© 七斗七・塩かずのこ／KADOKAWA／「ぶいでん」製作委員会
A fundamental element of VTuber LegendThe structure of is such that, unlike “real” VTubers, who are only visible through their selected streamed material, this series allows viewers to see the performers during their offline time as well. It’s fictionalized, so it’s just as curated as a produced streaming session, yet it offers another way to get to know and identify with these creators. Getting a sense of the lifestyle that led Awayuki to her current position by listening to her and her fellow streamers talk about their feelings about work and the world they live in gives you a good context for their interactions and reactions when they’re online. And unlike the dawdling in front of the webcam, the dawdling in their offline time is often the most engaging part of the show.
Overall, this week’s episode offers a great mix of VTuber Legend‘s well-used online and offline antics. It starts with a story that’s a mix of both worlds. It’s an anecdote Awa tells her viewers about something that happened to her in real life, admittedly embellished for storytelling reasons, but no less relatable to those of us in the real world. God knows I know the struggle of not being able to find my favorite beverages locally, even if I don’t rely on them quite as much as Awa does when producing my material. That being said, it’s a pretty simple start, but it does a good job of working through little details that have accumulated over the course of the show so far. Awa mentions the suggestions she’s been getting to take liver rest days, and her training with the Long Fit has paid off when she has to chase down the perp who steals her StroZero off the porch! The explanation that this person who is stopping her from her beloved beverage is a fan of the former Awa who missed her classic streams before drinking is another element that was alluded to, making Awa’s world and her life feel a little more coherent and fleshed out.
It’s also mostly a lead-in to the actual main feature of this episode, in which Awa gets her new apartment and invites Mashiro to stream in it. But it reflects the duality of VTubers that this series embodies and that I’ve praised. While the anime insists that Awa look like her online avatar in all scenarios, her living space has no such restrictions, so there’s a fun dissonance between the clean, cool vibe she exudes in the virtual world behind her while in the real world she hasn’t even managed to properly unpack. That’s why her best friend Mashiro’s visit is an effective motivator for Awa to get her new rental apartment sorted, and embodies how dealing exclusively with people in the online realm can distort people’s perceptions and priorities when it comes to self-care.
Mashiro’s visit is enlivened by the fact that she and Awa have one of the most straightforward and effective collaborations on this show—I think the two are best friends. That Mashiro is picking up and teasing Awa the whole time while she cooks dinner is funny and familiar, but also speaks to the content creation spirit that drives these kinds of performers. Their chat on stream never feels like it’s drifting into the forced awkwardness of the chats from other episodes (which were extremely funny in their own way, mind you), but is just warm and engaging and hilarious.
Of course, there are still tensions, because the ups and downs of the relationships between these creators is one of the things VTuber Legend is about that. Awa respects Mashiro’s position as just a very close friend at this point. Something Mashiro grants her confidence in. But the Snow Princess is still kind of a gay disaster, something Mashiro also acknowledges and uses to screw her friend in the bathtub. It’s this level of loving intimacy between the co-creators that sells this series and makes the pair seem like a lovable duo of goofballs. But VTuber Legend can also degenerate into the sentimental with this setup. The idea of Awa’s growing influence in helping her fellow streamers have fun is reiterated on time, but Mashiro’s more personal connection brings another facet of it: how that impression also impacts Awa herself, who sees her life improving. Awa and Mashiro are friends who have looked out for each other, had each other’s backs in stressful situations with fans and commentators, and genuinely care about each other’s well-being.
The scene in bed where Mashiro explains all this to Awa (charmingly hiding her horror behind the plausible deniability of sleep-talking) helps to bring these themes of VTuber Legend to the next level, while also showing the next level that Awa and Mashiro may take their friendship to, too. Streaming is a great collaborative vehicle for connecting with others and turning new colleagues into new friends. But it’s also a freeing, vibrant experience for those figuring out how to get serious about it, and the audience and visibility it can provide. It’s a heartwarming capstone to an episode that started with an easily relatable little story and built up to a more personal density across multiple layers. Plus, it’s a great-looking episode throughout, with strong direction that’s a bit more creative than usual even by this show’s often experimental-offbeat standards. It’s an episode that really has it all.
Evaluation:
VTuber legend: How I went viral because I forgot to turn off my stream is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Chris actually tried streaming himself for a while. It went about as well as you could expect. Since then he has settled into words, which you can see more of on his blog while you read his Þjórsárdalur for all thoughtless contributions influenced by Strong-Zero.
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.
