East Japan Railway Culture Creation Foundation, with TBS and Bascule participating in planning and production. The staging projected newly colorized manuscript pages by Tezuka Productions onto a massive LED screen while a robotic arm named the “Tetsuwan Arm” (Astro Arm) tracked across the manga panels from a camera perspective. The voice cast featured prominent actors including Koichi Yamadera, Mari Natsuki, Yuki Kaji, Kanata Hongo, and Arata Furuta. Yumi Matsutoya’s AI voice project, “Yumi AraI,” also joined the cast in the dual role of the AI Hallelujah / Danannbar. According to the announcement, this marked the first time the voice appeared in a production as a voice actor rather than as a singer (Musicman (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: The defining feature here is deploying an active artist’s AI voice in the entirely new role of a “voice actor.” Rather than taking appearance opportunities away from the artist herself, the AI version is placed in domains she would not ordinarily take on in person. For companies that manage long-running IP, designing this kind of division of roles can effectively extend an artist’s active career span.
Fan Voices Started Shaping Talent Casting Decisions
Number_i x Ikeda Mohando — Answering Fans’ Hopes That “Jinguji Will Be Next”
On April 17, pharmaceutical company Ikeda Mohando launched a new television commercial for “Muhi Beta V Liquid,” an eczema and dermatitis medication, starring Yuta Jinguji of the group Number_i. The company had already cast the other members of Number_i across its product lineup: Sho Hirano for “Liquid Muhi / Muhi Alpha EX” and Yuta Kishi for “Hibicare.” Eiichi Hamamatsu, leader of the Market Development Office, explained: “One of the reasons for the casting was the expectant voices from fans wondering if Jinguji-san might become an image character next.” With this latest appointment, all three members of Number_i appeared across Ikeda Mohando’s advertising (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Casting three group members individually across three distinct brands—and generating anticipation among fans over “who will be next”—was a clever approach. Rather than announcing the casting order upfront, Ikeda Mohando waited for fan excitement to build before revealing the final member. Companies with multiple product lines can use this kind of intentional “white space” in their casting design.
Naniwa Danshi x ROUND1 — Tie-Up Commercial Airs from April 25 as March Bowling Sales Rise 5.7%
Round One Japan began airing a new television commercial for its “ROUND1” amusement centers starting April 25. Following last year’s campaign, the company once again cast the idol group Naniwa Danshi—who are celebrating the fifth anniversary of their CD debut—and featured their song “Gimme The Day” as the commercial tie-up track. In March, total domestic sales reached 11.25 billion yen, with existing-store sales up 3.7% year-on-year (an effective increase of roughly 6% after adjusting for calendar factors). By segment, bowling rose 5.7%, karaoke rose 5.8%, Spo-Cha (sports and amusement areas) rose 3.3%, and arcade amusement rose 2.6%. Hironori Yamaguchi of the Corporate Planning Department noted that last year’s campaign featuring Naniwa Danshi “drew interest in our facilities from a wide range of generations.” According to Yamaguchi, another goal was to attract female customers, who previously had relatively fewer occasions to visit (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: What stands out is that bowling, a mature category, continues to grow in the second year of an idol tie-up. By retaining the same group year over year, Round One is cultivating the collaboration into an annual reason to visit. For multi-activity entertainment complexes, this is a strong example of how a single tie-up can simultaneously boost utilization rates across multiple facility segments.
From Heritage Brands to Utilities, New Corporate Mascots Debuted This Spring
Fujicco and au Energy & Life — Creating New Brand Faces for Milestone Anniversaries
On April 1, food manufacturer Fujicco unveiled two new official mascot characters: “Omameyan” and “Konbuyan.” The year 2026 marks overlapping milestone anniversaries for three of the company’s flagship brands: the 60th anniversary of “Fujicco,” the 50th anniversary of “Omamesan,” and the 55th anniversary of “Fujicco-ni.” Taking advantage of the occasion, Fujicco held an internal call for ideas open to all employees and their families to bring the characters to life. Also on April 1, au Energy & Life, the operator of the “au Denki” retail electricity service, introduced a new mascot named “Runrun Runmo.” The character was produced by San-X, the company behind Sumikko Gurashi and Rilakkuma. Created to mark the 10th anniversary of the “au Denki” service, the character was given the backstory of joining the company as a public relations representative (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Two companies in completely different industries—a long-established food maker and an infrastructure provider—launched characters on the exact same day, April 1, using the same core concept. Anniversaries and corporate milestones offer a prime opportunity to refresh a company’s “personality” rather than just pushing product features. The fewer everyday B2C touchpoints an industry naturally has, the more valuable a mascot becomes as a catalyst for ongoing conversations with customers.
