Nyanners, a pink cat girl, is taking over Twitch with a delirious fever dream of content Twitch: NyannersShe\u2019s a \u201chorrible abomination\u2026disguised as a pink cat girl\u201d. However, behind the persona of Nyanners is a soft-spoken Twitch star, a VTuber just looking to give her fans some fun memories. Oh, and world domination \u2014 that\u2019s also on the cards. On January 18, Nyanners made one of her wildest fever dreams a reality. With a \u201cbreast pump\u201d in tow, the pink cat girl \u2018milked\u2019 herself on stream. For more than three hours thousands on Twitch watched on \u2014 either in horror, disgust, or in stitches from the hilarity \u2014 as the VShojo star went into this frenzied rave full of absurd monologues and visuals that toed the line between reality and hallucinations. There was \u2018milk\u2019 the shade of the VTuber\u2019s hair everywhere. As the night went on, it only got more delirious. What was happening on screen was paired with some rather dramatic piano that simultaneously matched the mood perfectly, and also didn\u2019t. It went viral, to say the least. Clips from the stream were going wild on Reddit as those uninitiated to the streamer tried to make sense of it all. As for her more dedicated fans, they were urging her on in chat. For an outside observer, the clashing perspectives were like whiplash. While such a crazy affair might seem like a one-off, in reality, it was peak Nyanners \u2014 a perfect summation of the star streamer\u2019s content that has transformed her into one of the platform\u2019s biggest VTubers. \u201cIt took a lot of prep and it was very painful, but beauty is pain, comedy is pain, and everybody loves my milk,\u201d she laughed, reminiscing on that moment. \u201cMy brain is completely unleashed sometimes. It goes off in a direction and I just let it go and it ends up somewhere and I\u2019m like \u2018that\u2019s cool we\u2019ll run with that.\u2019 One day I was like you know what would be great? If I just build up to a stream where I milk myself and make it into this fever dream, late-night, horrifying experience for people where after they watch it I want them to go \u2018did that even happen? What even was that?\u2019\u201d A pink cat girl brought to life Trying to dissect that brain is a job best left undone, but it\u2019s hard to not be curious about Nyanners\u2019 journey to this point. The VTuber reaches an audience in the tens of thousands every time she goes live on Twitch. She boasts more than 800,000 followers on the platform. Her YouTube fandom is even bigger with 1.4 million subscribers. It also serves as a wonderful time capsule into her history as a content creator. Unlike some VTubers who try to detach their previous work from their new extension of themselves, Nyanners embraces it. It\u2019s full of wild voiceovers and sketches juxtaposed with beautifully sung covers. Over the last decade, she rose to internet stardom as \u201csome kind of horrible abomination that came from the farthest reaches of space\u2026 disguised as a pink cat girl to take over the world through Twitch streaming.\u201d Her words. That pink cat persona isn\u2019t just a recent thing. It\u2019s been her brand since the very beginning, even if she could only bring that image to animated life recently. \u201cI was watching a lot of Kizuna AI when she first started out in 2016 and I didn\u2019t know it was possible to rig something up like this and portray myself in this way,\u201d she explained. \u201cI had an avatar for a long time online that I made content with and I didn\u2019t think, for a while, that it was very accessible for most people to get into the animation aspect of it. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until a couple of years ago that I was able to get into that when I feel like, that\u2019s when VTubing started to break out into the masses through Hololive. More people started learning how to rig up the avatar \u2014 or the vessels as I call them \u2014 and it became more widely used and more accessible to the general public and I broke into it and it\u2019s been such a perfect union for me between the kind of content I make and how I portray myself.\u201d Starting out independently in early 2020, she joined VShojo later that same year as a founding member of the English-speaking VTuber collective. Combined they have more than 4 million followers on Twitch. Nyanners\u2019 new form has enabled her to connect with her audience in a more active way. Instead of just having cover songs on YouTube with a static drawing in the bottom corner, she can now go live on Twitch with karaoke synced up to an animated model tracking her every move. It has also given her the medium to run with crazy ideas \u2014 like milking herself \u2014 she\u2019d never be able to tackle without it. Not just because it\u2019s a logistical nightmare to use your real-life body for certain skits, but because the avatar gives her scope to be more authentic. \u201cIt allows me to express myself that wouldn\u2019t be possible otherwise. I feel like I can do a lot more creative things with it and it lends itself to branching out in any direction you want and the anonymity of it is nice too. \u201cEven though you\u2019re portraying yourself with an avatar, you can be more of yourself than you\u2019d be without that. A lot of people feel like they hold themselves back when they\u2019re streaming with a face cam \u2014 a flesh tuber. Through a mask, it feels really freeing and you can be more of yourself because you don\u2019t have to worry about judgment on who you are.