Vox Akuma, the English VTuber under Nijisanji’s “Luxiem” wave, has addressed in a new stream regarding the concerning rise of toxic fan behavior across his fanbase. The stream was made after an issue arose regarding his latest ASMR stream, where one of her fellow Virtual Livers Reimu Endou accidentally joined in to ask for help.
Through the issue, toxic fans have since blasted Reimu with hateful comments and worse, some sending death threats, as per Vox’s latest recall of the issue.
In the 40-minute stream, Vox first cleared off the misunderstanding of framing the issue as being Reimu’s fault, and that he is extremely apologetic with the way the story has been framed. He also noted that since then, he has talked to Reimu in private regarding the issue.
“The way that this came off was essentially that I was enabling some fans, who had given her a terrible, terrible time. I didn’t intend for it to be this way, but that’s how it came off—and that is my responsibility, and I am sorry.”
Vox Addresses Parasocial Relationship Between Him and Fans
Later on the video, he then addressed the parasocial relationship he has built between him and his fans, addressing the fact of “you and I are not in a relationship,” pertaining to fans who enable harassment and toxicity in the fandom to the point that they are living in a “fantasy” of revolving their lives around those that entertain them, including VTubers.
“You and I are not in a relationship. I care deeply about my fans, but I do not know you. This thing that has emerged, which I did not anticipate, this thing we’ve come to call a parasocial relationship, was not something I saw as getting anywhere near as bad as it did. I was operating under this really silly delusion that I could turn that into something positive for people, that I could convince people through a connection to me, to benefit and grow their own lives.”
He goes on to directly remind his fans of his own work as an entertainer, saying that no matter how fans enjoy his content in any way possible, he frankly stated about not engaging in a literal relationship with fans he doesn’t know personally about.
“What I have seen are my friends getting harassed, I have seen collabs that I’m not even involved in have fans of mine go in and try to project delusional fantasies onto those streams, in the vague hope they will be addressed. It’s gotten to the point where if I take even more than one day off, drama emerges, arguments happen—and anyone who streams that is even vaguely related to me will be bombarded by chat messages of people who cannot bear to live a single day without me. That is not f***ing okay.”
Vox Had ‘Enough’ of Toxic Fans
In a gentle but tough-spoken manner, Vox sternly said to fans that they cultivate harassment and toxicity in the fandom to leave his streams and that they are not welcome in his streams moving forward.
“You need to view me as an entertainer—and if you, as a fan, have in my name, as a result of feeling an attachment to me, have gone into someone else’s chat, have gone into someone else’s DMs, have engaged with a [streamer], with any content creator, with one of my friends or worst of all, or with one of my “Kindreds” or with someone else’s fan; and you have flamed, hurt, attacked, or insulted them in any way as a means of trying to benefit the connection between us, I do not want your support. I do not want you on my stream. I do not want to see your face, I do not want to see your name, I do not want to receive a super chat from you, I do not want to receive anything from you. I think that you are a vile f**head, like I said earlier, and I do not want anything to do with you.”
He also addressed other issues regarding setting the lines of shipping him with other VTubers, stating that acting beyond the line of being delusional on ‘shipping’ others is despicable and wrong. Vox also addressed the issue of other fans ‘babying’ him in every issue he has, stating that he owns up to his mistakes and wants to hold responsibility for issues that he and his fanbase is involved with.
“Generally, Criticism Should Be Allowed”
Moving forward, he clarified that his content will not change direction, and that he is more than grateful for the second chance he has been given after receiving proper callouts from the online community regarding toxicity from several of his fans. He’s asking his fans to hold him accountable through proper feedback.
“To anyone in chat who sees someone criticizing me, well, it’s difficult… Generally, criticism should be allowed; and if I allow for criticism, and on stream, I say, ‘Hey, please let me know what I’m doing wrong, what should I do better… I would like it very much if chat would not attack them back. Leave them be, because if they’re giving helpful, constructive criticism, likely they’re also a fan who wants to help me grow. […] Change in the community begins with me—and with me, that change begins at this stream. Hopefully you can all understand why I finally need to put my foot down, and I imagine a lot of you are quite relieved.”
Featured Image: Screengrab of Vox Akuma’s video
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