kadmckool
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2021
Here's my take on why Vtuber/idol is a thing (a little bit long)
Context:
If you remembered some idol-type animes and how those characters (the VAs also play an active role as irl idol for awhile during the contract of 3~5 years). Vtuber idol was a special niche that the girls can stick around forever (they don't have to look good IRL to sell unlike the anime VA-idol hybrid model). Right now Vtuber idol hybrid is still in an earlier state and obviously, we don't want to push it toward the toxic idol direction because that's dumb and I don't think the girl wants it either although some of them looks pretty good IRL (for example, Rushia's roommate is the real-life Eli Ayase in term of look).
Back in the early 2010s when the Japanese push for Seiyuu-idol (voice actresses turn idol) and expect seiyuu was also an idol in a sense (result in today VAs also need to look good along with good acting as the same time). I think the first seiyuu idol concept was HanaKana, who was an idol turn voice acting while keeping idol role (later we had YuiKaori, etc.) Then we have a lot of musical/idol theme anime like Idolm@ster, Love Live, BanG, etc. and the VAs also stick around for roughly 3~5 years per generation to act as said character and being idol in a sense. This creates a ticking time bomb which those VAs were not preparing themselves for the toxicity of the idol culture. For example, the first-gen of Idolm@ster had VA who voice eroge like Imai Asami, Nakamura Eriko, Shimoda Asami etc. (since eroge paid much better than anime). The first Idolm@ster hiccup was the Hase Yurina scandal result in her getting fired from her role. Love live 1st gen also had something similar in case you did not know, it was Emitsun (who was discovered as an amateur AV actress) that cause a meltdown and cancel.
The downside for the VA-idol hybrid model is that there's a certain amount of time which they can sell since they had to put their IRL identity out and some of them might not have the look that sells (not all of them are fashion models or professional singers like Nanjono, Kubo Yurika, Pile, etc.). Vtuber fixes it by eliminating their IRL self out of the picture and try to sell their avatar instead (hence personality > look, so even if you know how their roommate looks like, you still can enjoy their performance as long as they keep 2 things separate).
To answer your question:
1/ I don't think so since the audience is no longer just the Japanese, and western fans can also push back like Towa's case. Sad that Aloe (Delta) folds due to the pressure of crazy gachikois else she would survive just fine like Towa with western fan's support. There's no abuse since there's no such thing as "blacklist" or "sleep your way up" like real-life idol scene because the girls interact with their fan on a daily basis and the management side is purely management with no influence on the girl's content unless legal/safety concern like how Pekora try to make a raffle with her own money for the fan or Haachama try to do RFA with slippery lotions mat they were stopped by the manager.
2/ That's the shitshow of the current Japanese law as a whole with their reactive vs proactive stance (Kiara roommate's recent tweet about being stalk and the police can't do anything unless something actually happens to her). The law needs to change or at least adopt you are innocent till proven guilty (right now they have you are guilty until proven innocent but still so much male-biased).
3/If you think about money then those girls at least are making decent money and paying tax properly. Unlike the western counterpart, as long as they can keep their audience, they can stream for as long as possible (it still count as a media-related / sale career field as they know what sells and what not when it comes to content). Not to mention some of them probably also had proper education and some like Coco who was suspected to have some sort of college degree hence she initially applies for a management job but somehow they push her to debut as 4th Gen. Who knows that maybe later down the route you might see Fubuki replacing A-chan as staff.
Regarding writing CV you have to be creative in writing CV. Instead of "playing video games and streaming" you can write something like "exploring the entertainment market and research on what sells and what not sell to online consummers. In addition, proactively participate in customer services with online customers with counseling, troubleshooting customers' problem".
company.
