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

Episode 4

VTuber Legend, naturally, presupposes a fair amount of familiarity and fondness with the avenues of streaming and VTubing. The episodes so far have been wall-to-wall with in-jokes and memes to appeal to those who already enjoy watching "real" 'tubers and would thus also have fun with fictionalized ones. But there is a potential audience out there who need a push to sell them on the inherent appeal of watching anime avatars hang out and play games in goofy ways. That seems to be the mission statement of this week's episode, as it features probably the highest quotient of "regular" VTubing content yet.

VTuber Legend is still using its status as a show (rather than a stream) to have fun with its format. Awa's latest video game venture is some trendy send-up fusion of Wii Fit and Ring Fit Adventure that she, alongside her co-stars, inelegantly grunts and strains her way through while streaming. The in-universe audience sees the Live2D models bobbling around while suggesting noises are vocalized. But through the magic of anime, we in the real world audience are allowed to watch the streamers in their full outfits, of course, going through all the exercising motions with this ridiculous bendy control stick. I feel like they've unlocked some new form of fanservice entirely through this multilayered medium meta arrangement.

It's an active, unique way for the show to put forward the idea of "watching a VTuber stream" as the plot of an episode of television. That might still come off too clever by half, so the next chunk of the episode settles into simply watching Awa watch other streamers stream. This really has all the hits: Hikari playing Gartic Phone, Sei rambling about adults-only visual novels and shouting School Days memes, and Hareru getting inelegantly angry over a game of Weiss Schwarz. I'd honestly thought I'd been inoculated against tossed-out reference humor, but then Hareru's game spawned a fully animated Rias Gremory cameo (both she and Hareru are voiced by Yōko Hikasa, y'see) complete with little broadcast censorship logos, and I friggin' lost it.

That embodies what's made VTuber Legend work so far, even in ostensibly more low-key outings like this. All the riffs and memes feel at home in this context because throwing out references to their favorite stuff is what actual streamers do. Having it included because the author of the material liked it is just another layer of seeing the world through the lens of someone else's appeal. It feels less like the series cloyingly trying to push the appeal of VTubers and more like a matter-of-fact sharing of a special interest.

This episode does a little more clever story stuff and conceptual exploration in its last bit. Awa traveling and interacting with more of her fellow streamers IRL offers commentary on how her virtual work has helped her overcome some of her previous personal issues while highlighting that real-life interactions are still important. Awa's nervousness and uncertainty when dealing with people are aspects she's still grappling with. But the veneer of VTubing helps take some of that edge off. Look at Awa's askew interactions with her driver, before having an easier time simply perceiving the woman once it's revealed that she's Hareru. That whole segment is odd, but in an effective way that makes good use of this anime's presentational gimmick. As well, Hareru's regular efforts at screwing with Awa underscore her legendary senpai status—she's still just a goofy gamer like all the rest, and that camaraderie is what's helped Awa continue. How she serves as a senpai moving forward should offer further interesting angles on that aspect of her psyche. That ain't bad for an episode almost entirely spent watching girls struggle to do squats and yell at virtual trading cards.

To spread the magic of VTubers even further, VTuber Legend also debuted its dubbed version on Crunchyroll this week. Hayden Daviau is anchoring this version as Awayuki, and just in the first episode shows off the necessary range between the character's several sides. She has a very effective naturalistic tone (as this series demands) for Awa when she's not putting on the whole "gentle snow princess" act. Though her inebriated ramblings can get a little too slurred and difficult to understand for the humor's own good, especially when the various profane bleeps are also breaking it up. Much of the same streamer lingo is included and adapted in this version (I appreciate that she calls Hikari a "cinnamon roll") so it should be an effective enough way to enjoy the series if you prefer dubs. Though for me it just once again reinforced that ASMR is 200% not my thing.

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.