Kyoko: virtual girlfriend

Kyoko Date is not your average pop idol. She will happily frolic for free 24 hours a day without appearing at awards ceremonies with "slave" scrawled across her cheek. No chance of her ever having posed for Playboy, or being caught hoovering up dunes of coke.

The world's ultimate exploitable star is a state-of-the-art virtual chick, made up of 40,000 polygons. Her profile reveals that she is age 17, 162cm tall, likes Toy Story and fancies Christian Slater. She has been kitted out with a family and kooky memories - her first love was a boy in her football club - and even poor vision.

Kyoko Date is the first "Digital Kid", progeny of Japanese "talent agency" HoriPro Inc and computer graphic designers Visual Science Laboratory. So far she has released a single, "Love Communication", performed on a massive screen at a "live" gig, and hosted a pop show on Tokyo FM.

A marketing miracle? Bob Fisher, UK General Manager of R&S Records, who have signed Japanese artists Ken Ishii and Boom Boom Satellites is not convinced. "Music should come before the marketing. The irony of it is that if it is successful, they will have to find a live artist to represent the virtual one."

At the moment, Kyoko is a cultural phenomenon only in Japan and her fans are mainly otaku, full-on no-mate net geeks. But she also has a burgeoning international Internet following revealed by her saucy fan page: "I wanna girlfriend to be like Kyoko. And I will soon ..." threatens Eric from South Korea. "She makes me get a big bar," reports Monty from UK. "Perty Gurl Perty, Perty Gurl. I wanna Pet Perty Gurl's Hair," confesses Maurice from US. Yoy! Good job she lives on the Internet! Keep your web eyes peeled for Kyoko porn ...

Kyoko web site: http: //www.etud.insa-tlse.fr/mdumas/kyoko.html