Veibae loves being a \u201cfull-time anime girl\u201d, but VTubing is more than that to her Twitch: VeibaeWhen I asked Veibae about what she does, she called herself a \u201cfull-time anime girl\u201d, but there\u2019s more to VTubing, and the VShojo star, than that. As the medium becomes more normalized, there\u2019s been a shift in how virtual stars are perceived \u2013 as well as how they see themselves. VTubing\u2019s explosion saw the medium rise up very quickly as this \u2018other\u2019 that, at times, was at odds with the wider streaming world. It was easy back in 2018 and 2019 to distance virtual entertainers as these fringe creators with a niche audience. Not anymore. You cannot escape VTubing wherever you go online now. Twitch, YouTube, Twitter; they\u2019re everywhere. However, the stigma still remains around this perceived \u2018other\u2019 that has kept the medium from truly flourishing. There\u2019s the easy cop-outs: VTubers are \u2018masking\u2019 their real identities behind these anime girls, and are they really girls? They\u2019re a threat to regular streamers and have always been branded as such rather than two people doing the same thing \u2014 entertaining audiences \u2014 with different approaches. However in the eyes of VShojo star Veibae those walls are slowly coming down. She\u2019s a self-titled \u201cfull-time anime girl,\u201d with thousands of fans tuning in every day to watch the succubus-turned-serpent stream on Twitch. Being a VTuber isn\u2019t her whole identity though. In fact, that\u2019s the biggest bridge the community is still building to try and legitimize it all in the eyes of the masses \u2014 they\u2019re all just streamers, but with different bodies. \u201cI don\u2019t consider myself much of a VTuber,\u201d she told Dexerto. \u201cI feel like most VTubers on Twitch don\u2019t consider themselves that; they prefer to refer to themselves as a content creator, a streamer.\u201d This perception and stigma didn\u2019t just appear overnight. It comes from the environment VTubing is steeped in: Japanese idol culture. Idols are meant to be separate entities from the person performing, prim and proper with played-up personalities. They debut and they graduate, having to fluidly move between being the idol character and their personal selves. With idol culture comes this stigma of inauthenticity, a fake character meant to appeal to the widest masses. While some VTubers lean into that, most are choosing to be themselves \u2014 especially with English audiences. Veibae is one of them. \u201cI like to be honest and keep it very real with my community. I don\u2019t like to sell them something that I\u2019m not for the sake of monetizing them,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen you roleplay an anime character to an extreme, people tend to get very attached to that, and any slip up you have where your real human 3D person comes out, your human persona, people tend to have a breakdown. \u201cIn Japan, VTubing is more about idol stuff. VTubers in Japan are considered idol-like, they have to be very perfect and always on their best behavior. It\u2019s very different and I don\u2019t want to be held to that standard because I know I\u2019m not a perfect person and I don\u2019t claim to be.\u201d However, there\u2019s also a realization within the community that it\u2019s okay to embrace that identity and extension of yourself. It was relatively easy to dismiss it when there were only a select few like Kizuna AI \u2014 or even before VTubing with the likes of Hatsune Miku and vocaloids. They could be seen as the other. \u201cPeople used to find VTubing cringe. You\u2019re roleplaying and putting on a fake voice \u2013 but you\u2019re really not. They\u2019re just streamers, and that became normal,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a VTuber is no longer seen as being weird or different. \u201cBack then, you\u2019d wouldn\u2019t find a VTuber on LSF [\/r\/livestreamfail, a popular Reddit community], but nowadays they get clipped all the time. \u201cI\u2019m glad people that found VTubers cringe are at least more open to it now and they open our streams and they\u2019re like \u2018they\u2019re normal people having fun like everyone else.\u2019 The stigma of it is long gone. VTubing is not different to normal streaming, and that\u2019s the best thing to happen because that opens us up to a wider audience.