My friend sent me a few CodeMiko videos and was saying "She has an avatar that's synced to her movements" "Yeah I see that she's a vtuber" "There's a term for it?" We're both old men, I'm just more terminally online.
I couldn't find any queer vtubers so I gave up on seeing what the big deal was. :shrug-outta-hecks:
:engels-wut: Like just searching "queer vtuber" turns up a fair amount of hits. I don't blame you for not actually trying, it's better to not fall down into the parasocial hole, but there are a lot out there if you want to.
All the top results I got look like straights doing queerbaiting, could be wrong though. But yeah, transactional relationships like that are gross.
A lot of vtubers tend to keep a bigger barrier between their online presence and personal lives not only to protect their identities but also because they are afforded more privacy simply because they're not broadcasting their face so they can play a character on stream more easily. Off the top of my head though I know that Projekt Melody is pan and trans friendly, Nyanners recently "came out" with her boyfriend Lord Aethelstan as bi. Ironmouse I believe identifies as pan as well. Frankly a lot of Vshoujo seems to be kinda queer overall. A lot of hololive goes deep on the queerbaiting stuff so separating out the "real" from the character stuff is more difficult but I'm aware that Matsuri has talked about having a girlfriend in the past. If you want vtubers that focus on their queer identity a lot more than the bigger ones you'll probably have to go onto Twitch looking through tags which isn't particularly easy but you could probably find a few smaller people.
Natsuiro Matsuri is definitely gay.
A lot of the Hololive ships are just played for fun for the audience, like Okayu/Korone or previously Calli/Kiara.
Now Shiranui Flare & Shirogane Noel, however? I think they're legit. I remember that one anecdote where Pekora asked Noel (off-stream) if her & Flare were actually a thing and Noel simply answered "What, you can't tell?", only leaving poor Pekora more confused. There was also that time Flare made a post about how she was unhappy about always being portrayed as the man in the relationship and she emphasized that they're both girls, and suddenly thousands of gamers across the globe understood what heteronormativity is and why it's bad.
Also: Hakui Koyori. Like one day after her debut she told an anecdote about making out with another girl in a closet during a school trip and I'm convinced she's doing the customary Hololive joke-flirting to "haha jk... unless?" her way into actually getting laid.
I have too many opinions on this topic.
The difficulty with Hololive is that they sometimes hide the real with just the bait so I don't really like to take too much to heart because they could be playing it up. Ame and Gura have a seemingly great friendship and good chemistry on stream but they also kinda play up the shipping bait because the fans like it and it sorta comes with the idea of a "safe" kind of romance because they're still technically pure and open. I'm not saying they're doing it cynically, but there Japanese culture where a lot of this is coming from does kinda have that "it doesn't count if it's a girl" type stuff and that girls messing with each other can be just a simple part of growing up where you then learn your place and settle down with a man.
Personally I feel like some of Calli's stories have had some genuine queer energy to them like her story of her having a crush on her one friend that she eventually found making out with someone at a party. There was that entire arc where Noel was outed as an ahijo to Subaru in person where people played up the romance stuff in that but I would honestly be super happy that if her and Flare were actually dating that they eventually outright said it. There was also a moment not too long ago where Fauna made the joke that Minecraft was made by Hatsune Miku which though I don't read too much into, it is neat to see someone just lightheartedly not bring up Notch like so many Minecraft youtubers that to this day treat him like the god of Minecraft.
But then you also have Haachama's recent prank series where she sent out a bunch of confessions which seems kinda weird but also on point for what Haachama does in general.
“it doesn’t count if it’s a girl”
About that: I've noticed that Noel & Flare used to be a lot less open about their whole relationship thing but they've slowly noticed that no matter what, people won't take it seriously so now you get clips like Flare saying "I love Noel and want to spend my life with her" and the fans still think their waifu is available.
there are many vtubers catering to us gays but they're all guys so you're out of luck unfortunately. vtubers are cringe anyway
I think it mostly just sad like these boys and girls could have real relationships with people creating their own experience but due to how American city's are built everyone is separated by miles and miles of distance their can be no community so I kinda see v tubers as a way of copeing with that distance and alienation.
I'm guessing most people watch them (and streamers in general) while doing something else, kind of like a podcast with visuals. Although I wouldn't really know, I only occasionally watch edited clips.
I dated a Vtuber briefly. Remember asking "so you're like Hatsune Miku?" when she first told me what Vtubers were.
Sort of I guess. She still had a part-time job, so I guess not big enough to be doing it full-time.
I tell youtube to not recommend any vtuber that shows up, however, I guess I've made an exception for "baby WOGUE" just to hear gnome development news :hexpeng:
