A booming subculture of young Japanese men are obsessed with anime,
to the point of craving actual intimacy.
Now, a company called Vinclu has invented a machine
that can help bring their fantasies at least partway to life,
in the form of a dedicated virtual companion.
Dexter Thomas went to Tokyo to meet her.
— The Gatebox is a virtual assistant that features an anime character named Azuma Hikari...
— ...who’s projected inside of a glass tube.
— Hikari hooks into the your home network, and she can wake you up,
turn the lights on when you come home,
and even send you cute text messages throughout the day.
Everything she does, though, is kept strictly PG.
— Minori Takechi is the 29-year-old founder and CEO of Vinclu, the company behind the Gatebox.
He says that, soon, every company will have robots.
But he thinks the robots on the market now are too robotic.
— But that dream doesn’t come cheap.
The initial run of pre-order units sold out immediately,
but the Gatebox carries a pretty hefty price tag.
— The Gatebox was designed for otaku:
socially insecure people with obsessive interests, usually in comic books or anime.
Otaku are stereotypically male, which is probably why the Gatebox only features a female character.
One investor said that, based on the otaku audience he sees at anime conventions,
the Gatebox should have a pretty solid market.
— When the international press found out about the Gatebox,
most outlets made fun of it.
But Vinclu says that the publicity has sparked interest in America,
with people who want to use the Gatebox as a tool to cope with disabilities.
— The Gatebox is still a long way from serving as a replacement companion.
But the interaction that Hikari offers might be all some people need.