Elizabeth Flock for The Washington Post BlogPost:

In the latest move of Japanese pop toward virtual or fictional stars, the newest addition to a Japanese girl group with millions of superfans turns out not to be real.

Fascinating development in terms of what people view as real and unreal. I think virtual characters are only going to accelerate as time goes on. Wondering whether or not a character is real or not will be a conversation for old people, much like the generation before mine never quite understood how meaningful conversations could happen over IRC/AIM/chat.

Also, check out the “making of” video: