The Essence of VTuber: Pioneers of Our Future Evolution
You can find original Japanese article “VTuberの本質とその先にあるモノ～私たちの進化の先駆けとしてのVTuber” on note.com.
How do you think “What is VTuber?”
…I’m afraid some of you don’t know this relatively new word “VTuber”, or Virtual Youtuber. This word is seemingly merely an abbreviation of them, but getting more and more common especially in Japan, as one individual concept different from its primary meaning.
Now, to give the right answer to the very abstract question above, it is an easy way to borrow the words in some dictionary: They are just Web-streamers using some AVATARs? Indeed this answer is right, but contains not a single piece of its essence, I think.
If you are the one who has ever watched their streams or communicated with them, I believe you probably agree with my opinion: they are NOT just the streamers wearing avatar.
That implies, VTuber has some kind of inherent elements within its conception, which we haven’t understood yet!
Today, I’d like to look at the mystery inside them with you.
Forgive me if I’m late, but my name is 思惟かね (Omoi Kane). I’m also one of the VTuber, and possibly the one who has the most interest in this question. Because my reason for VTuber activity is dedicated to answering these difficult problems: What is the essence of VTuber? What may it lead us to?
I strongly believe that there must be a lot of interesting insights inside the answer, which, probably indicates to us the new concept of self-image, definition of person, and futuristic change inside our spirits.
Now, let’s get started to explorer some aspects of Japanese VTuber culture today, and find out the evidence to answer our proposition.
“Babiniku”（バ美肉） — example of one ULTIMATE VTuber group
Though most of you overseas never heard of such a strange word “Babiniku” (バ美肉), the Babiniku movement started in mid-2018, in the era of the Japanese 1st and explosive VTuber boom. Now in 2020, it has a certain amount of popularity in the Japanese VTuber scene surprisingly, instead of its outstanding strangeness.
Babiniku is an acronym of “Virtual Bishoujo Juniku” (バーチャル美少女受肉：Incarnation as Virtual Bishoujo). They are streamers who use Bishojo (美少女：beautiful girl) avatar, act charmingly and fittingly to its appearance, and talk with a cute voice.
So, what’s the point?
The most important and impressive point is, they ALL are a real male streamer, not a girl! What’s even more amazing, most of all audience knows such shocking fact, streamer themselves never hide that (even try to), and still, all of them accept it and some fans have unusual interest for Babiniku Vtuber rather.
It seems similar to Nekama or catfish, but completely different in fact.
Note:
“Incarnation” in this context means that an existing soul lodges in newly born body (Bishoujo’s virtual body, in this case), but not in any religious context.
In Japanese “juniku”（受肉） represents to get body literally. Such meaning in the context of VTuber is origin from the words of Tsukino Mito（月ノ美兎）, one of most influencing VTuber.
Here, I introduce some well-known Babiniku VTuber.
The first one is 魔王マグロナ (Magurona the Daemon King, or Magurona-chan), probably the most famous Babiniku-VTuer. His, or her technology is remarkable, especially for Male-to-Female voice transformation, voice changer (ボイチェン). Adding to this, her stream utilizing the possibility of a 3D avatar with Unity is also interesting.
Let me introduce another cute Babiniku-VTuber: 兎毬まり (Tomari Mari). If you see her movie below, I guess some of you possibly misunderstand which is Tomari and which is real-girl VTuber（夏色まつり: Natsuiro Matsuri from HOLOLIVE）. Her “transformed” voice is unbelievably miraculous such that we hardly recognize, with the help of her amazingly cute behavior. Doesn’t it??
I want to write thousands of words about their attractiveness, however, the original point of this essay is just pointing out the VTuber’s essence through these exciting VTubers.
So let’s move to the next. What is their point?
Please allow me to introduce another Babiniku-VTuber, though, to explain what I want to reveal. His or her name is だてんちゆあ (Fallen Angel YUA：Yua-chan). She is, though you’ve already got bored to hear my “amazing” modifier, amazingly cute in truth.
Maybe you can get to know in a few seconds to watch the video below, Yua-chan is not just a girl but a little girl. As you can see in her sweet childish voice, fawning behavior, and a little silly words (she is not good at Kanji, for example). In other words, her personality is built consistently as a little child, as she hoped so.
The point is, many of her friends referred to her change since she started the activity. One said “You recently tend to act like a child.” or one other said, “You used to speak clearly, but now you pronounce like a child.” Another said frankly “Now you get cute but get a little silly!”
