Pretty much. Maybe not faking, but putting more emphasis on things that will appeal to your demographic. Honestly, it'd be amazing if someone could pull off a 100% persona when streaming live for hours on end. At that point, they'd be the Heath Ledger of Vtubers. Anyways, responding to the OP, I always liked the idea of Vtubers. I love the art and how the person behind the screen brings it to life. I like how it helps people come out of their shelll because of the anonymity. It's really not much different from normal streaming/videos, so I like that it's a trend. Not a fan of people hoping to get into it being taken advantage of by various people of the industry, but that's bound to happen in any growing industry (mostly talking about a few weird artists who think they can creep on vtubers they're working for just because their services are in high demand atm) . I don't really watch youtube vtubers though: mostly watch on twitch. I rarely use youtube to watch live streams, and I like to put on a live stream to watch while I do other things like play games. I'll either treat it like a radio, or if the content is really good, focus on the stream for a bit, and just alternate. As for who I mostly watch, numero uno is Nyanners. Always been a fan of her youtube content, was hyped when she started streaming on twitch, and felt it was a perfect fit when she transitioned to vtubing. Her streams can be so chaotic : at one point, she did an entire stream as a giant skit where she put on a clown face and went all joker on us. I don't know how to describe it very well, but I think the consensus in the chat was "holy shit, I didn't know Nyanners could act so well". We know she's a goof, but she acted like such a depressed rejected goof that we couldn't quite tell if it was a goof or not for most of the stream. Like, we felt it had to be goof, but there was always this feeling of unease of "what if it's real", and it was a pretty surreal emotional experience. I also enjoy watching most of the VShojo group. I esp really like those Nyanners and Ironmouse collabs. Something about their interactions just feels so cozy. Recently, I've been watching a lot of ChibiDoki's streams, as I really like the vibe of the streams and her hyperactiveness energizes me. There's a lot of playful insults thrown back and forth, chat can "throw" virtual objects at her, making her flinch, she'll call chat a bunch of scumbags and savagely retort to someone making fun of her. Chat can also redeem some sfx, and they love the "shut up!" one and chibi will pretend like she's being told to shut up for real and put on some shimmering, tearful eyes. I also really like the little shimmy dance she does from time to time, it's really cute and entertaining to watch. Overall, I don't really understand how someone can hate vtubing in general, because the content varies so wildly. I think how one of my friends reacts to it is telling : just one look at it and he cringes. It's not that he hates anime, and it's not that he hates talking to streamers (dude's hobby is chattiing with "adult" streamers). Maybe it's a mental uncanny valley, or maybe people like him are imagining a bunch of obsessed weebs humping their vtuber waifu body pillow, but there's a huge stigma imo to vtubing for people who haven't given it a fair shot. It also doesn't help if they've watched a few streams and decided the content isn't for them because there's so much different content depending on who you watch... Like I said, my other friend (also not an anime hater or a streamer hater) was also biased against vtubers until he heard GawrGura sing . He might not enjoy her normal voice, but he loves her singing voice. There's plenty of content that I don't watch, even with vtubers I like because the content isn't fun for me. Like, I might enjoy Veibae's real talk, but I don't enjoy "watching videos together". Was never a huge fan of "reaction videos", and reactiion streams are just an extension of that. Anyways, I think I'm rambling a bit too much here, so I'ma just wrap it up.
I'd probably enjoy it as a one time comedy but not as a genre. Especially if it goes into erotic...eww just imagining the possibility the other side is a middle aged Asian man acting all uwu makes my skin crawl... If I anime urges there's hentai...no need to take risks of possible PTSD
Ah, the mental health issues are definitely quite troublesome. I remember that when Holocouncil debuted, Kiara talked a bit about it, about how rough it was for them when they started, and how they felt like they had nobody to rely on because they didn't have any EN senpais and stuff, and how Hololive was still adapting to the EN market, so like... Well, she didn't want Council to go through the same thing, so she stayed some hours talking to one of the Council members who was crying a lot after her debut and stuff. I think Kiara also cried at one point when people asked her to stop self-translating too much because it ruined her flow... And when she went to /vt in 4chan or something like it... And then there are stuff like Gura's Reflect song which was like... Well, quite different from what you'd expect from her first song and stuff. And it shows a lot of that too~ And then there are also people that go and complain to Ame about her participating in AnimeExpo or something, because the person disagreed with some of AnimeExpo policies or whatever... And Ame was like... Well, doing it because of her contract? She was essentially being blamed by something decided by Cover and the convention hosts. She just participated because she had a contract, she had no say in it, yet she was taking the blame... So yeah, it's hard work. Dealing with public directly like streamers do can be really really taxing... You kinda need a tough skin to handle all that~ But well, it must be also be pretty rewarding ehe~
Well, I don't really consider them any different from any other streamer personally, but I know that's not the case for most people. Plus, Vtubers are going to become more common at both an individual level and as part of orgs as the industry grows and the tech becomes more accessible.
*nod nod nod* I find them easier to get comfortable watching than other streamers, but that's about it~ For the rest, they're about the same~
on what level? is it about the general idea, the application, gossip, history or what? thoughtythought, veritasium...... wait I see that one... that was high school grade material.... been long time since this cat see and solve that typical problem.... well I can see it kinda help for hmm students during pandemic but nah not for this cat~ so that called on english huh.... hehehe well one thing for sure... Ollie suck as teacher..... being a teacher is hard ya know
Honestly, I don't like some V-Tubers ie the ones that just make their voice higher and have an avatar that looks like a child just so they can prey on fuckin freaks. The only v-tuber I really stay in tune with is nyanners. Her humours really close to my own.
if you on high school tier math go ahead function f(x), limit (shoot there no limit symbol) , matrix is intro for calculus~ this cat not on math college level so nah~ it just her presentation is not this cat style.... this cat kinda twitch when skim watch those videos, still it good intro~ similar to how videogame may spark interest toward history, raise hat for the effort~
I don't really like Twitch, where they mainly stream, but I do watch it a bit there. Generally just prefer short funny clips on YouTube where it's more condensed. I mainly watch Vshojo Vtubers since Nyanners was the first one I watched (a clip of her playing American Truck Simulator I think it was).
I think they and the artist community gets along well. I too am interested in being one, i want to express myself with a face being associated with me, but not really my real face, at the same time it should be unique to me ... Also i just think they are cute in general I also follow indie vtubers
aye it will need a lot of preparation owo, I am not thinking that I want to be popular, I just think it would be a fun thing to do
I prefer VShojo over Hololive. A lot less censoring of words. Still, both are generally targeting the same audience. Vtubing is probably going to stay for the foreseeable future if VR never gets better.