Virtual singer Kaf remembers the first time she truly felt the power of her music — standing onstage at Ebisu’s Liquidroom in 2019, seeing her fans’ faces lit up with joy.
“For the first time, I could see my fans and their emotions. We could sing together, and I keenly felt how my music was reaching people,” says the 21-year-old.
Six years later, that sense of connection brought on by music has become the central theme of a new anime, “Kamitsubaki City Under Construction,” which is currently airing new episodes on Thursdays on TBS and streaming on Crunchyroll.
Kaf, who is managed by Kamitsubaki Studio and does not reveal her real identity to the world, first found an audience in 2018 by posting lyrically driven, emotional songs and covers to YouTube. Within a few years, she grew from an online presence into a live performer, playing at major venues including Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan.
Her trajectory reflects a larger trend. Virtual singers who perform using digital avatars are no longer niche acts — they are drawing crowds big enough to fill some of the country’s largest concert halls. At the same time, anime centered on music has developed a similar crossover appeal. What began with idol anime in the 2010s has since expanded with series like “Bocchi the Rock” and “Girls Band Cry,” whose voice actors also perform as their characters at packed live shows.
“Kamitsubaki City Under Construction” merges these two worlds. The new series is part of a multimedia project built around five of Kamitsubaki Studio’s virtual artists — Kaf, Rim, Harusaruhi, Isekaijoucho and Koko. Each artist has an established solo career and dedicated online following, but they also perform together under the supergroup name V.W.P. (Virtual Witch Phenomenon). The anime extends their artistry into a sci-fi narrative and offers fans a new way to engage with their music, while also allowing Kamitsubaki Studio to reach wider audiences.
The series reimagines the singers as schoolgirls in the high-tech Kamitsubaki City who live double lives as Witchlings, people whose voices possess magical powers. By singing “songs of purification,” they can transform vengeful spirits called Tesseractors back into peaceful souls at rest.
At its core, “Kamitsubaki City Under Construction” delivers a universal message: Music has the ability to heal and help people in their lowest moments. For Kaf, that theme resonates on a personal level, reflecting her own experience as an artist and the bond she has built with her fans.
“(My character, Kafu Morisaki) can use this great power to take away all the rage and sadness in the world and strip it away with her song, but she begins to question if this is really the right thing to do,” she says. “Kafu begins to fall into a spiral of her own mind because, until this point, she’s always believed her power was purely something to be used for good to save people.”
That conflict mirrors how Kaf thinks about her own role as a musician. “Occasionally, fans tell me how they’ve felt saved or how my music has changed their life. Rather than feeling pressure, though, I think — even if it was my song or the song of another artist from Kamitsubaki Studio that triggered them — it was their own inner strength that allowed them to change.”
Although she has spent plenty of time in the recording studio, the voice acting process was a learning experience for Kaf. “When recording music, I’m often on my own standing in front of the microphone in the studio, and can redo things as many times as I need to get it right. As a voice actor, recording with the other members of V.W.P., we’ll record a full scene in one, and there’s not always a chance to record one more time, which is scary.”
Still, the collaborative group sessions were rewarding. "I love getting to do different things and perform as a member of V.W.P. especially," Kaf says. "The result is something that can only come from performing together. When we sing, if I want to know how to better perform a rap part, I can ask Harusarushi, or for darker songs I go to Isekaijoucho for advice."
Bringing virtual talents and VTubers into the anime industry provides mutual enrichment. A virtual artist is already navigating a layered identity — blending their real self with a fictional persona — so introducing that kind of performer to the medium of anime can result in something complex. That’s precisely what drew series director Kodai Kakimoto to the “Kamitsubaki City Under Construction” project.
“I truly believe that Vsingers, as well as VTubers on a broader scale, are rewriting the rules for what it means to be a performer,” he says. “In animation, there’s a certain line of reality to how we can project a sense of realness to our creations. I think the same is true for VTubers, with where they choose to draw that line in becoming a unique part of their character.”
That tension of deciding where to draw the line between themselves and the characters they embody brings a special element to their performance.
“VTubers are typically distinguished by a set of extreme character traits they embody (in their avatar),” Kakimoto says. “On the flip side, in anime, cast members must fully embody the role that they take on. If you bring in a virtual talent as part of the cast, unless the content itself is centered on them, there’s a risk of the avatar and the role they’re performing clashing in a kind of feedback loop. If you place a character in the center of the story and they’re able to bring out their full potential, you can create something uniquely special.”
“Kamitsubaki City Under Construction” has done just that. The series’ soundtrack, which features songs from all five voice actors, allows for fresh takes on familiar favorites while helping anime audiences to discover their music. The series pairs musical experimentation with a darker tone that tackles difficult topics like trauma and grief. As a creative experiment from Kamitsubaki Studio, the series is bold and ambitious, pushing the boundaries of what a multimedia anime project can accomplish.
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