I guess you may know what I want to say. I hypothesized her “child play”, acting like a little child as a VTuber affects herself, more precisely, her personality itself.
In a more general way, acting as a VTuber affects the streamer’s personality very directly. That’s my hypothesis.
Do the external elements of humanity affect his/her personality?
As you know, all these equipment of Babiniku-VTuber is external and removable elements, not their inherent one, for instance, cute appearance (Avatar), attractive voice (Voice changer), and their character (Persona).
In fact, Magurona-chan usually says that “Magurona” is a kind of character designed to be so. They are totally coordinated as the desired character (ideal Bishojo) by the streamer inside them, like Yua-chan, an ideal innocent little girl.
However, as I mentioned in the past passage, her friend’s references suggest that such external and removable elements have non-negligible influences on her personality, behavior, and way of thinking.
In fact, such examples can be seen in other Babiniku-VTuber: “I talked to my friend in women’s way of speaking unconsciously.” or “Recently I feel like I’m a real girl…” or “I get kinda feeling I have to make effort to be cuter.” like that. That kind of phenomenon is so-called メス堕ち (Mesuochi: rather a vulgar internet slang).
Again, this phenomenon shows the exchangeable physical element in the virtual world does affect and change his/her soul, over the wall between Virtual and Real. It sounds like Science Fiction, though.
If this hypothesis is right to an extent, Babiniku-Vtuber, who modifies one of the most fundamental parts of human personality, we can probably observe the effect of this phenomenon clearer than any other VTuber, like the photos below.
Amazing point of Magurona-chan
* Her legs leaned inside (like ordinary women)
* Toes move like photo model (its align, small move, etc)
* Her elbow faced inside (thus fingers leaned outside: like a girl)
* Knees aligned when bending over.
* Moving hips with her pelvis.
Is she … a? real male ???
Yes, it’s so easy to contradict my bizarre opinion, like “This is just streamer’s habit became her real habit.” or “This is acting as viewers desired, or just adaption to TPO.”
Then, now, shall we try to abstract it out and compare it with some familiar case to us?
Avatar and Character as a “Fashion”
One of my most favorite phrases says “What you wear changes your whole world.” (by Jean Pierre Stanley from “Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou” (月によりそう乙女の作法)).
Haven’t you got elated and felt as if you become a nice and different person when you put on your favorite clothes? In such a moment everything you see looks beautifully glittering, I guess.
It’s not only for clothes but also other fashion, like kinds of accessories, shoes, hairstyle, and so on. When you wear these loving fashions, sometimes you feel like you yourself changing quite attractive, though the difference is only what you wear!
In another case, we sometimes change our fashion along with our mental conditions, for example, cutting down your hair after you have a broken heart, or wearing mature and formal clothes willing to behave confidently.
These are the right examples that actually fashion and our mental have strong interaction with each other, though fashion is external and exchangeable from our inherent body.
Indeed our body and fashion are physically separated and have no direct relationships, but we humans tend to feel what we wear as a part of our body, which is deeply connected to our mind itself.
So, how can we feel nothing with fashion?
Now you may know what I mean.
What Babiniku-Vtuber wears, avatar, voice changer, and character (Persona) is nothing more than fashion like our clothes. Therefore, these fashions probably affect their personality through the same process above.
My hypothesis that the exchangeable element in the virtual world changes his/her soul would be similar to what we met in our daily life.
Moreover, this “Babiniku Armourment” is worn inside rather than physical fashions, thus its effect would be greater. Their surprising change in behavior, way of thinking, or self-image would result from such fashion effects experienced in the virtual world.
They are the most evolved VTubers in a sense, and unquestionably interesting existence.
In this chapter, I explained how VTuber is affected mentally by their character. In the next chapter, I’ll focus on the effect of the observer, or audience of the streamer. It’s irrelevant at a glance but connected with each other in its roots.
The Essence of VTuber: Between a Streamer and Viewers
This chapter will be one of the most critical parts of this essay because VTuber necessarily can’t stand alone. They need an audience to watch their stream and it is strongly related to the theme of this essay: The Essence of VTuber.
Standing on materialism, there are only two objects in the VTuber system: “Actor” (streamer as a person, or 中の人) and the “Avatar” as his front end. Needless to say, VTuber is just the same person as the Actor, so there is nothing other than that.
