|OT| The Vtuber Thread | MetaHoloCouncil

[Mutant Strawberry]

2020 has been a terrible year but there was one highlight. The rise of virtual youtubers!
You'll probably fall down this rabbit hole sooner or later... so it might as well be now!

[This is my first ever OP, please be gentle]


General FAQ:

A Vtuber is a human streamer that uses a motion captured avatar,
They're entertaining to follow even if you don't know the language, and there's tons of subtitled clips out there.Some more popular Vtubers even have people live translating in the chat. There's now a number of native English speaking Vtubers with Hololive English's debut being the most successful.
In short, imagine streaming but more anime .

This video is the best breakdown I've seen...

Something for the OP, perhaps:
I'd recommend taking a look at the ytcFilter extension for Firefox or Chrome if you haven't already. I personally use a filter for the owner's comments, a filter for moderator comments (typically other vtubers), and a filter for comments including the text "[en]", which is what people use when posting live translations.

Sites:

Hololive streaming schedule - ホロライブプロダクション配信予定スケジュール『ホロジュール』
For Stats lovers - HoloStats


Shout outs to Gizmo . His endless Korone clips are the reason I'm now deep in this hole.



A couple of clips:

 

[Routa]

Korone is Doggo. Doggo is Human.

 

[Kurt Russell]

Bring back DOOG id you cowards!

 

[Routa]

 

[Exzyleph]

Something for the OP, perhaps:
I'd recommend taking a look at the ytcFilter extension for Firefox or Chrome if you haven't already. I personally use a filter for the owner's comments, a filter for moderator comments (typically other vtubers), and a filter for comments including the text "[en]", which is what people use when posting live translations.


Also, Doggo is less than 10k subscribers from becoming the second Hololive streamer (and the 4th vtuber, I believe) to hit 1,000,000 subs!


And for anyone who missed out on it, I'd recommend checking Artemis' (indie shark's) debut stream. It's quite something:

 

[Hektor]

Mori Calliope
Usada Pekora
Korone
Kiryu Coco
Hachama
Gawr Gura
Takanashi Kiara

This is the vtuber olymp

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I'm falling down that rabbit hole

I already knew about Kizuna AI watched some videos and I thought it was a cool gimmick then me and the wife stumbled upon Korone live streaming Super Mario Bros talking only in English and we never laughed so much while watching someone play a videogame.

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

I'm falling down that rabbit hole

I already knew about Kizuna AI watched some videos and I thought it was a cool gimmick then me and the wife stumbled upon Korone live streaming Super Mario Bros talking only in English and we never laughed so much while watching someone play a videogame.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

this sums it perfectly

 

[Rockin' Ranger]

 

[Pommes]

Am I correct to assume that all VTubers are backed (/employed) by corporations?
Or is there an independent scene?

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

Am I correct to assume that all VTubers are backed (/employed) by corporations?
Or is there an independent scene?

Yep, there's an independent scene. It's just like normal streaming, for every one streamer with tens of thousands of followers as part of a big company, there's probably 1000 going unnoticed.

Unfortunately, they're also hard to find because nobody talks about them. Discoverability is a real issue. But here's one with <1000 subs I came across that I really enjoyed.


Also, its worth noting that all Hololive members needed previous streaming experience in order to be considered, so they probably all made a name for themselves as smaller indies first.... but "past lives" talk is generally frowned upon.

 

[Blu]

 

[Exzyleph]

Am I correct to assume that all VTubers are backed (/employed) by corporations?
Or is there an independent scene?

There are a shit-ton of indie vtubers, but as Mutant Strawberry said it is hard to get noticed.

Artemis of the Blue whose debut stream I linked above is part of a collective of indie vtubers called Atelier Alive, which is one way the smaller streamers are trying to signal boost. If you are interesting in discovering more indie vtubers, then you can also try following domoarigathanks on Twitter.

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

Stunning debut from a "whale" last night. This is one example of a music content creator thats been putting out stuff for 5 years, deciding to be reborn as a Vtuber in order to interact with her fans more.

 

[Pommes]

Yep, there's an independent scene. It's just like normal streaming, for every one streamer with tens of thousands of followers as part of a big company, there's probably 1000 going unnoticed.

Unfortunately, they're also hard to find because nobody talks about them. Discoverability is a real issue. But here's one with <1000 subs I came across that I really enjoyed.


Also, its worth noting that all Hololive members needed previous streaming experience in order to be considered, so they probably all made a name for themselves as smaller indies first.... but "past lives" talk is generally frowned upon.

There are a shit-ton of indie vtubers, but as Mutant Strawberry said it is hard to get noticed.

Artemis of the Blue whose debut stream I linked above is part of a collective of indie vtubers called Atelier Alive, which is one way the smaller streamers are trying to signal boost. If you are interesting in discovering more indie vtubers, then you can also try following domoarigathanks on Twitter.

