VTubers (Virtual Youtuber) are streamers or video creators who use virtual characters - usually anime girls - as a facecam instead of using their own face. They usually focus on playing videogames but many are also virtual idols, resembling the vocaloid Hatsune Miku. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, they exploded in popularity and became a big industry with VTuber agencies being set up in Japan. They earn money from viewer donations and selling merchandise.

They generally avoid politics and are less obnoxious than IRL streamers. Watching VTubers is more fun than your typical Twitch streamer and it really feels like they try to entertain their audience instead of berating them for not donating.

Clips helped to bring VTubers to a global audience and are integral to the industry. It's why there are lax copyright policies for clipping VTuber streams.

🎞️ Another Japanese Virtual Youtuber Says The N Word | 🎞️ Kanade? Kanadeeeeee!

Hololive is the biggest VTuber agency owned by COVER Corp and debuted one of the first VTubers Tokino Sora in 2017. A lot of their talent are also idols and regularly produce cover songs and originals. They are known to treat their talent well and have worked with the biggest known VTubers like Inugami Korone or Sakura Miko.

Occasionally, they host big events like HoloGTA or HoloArk, where each of the VTubers collaborate in a multiplayer server and choose their specific roles and teams.

🎞️ Her Name is Chii-chan

Nijisanji is a black company, which also happens to be the 2nd most popular VTuber agency. There was a scandal in 2023, where they decided to fire Nijisanji EN's Selen Tatsuki when she was at the hospital due to an attempted suicide because of in-company bullying and harassment. They don't treat their talent well and take most of their profits from donations and merch to the point that Selen had to spend most of her own money - that she didn't earn from VTubing - for a music video, which was privated by Nijisanji in the end.

They manage many more VTubers than Hololive, taking a quantity-over-quality approach, which has resulted with creeps being employed at Nijisanji like Luca Kaneshiro, who would be touching himself to his managers voice before Nijisanji and Aster Arcadia, who would send uncomfortable messages to female members. However, the most popular male VTubers, like Kuzuha, are part of Nijisanji.

The English male VTubers (I'm not caught up with Nijisanji so I'm only familiar with Luxiem) do hornybait a lot to the female fans. It makes sense but its off-putting.

They are more focused at videogames but still have an idol culture, with songs being released by members.

Here are some VTubers that I really like. I recommend to watch clips if you don't want to watch whole livestreams as they show the best parts.

- Virtual Noja Loli Kitsunemusume Youtuber Ojisan (Virtual Noja Loli Foxgirl Youtuber Uncle) - His old videos are absolute gold. One of the earliest VTubers before the explosion aside from Kizuna AI.

- Kenmochi Toya - A self-proclaimed lolicon. His Tetris saga with Shigure Ui is what started off the Loli God Requiem meme as she lost a challenge game to him and of course, he wanted her to do a loli voice for him.

- Shigure Ui - She's a really good artist so she is known to be a mother of some VTubers. This just means she creates models. Her marshmallow streams are really entertaining as it's just trolls sending funny messages to her. (marshmallow is an anonymous posting site in Japan for livestreamers)

- Neuro-Sama - AI VTuber, who is much funnier than most VTubers nowadays since she is not scared to say unhinged things now and again due to not being human. She spices things up during collabs too. She is famously a holocaust denier (at least at the beginning of her career where she used to get banned a ton) and has a twin sister called Evil.