The Viral World of VTubers: Streaming Videogames Have Never Been This Cute

[Teoskaven]

Been a long time since i wanted to make this thread, if anyone who followed my status updates can attest, and considering even Sonic and Tails have been thrown into this, i think it's fitting to talk about it. It's been almost a year and a half since i fell down this rabbit hole and i'm sure as hell trying to drag more people into it, so here we go.

First of all, what is, exactly, by chance, a VTuber?

Put it simple, it's a virtual avatar made by either a full on 3D model or more popularly, a combination of 2D set of images that following tracking devices create the illusion of a 3D model. A person tuned to said tracking devices has various degrees of movement, facial expressions and so on, creating a believable model that doesn't veere into the uncanney valley and is pleasing to the audience's eyes. As one can imagine, these are made for entertainment purposes, though the degrees of it vary.

Sabrespark and Mother's Basement covered a bit more on the matter when it comes to details and how all of this originated, so might as well link to his video on the subject:
 

Essentially, when a Vtuber is "born", they make an introduction video where they explain who they are, their preferences and so on; at this stage their personality is still forming since they need to find something to stick with that can fit with the audience. Even if it takes a while, eventually things get going until the moment for, whatever the reason, the person behind the VTuber has to retire, at which point there's a "graduation" usually preceded pre-empitvely by an announcement.

And there's a lot that can be said about the underside of Vtubing, especially with how corporations can care more about money than the wellbeing of the people on the field when something like toxic fans who overstep the parasocial dynamic formed with the audience threat the equilibrium of entertainment and become a genuine threat for the Vtuber. More than one have sadly retired due to this harrassment, which sometimes happens as a remnant of idol culture that companies have yet to destigmatize themselves from (the idea that an idol cannot have a romantic life mentioned in public), which makes an otherwise good business stained. It's true that all aspects of showbiz tends to be like this or have an equivalent, but every time it happens it's never pretty and the people behind the models deserve better.
Thankfully these days the audience generally seems more understanding than willing to doxx people left and right and actively isolates and distance from these extremist cases, but it can be a discussion for anothe time.


With that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff, as in, giving some example from the bigger groups. I'll use gaming companies as parallels since i think they fit somewhat with what they're compared to but keep in mind it's only indicative:

-also be forewarned these are based mostly on my epxeriences and may get stuff that has happened wrong, so apologies in advance-

HOLOLIVE/COVER

This is basically the equivalent to Nintendo. It's the biggest, the most famous, the one with most money, that makes most money, and by extention the one with more restrictions. Created in 2016 as a smartphone app but relaunched in 2017 by a person called Motoaki Tanigou (nicknamed Yagoo), it was supposed to be his answer to the popular idol group AKB48. If you know anything about Hololive and the memes surroinding it, you know this is not really what happened, and probably for the best.

Notable members (there are a shitload of them and this is the company i know the most of, so i'll stick with just a few):

