KAF

Overview

KAF is one of the defining virtual singers of KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO and a central member of V.W.P. Since her 2018 debut at the age of 14, she has built a massive following as a 3D avatar artist who does not reveal her real face. She has become closely associated with the studio’s identity through a distinctive voice, a strong “observation” motif, and ambitious stage-driven presentations.

She is important not only as a solo artist but also as a bridge across multiple Kamitsubaki projects. In addition to her own albums and one-man lives, she is tied to V.W.P, to the musical isotope voicebank KAFU, and to the broader Kamitsubaki City multimedia line. As of June 2024, her YouTube channel has surpassed 1 million subscribers.

Role and Creative Position

KAF’s work often combines intimate emotion, adolescent perspective, and a carefully mediated virtual presence. Her early artistic arc is strongly linked with main composer Iori Kanzaki, whose collaborations with her helped define the tone of her first major releases and live narratives.

Over time, KAF expanded beyond that initial phase into a wider project-based role: a solo singer, a unit member, a voice source for synthetic singing software, and a recurring figure in Kamitsubaki’s cross-media worldbuilding. In 2021, she started a collaborative project titled “Suite” with real-world artists and composers. In 2024, she officially announced her new singer-songwriter project under the name “Kaika”.

Basic Profile and Character Setting

KAF’s public identity is built around anonymity, observation, and the distance between a virtual body and a real stage. “Observer” is both the name used for her listeners and a description of the relationship established by her works. Early fan expressions belong to fan culture, not to an official civil name.

Forms, Setting, and Anecdotes

KAF’s visual forms change with the work and stage. Early “chick” and “swallow” imagery, special singing forms, and later live-specific designs embody different chapters rather than ordinary costume changes. Public information about her real-world identity is intentionally limited; this article prioritizes official songs, videos, live performances, published design material, and reliable interviews.

Complete Visual Form Archive

KAF’s appearance is not fixed: it has continued to “fledge” alongside each live show, single, and lore development. Every form is designed under the direction of character designer PALOW. and debuted at a performance or music video.

Naming pattern: nearly every form is named after a bird (hinadori, hoshigarasu, ruribitaki, aosuzume, hayabusa, kanaria, oiradori, kinkeii, tsubame, shamo, kiji), echoing the theme of a fledgling growing its wings.

Companion and Familiar: Laplace

Laplace is a fish-shaped presence who has accompanied KAF since the very beginning of the project, functioning less as a mascot than as a companion or familiar.

• Design origin: Laplace did not begin with a complete setting; it took shape as the project progressed and was eventually adopted as the very structure of KAF’s first-form hood.
• Fan perception: loved by observers far faster than the team anticipated, Laplace has become something of a symbol of KAF and appears in numerous original music videos. Being so large, it has drawn plenty of exclamations along the lines of “Laplace is huge!”
• Place in the lore: among the clues in the Otogibanashi audio dramas, Laplace is speculated to be connected to how the three characters were able to travel to the present.

Activity History

2018–2020: Debut and the “Fukakai” Era

• 2018
  • October 18: Released her first video on YouTube and officially debuted.
  • December 6: Released her first original single “Ito”.
  • December 28: Released her second original single “Shinzo to Karakuri”.
  • December 31: Participated in the VTuber New Year’s Eve event “Count0”, performing “Ito”, “Shinzo to Karakuri”, and “Majo”.
• 2019
  • March 20: Concluded her academic hiatus and announced her return with the release of the original single “Hinadori”.
  • May 15: Released her first limited digital EP Hana to Shinzo.
  • August 1: Held her 1st ONE-MAN LIVE Fukakai at LIQUIDROOM, funded by a successful 40 million yen crowdfunding campaign.
  • September 11: Released her 1st Album Kansoku; collaborated with the music game Cytus II on the same day.
• 2020
  • March 23: Held the audience-less streaming live Fukakai (Re).
  • April 7: Provided the ending theme song “Answer” for the TV anime Black Clover.
  • June 10: Released her first mini-album Tomadoi Telepathy.
  • July 22: Released her second mini-album Hana to Kaito.
  • October 10: Held the audience-less streaming live Fukakai 2 Q1 and announced that her 2nd Album Maho would be released on November 25.
  • October 25: Officially announced “KAFU”, the CeVIO AI voicebank based on her voice.