Thanks for the information. I thought that there is special (as in expensive) hardware/software needed for VTubers and because of that I thought that there are mostly corporations behind the Vtubers.

Nice to see that there is also an independent scene.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole, peeps!
I thought about making a thread after Hololive EN debuted but i've been too busy and distracted by other things but now this thread exists and i'll be dumping a ton of clips. You poor fools

Cover Corp are the company that runs Hololive and holostars.
Hololive is the female branch which most people are aware of and has become the main start point for many. Hololive is HUGE in Japan, well within it's niche but they have promotions with big Gacha games, World of Warships and recently they became the ambassadors for Nissin Curry Meshin. It varies but between 5 and 7 of the Top SuperChat earners are from Hololive.
Holostars is the male branch and has been in the shadow of Hololive until earlier this year when they have started to receive more interest and recognition.
Nijisanji is a group of independent VTubers managed by the same company, Ichikara, inc. There's over 130 VTubers so some will interest you for sure but they don't get as much publicity as Hololive.
VOMS ( Vox Monsters Project) Formed by a Vocaloid Producer, GYARI, independent VTubers managed by GYARI. Only 3 of them so far but you'll definitely hear of Pikamee if you hang around VTube long enough.
There are also fully independent VTubers such as Ironmouse but i don't know much about them.

Oh, when a VTuber talks about Mama or Papa they are 99% of the time talking about either their Illustrator or the Live2D Rigger/Animator so it's not unusual for someone to have 2 Papas for example. The two that come to mind are Papa Huke for Kiara and Ui Mama for Subaru.
Shigure Ui is a VTuber herself and Huke is a rather famous illustrator you might know from Steins;Gate.

I'd suggest looking at the HololiveEN and HololiveID channels for mainly english content but there's a good community of clippers and translators around too. I'd also second getting YTCFilter installed for live streams. I'll post the filters i use tomorrow, it's late now but i'll leave you with two tracks to send you to sleep nicely...

Okayu's Flos cover.



Watame's Lullaby - I'd also suggest the lo-fi loop by Port Royal.

 

[sanhora]

China strikes once again.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Has this actually been confirmed by anyone reliable yet? The latest word is to wait for Cover to confirm this as the only source is a post on a forum popular with "Anti's". It wouldn't surprise me if it was true and the publisher are bending to the will of the Anti's as the Anti's have been very active over the last month or so unfortunately.


Anyway, moving on...

Let's have some pure happiness from Shishiro Botan who is always laughing or giggling even when getting stream sniped.



A really calming and proficient VTuber who's also really into PC tech which she talks about in some recent videos. She uses a RealForce 45g TKL Keyboard for example.

 

[sanhora]

Has this actually been confirmed by anyone reliable yet? The latest word is to wait for Cover to confirm this as the only source is a post on a forum popular with "Anti's". It wouldn't surprise me if it was true and the publisher are bending to the will of the Anti's as the Anti's have been very active over the last month or so unfortunately.

Well...

In more positive news I'm really looking forward to Polka doing a collab with Kiara. Hopefully the promised Marine x Kiara collab happens soon too since Marine doesn't seem to be that sick.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

sanhora Yeah, i've seen a couple of threads and tons of speculation but nothing concrete as to why only some of the videos are being taken down. Eh, i'm sure Cover are dealing with it and we'll find out soon enough.

A quick totally random info dump to help people understand some of the bigger injokes and references that confused me at first.
I'll also try to leave out some stuff for people to find themselves because that "Aha" moment is great

The big boss is Motaki Tanigo, CEO of Cover Corp.
Subaru misread his name as "Yagoo" and a legend was born. Yagoo is a totem representing the Boss which the girls can abuse while still retaining repsect for the actual Boss.
He once said in an interview that he wanted to create an Idol ensemble like AKB48 but with VTubers so now you get "Sad Yagoo" memes when his dreams are smashed by some rowdy or inelegant behaviour and "Happy Yagoo" when they release songs or have great karaoke collabs... and "Sexy Yagoo" memes because he is best girl.

The fanbase likes to merge parts of names together to represent a duo or team so you will hear about:
OkaKoro which is Nekomata Okayu and Inugami Korone ( check them out they are old friends and amazing together )
PekoMiko - Usada Pekora and Sakura Miko.
FAMS - Fubuki, Ayame, Mio, Subaru
OKFAMS - Okayu, Korone, Fubuki, Ayame, Mio, Subaru
You can work out the others pretty quickly. e.g. Aquamarine is Aqua and Marine collab/Team Up.