*Tokino Sora: the first Vtuber of the company and as such the most idol-like. The idea at the core was to develop an idol for a smartphone app similar to early results of Kizuna AI or for non-human examples the Hatsune Miku Domino Pizza app. Because of this, her gaming streams are more simple and usually focused on stuff like Minecraft, but she's still a good time to this day.
*A-Chan: the MVP of the staff and Sora's partner in crime, you can argue she played a big part in setting the fundation of the company as she's one of the current directors. Essentially, the managers and by extention the members tend to respond to her for problems and instructions, and she's really good at her job. Occasionally she guest stars all over the place to the point of having a model of her own, and the fanbase has been really positive about her.
*Shirakami Fubuki: One of the more known members from the early generations, she demonstrates to be very capable at all sorts of games, which help spearheading the direction of the company when they switched to gaming streams. She also is a fan of western superheroes and got to interview Jared Leto when the Morbius movie was released. No, seriously.
*Coco Kiryu: from one of the japanese generations, you have to thank her for pushing the market into expanding to the west. Thanks to her more fluent knowledge of english, more down-to-earth behavior and time-accessible streams, she managed to attract attention from outside Japan and ultimately led to the creation of english branches, which paid off as a gambit. Unfortunately she left in 2021 and many suspect it was because she felt too constricted by the company and some conflict regarding China, though it's still left to speculation, and some like me ponder if we should even know the details.
*Mori Calliope: one of the members of the first english generation, she's specialized in singing rap which gives variety to the groups. Her aggressive personality, way of interacting with the audience and presence in external videos like podcasts give her a well-estabilished audience, though it's worth noting that her songs have some detractors due to how they're written.
*Gawr Gura: avoiding her inclusion in this would have felt a crime. Possibly the most famous english Vtuber, helped by her mischievous attitude and penchant for interacting well with the audience, she quickly cemented how english Vtubers could be profitable for the company and to this day remains one of the more valuable assets.
*Ouroo Kronii: one of the more recent english members, she quickly stood out by having a more elegant voice and personality (which she quickly loses when it comes to strong emotions like laughing at the expense of someone else or being scared). She also has a tendency of being very lucky at party games, as the male english branch has attested to.
*Magni Desmond: he's magging.

NIJISANJI

This is the equivalent to SEGA. It's the one that started the trend of having VTubers as live-streamers in 2018 with easier yet functioning quality due to the 2D model trick mentioned above, and it gives a lot more freedom to its members, but sometimes to a fault. It also was the one that pioneered male english Vtubers for a corporation with a good success rate. Unfortunately these days they're viewed more as a disorganized mess than anything, culminating very recently with a mass graduation.

Notable members (this is the company i know less about, so i'll be more brief, others can add what they know):

*Selen Tatsuki: i mostly know her via shitposting since her personality tends to rely a lot on that. Other than that she's really good at shooters.
*Mika Melatika: from the Indonesian branch, she's very chill in both appearance, voice and behavior, and her streams focus in part on her learning how to play all sorts of game and in part on telling her reality and how harsh can the life in her state be.

VSHOJO

This is similar in behavior to the Embracer Group. Launched in 2020 in America, it mostly prefers to just stay on its own and generally just wants to have a good time focusing more on Twitch than Youtube, but the specialty is to be comprisde and hire Vtubers who used to be independent, culminating recently in hiring two people who had defected from Hololive. Thankfully so far, the fandoms have maintained enough peace that there haven't been incidents.

Notable members:

*Ironmouse: you might have heard of her even if you don't know much about Vtubers, as she's one of the pioneers of all western ones. Due to her own admission, irl she's a puertorican girl who's confined to bed due to several illnesses and streaming as a Vtuber has allowed her to find joy and help finding money for her treatment. Usually specialises in shitpost and spotlight to other Vtubers, independent or not, in the form of a Late Show interview. Recently has developed a strong friendship with welsh anime Youtuber and Trash Taste podcast member CDawgVA. Because of these factors, her fanbase is very supportive of her tends to be respectful of her decisions.
*Nyatasha Nyanners: this is Ironmouse's partner in crime from inside the company. She used to be a content creator on her own specialized in music and voice acting, so she fits right at home with the others.
*KSon On Air: this is where the person behind Coco Kiryu went, though it's worth noting this identity had been present for a while. Particular the case of her model being more identical to how she looks irl, meaning  she can perform live-action appearances and streams if she wants.

 

There's a lot more that can be said like how delicate the balance the audience has in respecting the Vtuber, where the illusion stops and reality begins, or how corporations see more them as tools for merchandising than people, but i think i rambled enough for the time being, and i can add stuff like who are my favourites later. What about the rest of you? I know some like @Strickerx5and @Zaysho have been fans in this ambient way before me, but if anyone else want to tell their opinions and experiences, go ahead.

[Strickerx5]

Yeah I fell down the rabbit hole back in late 2020 thanks to a clip montage of HoloEN. Shit was funny to me so I decided to follow up on other clips and... here I am lol.