Major IP Holders and Capital Moved into Gaming and Esports
Sanrio and Toei — Entering the Game Business via In-House Publishing
On April 21, Sanrio announced the launch of “Sanrio Games,” its first in-house video game publishing brand. As its inaugural title, the company announced Sanrio Party Land, slated for a simultaneous global release in fall 2026 for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. Sanrio planned to roll out roughly 10 titles over the next three years and had already outlined a policy of investing 10 billion yen in development and marketing. President Tomokuni Tsuji stated that he wanted to make the gaming business “one of the gateways to Sanrio.” On the very same day, April 21, entertainment studio Toei announced the establishment of its own game business brand, “Toei Games.” Toei announced it would begin by releasing titles on the PC platform Steam, and on April 24 it unveiled three brand-new original titles built from scratch without relying on existing IP. President Fumio Yoshimura explained that the company positions the gaming business as a “new pillar” alongside film, television, and live events (Famitsu.com (in Japanese), AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Two veteran IP companies stepped into in-house game publishing during the same week. This represents a move to reclaim direct control over world-building and storytelling—elements that are normally handed over under traditional licensing agreements. For companies that primarily license their IP out to third parties, building an in-house game business is increasingly coming into view as a way to bring revenue structures back under their own roof.
e-Stadium x Aktio — Capital and Business Alliance for Esports Venue Operations
On March 31, 2026, e-Stadium and Aktio signed a capital and business alliance agreement. While e-Stadium operates esports facilities as part of the NANKAI Group, Aktio specializes in managing and operating public and private facilities. Aktio announced an equity investment in e-Stadium for an undisclosed amount. The two companies agreed to collaborate across four areas: improving facility operation quality, jointly planning esports events, expanding new venues nationwide, and strengthening partnerships with local governments. Starting from its flagship Namba main store in Osaka, e-Stadium was operating nine locations across Japan. Nobuyuki Okajima, president of parent company NANKAI (Nankai Electric Railway), commented: “Taking on the challenge of esports to create future urban experiences beyond the framework of a railway company is a symbolic project” (Inside (in Japanese), GameBusiness.jp (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: In this partnership, a facility management company founded in 1987 invested in esports specifically for its community-building power. It pairs a company skilled at managing physical venues with a company skilled at drawing crowds. For businesses that hold operating rights to municipal venues or commercial complexes, esports offers a concrete option for raising the utilization rate of underused spaces.
VTubers Connected with Capital, Local Regions, and Travel Agencies
VTuber IP & Fandom
- Capital & Corporate InvestorsBrave group raised over 8B yen in Series E across 19 investors including GREE, Kirin, and Nippon Broadcasting
- Multi-City Fan TouringHololive launched a 7-city free pop-up tour with AR photos, mascot greetings, and a stamp rally
- Regional Hometown TaxFolklore VTuber Meguru Moroboshi partnered with a Toyama brewery and Funahashi Village for a sake return gift
- Travel User-Generated ContentHIS ran a VTuber travel video contest drawing over 110 entries and showcased winners on Shibuya signage
Source: The Oshi Lab's summary of the article
Brave group x GREE — Reaching 14 Billion Yen in Cumulative Funding with Series E
On April 22, GREE Holdings made an additional investment in Brave group through its wholly owned subsidiary REALITY, becoming Brave group’s largest shareholder. Brave group is the VTuber company behind agencies and projects such as VSPO! (Buisupo!), HIMEHINA, and Neo-Porte. By raising over 8 billion yen in its Series E round, the company brought its cumulative funding since its founding in 2017 to approximately 14 billion yen. The round brought together 19 domestic and international investors and financial institutions—combining third-party allotment capital increases from 16 companies with loans from three institutions. Participants included Mizuho Bank, Kirin Holdings, Nippon Broadcasting System, and Kakao Investment. The company outlined four uses for the funds: IP localization in overseas markets, new business development for existing IP, research and development in XR technologies, and M&A and strategic alliances. At the time of the announcement, Brave group had 432 employees and 16 group companies (Mogura VR (in Japanese), KAI-YOU (in Japanese), ITmedia (in Japanese), BRIDGE (in Japanese), Brave group (in Japanese), Inside (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Even more telling than the funding total itself is the presence of operating companies like Kirin Holdings and Nippon Broadcasting System on the investor roster. More corporations are viewing VTubers as IP collaboration partners for existing businesses such as broadcasting and beverages. For a VTuber agency, investment from outside industries serves not just as capital, but as a direct springboard for business alliances.