\u201d The space has now reached a critical mass where they\u2019re no longer the other. It\u2019s okay say that your job is being a \u201cfull-time anime girl\u201d. While that\u2019s most notably seen in the overall perception of how VTubers are seen by others, it has also started a change in how those virtual stars see themselves. The transition to VTubing, and finding confidence in herself Veibae did not start her content creator journey as a VTuber. Before there was a succubus and a serpent, there was a camera-less streamer trying to break into the Twitch space. She started out back in 2015-16 just streaming without her face attached, playing games like PUBG, Black Desert Online, and League of Legends \u2014 but she was most well known for her Overwatch content. She got a decent sized following, rising slowly from 20 to 50 to more than 100 average viewers per stream across a few years. There was no desire to slap her face in the bottom right hand corner of her stream. VTubing opened up that world to her. \u201cI was inspired by Zentreya,\u201d she explained. \u201cMy first [VTuber] stream that I saw on Twitch two years ago, [it] was so small. I had never heard of it before. I was browsing Just Chatting and I saw an anime girl and I\u2019m like \u2018what\u2019s going on?\u2019 \u201cIt was mind blowing \u2014 the technology, and being an anime character was so cool. I watched for a bit and I loved her, she\u2019s my longest sub; and holy sh*t, people always said I sounded \u2018anime\u2019, I like anime, so let\u2019s give it a try. That\u2019s what happened. I followed the footsteps of Zen.\u201d It gave her stream more personal flair, something that previously wasn\u2019t possible with just her voice. She got to work in creating her own model \u2014 a white-haired anime girl in a pink sweater \u2014 and brought herself onto the screen for the first time in April 2020. It was an instant hit. Her stream went from 100-odd average viewers to thousands. Part of that was the model, but the other half was how viral she went in Japan. There was this fascination with Veibae in the Japanese community unlike nearly any other English VTuber at the time. It made for some interesting streams as she tried to tackle the language barrier as chat scrolled past at the speed of light in a dialect she couldn\u2019t really speak. \u201cWhen I started VTubing, I got clipped by a Japanese YouTuber [Shinji] and suddenly all of my viewers were Japanese,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI could not read my chat, but they loved it. \u201cEvery time I tried to speak Japanese like \u2018ohayo\u2019, saying hello to them, they\u2019d be like \u2018Vei-chan, the best!\u2019 They were trying so hard to speak English, and I was trying so hard to speak Japanese to them, and they loved it.\u201d It was like getting thrown into the deep end in essence, but Veibae swam. As time went on, her English audience grew. Kanji slowly swapped to roman letters, making it a bit easier for the VTuber to connect to her audience. She could suddenly see \u2018herself\u2019 on stream, and it changed her outlook on everything. There\u2019s the obvious points everyone talks about \u2014 privacy, being able to manifest a perfect persona with the right model \u2013 but it\u2019s also a way of building confidence to be more yourself. This journey of self discovery hasn\u2019t been easy, and the usually bashful streamer had an air of sincerity in her voice as she reflected on her journey. \u201cI have crazy social anxiety,\u201d she admitted. \u201cI am not comfortable on camera at all. \u201cHowever, since VTubing I\u2019ve been a lot more outgoing and I\u2019m even considering streaming with a camera at this point because of how much VTubing has pushed me to grow as a person. I know it\u2019s the same for a lot of other streamers because VTubers are socially anxious and it just helps combat that.\u201d This confidence has also allowed her to expand her content repetoire. Instead of just chatting to just her viewers, Veibae has trying to climb out of her social shell and reach out to more people to collab with \u2014 and maybe lean into her creative side a bit more. \u201cI enjoy doing Dungeons & Dragons with my VTuber friends,\u201d Vei explained. \u201cWe\u2019ve done two campaigns, and that was a lot of fun. That\u2019s what inspired me to get into roleplay more. \u201cI was very anti-lore when I started VTubing, I just wanted to be known as a content creator. Then I did DND and I was like \u2018roleplay is not cringe, it\u2019s actually really cool.\u2019 It helps immerse people if they want to be immersed into what some VTubers offer. Some roleplay heavily and they\u2019re like \u2018I\u2019m this terrifying monster and I\u2019m going to devour you\u2019 \u2014 they never break character and that\u2019s impressive in its own way. Now after DND, I respect that so much.