I mean really, this stuff isn't that different from standard gaming streams. It's really all up to the personality (of which there's... an unbelievable amount even within the big three companies alone). Personally I am a huge Kiara fan and if I had my way I'd turn this entire forum into a KFP haven #yolk but there are also so many others I follow it's sorta crazy. Am particularly a fan of all of Councilrys too as they all work so well off one another.

I think what makes me gravitate more towards Hololive over the others tho is really just the environment they've built with it. The connections that are built between groups and members, the fun lore that the talents often take advantage of (real talk I specifically love the shit they do with the EN branch as they literally could make an anime out of it if they wanted), the various side projects; it all often just works and leads to always having something to look forward to even if you only regularly follow a handful of members. It's sorta hard to put it all into text here, the amount of content is insane. Add in how crazy talented literally each member is (some are crazy good at singing, playing games, drawing, dancing, shit posting, ect.) and yeah, I feel like its place on top of the big three is sorta earned. Not to say the others aren't great (they are), but Hololive's quality over quantity take they approach nearly everything with holds up.

Also do want to give a shout out to Holostars and specifically Tempest. Those boys are crazy and I fucking love it lol. The entire section needs more love.

But yeah, even though I'm mostly into Hololive the entire vtuber thing is less of a genre at this point and more of just a streaming medium. There are thousands of them out there so it's one of those things I do feel like most can at least appreciate to some level if they give it a shot.

[batson]

To a boomer like me (not an actual boomer, but, for all intents and purposes) I have to admit I don't get the appeal. You're watching a fictional character play video games. And... yeah, I don't get it.

I might get if we're talking a character based on being funny. Like if Seth Mcfarlane were to do it in the guise of Stewie, or Mike Myers do it in the guise of Shrek. But from what I've understand comedy is not the usual primary goal of vtubers. You're supposed to find the thing entertaining not because it's funny but because...? ...What?

I mean I guess in some cases the elephant in the room is that there is a sexual thrill for guys to watch an attractive female play games and stuff, which honestly I can comprehend and I don't even mind. But only when it's none of that goddamn loli stuff that just infests everything having to do with japanese pop culture. Being turned on by hot chicks is normal and should't be shamed (same for being turned on by hot guys, obviously), but being turned on by 8 year olds that sound like 4 year olds is just sick. But look, before people here kill me: I am NOT saying that every single person who watches a loli character play games is doing it for sexual reasons. I'm sure that for many they find the character appealing purely because of sheer cuteness and nothing else. In which case it's perfecly 100% fine. However in that case, I do have to circle back to what I said previously... I don't get it. I really don't. I mean is cuteness really all it takes for people to watch a fictional character do nothing more exciting that doing a let's play? I suppose the answer must be yes, but I don't understand it. I would be bored to tears after 10 minutes if Pikachu himself (whom I consider the cutest fictional character of all time) were to do a let's play. Unless I was really into the actual gameplay of course, but in that case I might as well watch an actual person play the game.

Well, each to their own. I'm not saying it's weird, I'm just saying I can't see the appeal. And hey, a lot of people would't be able to understand why a 36 year old man enjoys the occasional evening of tea, toast and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, so I know I'm not one to judge anyone!

[Kittea]

 

Cool thread ^^ I watch a few VTubers, but mostly indie creators. I gravitate towards more chill streams these days and though I love chaos, streams from those under big companies are a bit too much lol I mostly just watch them through shorts and highlights instead ^^

Mostly Monarch, Vox Akuma, Merryweather, Filian, Punkalopi and Ironmouse. I need to check out some more ^^

Mousey is a delight and one of the big VTubers I’ve seen the most of. Pure gremlin and her friendship with Connor is cute.

VTubing has been great for disabled people who were already streamers actually. There’s a lot of pressure to be on cam constantly, so VTubing has been great for those who can’t do that for one reason or another. Mousey has been an influence on a lot of people.

Also yeah, I’ve been an idol fan for roughly 15 years and VTuber agencies took every aspect of it, the good the the downright awful lol