All Turns into Virtual: What VTubers Bring to Our Future

8 min readAug 28, 2021

Virtual Youtubers, or VTubers, are a movement that began quietly in 2017 and continues to grow even today.
According to Userlocal, which provides a ranking of VTubers, the number of VTubers exceeded 10,000 as of January 2020. What we have to know is the fact this statistic is just based on registration by themselves. I guess the actual number may be several times larger, tens thousands, if we count those who are practically engaged in VTuber-like activities and those who are active outside of Japan.

Tens thousands! That’s equal to the population of a single city or even a small country (the population of Liechtenstein, a famous mini-state, is around 40,000). In 2018, the VTuber world was a small world that could be represented by a single picture, as shown in the tweet below, but now it has become almost an ethnic group in the virtual world that is impossible to grasp the whole picture.

By the way, what do you think is the purpose of these thousands of VTubers? To become famous or make money? Yes it’s likely because top VTubers now are so popular as more than a million subscriber and hundreds thousand dollar of income.
However, there are actually many cases where this is not the case. Let me quote some interesting data here. This is a survey by Nadeshiko Yamato, a VTuber and noter, on the purpose of VTubing taken from about 100 live streamer in 17LIVE, a streaming platform.

It is noteworthy that 22% of the respondents choose “self-realization and self-discovery”.

self-realization is a term that refers to getting closer to what you want to be.
According to Maslow’s self-realization theory, after satisfying various needs such as social needs (to be needed by someone), approval needs (to be respected by oneself and others), and financial needs, people will eventually aim to achieve self-realization.

**Maslow’s self-realization theory (from Wikimedia Commons)**

In other words, self-realization is one ultimate desire of human beings.
Though some questionnaire respondents may not exactly understand the word, but at least it is far from the reason related to popularity or money.

In other words, surprisingly, at least 20% of VTubers feel that working as a VTubing brings them closer to a kind of self-realization… satisfying one of the most advanced desires in human beings.

But doesn’t it sound strange? If you only look at the surface of VTuber, it’s just wearing an avatar and showing yourself to people with acting. What’s the difference from what we usually do on SNS? Why go to all that trouble like VTubing?
I guess the survey above suggests one answer: there would be something let people believe they can realize self-realization by becoming VTuber.

So, what is the essence?

In this article, I’ll explore the reason why we want to become VTubers around the keyword “self-realization”.
I think verbalizing the mechanism behind it may reveal the future not only of VTubers but also whole this world.
I hope you won’t laugh at my imagination as an outlandish delusion, but rather listen to me for a moment.

Why being a VTuber?: From the Essence of VTubers

From the start of this artcile, I’ve dared to use the word “avatar,” but honestly I think VTubers are different from mere avatar.
Here, I would like to quote from my article “The Essence of VTuber: Pioneers of Our Future Evolution”.

In other words, VTuber appears with the combination of its various elements like actor, avatar, its character, acting, voice changer, and our imagination for her…everything related to “VTuber” make her appear as a real existence, or virtual being.
The Essence of VTuber is the core of its combination…our shared fantasy.
Even though materialistically nothing exists, if the streamer and its audience believe in her existence, she is there in Virtual World.

Here, I want to add another hypothesis to it: What we VTuber create through our activities are not only shared fantasy between streamer and viewer. No longer should we say that we are creating a new personality, apart from ourselves.

You may think that this is a very exaggerated. Indeed, from the viewpoint of materialism, nothing changes by appearing a VTuber.
However, the VTuber you created virtually exist with a different name, a different relationship, a different way of speaking, a different manner, and even a different gender at times.
It may not be a completely independent personality, but I think it’s enough to recognize it as virtually distinct personality. Isn’t it?

It is similar to a concept called personas in some ways. The idea is that we wear a invisible “mask” and change the way we behave as if we were another person, depending on the TPO. That mask is called persona.
I think VTuber have some similarities to personas in that they both are limited personalities different from the real you.