\u201d How streamers and VTubers are different, but ultimately the same This all comes back around to a point where VTubers and streamers diverged early on, but as time goes on the normalization of the virtual space has seen a convergence of opinion. Once upon a time, VTubers\u2019 successes were dismissed by the fact they were just a cute avatar on stream baiting for views and not actually creating quality content. However, as someone who has done it all, Veibae sees no difference in approach. \u201cPeople think you\u2019re successful because you have an anime character on your stream, and that is just not true. That can be applied to literally any streamer with a camera on. It\u2019s not a thing,\u201d she stated. \u201cVTubers get the most smack for it, where the only reason we\u2019re big is because we have a model. VTubers have a very unique personality where everyone is fun and outgoing and they put a lot of effort and bubbliness into their stream. When you click onto their stream, they always try really hard to be funny and entertaining. There\u2019s stuff going on and content being planned. I can\u2019t think of a single VTuber who can go on stream and just not talk. They can\u2019t be quiet. \u201cYou click on a stream and want to be entertained though, so I really do think that VTubers are like any other streamer and their success comes from their personality and not their model.\u201d The technology has advanced so far in such a short time that the medium is more taxing and consuming than just turning on your camera and setting off on your streaming adventure. The constant innovation has pushed VTubers to improve on each other\u2019s successes, much like how streamers are praised for pushing boundaries. Veibae is quite proud of how her stream quality has catapulted into the future over time: \u201cMy rig can do so much. It fully tracks my face because it\u2019s based on 3D tracking, so if I frown or smirk or stick my tongue out, it gets translated. Everything I do in real life, it shows on my model.\u201d However, a flashy model isn\u2019t going to make you any more impressive a streamer than the next VTuber. In fact, it doesn\u2019t take a good model to make it far in the industry. What matters is having the personality and creativity that entices people to stick around. \u201cI think people going into VTubing want to spend too much money to have something that\u2019s good in their mind. A lot of people just start as a picture though, and that\u2019s still something \u2014 the PNGTubers. There\u2019s not a high barrier of entry, but there\u2019s a stigma to comparing yourself to a model that\u2019s high-class and advanced because it\u2019s not attainable for everybody. \u201cThe more money that goes into it, the higher quality the output. It\u2019s not necessarily better though, it\u2019s just different. Just start as a picture if you want to start VTubing, people will watch you for you. \u201cYou could have the most expensive model, but if you don\u2019t have anything that goes with it \u2014 like personality or good content \u2014 nobody will stay for the model. There\u2019s not many people fully focused on just that aspect.\u201d From succubus to serpent When I spoke to Veibae, it was just in the aftermath of her redebut. She had retired the succubus model she used since joining VShojo in April 2021, and came out with a completely new outfit and lore as a sky serpent. Much to her slightly \u2018anti-lore\u2019 beginnings she only really described herself as \u201ca sky serpent that controls weather, and that\u2019s pretty much it,\u201d but the wild shift from part-demon to basically part-angel was one of the most drastic. It was a very involved process too \u2014 one that she\u2019d rather not have to go through again, she joked. \u201cI never want to debut ever again! When you have a debut, people always expect so much out of it and you feel pressured to make it better than the one before. \u201cI was planning it eight months in advance because the amount of work that goes into it \u2014 it\u2019s not just getting the model. I had to get new overlays, emotes, alerts, animations, art, rig, model, a lore video \u2014 I\u2019ve never voice acted before \u2014 music, sound tracks. There\u2019s so much that goes into a debut and there\u2019s so much stress that goes with the expectations of wanting to make people excited for it. \u201cWhen you debut a new model, there are people who get attached to the old model and you don\u2019t want to come on stream and have a model they will compare to the old one. You need to convince them that the new one is better even though there might be an art change or it\u2019s different. With such a drastic shift in her model, there was a fear in the back of her mind that fans wouldn\u2019t like the change. However, after a slight delay due to family issues, her April 20 redebut was her most well-received stream yet. More than 30,000 viewers watched on as she revealed her outfit from the toes up, with raucous applause in chat. She also integrated a lot of little features to make sure there was something for everyone watching along. Not one to be stuck in one form, she has a bunch of different props to keep things interesting: \u201cI\u2019ve got cat ears, bunny ears, things to spice things up and make it fun for people. \u201cI just like to do things that are fun for me, I\u2019m not really lore-heavy. If they don\u2019t like the horns on my sky serpent model, they can like the cat ears, or the bunny ears, or a hat.