\u201d It\u2019s more than just her physical VTuber form too. It\u2019s about creating \u201ca dream-like kind of place where these fantastical things come true\u201d \u2014 think CGI in film. \u201cI did a stream where I cloned myself and played a game with myself and had various different types of my avatar on my stream playing Among Us,\u201d she described. \u201cI don\u2019t want to give too much of the trick away but I had it that we were all rigged up so we were all talking to each other and playing the game together. \u201cThere\u2019s also this guy called Shindigs on Twitch who is really inventive with how he uses VTubing. This one he did on Valentine\u2019s Day, he did this whole sequence where he was waiting at a restaurant for a date to show up and had a waiter come up and talk to him. It was really awkward and he was talking to his chat like \u2018my date is going to show up for sure\u2019 \u2014 random weird stuff like that, you can do it IRL but it\u2019s easier to do it this way. It gives Adult Swim late-night cartoon vibes.\u201d The limitlessness of the medium has ignited a deeper fire within Nyanners to keep pushing the boundaries with content. And if that means milking herself on stream, at least she can do it without having to worry about some real-life ramifications. The divide between VTubers and \u201cregular\u201d streamers With all that being said, there is still a big stigma around VTubers and their place in online content creation. Critics of the form point towards its \u2018thirst trapping\u2019 with anime girl avatars abound \u2014 especially those who play into the \u2018underage but not\u2019 trope. Then there are all the comments about how every VTuber is actually a man with a voice changer. Some also see it as a threat to more traditional face-cam streamers. Nyanners has heard them all and says dispelling these myths is something the VTuber community is actively contending with as it continues its meteoric rise. It\u2019s not so much of a divide, but rather a need to educate the wider community about this new style of entertainment. \u201cAs far as communities go, there\u2019s people who are still iffy about VTubers and don\u2019t understand them and I get that. It\u2019s a weird thing, I\u2019ll admit. It\u2019s weird what we do and I get that people don\u2019t get it. Some people don\u2019t understand VTubers, some people don\u2019t understand streaming. \u201cI see a lot of comments like \u2018why are you watching this anime girl avatar, it could be a dude with a beard\u2019 and even if it was, why does it matter? Does that matter? If it\u2019s a dude with a beard, hell yeah. If you\u2019re entertained, who cares who is behind the avatar? \u201cIf it\u2019s not your thing, you don\u2019t need to watch. If you prefer watching someone who is on camera, then go ahead and enjoy that. I love all kinds of streamers. I watch them all the time and I don\u2019t have a preference.\u201d There\u2019s still some funny bits of criticism that never fail to tickle her funny bone. \u201cA lot of people come into VTubers\u2019 chats asking \u2018are you an AI? Are you a computer program?\u2019 If that were the case, I\u2019d be so impressed,\u201d she laughed. \u201cIf someone made some kind of completely computer-generated thing that responds to chat, that\u2019d be incredible technology. But we\u2019re just weird dudes online. I\u2019m sorry if that\u2019s boring but we\u2019re just streamers doing our thing.\u201d \u201cI wish I was an AI, that\u2019d be pretty cool. I wouldn\u2019t have to think for myself.\u201d Ultimately though, Nyanners and the rest of the VTuber community hold very similar goals to the rest of Twitch\u2019s entertainers. They want people to enjoy themselves while watching along. If the person on the screen looks slightly different, so be it. \u201cOn stream, everyone has a persona. Even people who use a camera. We all put on some kind of act because we\u2019re entertainers. A lot of it is jokes and goofing off, but we put ourselves into our work and we have our personal touch, and that\u2019s what makes people relate to streamers and VTubers so much. \u201cMy main goal as someone who makes content online is to make people laugh, either at me or with me, I don\u2019t care. I want to make people laugh and smile and take their minds off whatever is bothering them. Give them a place to chill and lose track of time because they\u2019re having such a fun time and create a community that is full of positivity and lifting each other up. That\u2019s what\u2019s most important to me.\u201d The other thing that\u2019s really important to Nyanners is her VShojo \u201cfamily\u201d. When she was originally approached to join the VTuber group ahead of their 2020 launch, the pink cat girl was apprehensive. She didn\u2019t want to be a liability, and she thought there were plenty of other content creators deserving of a spot before her. If it wasn\u2019t for Projekt Melody pushing her outside of her comfort zone, her fever dream would have likely been cut short. \u201cI started out in the pandemic and it was hard. I had friends in VTubing but I didn\u2019t have a group to belong to. I was scared to reach out to anyone,\u201d she admitted. \u201cOne day Melody reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to join this company. I was really worried at first, like do they really want me? What if I\u2019m some kind of liability? I didn\u2019t feel that confident about my content or myself, but they accepted me into their group and we all grew together and we got to watch each other make so many milestones.