However, as I noted before, almost all VTuber fans disagree with this apparent fact, insisting that there must be something unknown “the 3rd”, different both from actor and avatar.
This unknown “the 3rd” is nothing other than the Essence of VTuber, which grows up between VTuber and its audience.
Here, let us see again Yua-chan. The lovely appearance, cute but a little silly words, and sweet childish voice…all these elements are essentially just peripherals of her avatar and actor.
However, once all these elements combined as one, after the live stream starts, we all surely can see Datenchi Yua speak prettily. We can see and feel the illusion of her innocent personality. That time she exists in front of us.
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.
We may call such kind of thing Virtual Reality, or VR. Isn’t it?
The biggest difference between Anime/Manga character and VTuber is this “virtual reality”.
Actually, most people would have a hard time saying that VTuber doesn’t really exist, though about Anime/Manga characters they wouldn’t.
VTuber doesn’t exist anywhere as a slid form, yet everyone still feels their virtual existence. Isn’t it so mysterious?
Now, it’s time to go back to the insider’s view of VTuber.
We are approaching the reason why VTubers is a precursor to our evolution, which I set out in the title.
Audience’s reaction makes a VTuber exist
Now, we finally get to the point.
The topic will go to the insider’s viewpoint and his mental aspects.
Once we’ll move away from what I mentioned in the previous section about the essence and reality of VTubers, but in the end, they will come together into a single line.
I’ve already mentioned that being a VTuber may change one’s thoughts and actions. What is deeply related to it is the audience's reaction.
Wearing an avatar and doing something as a character is nothing more than acting.
If you are a first-class actor who is able to immerse yourself in any role, nothing matters. However, in such a situation, most people feel a sense of discomfort that “this is not me”, like wearing unfamiliar, ill-fitting clothes.
It can be said an uncomfortable feeling caused by a gap between the image of yourself and your actual behavior.
You have felt the uncomfortable feeling when you have said or done something that is unlike you. We are able to feel at ease when the self-image and actual behavior coincide, otherwise we feel stressed.
So if you continue to act as a distant character from you, you will eventually lose the sense of unity between the role and yourself, saying “that’s not me”.
(If you’ve played the Persona series, I’m sure this description will fit nicely.)
However, an audience's reaction would change this separation.
Suppose that you change your hairstyle but feel that’s out of character for you. Then someone tells you “your new hairstyle looks good on you!”. How would you feel? Probably you realize that your new look is also you, and feel at ease.
This joy is more than just being praised for a makeover; it’s the mental relief that positive feedback from others clears up the gap between your self-image and your actual appearance.
Like that, people’s self-awareness is surprisingly hazy, on the other hand, an affirmation from others strongly influence it.
Have you noticed that the same thing will happen to VTubers?
The audience’s positive reactions (comments, replies, etc.) greatly reinforce the sense of unity between VTuber and its actor, emphasizing the impact to wear the fashion named “VTuber”.
It's no wonder that VTuber often feels a sense of discomfort due to the gap between virtual and real, result in the thought that the VTuber is a different person from the actor himself, though it’s actually the other side of the coin.
However, a positive reaction from the audience will override this instinctive rejection.
The gap between self as VTuber and real self is resolved by changing the self-image thanks to the affirmation of the audience. Then the virtual self could be accepted as another aspect of oneself.
In the same way, Babiniku VTubers, getting complimented on their cuteness, accept their self-image as a Bishojo from the bottom of their hearts. They continue to make nightly efforts to become even cuter and become more and more like a Bishojo.
This is more than just reinforcement through positive evaluation; it is a more powerful motivation that the affirmation to change generates and changes their souls.
One unique point of VTuber culture about this phenomenon is that not only funs but also VTubers frequently express the positive feeling of liking, unlike other internet culture. I guess this atmosphere pushes for such psychological changes.
(Incidentally, I think this culture is the most wonderful thing in the VTuber world.)
We can see such kind of phenomenon in reality as well, but what is special with VTuber is the fact they are streamers, where the audience is always watching them and reacting in real-time.
Even if they make a mistake or say something “out of character”, they will promptly receive a reaction from the audience, mostly in a positive way.
One surprising but usual example is, even when they sneeze or make a strange voice, seemingly it’s just a mistake, but the comments are usually full of positive responses such as “helpful,” or “cute low voice”. Any other behavior is welcomed.