Some Links:
Hololive Subreddit - Also has HoloStars posts too.
Virtual Youtubers Subreddit - Mostly non-Hololive with Indie, Nijisanji and Holostars posts
Hololive Wiki in English

 

[Exzyleph]

Pikamee will be doing an Among Us collab with a bunch of English indie vtubers, including Artemis:

That'll be interesting to watch.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Fubuki reached 1M Subs while wrapping up a stream with the other Hololive GAMERS.



Fubuki is great, long live Burgor Cat Fox!

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Some songs for Friday!

One of the greatest covers ever, this never fails to make me smile and it's well worth watching the full Campfire Karaoke stream.

Okakoro - Da Pump - If

Original Song - Da Pump - If

Amane Kanata New Song - P.P.T.:

Original Song - Da Pump - USA

Okayu - Back Number - Happy End:
Bless Korone and look at Idol Suisei following the lyrics and mouthing the words like a true pro, always practising. Okayu's voice tho. Love it.

Original Song - Back Number - Happy End

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Well the PolKia Collab was a technical mess but entertaining anyway and Polka said she wants to collab with HoloEN more in the future so that's awesome.

I remembered I posted this in the Pets thread a while ago because of Roboco has a ginger kitty like Li Kao but i'll post it here too so you can see what setup a Hi-Spec robot streams on and, yeah, there's some nice kit there.



Fubuki REALLY has a thing for glasses...

Fubuki's recent Glasses Speech

Glasses are really versatile. First, you can have glasses-wearing girls take them off and suddenly become beautiful, or have girls wearing glasses flashing those cute grins, or have girls stealing the protagonist's glasses and putting them on like, "Haha, got your glasses!" That's just way too cute! Also, boys with glasses! I really like when their glasses have that suspicious looking gleam, and it's amazing how it can look really cool or just be a joke. I really like how it can fulfill all those abstract needs. Being able to switch up the styles and colors of glasses based on your mood is a lot of fun too! It's actually so much fun! You have those half rim glasses, or the thick frame glasses, everything! It's like you're enjoying all these kinds of glasses at a buffet. I really want Luna to try some on or Marine to try some on to replace her eyepatch. We really need glasses to become a thing in hololive and start selling them for HoloComi. Don't. You. Think. We. Really. Need. To. Officially. Give. Everyone. Glasses?

Korone complies with her friend's request in the most Korone way possible...

Hololive Reddit - Everyone needs glasses, right?

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

The flood gates have opened someone made Kiara in Code Vein and it looks pretty damn good.

Hololive Reddit - Partner made Kiara in Code Vein

Is there a "go-to" place for Code Vein characters? I looked for Hololive characters a while ago and didn't find anything so hopefully more characters follow.

edited merge:

Also, JP/ID/EN Among Us Collab at 13:00 2020/11/09 GMT.

Spoilered so they don't take up the whole page!

Ame's Stream:

Gura's Stream:

Roboco's Stream:

Luna's Stream:

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I love the animations the fans create from some Korone's audio clips.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Yeah, 2ManySnacks, Caroline Director and tian nya are insanely good.
One of my favourites is one Reddit titled "Korone teaching Chemistry at AsaCoCo University"...


Taken from her second English stream, it was amazing to watch live.

Clip from the original stream...

 

[Panda Pedinte]

This one is pretty funny too. We caught it live and I laughed so much with her trying to only speak in English.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

This one is pretty funny too. We caught it live and I laughed so much with her trying to only speak in English.

Especially when she was pressured and started reeling off tv show names. I'm the same when i'm pressured in a game but she's using a foreign language.

Korone announces new Netflix show...

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

Top 10 anime crossovers . Korone x Calliope / 27 November JST.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I was watching Korone playing Hidden Folks some days ago and she couldn't stop imitating the sound of the game.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I was watching Korone playing Hidden Folks some days ago and she couldn't stop imitating the sound of the game.

The developer even sent her the bird squawk she was enamoured with. It's one of her treasures now, she tweeted back. You could tell she was having a ton of fun playing that game. Joyous.

I'm watching Polka Guerilla Karaoke stream at the moment and she's come a long way with her singing. I've had it on in the background while working. Love Polka.

I also recommend looking up the Pekorone ( Pekora x Korone ) collab stream from the other day. They were having so much fun teasing each other and just laughing their asses off. It was great, i can't wait for some subs to show up.

You reminded me to dig out some Ookami Mio clips that make me laugh and i've been meaning to post for the last few days.

I'll also leave you all with this tweet of awesome.


Stop making cursed bets, Gura! That Shark can jinx herself something rotten and never learns, lol.
Watch the recent Gura & Ame Clubhouse 51 Collab for context

 

[Hektor]

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

We did it! Anime is now real!

 

[sanhora]

Not sure if this is considered a hot take but I can't stand anitubers.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

So I did not know about Pikamee and I found that clip:

 

[Blu]

So I did not know about Pikamee and I found that clip:

This is one of her most famous clip and it still cracks me up.