What makes difference between these two are the fact VTuber as personalities can have a physicality independent of the physical self thanks to the virtual body like Live2D or 3D models. In other words, VTuber are a persona with its own entity, and moreover could be regarded as virtual individual.
This is the greatest epoch that the advancement of VR technology has made possible, and it is the reason why I believe that now it’s time to define VTuber as a distinct personality.

I believe this outlandish idea of recognizing VTubers as a virtual individual is the key that bridges two keywords “VTuber” and “self-realization”.

Creating what you want to be: VTubers and self-realization

Self-realization, in other words, becoming what you want to be, is a very difficult.
There are various obstacles, for example, like the gap between the others’ image of you and the ideal image you have. Lack of ability, knowledge, experience, or money. Lack of good environment around you (no like-minded people, no one to have sincere discussions with, etc.). Physical factors such as appearance, height, voice, and gender. Or complexes.

All of them are very hard to solve. …Yes, in the real world.

If there is a person who is extremely knowledgeable about the constellations of the zodiac and talk about it all the time to everyone, he will probably be regarded as an oddball.
However, what if he defines himself as an “astronomy VTuber”? He will be able to talk about his favorite constellations without hesitation because it is the way he should be.
Or, a person who is usually too shy to get involved in conversations, but actually wants to talk to more people, could cut through the embarrassment and hesitations by creating new self as “sociable and cheerful VTuber”.

In virtual world, there are no acquaintances who are suspicious of your odd behavior. You are free from yourself. Also, avatars and voice changers give you the most freedom in terms of physicality.
Makeup, disguise, cross-dressing, developing a new community, makeovers, pseudonyms, moving, plastic surgery, role-playing… you may notice VTubing are far more free compared to all of them.

A series of technologies make it possible to create virtual individuals that do not physically exist and achieve your ideal self. This is what are being realized nowadays. This is a new form of self-realization, isn’t it?

VTuber as new possibilities of humanity

Here, Let me tell you something about myself.
You might have noticed the self-realization through creating VTuber, a virtual individual, is actually the very thing that I am practicing.

I, Omoi Kane, have created myself as an ideal image of real self. I gave it a name that embodies an ideal (Omoikane, a Japanese God with great wisdom), developed slightly different manner to think or behavior, and created the appearance that I long for.
Thanks to it, I have confidently write what I want and so many people will see my work and recognize me, as you are doing right now. I can feel that now I am what I want to be, and that gives me brilliant motivation. How irreplaceable its joy.

I’m sure that such would not have been possible if I had been bound by the hesitations, the gravity of myself in real world. The another myself as VTuber, separated from real self, made it possible. The excitement VTubing gave me resulted in this text.

VTuber is not just an another style of streamer, but also new possibilities of humanity.
In my past essay “What will happen to the VTuber industry in 2020?” (Japanese article in note.com: here translated part of it), I’ve noted like below.

In 2020, Corporate VTubers, or Pro-streamers will finally enter the stage of full-scale commercialization and become second-generation VTubers. That is an inevitable change and the gap between them and the other amateurs will have grown further.
However, we don’t have to regret “good-old-2018”, instead we can get aware that getting popularity is not important. Doing what you want to do in your ideal form, and seen and recognized by people around you would be greatest joy.

At that time I finally can’t verbalize what in future will happen to the first generation of VTubers, which don’t have a commercial aspect.
The answer is probably exactly what I’ve wrote right now. Be who you want to be, be free of ties, complexes, and hesitations. You can talk about your dreams and ideals, realize them, and let someone else see them. Then you will become closer to your ideal self. That is the potential we can create in the future.
What the first generation of VTubers gained in exchange for their commercial potential is the very appeal of the virtual world: the possibility of free self-expression and self-realization.

I see comrades who share the same feelings in the growing number of VTubers day by day. And I send a cheer to their backs.
I believe that the number of VTubers will continue to increase without stopping. As long as the advancing technology gives them a tailwind to shape their ideal selves, as long as there are people who wish to live as they wish to be.