It removes the anxiety and gives them the confidence to update their self-image as VTuber. The speed of this update is much faster than in the real world, where it is harder to get a reaction, especially a positive one.
As a result, their thoughts and behavior, or soul are changing at amazing speed.
As their soul is changing, indeed the difference between real and virtual grows, but the sense of unity wouldn’t be lost. Consequently, they may feel to have another personality as VTuber.
This virtual personality is also shared with the audience. That is to say, the fantasy that the VTuber exists, or the reality of virtual personality is shared and thus established not only by the audience but also VTuber themselves.
VTubers are living content. I don’t think that’s just because of a living person in it.
The shared recognition, that VTuber actually exists, empower the reality of them. Also, a sense of affirmation encourages VTuber to change as if it’s just living and growing. That gives life to VTubers, and it is supported by the audience’s warm claps and cheers.
It is no doubt that the future of VTubers will shine even brighter if they continue to discover a new version of themselves, saying “this is also me”, with good and warm fans on their backs.
What awaits us in the future with VTubers
Now that my tedious and verbose narrative has come to an end. Let me conclude with a slightly fresh and dreamy vision of the future.
Let’s go back in time to the past, visiting the old and learning the new.
VTubers are on the extended line of avatars in online games. They are also representations of the self in the virtual world.
What has changed between avatar and VTuber? I think there are two major epochs. One is “Improved humanity with tracking technology” and the “Rich identity elements such as unique looks or flavors”.
These two elements will give viewers a sense of reality to believe, make VTubers confident their virtual personality actually exists.
So, looking at the evolutionary line of avatar, we can see the future.
About the first one. The development of tracking technology has already made it possible to improve the humanity of avatars. Not only for those who see it but also who wear it!
As you may have experienced with VR goggles, the experience of moving your body in the VR world makes you believe that your avatar is your body itself. You can be what you want and believe it by just seeing a virtual mirror. This astonishment can be experienced by anyone today who logs into VRChat right now.
The intensity of such virtual reality will continue to grow even more as consumer devices evolve.
As technology advances further, such as haptic devices (devices that replicate the sense of touch) will help to drive this. With each passing day, the distinctive feeling between our real and virtual bodies will be going disappeared.
Someday you will believe in your virtual reality as you are what you want to be, just like VTuber.
And in terms of the second one, rich identity elements, also the technology will expand the world. One example of this is the voice changer, which usually Bikiniku VTubers use.
In abstraction, a voice changer is the use of technology to transform your real one into your desired virtual one. What is important is, technology will help us to allow more and more elements to be free in the virtual world like a voice with a voice changer.
As an extreme example, one of my favorite books, “Permutation City” by Greg Egan, describes how we are able to manipulate our moods in the virtual world to suit our will and TPO. When you want to negotiate with people, you are in a state of confidence; when you are feeling down, you are in a state of cheerfulness, and so on.
What one imagines will eventually come to pass. Sooner or later, people will be able to change their moods as easily as they change their hair with hair wax.
We may be able to transform not only our appearance, but also every other element such as voice, intonation, gestures, and the way we walk, and eventually even mental factors such as the moods and attitudes mentioned above, into what we want to be in the virtual world.
…When this comes true, we will probably think, “Am I myself in the virtual world really me?”.
The identity element in the virtual world is getting far from the one in the real world. On the other hand, technology gives us a strong feeling that the body in the virtual world is our own body itself.
They must conflict and keep us annoying, resulting in losing the sense of unity between real and virtual.
This is our mental limitation, unable to transform our inner perception and self-image, no matter how much we try to change ourselves into what we want to be.
I think VTubers give us the advice in such a future era.
What bridges the gap between the real world and the virtual world? In other words, what helps us to understand intuitively that ourselves in the virtual world and the real world are just two different aspects, sharing the same soul, no matter how far they get far?
That would be the warm, positive response from the people around us.
A casual remark such as “You look so cute!” will make you realize that this is yourself too. That affirmation changes a false image into your “virtual reality”.
I believe that this happy virtual reality also brings you good changes in the real world.
It would be too sad if you have changed yourself into the ideal with hope but ending up you yourself denied it.
You can overcome this wall of self-image and become the person you want to be. That’s the possibility of virtual reality, VTuber suggests, I guess.
I secretly believe that one important factor for reaching such a happy future is already present in the culture of VTubers, and I have high hopes for it.
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This article is translated from my original Japanese article on note.com.