\u201d By far the most intense part of Veibae\u2019s debut was her lore video. Everyone always said she had the \u201canime\u201d voice, but the 14 minute special gave her a chance to show that off to tell her own story. It was a \u201ccrazy\u201d time though, she reflected. They had the model waiting to debut, and the lore video was the final piece of the puzzle. It had to be done quickly, and Merryweathery pulled it all together in a collaborative process that connected Veibae\u2019s new story to the people that mean the world to her \u2014 her friends. Cameos from Snuffy, Haruka Karibu, Nyanners, Silvervale, Ironmouse, Bubi, and more really tied it all together, and made it the most memorable experience of it all. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to get into voice acting but I\u2019ve never had the opportunity to. VShojo came to me with the idea that I could do this and I was like \u2018oh my God\u2019 and my coworkers did theirs [Ironmouse] and it turned out amazing,\u201d Vei explained. \u201cWhen I started mine I was very stressed because I\u2019d never done something of that scale before and I didn\u2019t want to disappoint anyone. I didn\u2019t want to do a bad dub, pulling a Death Note Netflix animation, so I tried to make it as natural and close to my stream as possible. I think it went well.\u201d It was also those friends, and the rest of the VShojo, that have kept pushing Vei forward to be herself in this space. \u201cI\u2019ve grown so much with these girls,\u201d she said through tears. \u201cWe went through so much together, they\u2019re literally family. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a streamer, there\u2019s a lot of organizations that reach out to you just to join and be a content creator. It\u2019s nothing like that in VShojo. When I joined, they were instantly family. Everyone is always there for you, no matter what. Even if you want to do something together, there\u2019s movie nights we have. We\u2019d jump into VRChat to hang out. We always do things together. \u201cIt\u2019s not so much as having a collab with people, you want to be there and you want to spend time with your friends and I think that\u2019s why people enjoy us on stream because it\u2019s all natural.\u201d Surviving the boom and trailblazing the future Beyond the screen, Veibae has come a long way as a person since starting as a streamer in the mid-2010s. VTubing is where she\u2019s found her home, and in essence found herself. It\u2019s been a wild two years, especially with the \u2018boom\u2019 of 2020 seeing an explosion of talent, but the serpent believes VTubing hasn\u2019t even reached its peak and likely \u201cnever will\u201d. \u201cBack then, Zen was one of maybe 10. Then I came along, and now everyone is a VTuber. Even people who aren\u2019t really interested in being one full-time are still a VTuber \u2014 Pokimane has a model. The legacy streamers on Twitch became VTubers because people love them,\u201d she said. \u201cThe boom happened in 2020, which makes sense because people were at home. Now\u2026 people are going on with their lives and that was a big worry for a lot of content creators. Everybody boomed in their viewership in 2020 and I know I was worried that once everybody went back to work or school that I might not have the viewers that I had, but I still do.\u201d As everyone will say, technology is constantly improving. The VTubing industry is such a rapidly growing space that every day there\u2019s seemingly some new bit of kit to help people start out or truly elevate their streams. It\u2019s still got a lot of unrealized potential. That has Veibae excited \u2013 but it\u2019s not everything. VTubing is a lot more than just pixels on a screen. It\u2019s an opportunity to express ourselves in the ways we\u2019ve always wanted. Veibae can finally see herself as the person she wanted to be, and get that perfect ending walking off into the sunset like a cheesy anime. \u201cI\u2019m excited, excited to be a full time anime girl. I don\u2019t plan on stopping.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Veibae loves being a \u201cfull-time anime girl\u201d, but VTubing is more than that to her Twitch: VeibaeWhen I asked Veibae about what she does, she called herself a \u201cfull-time anime girl\u201d, but there\u2019s more to VTubing, and the VShojo star, than that. As the medium becomes more normalized, there\u2019s been a shift in how virtual […]<\/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-63404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63404","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=63404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}