VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream

Episode 11

The approaching end of the season means it's time for VTuber Legend to start assembling some semblance of a final storyline. And fair play to the writing for the series, what it's arrived at has been seeded in a few ways throughout its run. Supportive senpai and proper legend in the in-universe VTuber community Hareru is doing a live show, and she just so happens to want Awa there to collab with her for the final number! It's a big break that can only come in a fantasy fanwork fiction like this, presenting a looming new deadline and a question of where things might go for Awa after the event.

It also means the part of this episode dedicated to setting up and having Awa and Hareru prepare for the performance is rather low-key compared to VTuber Legend's more standard sketch comedy. The reality of mediums like streaming and VTubing is that a lot of it is rote practice, preparation, and conversations about the process. Nervous as she must be about working with such a big name, Awa's interactions with Hareru still come off believably, enjoyably chill. I think it helps that the direction of the character acting in this episode, especially for Hareru herself, is firing on all cylinders. She does a ton of incidental little movements while idling about, doing a lot of work to sell how she's just a regular person under the fame and enforced anime avatar.

Of course, Hareru does have plenty else going on under her idly goofy exterior. Her reveal to Awa of her genius-level IQ is meant to make that clear ahead of anything it might indicate about the actual intent of her concert. That's the hook propelling this plot into the next episode, and presumably, the finale. For now, even as Awa ponders its purpose, I enjoy what it's doing conceptually, and with VTuber Legend's ideas overall. Collabs between streamers are symbiotic, and even as it seems like Hareru letting Awa join her for this is an act of benevolence to one of her juniors, Awa rightly recognizes that she's making her contribution to Hareru with this. Hareru would only go through with this if she could do it with/for Awa, so by agreeing, Awa is granting Hareru her self-approval to take this big career step. This series revels in the sense of community and support between performers, something I know is prevalent in real-world VTuber circles.

VTuber Legend also has to get in at least one more silly collab sketch out of its system before it arrives at an ostensible ending. There's technically intent there, but this week's combination of Alice and Mashiro feuding over Awa's feelings comes off even more aimless than usual. The characters admit in-story that they didn't have a real plan, with the contentious conversation devolving into in-jokes and nonsense tangents that are, at least, pretty in line with how many of these sorts of streams go. VTuber Legend, if nothing else, understands the tenor of how its generation communicates.

It's not like the war for Awa's affections isn't funny in places. The number of callbacks fits with the place this episode occupies, nearing the finale as it is. And they drop at least a couple of supremely sputter-worthy jokes. I think everyone is mostly going to be talking about Mashiro's spoken "Gomennasorry," which is pretty great. We now have a nonzero chance of an anime character saying "Chotto a goddamn minute" and I think that's beautiful. For my part, though, I was taken out by the appearance of Alice doing the classic "Gununu" meme. I am not immune to references, and with the sheer number of them in this show, the law of averages dictates that they'd get me eventually.

This segment also thrives on getting the audience to pick a side on who they ship Awa with (if they don't just want her to threesome it up with the girls), creating an interesting distinction between "friend" and "co-worker" in her little circle. Her bond with Mashiro is deep and long-lasting, but Alice is a hopelessly thirsty dork with the powerful pipes of Azusa Tadokoro. I wouldn't be able to choose either. It is fun to get some follow-up on yandere Mashiro from the previous episode. All that's to say that this segment still feels a bit shaggy-dog even by this series's already loose standards. I thought it might tie back together properly as Awa insinuated about Hareru's concert weighing on her mind, but it only barely being referenced at the very end. There was a way to have the halves of this episode work in harmony while still being entertaining in unique ways, but it winds up disparate and disjointed instead. Still, it's hard for me to be unhappy with an entry where Mashiro threatens her co-workers with lewd doujins.

Rating:

VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris actually tried streaming himself, for a little bit. It went about as well as you could expect. He's since resigned himself to words, which you can see more of over on his blog, while watching his Twitter for any ill-advised Strong-Zero-influenced posts.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.