V-Tubers. What are they, and where did they come from?

When writing this, I was worried about how it would come out. Would It be boring, are people going to take something form it?Am I adding something to a narrative I've already wrote?To me It does not matter. I felt as though I could do better, so I will do better/ I felt as though what I'm about to say needs to be said, regardless of how successful a v tuber I am. And its for these reasons that I've made this video.

Throughout this post we will fly over tubing, and see all that it is. From the small indie vtubers, to big massive agencies burning themselves to the ground. We will see it all. And maybe, with a bit of luck, come to know more about this new artform. The simple name, “Vtuber” brings to mind so many peoples, so many things you have seen them do. At one point in time it was almost unheard of. Even if you spend most of your time online. Yet now days you can not go too far into the web without seeing so much as a name or a reference to these creators. Im sure if I asked you to name a vtuber, you would probably give me 3, 5 maybe even 10 or more names. Its interesting, isin't it? Go back few years, and the mention of Vshojo, or Iron mouse would have been like the ramblings of a mad man. But now its an entertainment medium much like any other. Vtubers themselves have extended to the far corners of all social media. They have their own award shows, and are even starting to get recognition in events not exclusive to them. Although, the question does have to be asked. Where did they come from?

To Explain this, we need to take a trip to Japan, and have a look a the Idol Scene.

The premise of becoming an idol is simple (in theory anyway). Talent scouts wandering Japan will spot people who, with the right training and makeup, be made into something entertaining. They are then asked (by the scout) if being an idol is something they are interested in. However prospective talents can also interview direct with agencies rather than through a scout. Either of the two routes will generally result in them having a sit-down interview with an agency (much like with any job) possibly followed by a performance, so they can showcase their current range as a performer. If successful, they will be offered a contract, and be trained by their respective agency based on their internal standards, and the character that this tallent will be playing as during songs, commercials, movies, ETC. All with the aim of capturing peoples attention, then banking on that attention translating into them buying merch, tickets for concerts, autographs, and even a evening with their favorite idol group at a local bar.

Whatever they can to do to get you to give them money because you love your favorite idol, they will (and in some cases have) find a way to make a product based around said idol, and sell it. Each Idol will often times be apart of a larger group. However, some idols have been known to act by themselves. In any case, how they go from average to super star can be done in a number of ways. They will more than likely end up singing. But can (and often times do) receive training to become  models, actors, and even dancers. The look, their outfits, their “Fit” varies between agencies depending on their “Uniform”, with the only major difference between idols being their hair and makeup. Agencies that allow a littler more individual flare, or completely different outfits altogether are more the exception that he rule.

Whatever the case may be, they are dressed and given an appearance to be as attractive as possible so you are drawn in to start the endless grind of using your favorite model to get as much money from you as possible. This may sound like a money grab, and it is. But its also wildly successful, and has continued to be so, even in today’s market. In 2022 alone the Idol scene alone was valued at 165 billion yen, one billion eighty-nine million seven hundred thirteen thousand one hundred thirty US dollars, or 978,502,020.54 Swiss Francs.  From the outside looking in, this may seem like an attractive career choice. Learn to sing, learn to dance, and you'll make a little money. Well.. lets look a little deeper,

I would like to say its a good opportunity, and I'm sure it can be. I would like to say its an option for the uni student looking to make a bit of cash. I would like to say so many good things about it, I would like to say that the whole Idol scene is all sunshine and rainbows. I would. But I cant. And here's why. Like any career, there is allot of bad that comes with the “good” (if you can call it that. When you get into an agency, your face, your image (who the world sees you as) go's from who you are, and then becomes the character you are playing. This illusion is literal gold to your agency. So much so that there are very strict rules on how you live your life (thinks Disney on steroids). The first thing you loose is your private life. Anything that you do, from school, to relationships, even interacting with friends and family is closely monitored by your agency. You are quite literally asked to look walk a certain way, talk a certain way, all so the illusion is maintained in the public eye. The rules talents must follow are so strict, agencies have been known to fire people for not being a certain weight. Some idols (because of how their agencies operate) can spend their entire life isolated from society, save from when they are preforming, just because their agencies are that paranoid when it comes to maintaining apperances. In even more extreme cases, agencies will run talents with an almost slave-like mentality of “Do what we say so the agency makes money, or things will go bad for you.” And as far as compensation go's, its not the best. So bad is it that most talents dip their toes into the adult market just to make enough to get by. Others who choose not to do this “Graduate” or “Retire”, with the average time of most talents being in the industry not extending beyond their first year. Unfortunately, its also possible for the pressure to result in the unthinkable happening. The most well documented example of this is was an incident in October of 2018 where Honoka Omoto, formally from idol group “Enoha Girls”, committed suicide.

Now its not been established (in court at least) why she decided to take her own life. And exactly how common an occurrence this is in Japan, and Korea, Is unknown. What we do know (about Honoka specifically) is the following :

-She was was working 10 hour days

-She asked her agency to allow her to graduate, so she could focus on her studies

-Management (Ilegidly) threatened her with violence on a regular basis

-Takahiro Sasaki, the head of her managing company, told her she would have to pay a penalty fee of ¥1 million

-Her mother testified that, on the morning of the incident, Honoka said “was scared to see the president.” Although there has yet to be any public statement confirming this, from either the Japanese courts, or her former idol group, its safe to assume that the pressure being put on Honoka was enough to push her over the edge. Its also a grim reminder than, when you are preforming as a talent infront of allot of fans, there is so much pressure on you to maintain appearance. And while this weight can be managed, for some people in situations like these, it can be a bit much And as such, I'd like to observer a moment of silence for those that the industry has lost, and also for those that are struggling to carry on.

Now, that was not a very pleasant start to the post. But I feel as though its important for 2 reasons.

First, V-Tubing is a wonderful adventure, and has so many possibilities that I'm not sure any one video can cover them all. But to do this, even at an armature level, you must understand that its based on a style of entertainment that can, and often times does, break people because of how much people and companies can, and do, demand of you as an entertainer

When you put on the mask of the avatar that you are playing, that's what people will tune in for. And, in some examples people remember that there is a human behind the avatar. But its also too common (in my opinion) for people to forget this fact. So to be aware of the pitfalls, the demands of your fans, how much this will take from your personal life, your savings, your time, the legal commitment, the learning curve, discovering who you are as a vtuber, is to be aware of what you need to plan for when and if you decide to give this vtubing thing a go. Because the sad truth is most V-Tuber agencies are run like Idol Agencies. An individual will be assigned a character, and must preform as that character to keep up the illusion so the agency can make money off of your attention.

One of the most...prolific examples is Nijisanji.

Although Primarily based out of Japan, they have talents form all over the world. But because they are based out of the land of the rising sun, Ninjisanji has adopted the idol agency mentality. This has resulted in a number of issues from management over working their talent, to issues with said talent being formally married to other talent (why this is a thing, I dont know), and so on, and so forth. This has (in combination with management deciding to not support their creative ambitions) led to many tallest deciding to quit, and go elsewhere. To many, It seems like they have made it their mission statement to hit black company bingo. And there is no greater example of this than Selen Tatsuki.

See, this company has been known for treating is former and current talent like rented muels. And she was no exemption. Day by day they ran her ass over with their bulshit (the full list of their shenanigans has never been publicly released. But its safe to assume it was the same old horse shit). Where things really started to reach a tipping point was in late 2023, where she decided to release a cover of a song as a gift to her fans. She even went as far as to fund the entire project out of her own pocket. However, because this was not greenlit by Nijisanji, they immediately took it down. Within days she released a tweet saying she had been admitted to hospital for unspecified reasons and was doing well. This, however legit it may have seen, was a hoax. Sort of.

Here is what we know

-Post Feb5th of 2024-On December 26th of 2023 she had been locked out of all of her social media accounts -The tweets made by her on twitter were done by Nijisanji ( we don't know who specifically in Nijisanji made the tweet ) -On Febuary 5th of 2024 Ninjisanji release a tweet saying they terminated her contract, by posting the termination letter online, as opposed to mailing it directly to her and her legal council. This has been largely considered to be a bad move by those who study employment law -Within hours of the termination letter going live, one of Selen's friends told her about it, and she broke the silence, by posting on hew new twitter handle “DokiBird”

In the tweet he confirmed the message on her old handle “Selene” was true. However she said the reason she went to hospital was because she attempted to take her own life as a result of both the toxic work environment, and having her project pulled. Since then she had decided to move on form the situation, and to let her lawyer handle things. At the time of writing, her legal battle is still ongoing.

Another example of a tallent that has left this company is Nina Kosaka.

Now she was an....interesting Vtuber. And how she lasted as long as she did in Ninjisanji EN is beyond me. Seriously, She was a special kind of spicy before joining the infamouse agency. And (according to people that watched her when she streamed as “monkeyism” ) she cleaned her act up a bit to fit in. But she was never a good fit. The most likely story behind her exit from the company is that she decided to leave couple of reasons. 1, the pressure form the agency. 2, she felt as though she was not living up to her potential as a vtuber, while under their employ. After some soul searching, she eventually Re-Branded as Matarakan, and is now apart of VShojo.

She has also expressed that the interview process was quite a night and day difference when compared to what she's used to. They showed an immediate interest in both her, and what it was that she wanted to do. Talks were had, plans were made, and she has since gone form strength to strength. I could read between the lines a little bit, and say that there Is allot half truths going on. But id personally like to think that she should be remembered as an example that sometimes walking away from a agency is the right answer.

