Vtubers are the new hotness. Their influence grew a huge amount in 2020 and 2021 is on track to see them reach even greater heights. Hololive English has been a huge success. I wasn’t sure how well people would take adding them into the mix but their reception was a lot warmer than I anticipated. Gawr Gura especially has taken off, already reaching 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube since her debut in September of last year. That being said each of the new English additions have over 600k subs at least. As their influence has grown, companies have spotted a whole new avenue for marketing and advertising. This got me thinking: will lewding Vtubers be accepted in the near future?

First I want to address the fact that Vtubers are in a weird position (also when I say this I mean those who are officially partnered with companies like Hololive Vtubers, not independent ones like the rising star CodeMiko on Twitch). You see when you lewd someone’s OC or even a big character like Hatsune Miku, nobody gives a shit because it’s not real. Well, I wish I could say that. Most people don’t give a shit because it’s illogical to waste time protecting a character, something that does not have a mind of its own, from lewding. It’s not like Hatsune Miku is gonna see porn of herself and feel weird. On the other hand, Vtubers are in fact playing characters, but are their online personalities based on the characters, or the characters based on their personalities? Videos that are edited are one thing, but you can only stream so much for so long without revealing some of your true personality traits. Was Amelia raging at people (very cutely mind you) in FPS games really something that was planned for her character by the company? I doubt it. I think it’s inevitable that some people are going to feel weird lewding Vtubers even though they are somewhat characters because there’s still a good portion of real humanity in them. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, I simply expect it to be a talking point.

Wait, you ARE ok with lewding though right?

The other main issue on the horizon is brand endorsement. Companies are already smelling money from miles away. The Japanese counterparts have already worked with some other Japanese companies and I suspect the English ones will follow suit soon. In fact, the official Bandai Namco American Youtube channel hopped into one of Gawr Gura’s streams not too long ago while she was playing a rhythm game published by... guess who? Bandai of course. Now in case the ever-growing amount of restrictions on YouTube hasn’t caught your attention, advertisers hate anything that isn’t family friendly and that could tarnish a brand’s image. Nintendo is famous for attacking artists who lewd their characters and keeping a tight leash on what people can do with their IP in general. As brands’ interest in Vtubers increase, will they begin to take aim at naughty content? How far would they be willing to go? Or would they be okay with the lewd content as long as the official girls themselves don’t talk about or interact with it?

With Vtubers on the rise I have so many questions, but I think that’s a fair place to leave off for today. Again I’m not trying to take a particular side with this article so much as bring up some questions that will likely be addressed soon whether it’s in the public eye or behind closed doors in business meetings. Do you feel weird about lewding Vtubers because they blur the lines of “characters”? Do you think corporations will have a problem with people lewding Vtubers they sponsor/interact with? Will the trend expand or deflate over the course of 2021? Make a model, start the stream, and leave a comment below!