A virtual lover for the lonely doesn’t sound like such a bad idea, if you don’t mind a bit of bondage.That’s the fate of women, real and digital, in the disturbing world of Japanese AI romance, where Minori Takechi is selling his prototype of a “wife of the future” for $2,700 and reports 300 pre-orders from young men.
Her name is Azuma Hikari, and she lives in a bubble—like, an actual bubble, or a little transparent cylinder at any rate. Takechi set out to create a partner who “brings greater satisfaction than human interaction.” He aims to “make her into a person who understands her husband and will always be there to support him.”
Her age: 20. Height: 158 centimeters. Specialty: fried eggs. Dislike: insects.
Best of all, she’s bashful (coy, too, announcing “bath time—do not peep!”). So the lucky fellow “doesn’t have to communicate with her all the time,” Takechi says with a shy grin in the second video in our Love Disrupted series.
Far from the poignant, flickering image of the tough-minded Princess Leia, this is a sort of holographic Handmaid’s Tale. It makes the spooky digital relationship between Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson in Her look like cuddling at prom.
Nearly 70 percent of unmarried Japanese men, and 60percent of women, between 18 and 34 have no relationship with a member of the opposite sex (the sex that appears to count in this industry). That’s a lot of guys to simper for, if you’re Azuma, who texts her owner at work to say she can’t wait for him to come home. When he’s home, she responds to his commands—turn on the lights, turn off the lights—and tenderly suggests when it’s bedtime.
Elsewhere in the industry, a virtual-reality game features a wealthy, contemptuous character who looks like he made it to callbacks for American Psycho. He bought you at auction, if that’s what you’re into.
“Starting today, you live here now, with me,” he snarls. “I expect you to keep me entertained.” Wait, isn’t that his job? A real young man on the streets of Akihabara, a district of Tokyo known for its animé and manga culture, is impressed by a demo of the game but declares, “Getting hit on by a man—it was pretty embarrassing.” Cringing, he looks not so much embarrassed as agonized.
Takechi has a vision. His virtual world of husband and dutiful wife, he says, “could develop into love, if we keep investigating further.”