Hololive — Hosting a Seven-City Nationwide Pop-Up Tour
Hololive’s seven-city nationwide pop-up event, “hololive BASE on Tour! 2026 Duet Stage!”, began rolling out sequentially starting May 1, with the final stop in Chiba scheduled to run through September 13. Admission was free. Fourteen talents—including Shirakami Fubuki, Ookami Mio, and AZKi—participated in the event, which featured newly illustrated music-festival-themed merchandise. The tour also offered mascot costume (kigurumi) meet-and-greets, AR photo experiences, and a digital stamp rally that rewarded fans who collected stamps across all seven venues with a B2-size tapestry (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Rather than relying solely on merchandise sales, the event combines mascot greetings and a stamp rally designed to encourage fans to visit multiple stops out of the seven cities. Instead of wrapping everything up in a single venue, it is structured as a multi-stop tour built on the premise of fan travel (ensei). This serves as a useful reference for expanding merch-focused IP events into experiential touring content.
Meguru Moroboshi x Funahashi Village — VTuber Collaboration Sake Becomes a Hometown Tax Gift
“Masuizumi Funahashi,” a junmai daiginjo sake created in collaboration between folklore-themed VTuber Meguru Moroboshi and Masuda Shuzoten, a historic sake brewery in Toyama Prefecture, was adopted as a hometown tax (furusato nozei) return gift for Funahashi Village, Toyama Prefecture. Applications opened on April 22. Brewed with “Bandori Rice” (Koshihikari rice grown in Funahashi Village) polished down to 50% of its original grain size, the limited-edition sake required a donation of 15,000 yen. Every donor also received an acrylic bottle charm featuring Meguru Moroboshi. In addition, a collaborative livestream featuring the mayor of Funahashi Village as a special guest was scheduled for May 1 (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Using a VTuber for a municipal tax return gift is one of the few methods that directly connects local primary industries with an active fandom. What makes this case stand out is how far it goes—having the village mayor personally appear as a guest on the livestream. Instead of keeping regional PR closed within the municipality or local businesses, it opens the effort up to a fan community. For municipalities with small populations, this offers a way to reach demographics that traditional PR budgets cannot touch.
HIS — Taiwan Travel Video Wins Grand Prize in VTuber Travel Contest
Travel agency HIS announced the winning entries of its self-organized VTuber travel video contest, the “#TabiShitemita Project” (“#ITriedTraveling Project”). Out of more than 110 submissions, a Taiwan travel video by VTuber Toton Ton won the Grand Prize, earning an invitation ticket for an HIS domestic day-trip bus tour departing from the Tokyo metropolitan area. Videos by the three winners of the HIS “V-Travel Award” (V-Tabi Sho) were also screened on the large digital signage at the HIS Shibuya flagship store from May 1 through May 22 (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Structuring this as an open contest where VTubers submit their own travel videos—rather than the travel agency commissioning videos directly—was highly efficient. The contest drew over 110 entries and channeled selected winning videos back into physical retail touchpoints via storefront signage. Other tourism and hospitality businesses can adapt this model to gather fan-created video assets without incurring production costs.