Speaking of Vshojo, lets talk about Iron mouse.

NO, NOT THAT ONE!

There we go

Anyways,

For those that don't know. Iron mouse is based. As in all the way based. No joke, she was planing for a career in Coloratura soprano, I had no idea what this was, so I looked it up, and did a research. After a bit of poking the internet till it gave me what I was after it became apparent why she is such a good singer. Because Coloratura soprano is hard. Normal singing demands tone awareness, timing of notes, being able to raise and lower tone and pitch. But this Coloratura soprano that, on steroids. Life saw this, knew it was good, then said “Yeh na, common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). Don't like that? Have this lung infection with a long ass name ( mycobacterium avium complex ) And she did not take it well. Being isolated form human contact was not pog. So to solve this, she decided to start streaming as a Vtuber after being inspired by Kzuna AI. Over the years she go so good, she was able to afford better health care, a better house for her and her family, she became one of the founding members of Vshojo, she has done subathons. You name it, she has done it in the vtubung space, and that's inspite of her health issues. AND SHE DOES NOT STOP. Outside of her ever growing fan base, and entertain them on a regular basis, she also advocates for CVID and for people to donate plasmaAlso, for real, donate plasma. Its super important not only for people like Iron Mouse, but for those who need blood transfusions.

Now these are just examples of people who have made their way as part of an agency and done super well either by switching companies, or going solo. But what about Indie Vtubers?

Filllian.

She is ..... odd. Never once has she stated that she was a V-Tube, instead he maintains she is “A Vtuber in Training”. Unlike most, she has a more chaotic flow to her streams. One minute she could be playing a game, then being a chaos gremlin, or colaberating with the CEO of Twitch. Nice. And its not like she spent allot on her first setup, her in a clip from one of her past streams, she went over how she got started.

How Fillina became a streamer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63kh-N_BECkSince Since her debut, her performance has been on par with the best of them, has collaborated with a wide variaty of V-Tuber agencies, and has gone onto host the first V-Tuber awards show.

To end the indie vtuberes, I thought we would go out with a bang, and cover the purple noodle man. The cult leader, king of spooky, Kabhaal.

For the longest time he had it rough with his personal life, and decided to lean into content creation. Relying on his pension for the spooky and supernatural helped him to build an audience that had only gotten bigger and bigger as time go's by. Although he does no sing, he leans into video games. With his early years almost exclusively being devoted to minecraft. In year 2, however, he dipped more into his fascination with horror games, and just found that little tick in his brain. That one part of him that allowed him to turn his hobby into content that people could enjoy, that would also allow him to earn a living off of. His passion for the work that he does can be felt each time he makes content. Be it lore video, reading creepy pasta, or conglomerating with others. Its hard for his stuff not to be a home run. And the great thing is he is all about helping others jump into content creation, or with streaming in general. Hell, when I was just starting he stopped his stream just to answer a question I had about audio levels (Im still not the best at mixing audio, but I'm definitely better because of his help). Hell, Pumkin Potion (someone who I'd love to do a post on at some point) was raised up to what she can do now in no small part to his tutelage.

Now I could go on and on, forever and a day about all the wonderful streamers out there,the things they have done. Such as Project Melody overcoming getting ousted from the hub, and bouncing back in Vshojo. Or Haruka dealing with her own mental health issues and still being able to share her greatness with the world. Or Henya The Genius coming out of her shell and being the adorable little tea kettle we all know and love. I could. But the sad truth is that there is way to much good and other as there are grains of sand, or stars in the sky. And I personally don't think that its possible for any one video (including this one) to do the entire space and all its creative the justice that they deserve. I only hope that what little I have been able to coves can serve as an example for those that wonder. And now I think is the time for a closing statement. I'm reminded of the movie “Ratatouille”. There is this scene from Anton Ego, one of the characters in the movie right at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JPOoFkrh94 Although this scene refers to chefs, I think it servers as a good push, or motivation for those who are unsure about if they should become vtubers, or perhaps even streamers. The all of us who dare to dream, to think we can, to even try and step into this space are artists. Every day we create content for people to enjoy. And the creators, the dreamers, the doers can come from the most unlikely of places. Sometimes we were stockers at super markets, other times we may be the guy delivering your mail. And perhaps even you. The person watching this video. It may be daunting. You may have to set some money aside, and time too. Maybe you are worried about if you can make it big. But If you never try, you will allways wonder “What if?” So go forth, ask those vtubers you aspire to. This road has been traveled before. There is no greater time than now. Someone, somewhere in this space has been where you have been, and probalt has answers to your questions. Think big, aim for the stars, and keep on travailing towards tomorrow. Because sometimes, all it takes, is a leap of faith.

In the next post, I will be going over a few basic tips to get your first stream started. Till then, Im Poptart, thanks for reading.