2021–2023: V.W.P Formation and Nippon Budokan

• 2021
  • March 13: Held her 2nd ONE-MAN LIVE Fukakai 2 Q2 and announced the formation of the virtual singer unit “V.W.P”.
  • June 11–12: Held the live series Fukakai 2 Rebuilding.
  • July 7: The CeVIO AI voicebank “KAFU” was officially released.
  • October: Launched the collaboration project “Suite” (Kumikyoku), featuring collaborations with real-world artists and creators.
  • November 15: Appeared on the NHK program Numa ni Hamatte Kiite Mita, performing “Kako wo Kurau” and “Umi ni Bakeru”.
• 2022
  • March 26: Held a special live performance commemorating her high school graduation, titled Bokura Tameiki Hitotsu de Otona ni Nareru nda.
  • August 22: Selected for “Forbes JAPAN 30 UNDER 30 2022” in the entertainment category.
  • August 24: Held her 3rd ONE-MAN LIVE Fukakai 3 (Mad) at the Nippon Budokan, becoming the first virtual singer to perform solo at the venue.
• 2023
  • March 4: Held the virtual live Fukakai 3 (So), concluding the “Fukakai” live series.
  • March: Released her 3rd Album Kyoso (her final album with Iori Kanzaki as the primary composer).

2024–Present: New Chapter “Kaika” and Further Expansion

• 2024
  • January 14: Held her 4th ONE-MAN LIVE Kaika (written as “怪歌”) at Yoyogi National Gymnasium and announced her new project “Kaika” (written as “廻花”) as a virtual singer-songwriter.
  • June 21: Reached 1 million subscribers on her YouTube channel.
  • November 2: Held her 4th ONE-MAN LIVE Kaika (Re) (written as “怪歌（再）”) at Makuhari Messe as part of the “KAMITSUBAKI Makuhari Sensen”.
  • December 18: Released her 4th Album Guuwa.
• 2025
  • April: Slated to provide the opening theme for the TV anime Chuzenji-sensei Mononoke Kougiroku.
  • September 12: Announced her first solo concert in China, Shukusei China 1st Solo Live, scheduled to be held in Shanghai on November 29–30 (later cancelled on November 28 due to force majeure).
• 2026
  • May 27: Released her 5th Album Transcendent-love.
  • May 30: Successfully held the solo live Shukusei in Hong Kong at the AsiaWorld-Expo.

Commercial Tie-ups and Collaborations

On the “Suite” project: launched in October 2021 for KAF’s third anniversary, it pairs her with real-world musicians. The first series of 15 songs concluded in January 2024 with “Ai no Mama” featuring Kishida Shigeru, and “Suite 2” began in February 2024.

Voice Acting Roles

Morisaki Kaho is KAF’s corresponding character within the KAMITSUBAKI CITY setting and the first singularity of the project.

Radio and Television Appearances

• Regular radio: Panpaka KAFi (R) on InterFM, launched in April 2022 with chapters including “Joukyou-hen” and “Haneda (Night)-hen” — KAF’s first regular terrestrial radio programme.
• NHK music programme: on 15 November 2021 she appeared on Numa ni Hamatte Kiite Mita, performing “Kako wo Kurau” and “Umi ni Bakeru”.
• Regular TV programme: from October 2022, TOKYO MX aired Virtual Singer KAF no Maware! MAD TV, in which an outfit designed by KAF herself was shown and later named “Ginga wo Suberu KAF”.

Observer Community and Milestones

• Fan names: fans are titled “Observers” (観測者), while those who backed the 2019 crowdfunding are additionally called “Accomplices.” The term later came to refer broadly to fans of KAMITSUBAKI’s V.W.P.
• The crowdfunding miracle: for the 1st ONE-MAN LIVE “Fukakai” in 2019, a Campfire campaign with a ¥5,000,000 goal ultimately raised over ¥40,000,000 — roughly eight times the target. KAF herself was taken aback by the figure, posted several tweets in a row, and shared the team’s statement on how the funds would be handled, promising to keep working hard.
• Channel scale: as of February 2023 her YouTube channel had roughly 771,000 subscribers and her bilibili channel about 263,000 followers; on 21 June 2024 the YouTube channel passed one million subscribers.
• Community culture: the two-tier identity of “observer / accomplice” and a witch-assembly style of collective viewership have become a hallmark of the fandom.

