I recently stumbled upon the phenomenon of VTubers, and honestly I’m a bit obsessed.
"Eekum bokum."
— Tylor (@theSirToasty) September 1, 2020
-Inugami Korone, 2020 pic.twitter.com/DEL4krzKFy
VTubers, short for Virtual YouTubers, are what you’d get if anime characters suddenly came to life and also became Content Creators. They’re real people playing a persona using digital, anime-like avatars (not to be confused with influencers that are CGI + ML models). With 3D animation and face/body tracking tech, VTubers livestream themselves hanging out and chatting, playing games, singing, and sometimes collabing with other VTubers.
Oh, and the top VTubers make thousands of dollars in a day in Super Chats (stream donations on YouTube).
Before I knew it I was way down the rabbit hole, watching VTubers like Inguami Korone and Nekomata Okayu. Their content is lighthearted and fun, and on the surface it’s not that much different from a normal streamer’s stream. But there’s something else there that seems to give these VTubers some extra ‘oomph’ and I’ve had a hard time putting my finger on it.
The top VTubers already start out as professionally produced idols/entertainers. hololive production is an example of an agency that manages and produces some of the largest VTubers out there (Inugami Korone and Nekomata Okayu are under hololive). Like with their recently debuted hololive-EN English-speaking cohort of VTubers, hololive holds auditions to find their talent and presumably sets them up with their network and resources so they can hit the ground running.
This isn’t a very big leap at all given idol culture and how prominent it is in Japan and Korea. Just like there are distinct archetypes for idols in idol groups (both in real life and in anime), there are VTubers with all different personalities and quirks, so you can really find the ones that match your tastes.
And as anime girls and boys, these content creators can exaggerate their performative authenticity even more than normal streamers. They actually feel a bit less human to me and a bit more cartoonish, which changes the dynamic of the parasocial relationship too. It almost feels like I’m watching a pet.
Finally, there’s the kayfabe of it all. For example, I know in my brain that these VTubers are really just people playing characters and hamming it up for the camera, but some part of the production still feels like something “not real” is being brought to life. (It would be a very different feeling if it was Idina Menzel streaming as a motion-tracked rendering of Elsa.)
All in all, I think VTubers are just a fascinating form of play that’s emerged from our culture and technology today.
Update (Oct 30, 2023): Here’s my twitter thread tracking some of the developments in the VTuber space (2020-present), from a fan’s perspective. E.g. La+ Darkness interviewing the cast of THE BATMAN in 2022
Drop a reply, or just come say hi here!