It’s Springtime, baby! If you’re looking for something to match the ephemeral beauty of plum blossoms and tulips, how about the ephemeral bloom of the Virtual Idol? Today we have crowdsourced icons like vocaloid star Hatsune Miku, corporately-sponsored vtubers, and deepfake Disney actors but in the colorful techno-optimism of the 90s and 00s the virtual girlfriend reigned supreme. What made her special? For one, the nightmare of AI as it is, a massive, energy-and-water-gobbling, psychosis-inducing aggregation machine without true originality, was decades from polluting our world. The concept of AI was still magical, speculative, and a novel way to explore questions about human loneliness, empathy, and the desire for companionship. The computer was cool! It was whimsical and enigmatic. A virtual woman can wear any hat and travel anywhere. She might be your nurturing lover, your grim reaper, or you; digitally transformed.
Cybervenus FeiFei/Dancing Queen Yuki Terai/Virtual Idol 2000
The fearsome market force that is porn production has always been a driver and early adopter of new tech.The implications of this model look very different in the present day, but in the year 2000 that meant busty polygon women testing the cybernetic laws of physics and vying for stardom while achieving the lowest point in the uncanny valley.
Meet Yuki Terai, one of the world’s first virtual idols, MCing her own stilted dance-off between an international smorgasbord of sexy character models. Cybervenus Fei Fei’s taste runs a little more to the avant garde, her debut features a series of surreal visual vignettes one of which is interlaced with footage of a real Italy. Watch Fei Fei toss a coin into Trevi Fountain and contemplate the meaning of her existence. It’s almost a poem in CGI and it honestly moved me. Virtual Idol 2000 also contains various short demos, infamously featured in the French corporate chiller Demonlover (2002). Even Aki Ross of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) was part of an aborted cyber idol marketing campaign.
Megazone 23 (parts I-III)
Megazone 23 (part I) was the second anime OVA ever. On a home video release sex and violence could be freed of aired-on-TV restraints. The trilogy of Megazone 23 OVAs tell a story about a 1980s Japan that is nothing but a matrix illusion full of political unease, and Eve is the world’s most popular idol. She’s a ghost in the machine that wants to help our heroes break through the dysphoric malaise of 1980s pop culture consumerism and into… what?
S1m0ne
America’s answer to the virtual idol. Al Pacino’s performance is taxing, but any time S1m0ne herself is on screen you’re in for a genuinely fun and satirical time. This film innovated the MC Esher strip visualization of human faces imitated on the covers of such films as Identicals (2015). In the DVD extras the interviewees are very blunt about why Hollywood might be interested in exploring the possibility of an AI-generated star.
Princess- D
This perfectly 2002 Hong Kong movie is a hidden gem. It splashes in the waters of Wong Kar-Wai’s neon-washed working class magical realism while still standing on its own as a family melodrama about a cool drug dealing bartender self-actualizing and the guy who sees the ultimate kickass survival game heroine in her. There are some wonderfully slice-of-life moments, both domestic and around the development of an early 3D adventure game. It’s about growing up not vertically but sideways. And yes, Princess D’s namesake is Princess Diana.
Mira's pick: Teknolust and Seducing Time (1984-2008) with Lynn Hershman-Leeson
For America’s other answer to the virtual idol, see the work of speculative techno-feminist artist Lynn Hershman-Leeson. Teknolust (2002) with Tilda Swinton is otherworldly in all aspects: its premise, the mise-en-scene, the line reads, and alien performances. Scientist Swinton has created 3 cyborg clones of herself, fashioned from primary colors, who spread a bio-technological STD when Ruby (the red seductress clone and self appointed leader of the three) ventures out to collect semen for sustenance. In her outings she becomes curious about human emotional connection, leaving Swinton scrambling to hide her incredible technological achievement from the scientists and doctors investigating the cause of the outbreak. Learning that director Hershman-Leeson is primarily a visual media artist interested in the cross-section of humanity, 'real' artificial intelligence, and digital social communication made everything about this film click into place. Mostly. I was still baffled and enthralled and confused and laughing throughout. Definitely worth an afternoon of enraptured curiosity.
Mira’s other pick: Corrector Yui
14 year old tech-illiterate Yui Kasuga is invited by her dad to test the V.R. theme park ‘Galaxy Land’, a program he developed for ComNet (the Internet). IR is an installer program that confuses Yui with her tech savvy friend, turning Yui into a ‘Corrector’. Tasked with saving the entire cyber realm from the virus program Grosser, Yui charmingly bumbles her way around computers IRL, but inside ComNet she deftly handles his minions (Corruptors) after a stylish magical girl transformation sequence.
Found on the shelves of the Lower Queen Anne Easystreet Records (R.I.P.) in middle school, this was my Sailor Moon; if it were possible to wear out a DVD from replaying, I woulda done it. Yui may be groaningly incompetent and a little obnoxious (and what middle schooler isn’t), but there’s a lot of heart and fun to be found here. Neat Mega-Man style Dr. Light/Wily dynamic, an element changing power suit, Wolf from Star Fox but with an energy sword; Don’t overlook this Magical Girl gem! Let’s go to ComNet!
Hazel's pick: I Dream of Mimi
There are a lot of girls going in and out of computers on this list, but what about one that's literally a computer? We're not talking your bog standard gynoid cyborg sexy baby ala Chobits, the titular Mimi is at once an ultra-competent beautiful fighting girl, and a supercomputer so advanced she can bring you into cyberspace with her!......Oh and she also runs on semen. It appears nobody can decide if this is a hentai or not, so let an expert weigh in: nah it's too well animated. It's also quite funny, and at a lean three episodes it's what we in the business call "a good time."
Hazel's other pick: Video Girl Ai
Friendzoned again? Sounds like you need to rent a video tape*! We can't guarantee a hologram girlfriend will apparate and sweep you off your feet, but should she, Video Girl Ai posits that she'll be better for you than a woman of flesh and blood ever could. And it makes a pretty compelling case– add this title to the short list of harem-adjacent anime that features both a likeable male protagonist and a romance that's kind-of-worth-buying-into. VHS is an analog format, which should bar it from consideration for this spotlight, but c'mon, it's just so darned pleasant that watching feels like spending time with a well adjusted friend with a sunny disposition. That, combined with its washed out, dreamy color palette, gives it a nostalgic feeling even on a first watch.*Scarecrow Video carries Video Girl Ai in DVD format only
Giorgio Moroder presents Metropolis
Please excuse the obnoxiously heady choice to include the 1927 German expressionist masterpiece Metropolis restored/recut and scored with a rock-synth score. Not only is it a complete banger, but it is the perfect spawning point for the trope and themes of the virtual idol: a woman created by technology, deferred grief, corporate exploitation, a copy vs the original, rebellion against a creator. If you’re daunted by a 2+ hour silent film, try this version to start!