Representative Works and Related Entries

Discography and Collaborations

The early catalogue is best read through “Ito”, “Shinzo to Karakuri”, “Majo”, “Hinadori”, “Kako wo Kurau”, “Umi ni Bakeru”, and “Tomadoi Telepathy”. The albums Kansoku, Maho, Kyoso, Guuwa, and Shinai document the shift from uploads to a larger album and live-performance narrative. “Suite”, V.W.P songs, and collaborations with KAFU connect her solo work to Kamitsubaki’s wider creator ecosystem.

Otogibanashi Audio Dramas and Lore Clues

Otogibanashi (御伽噺) is an audio-drama unit included on KAF’s albums and serves as an important supplement and record of the KAMITSUBAKI worldview. It has now reached its third act. Its chronological order is Act Two → Act Zero → Act One, which does not match the order of playback.

Anecdotes and Community Culture

• Vocabulary power: at “Fukakai Two Q1” KAF declared her “vocabulary power” to be 530,000. {{spoiler::Even the four band members could not help laughing — a nod to Frieza’s battle power of 530,000 in Dragon Ball.}} By “Fukakai Two Q2” she had revised the figure to −530,000.
• A wish about height: she once tweeted that she wanted to grow into an eight-head-tall figure.
• Handwritten signatures: on 13 December 2020 she shared photos of herself signing fan-club-exclusive copies of Maho. Some signatures came with small animal drawings. According to PIEDPIPER, the fan-club edition ran into the thousands, so signing took far longer than expected; KAF kept signing between classes and asked fans to be patient — which fans joked was a “tendonitis crisis.”
• Shelved songs: three originals — Saidan, Sensen, and Kotodama — went unperformed for a long stretch, before returning at Q2 in an unexpected way.
• Stream of consciousness: before “Fukakai Two Q1” KAF posted a flood of musings on Twitter, leading many to mistake them for concert previews.
• The Spoon impersonation incident: between January and February 2021 a series of accounts impersonated KAF on the Japanese platform Spoon. On the small hours of 11 January a stream appeared under the name “KAF@the real one”; PIEDPIPER clarified within about half an hour that it was not her and asked for it to stop, and the account was permanently suspended. KAF responded that “impressions are welcome, but impersonation misleads observers and troubles me — please stop! There is no KAF Spoon account!”, and changed her Twitter display name to “KAF@the super real one” the same day so people could tell the pages apart. Impersonation resurfaced on 31 January, and on 1 February KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO issued a statement that the posts had been submitted to lawyers as a legal matter. That night KAF responded, “Impersonation is! Not okay!”, half-jokingly threatening that if it happened again she would make Thai the language of KAF.
• Creative partners: visual and MV production has long been handled by Kawasaki Kenji and others, while her songwriting partnership with Kanzaki Iori is regarded as the foundation of the KAMITSUBAKI aesthetic.

Music, Live Performance, and Related Figures

The Fukakai series should be treated as a sequence of artistic works rather than a list of concerts. The 2019 crowdfunding live established the shared language of KAF and her audience; later online and rebuilding performances made absence, reconstruction, and virtual staging part of the narrative. Fukakai 3 (Mad) reached Nippon Budokan in 2022, while Fukakai 3 (So) closed that chapter in 2023. Kaika marks a later singer-songwriter phase.

Iori Kanzaki shaped the early musical period, while PALOW. and the visual production team shaped the character’s visual continuity. KAF should be kept distinct from KAFU: KAFU is an independent synthetic voicebank and character based on KAF’s voice.

Related Projects / Setting

KAF sits at the intersection of several major Kamitsubaki lines. As a V.W.P member she participates in the group’s core song cycles; as the source voice of KAFU she extends into fan and creator production culture; and as a recurring figure in Kamitsubaki City projects she also functions as part of the studio’s broader narrative identity. In the upcoming 2025 TV anime Kamitsubaki City Under Construction, she will make her debut as a voice actor, playing a character based on herself.

References

• KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO official artist page: https://kamitsubaki.jp/artist/kaf/
• KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO official V.W.P page: https://kamitsubaki.jp/artist/v-w-p/
• Wikipedia: Kaf (singer): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaf_%28singer%29

External Links

• Official Website
• YouTube(Main)
• X (Twitter)
• Instagram
• TikTok