How Virtual Youtubers Conquered Japan 

Some quality content from our favourite elitist.

>mentions cat-girls twice >shows Fubuki both times I see what you did there.

This is the first Vtuber essay I’ve seen that wasn’t merely a Hololive circlejerk but rather a well-thought rundown concerning Nijisanji *and* Hololive, as well as various indies. I applaud you man. Well done.

That was a great watch. Definitely puts V-tubers on my radar more than before. Thanks for the quality content.

Great analysis! Hope to see more like this from you!

Kinda wanted you to make a vid like this after you and Digi had that Vtuber discourse. This is quite informative for someone like me, who hasn't jump into this but only watched a few funny subbed clips. Just the sheer amount of past events you mentioned really interest me. You frame the scene as a very wholesome sphere. In contrast with the myriads of shit happening on the streamer scene these days, I hope Vtubers are filling that positivity hole for, hell, the world. Kudos to the ending for being so personal.

A great compilation of representative Vtuber clips, analysis, history and news. Thanks.

Didn't expect to see Gura in this video.

Good video there mate. Lots of nice references crammed into each frame and meaning added to each sentence meant for those who have already fallen into the hole.

Video: "cooking~" *_*haachama in the picture_** Me: *_*chuckles_** "I'm in danger"

glad to have another video from you

Dat shoutout to Gundam. 10/10 video, E-kon, as always!

Whenever the topic of Character vs Persona comes up, I always think of professional wrestling - another industry where the lines are blurred, and on one hand the performers are clearly playing a character, but on the other they need to improvise and ad-lib a lot. And usually what works best is when they just act naturally, showing their real personalities, just turned up to 11 and slightly exaggerated. And because fans love to speculate about what happens backstage and whether somethings is real or not, it really puts forth how weird that whole model is, where the performers are simultaneously being a person and a character, and the fans are expected to play along in their own way. On the other hand Wrestling also has place for those larger-than-life characters as well, so I wonder if there will ever be a trend of gimmick vtubers pretending to be some extraordinary, supernatural or otherwise eccentric beings.

Holy shit this video is amazing. Easily one of my favorite video essays on the topic of Vtubers. I really liked how you acknowledged that western content creators using avatars may have predated the concept and branding of Vtubers that started with Kizuna Ai

-A Demon -A Sumo wrestler I see what you did there. See me after school- so we can make another sacrifice

Enjoy this golden era of vtubers while you can, more than having fun, you are making precious memories

As a 20-year-old who always admired late-00s niconico culture but only first discovered it around 2014, long past its prime, ever since I got into vtubers early last year it's been such a blast to finally be a part of a new cultural wave.

dude, imagine if Satoshi Kon had been alive for this.

Great video, hope it gets more exposure

thanks for the absolute juicer content, you made my day a whole lot better

3:55 Cooking from Japanese girl in Australia gone crazy. Mostly black.

Thanks for the great content! The delivery felt passionate and I couldn’t help but smile throughout the video as you sang halfway through. Current favourites are Mito, Aqua and PPtenshi. According to the Anitwitter podcast, I believe yours is Matsuri?

Great video on a really fascinating topic in general, as someone who's been getting into vtubers little by little from the past few months, similar thoughts were on my mind. Also I'm quite interested in the future of english speaking vtubers as there is quite the potential to be realized due to lack of language barriers for many western fans.

Im glad vtubers moved to streaming, kizuna ai's scripted content was pretty dull imo. Its more fun when you can interact with them

This decade is looking very exciting

You were kinda losing me in the middle there, VTubers are just something that can't hold my attention for long (I feel the same about Twitch streamers), but at the end you offered a pretty satisfactory explanation of the whole phenomenon. Thanks.

Ya did a video essay on VTubers before it became cool to do so. YT finally recommends it to me.

Great essay E-Kon

You had me at anime girls doing forex trading.

People who laughed at guys simping for irl streamers are really sweating now.

ive been avoiding vtubers since forever, youre the only one that would make me wanna watch a video on them

E-Kon Mentions cooking; "Ooh? Nijisanji cooks? They're actually good at it." E-Kon shows Haachama, who is stuck in Australia:

Great video, I really wish there was an easier way to break the language barrier on nijisanji though or the independent chubas

What about projekt melody? She made a splash in the NSFW area of chatubate and cause an uproar.

3:55 closer to chemistry lessons.

Ngl Vtubers are 90% of my source of language immersion in Japanese. Hoping I -don't- end up sounding like an anime girl in a few months.

"Cooking" Shows Haachama. Er, I don't think that counts.

E-kon, will you update this video to admit you were wrong and vtubers are just internet idols and nothing else? Both small and big, both independent and company-managed ones. The core engagement is the addictive fantasy all idols strive to provide. Slice of life anime is finite, there is a moment where there are no more episodes to watch and no more merch to buy. But vtubers (and all other idols) will milk you as long as you have money. The incentive to cater to the addictive fantasy is just too strong, so of course all vtubers would fall into it. That's just how the world works. It's fine that you were wrong - in fact you had me convinced too. But I guess we must all look at reality eventually.

