Another week, another round-up of some of the ups and downs of the VTuber community. Welcome to Anime Corner’s VTuber News Round-Up for the sixteenth week of this year. This time, there have been notable updates from the wider VTubing community—ranging from strides from independent VTubers, to milestones from upcoming agency VTubers and larger ones, here’s our take on the recent state of the VTuber scene this week.
More recently, there has been an uptick of streamers on the popular streaming platform Twitch using the directory tag “VTuber.” The issue is: not all of them are VTubers themselves—instead, they are regular in-real life (IRL) streamers, mostly gaming and ASMR channels, who use the directory tag in a bid to climb up into the directory board at Twitch.
The issue is evident straight away: Twitch defines the tag “VTuber” as part of the streams category and is used “for streams in which the streamer uses a virtual avatar.” Right off the bat, the issue is more evident, as the platform’s Terms of Services notes that a streamer should not “… falsely claim an affiliation with any person or entity [and] misrepresent the source, identity, or content of information” [Section 9 (Prohibited Conduct), Item II].
It is no wonder why a lot of VTubers streaming on the Twitch platform raised concerns regarding the misuse of the VTuber tag, with some including LunaCross messaging an ASMR streamer and calling them out on the misuse. But most importantly, VTuber Marina recently posted a forum post on UserVoice, explaining the situation.
“There has been a recent rise in streamers misusing the tag system, most noticeably with non-Vtubers using the Vtuber tag. This makes discoverability more difficult for both streamers who are actually Vtubers, and viewers trying to use the tag system to find Vtubers. Even prominent streamers are misusing tags, so this behavior has been spreading.”
VTuber Marina, on her forum post regarding the misuse of VTuber tags.
Following the uproar, other streamers disagreed with this stance, including popular streamer xQc, who noted that, “Stop gatekeeping. This is a message to VTubers, what gives you the right to say that I’m not a VTuber? I identify as a VTuber, I put it in my tags because I think I’m a VTuber. Therefore, I am a VTuber.”
Mirroring this statement against Twitch’s Terms of Service, there’s a certain disconnect between these two statements. For one, the use of the VTuber tag is not just about blatant identification but rather representation, a proper representation in the online community. There is a great difference between identifying one’s self and properly representing oneself. A statement alone cannot support itself; it needs to be proven. In other words, know the context before the context.
As of this writing, an admin for Twitch had already replied to Marina’s post, noting that they “are actively investigating additional steps [that they] can take to protect and improve the integrity of the tags feature at scale”. Clamor for this issue to be fixed remains a top-most priority, including a call-to-action article from Dexerto to fix the issue before the VTuber tag exploit becomes “meta” in the platform.
Despite the initial fact that we reported last week that the Philippines’ SIM Registration Bill has been vetoed by the President, some lawmakers are still looking for ways to refile the bill to Congress. Recently, two senators have shown interest in refiling the bill back to Congress, as well as filing a separate petition for the social media portion of the bill. We will keep you updated regarding this issue.
Meanwhile, VTuber agency WACTOR has been rocked with several not-so-good updates for the past few days. Its former talent Shino Laila, who was doxxed by her agency by using her real-life name, announced that she has canceled her contract with the agency. She will be refraining from giving any further comments regarding the issue. Meanwhile, its former talent Merun Merino noted that her contract with the agency has been canceled since March 2, and its current talent Reyu Yumeiri showed a desire to terminate her contract with the agency due to her poor health condition at the moment.
Large agencies are also not spared with these negative updates. Nijisanji had recently made a public announcement that it had served one fan a cease-and-desist letter for slander and harassment against one of their Livers. Later on, one of its talents, Mito Tsukino, describes an experience with a fan who is spamming on her live chat.
Meanwhile, its English branch talent Millie Parfait has opened up about art that depicts her not wanting to be of Filipino descent. Lastly, Hololive’s Amane Kanata had opened up about not going back earlier from her health break, stating that she had recently mourned over the death of her grandfather. We wish Kanata all the best and stay strong in her return.
Here are some of these not-so-good updates that we have collated:
CookieSwirlC, a YouTuber dedicated to creating kid-friendly content since 2013, had recently debuted her VTuber model to her 17-million subscriber fanbase. The art was made by Rin Yu (the same illustrator for Hololive’s Yukihana Lamy) and rigged by the blacksmiths of Iron Vertex.
Interestingly, there was discussion in the VTubing community whether she is now considered as the “most-subscribed VTuber” at the moment. Based on her content creator history, the VTuber debut can be considered as a ‘VTubing project’, likened to the endeavors of other content creators such as Kwebbelkop and Emirichu. Either way, we are excited with the new content direction, and pave the way for VTubing to have a kid-friendly faction!
There have been numerous pranks and inside jokes within the VTubing community, but we think nothing comes closer (at the moment) as to what MyHoloTV’s Liliana Vampaia and Re:Memories’ Reynard Blanc did to us VTuber fans.
It all started with teasers from Lili and Rey, depicting them in wedding attire, raising theories from fans that they will get “married.” But what we all ended up with was a duo cover of “This Day Aria,” a song performed on the kids show “My Little Pony.” Talk about being “pony-rolled,” and as the meme goes, “We’ve been tricked, we’ve been backstabbed, and we’ve been quite possibly bamboozled!”
Once again, the VTuber community never fails to pull off some of the most interesting acts online. Indie VTuber Bri showed us the perfect sponsorship segment (by breaking immersion). Romania-chan shows us a beautiful rendition of a demo using the tools Shoost and VBridger (while lip syncing to a cover of “Dragostea Din Tei”).
Fofamit showing us a “VTuber model” for xQc (well, as a play on xQc’s rant against VTubers). Fan-wise, there is a recently-launched visual novel dedicated to Nijisanji’s Vox Akuma developed by Deevs.
Despite all of the negative press we have covered, the VTubing community has been all about forging new steps into mainstream culture, as well as creating more ways to engage with their audience.
Kicking this segment off from updates from VTuber agency giant Hololive:
Meanwhile, over at Nijisanji:
Other good updates include:
A week in the VTuber community won’t be complete with these music releases, as follows:
Also, does anyone fancy these merchandise releases?
In addition, we have noted these event updates from the VTubing community:
Congratulations to these new talents of the VTubing community!
Congratulations as well for these VTubers and their respective milestones!
And that concludes our very own round-up for this week. There are interesting takes to note from VTubers, such as being mindful of not giving mental health advice if you’re not qualified, or how there should be more talk about tax filings in the VTubing community, especially during the tax season in the United States.
Interestingly, there are warm and funny moments we have noted online: Kureiji Ollie reflects on her amazing community, how VTuber duo Yuna and Yuki share the same space for their VTuber streams, and how a VTuber deals with an NFT client, retold in a video sketch. See you all next week.
For your feedback and suggestions, email the section editor: jay.agonoy [at] animecorner [dot] me. Follow us on Twitter, @VTuberSection. You can also tag us with any activity you have, and the best ones will be included in the next VTuber News Round-Up.
Featured Image: Sellena, Amane Kanata, CookieSwirlC
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