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

Episode 9

If VTuber Legend keeps using collaborative skits as the main motivator for its material, it might as well gather a whole bunch of the gang at once to escalate things. This week's episode opens with everyone's mommy Shion hosting the "L-1 Grand Prix", proving that sketch comedy can be competitive and a contact sport—despite being in a streamed, virtual context. From the anime's recreation of these acted-out events, it can be easy to forget that the characters are just bobbling their Live2D models around on-screen while they rattle off craven sex jokes. But that is part of the appeal of this fictionalized take on VTubing as an art form.

The combos of characters for this comedic contest seem to have been sorted for chemistry. Naturally the duo Awa's in is going to be the first-up most focal one (as well as the team that wins at the end). This whole sequence nigh-immediately devolves into the performers ranting about porn and sex acts. It comes with the territory, but it still can't be overstated how deep into openly otaku gooner sexification subculture the writing of VTuber Legend is at this point. Sei and Awa have the chemistry and voice-acting chops to make it work, but it still comes off more one-note than it needs to when every other line out of their mouths is some aside reference to a not-so-niche fetish.

The other groupings aren't quite as amusing as watching Awa and Sei play off each other, probably down to the supporting cast still mostly being defined by their One Jokes. Alice barely even gets that, alluding to her Awa-crushing before the segment starts and she has to let it get derailed by Hikari's dopeyness. Kaeru goes straight into the "I'm baby" bit but pulls off a funny swerve when she turns the questioning tables on Nekoma. It makes the "reversal" of their team name make even more sense. But overall, I agree that Awa and Sei deserved the prize.

The opposite side of this episode is just Awa roping Eirai into playing Ao Oni for a punishment she incurred on a previous stream. Playing horror games is a classic streamer pastime, of course, and Eirai's unable to deal with them gives Awa an effective avenue for bothering her. It's more palatable than Awa's opening propositions of Eirai, anyway. I know this coming-on is a played-up part of VTuber interaction, but Awa's regular attempts at rizzing up Eirai come just a little closer to harassment than I'd like. Between all that and the innuendos slung around in her sketch with Sei, it also makes me think that maybe Awa needs to get laid. The setup of the segment builds until its ultimate punchline of a reveal in place of a jumpscare: Eirai losing it and breaking character to give way to ranting, mobster-style dialect. It's funny on its face, and you know M.A.O. is killin' it vacillating between her vocal extremes, it ties into VTuber Legend's broader ideas about its medium and the performers therein.

I'm often impressed by how well the series can keep things conceptually focused, even as its moment-to-moment material can seem like concentrated chaos. Awa's been wanting to mentor the next generation of VTubers, and here she orchestrates a setup for Eirai to have her slip that reveals an outlandish side of her that fans can embrace as her true appeal. Sticking to your schtick and character is important for establishing your brand as a VTuber. But it is those cracks beneath the mask, showing your true self, that embrace the unscripted human-ness of streaming that makes viewers enjoy it. I mean, I say "unscripted" though in this case, it's pre-written, fictionalized material, but my point still stands that it's making the case for it.

The combo of characters and concepts in this segment makes it different from the stuff VTuber Legend has done before, and it carries it extremely well. There's a bit where they nail the moment when Awa snickers knowing what's coming in the game before a scare freaks Eirai out, which if you've ever had that sort of thing occur while watching a friend play a game like this, you know this perfectly captures that experience. It effectively presents the base appeal of streaming, while analyzing some of the idiosyncrasies that drive those who do it, which is exactly what a series like this should do.

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.