Also animated

 

[Panda Pedinte]

lmao that was unexpected

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Panda Pedinte I suppose i was reading various reddits and places and saw her mentioned a lot and she has really picked up steam over the last few months. It's great to see. Pikamee has some great clips and her streams are fun too as she switches between english and japanese at the drop of a hat.

Now i'm going to post some some clips of one of my favourites Ookami Mio. Mainly because she's easy to make laugh and her laugh is amazing. It sounds like she's going to choke at times. Also, her scared voice is cute as hell, especially when speaking english in Phasmaphobia being bullied by both Okayu and Korone. Mio and Taiga, Mio and Wasabi, Mio and Word Wolf, Mio with Fortune Telling... Hell, you name it but she is the defacto Compere/Host/Announcer for many hololive streams, skits and competitions and her singing is improving. I'd like a Mio and Okayu Karaoke Collab, hell i'd love a GAMERS Karaoke collab.

Mio had some crazy troubles with Youtube and copyright strikes and was very close to losing her channel so she took a long hiatus and came back stronger than ever. Welcome back, Mio!

I'm going to spoiler these as there's a bunch of 'em. No regrets.

Wolf vs Cat!

Mio and Fubuki - Wolf vs Cat, No Fox! Ooops!

Mio and Wasabi - The ongoing saga.
( Basically they love a punishment game over at Hololive and Mio & Wasabi seem to be made for each other.)
The "Sad Mio" face in the first one gets me every time. I'll never again hear "Jingle Bells" without thinking of this clip.

Mio and Wasabi - The Legend Begins...

Mio and Wasabi - The Return

Hololive GAMERS play Phasmaphobia - Mio Clips

Hololive GAMERS (Mio, Fubuki, Okayu, Korone), played together for the first time in a long while and it was glorious.
At the end Fubuki found out she had hit 1M Subs while streaming with the GAMERS which was the best timing really.
Trust No-One and guard your ears as there are many Mio and Korone "blessings" here. Damn, they got picked on by Okayu something rotten.

Mio flexing the English skills she learnt from Coco....

There are two other clips of Mio i want to show but they will fit better in an Amane Kanata clip collection but one had me crying with laughter at both Kanata's comedy and Mio's laughter.

Bonus GAMERS Ring Fit Adventure translation feat Hyperactive Korone.

 

[Routa]

Mio is great.

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

Massive Vtuber music event coming tomorrow
48 Hours, 750 original songs, 250 Vtubers

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

DeepL Translation:

There were more than 250 pairs and more than 750 entries this year! Thank you so much!

We are very happy to be able to connect with so many Vtubers doing music in this way... Today and for the next two days, it's a time for us as Vtubers doing music and for all of you fans who are always listening, making music and creating shows! Let's have two days of fun together!

I take it this is an AZKi/INNK thing rather than a Hololive event as i haven't seen anything from Hololive officially. It wouldn't surprise me though because AZKi was/is part of the music label that was brought into Hololive so she kind of has freedom to collab with anyone (and everyone!) it seems.

edit: The word on the streets is that this will be showing only original songs not covers which is why some vtubers you'd expect to be there are not shown but i don't know if it's going to be 48 hours of videos or if there's any live performances too.

 

[Routa]

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

The 48 hour vtuber mv event is now live. 2 hours in and there's been some really good stuff so far. My subscription list grows ever longer.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Gizmo Yeah, Korone playing Valhalla has been a gift for Clippers and Translators. Do a search for "Korone Valhalla" and there's a bunch of them.
It's great and i'll probably pick up the game later this year. I haven't played AC since Black Flag so it's about time for me to play another AC.

edit: I really hope some nutter puts together a song list for this AZKi Stream! There's some great tracks being played but i can't dig out the track name from chat quickly enough while i'm working. It's a goldmine of artists i'd like to check out later on.

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

Gizmo Yeah, Korone playing Valhalla has been a gift for Clippers and Translators. Do a search for "Korone Valhalla" and there's a bunch of them.
It's great and i'll probably pick up the game later this year. I haven't played AC since Black Flag so it's about time for me to play another AC.

edit: I really hope some nutter puts together a song list for this AZKi Stream! There's some great tracks being played but i can't dig out the track name from chat quickly enough while i'm working. It's a goldmine of artists i'd like to check out later on.

Someone is trying to make a playlist here:

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Thanks!

Here's the link to the Playlist itself: Shrike's Playlist - AZKi Channel 48 Hour Marathon Original VTuber MVs - November 2020

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Korone playing any AC is always hilarious

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

Thanks!

Here's the link to the Playlist itself: Shrike's Playlist - AZKi Channel 48 Hour Marathon Original VTuber MVs - November 2020

Amazed how many of these songs have <2000 views. Some really niche indie choices here.