\u201d From Ironmouse\u2019s historic subathon, to all the talent\u2019s recent redebuts (both Veibae and Zentreya have revealed new designs in the last few weeks), Nyanners has been there. There\u2019s almost a hint of pride in her voice, like a proud mom of sorts. However, it\u2019s not just being there for her \u2018co-workers\u2019 when they\u2019re on stream or collabing. It\u2019s the small personal moments behind the scenes that are cherished more. \u201cThe first collab I did with Ironmouse, Silvervale, and Projekt Melody before VShojo was a thing \u2014 I was so nervous to meet all of them because they were all these big huge content creators I looked up to and I couldn\u2019t believe they invited me to play with them, especially Ironmouse because I had been watching her for a bit before she invited me.\u201d Reminiscing on this, Nyanners got teary. \u201cGetting to meet her was so amazing because we immediately clicked and it was like we were long-lost sisters. I remember at the end of the collab we both cried because we were like \u2018I can\u2019t believe I met her.\u2019 It\u2019s so cool to see how far we\u2019ve both come since then.\u201d https:\/\/twitter.com\/VShojoOfficial\/status\/1471702630737096704 It also gave Nyanners the confidence to go out and chase bigger collabs, including the one she\u2019s most proud of with Takanashi Kiara from Hololive. \u201cI was so nervous but she was such a sweetheart,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a big change of pace for me because I\u2019ve never collabed with someone that huge before, but she was so down to earth and welcoming. She roasted me the entire time and I loved it. Her beating me in all those Nintendo Clubhouse games and making a fool out of me was one of the best collabs I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d VTubing\u2019s never-ending rise It\u2019s important to note at this point that VTubing is still a very young medium for content creation. Animation has been around for decades now, but this at-home DIY style of it only really took hold in 2019 and 2020. Kizuna AI, who many consider the mother of the medium, debuted in 2016. When the VTuber boom of 2020 happened, many were convinced it would be a fad. Eventually, there\u2019ll be an oversaturation of talents and they would all tear each other down. However, the space has only seen crazy growth. New talents are debuting every day, more people are discovering it, and thus the cycle continues. At this rate, Nyanners is convinced \u201cthe entire world will be taken over by VTubers\u201d \u2014 which helps her quest for world domination. \u201cWhen things started blowing up so much and everyone became a VTuber, I began to wonder if it was ever going to slow down. I don\u2019t think it will. It\u2019s gaining more and more momentum, especially with the [Ironmouse] subathon \u2014 that put VTubing on the map even more and made it more widely acceptable,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s something people see and they\u2019re like \u2018I\u2019ll watch more VTubers\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ll even try and become a VTuber myself.\u2019 I think it\u2019s cool that more people are getting into it, either watching them or becoming them.\u201d That ultimately brings us back to this wild fever dream of Nyanners\u2019 that we all live in right now. There\u2019s always some crazy stream the pink cat girl has planned just around the corner. There\u2019s no future, in Nyanners\u2019 eyes, that doesn\u2019t involve some sort of content creation. The mere thought of \u2018graduation\u2019 \u2014 the VTuber term for retirement \u2014 is scary for the eldritch horror. In her voice, you can hear the giddish, almost innocent joy she has when she talks about what\u2019s next. The technology for VTubing is only getting better, and just like a child with a new toy, Nyanners wants to play around with it. \u201cEven just a couple of years ago, people didn\u2019t know about Kizuna AI or anything like that, and I think most people\u2019s exposure to a virtual idol was Hatsune Miku, and she\u2019s technically not even one \u2014 she\u2019s a synthesized voice program. VTubers are just becoming a normal kind of performer, like how puppets are,\u201d she explained. \u201c3D models and tracking are getting so detailed, the concerts with holograms, it\u2019s just going to take off. I hope that I can be part of it in any way because it\u2019s really exciting. \u201cI\u2019m really honored to have gotten as far as I have gotten. I\u2019m so proud of all of my friends too for doing what they\u2019ve done. I worked a little bit, but I\u2019m just having a good time messing around and meeting fun people along the way.\u201d As for what you can expect content-wise\u2026 be slightly terrified. \u201cI need to express myself in some kind of way or I\u2019ll go insane. My brain is so full of horrible ideas that I need to get out or they\u2019ll just explode, like the milking stream. If I couldn\u2019t do that, I don\u2019t even know. I would have too much milk in me, I had to get it out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nyanners, a pink cat girl, is taking over Twitch with a delirious fever dream of content Twitch: NyannersShe\u2019s a \u201chorrible abomination\u2026disguised as a pink cat girl\u201d. However, behind the persona of Nyanners is a soft-spoken Twitch star, a VTuber just looking to give her fans some fun memories. Oh, and world domination \u2014 that\u2019s also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}