Support Services and Hard Data Converged on the 3.9 Trillion Yen Oshikatsu Market
Commune “Commune Engage” — Visualizing Fan Behavior via LINE
On April 21, Commune Inc. launched full-scale availability of “Commune Engage,” a SaaS engagement program that aggregates and visualizes all types of customer contribution behaviors. Using a brand’s official LINE account as the interface, the platform awards points for and tracks not only purchases, but also social media posts, physical store visits (via QR check-ins), and event attendance. This enables companies to identify and nurture high-enthusiasm fans early on. As an early adoption case, Commune highlighted Tamano Hikari Sake Brewery—a historic sake brewery founded 350 years ago—which used the tool to visualize the correlation between event participation and repeat purchases. Commune also announced plans to showcase the service at “Marketing Week Spring” at Tokyo Big Sight from April 22 to 24 (PR TIMES (in Japanese), Manamina (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Eliminating the need for a dedicated new app and completing everything up to membership card issuance as a natural extension of adding a LINE friend is a practical design choice. When companies can visualize the enthusiasm of younger fans—who may have lower immediate purchasing power but high affinity—they can validate fan marketing with data rather than relying on intuition. Small and medium-sized retailers and manufacturers without their own membership apps will find this kind of service especially approachable.
A3 “A3 Oshikatsu Department” — Opening Know-How from 5,000 Projects to Corporate Clients
Beginning in April 2026, A3 Co., Ltd., a company specializing in IP merchandise, launched a B2B consulting and support service called the “A3 Oshikatsu Department” (A3 Oshikatsu-bu) aimed at corporations looking to enter or expand within the oshikatsu market. A3 announced it would provide end-to-end support from strategy formulation through manufacturing and sales by combining user insights cultivated through its in-house brand “OSHI+”, a track record of over 5,000 IP projects, and its proprietary e-commerce platform “eeo,” which has over 400,000 members. According to A3’s research, roughly one in three people in Japan aged 15 to 69 answered that they have an oshi. A3 estimates the number of people actively spending money on their oshi at approximately 19.97 million, and places the domestic market size at roughly 3.9 trillion yen (PR TIMES (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Even more notable than the 3.9 trillion yen market figure is the background frustration driving demand for this service: companies saying they ran a campaign, yet failed to spark real enthusiasm from fans. Oshikatsu is a domain where understanding fan context and culture determines success or failure. For companies without internal know-how, working with a hands-on partner service like this carries real value.
Hamaru Strategy — 89.9% of Respondents Say They “Dislike” Blind-Box Merch
Hamaru Strategy released an interim report on its “2026 Consumer Awareness Survey on Random Goods,” conducted between March 28 and April 3. Although the survey was announced solely via X (formerly Twitter) and a press release, it drew a cumulative total of 35,866 responses, with its four free-response questions gathering a combined 2,694,939 Japanese characters of written feedback. Women accounted for 85.7% of respondents, and working adults made up 84.6%. The proportion of respondents who answered that they “dislike” or “strongly dislike” random (blind-box) merchandise reached 89.9%. Among the reasons for disliking random sales, both “the possibility of not getting the item I want” and “it costs more money than standard open-selection merchandise” exceeded 90%. At the same time, the survey revealed the reality that many respondents continue buying blind-box items even while disliking the format (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: The significance of this survey lies in making a core contradiction visible: nearly 90% of respondents dislike random goods, yet keep buying them anyway. Because purchasing behavior does not stop despite loud criticism, companies face little immediate incentive to rethink the sales method itself. For businesses that rely on blind-box sales, these findings provide hard numbers illustrating the medium- to long-term cost of eroding goodwill toward the IP.
Editorial Takeaways for the Week
This was the week oshikatsu started being discussed through hard numbers rather than gut instinct.
Brave group’s 8 billion yen raise, A3’s 3.9 trillion yen market estimate, and Hamaru Strategy’s 35,866 survey responses all lined up in the same week. Each represents a move to translate fan passion—which had previously been discussed largely by feel—into concrete data usable for investment and business decisions. At the same time, experiments using technology to multiply fan touchpoints also moved forward, as seen in Ketsumeishi’s AI song intros and Yumi Matsutoya’s AI voice acting debut. Moves to quantify fan enthusiasm and moves to transform it into new experiences advanced in parallel during the exact same week.
Whether a company is launching an original mascot character or casting celebrity talent, the essential question is how to visualize the actions of the fans on the other side and how to help that engagement continue. Consider exploring this week’s developments alongside our guides to Oshikatsu Marketing Design Principles and Fan Marketing Fundamentals.
Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a weekly roundup of key developments at the intersection of oshikatsu and business. Browse past issues in our Oshikatsu x News category.