What a fantastic video about something I knew very little about.

Right when I started falling down the vtuber hole, this had to come out.

Great video, I know all of those vtuber lol, not name, but I still recognize those... People tend remember bad thing and fun thing.. Mix both and you got own entertainment. Also vtuber like never ending anime or closer to old anime where have at least 50 episode ready to watch. That why every retired is feel like end of world .

Cool video! I'm not into vtubers but this definitely explains the appeal. $3 is a bit too much for me but if you add a $1 tier to your patreon I'll patron you!

Late night cute girls shows are a thing of the 2010s and (presumably) 2020s as well.

Yeah, vtubers are an aspect of Otaku culture that I feel that i'm missing out on. Sadly, as a filthy EOP, much of that aspect is walled off to me. Understandably, nobody wants to translate hours of stream content. That was the one thing I appreciated about Kizuna Ai (rip), that and her high quality animation. I suppose that means I should finally commit to learning Japanese but you know what they say.... In any case, good video as always E-kon

E-Kon hasn't made a video ever since he became addicted to V-Tubers. I'm worried bro...

>talks about catgirls >shows fubuki God fucking dammit, NEKO JA NAI DESU

Wow, we both made similar videos on Vtubers. Only maybe a few big differences, besides style and length, would probably be some of the topics mentioned.

>vlogs >shows fricken Kenmochi getting genderswapped

I know it's very unlikely but could you or anyone else possibly tag what vtuber is on the screen at any given time so we can check them out? i know most of them but some are completely new to me

oh god i swear i could hear miko singing when he showed that clip

comment in support of the video hell yeah algorithm (I'm here to find refrences trying to waste some time)

i would patreon you rn if i wasn't a neet lmao, great video btw

Nozomi still does the voice for Ai, while the clones they brought in got their own channel now with their own avatars. How about you do put some research into your videos in the future.

I see what you did there with Lulu. Very fitting of the Eldri-

I only found out about Hololive a few months ago, I saw alot of memes on social media. Houshou Marine, Korone, Rushia and Pekora, those are a few I know.

19:56 The duality of men…

E-Kon predicted MowtenDoo working on V-Shojo.

Is the average age of animators in japan really about 40?

Calling Fubuki Alien

God has truly left us

dude, same.

I’m a simple man. I see Pekora on the thumbnail, I click on it

1:08 - The sauce, where is it?!!

4:30 mood

I'm not sure for the "mask help you to show your true self". Since mask removes a lot of naturals expressions it makes you unlearn a lot of things socialisation gave you. (and thus more natural). But since you must show more than usual to gather as much attention, it can quickly become a contest of who moves the most and scream the most. Searching for new way of communicating, trying to express more than discuss. Like they often do a lot of face movements, just to show basic excitation.

*mentions cooking* >Shows Haachama Oh...

lmao the dawn of war quote

4:04 link of his channel? I’m interested

sup i'm here couse i knew about kizuna ai from hej monika from about 2years ago thought huh neet and forgot about her now these last 2 months my youtube feed is filled with em so i came here to find out wtf is goin on thats it thanks for the video i know this was a pointless comment but hey what are comments for but to say shit BYE!

Thanks Apple for creating the technology for vtubers. I guess...

1:05 im not a fox im a cat

Are there any online trends that don't take off anymore?

As someone who's been hearing a lot abt Vtube and has a lot of friends into it? What's a good place to start? How do I "get into it?"

10:00 source?

Game at 4:02 ?

Are you saying that Suisei can't dance/sing? I don't know much about these things, so I can't evaluate her skill.

"or a demo---" you meant to say perfectly normal art student, right?

0:49 SOURCE?!

I recommend to using other sources to understand how it happened

19:27 She is fox girl[=]

Amazing analysis! Does this mean we can expect you to be a vtuber soon?

Song at 22:45? Please!!

Fubuki: neko janai yo!

4:53 I NEED CONTEXT WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE

everyday we stray further away from god

Banderas is badass.

3:44 WHO IS THIS

Around the middle of the video, you are describing it as a more personal idolshit. Aaaand you just made me swear off any vtubers ever.

Kusa peko

GEE GEEEEEEEEEEEE

hello can you connect me to that forex vtuber?

You lost me at Konlu-

Off digibro, now on ekon before he turns

take away the flag in the thumbnail

Ok im starting to think this guy watches too much anime

I'm not gonna watch 23 minutes to just learn that "anime is popular"

I just hate that they all seem to be extremely shallow and the whole "moe act." It's quite irritating. Like you can't love EVERYTHING with all your heart come on.

It's just the newest fad soon to die out seeking genuine reactions from people who are being a fake character for your amusement isn't a healthy relationship