Thread by @out_sall

So there's this thing going on in Japan right now, and it's not the biggest deal but I think it raises interesting questions. A virtual Youtuber has been put on leave and forced to make a public apology for the crime of... having a male voice in the background for 10 seconds.

A bit more context, Towa was taking a break and thought her mic was turned off, and a man's voice - identified as a friend of her's from before she became a vtuber, came on briefly before they caught it.

This sort of thing has definitely happened to other vtubers before, but most off them laugh it off and treat it as no big deal. However, Towa's organization - Hololive, one of the largest vtuber companies - has always pushed this "idol" image for their talent.

This sort of thing is no big deal in the streaming community, but with idols it's a major faux pas. There's this obsession that idols must remain pure in every way, they are your fantasy girlfriends and it's humiliating to get cucked.

Well, maybe the west isn't THAT different.

Towa later released a video that's just her, profusely apologizing. It's kind of absurd, actually. Like the fucking Incandeza samizdat, are we living in Infinite Jest now?

Now, this kind of thing has never happened with vtubers before, and while I feel bad for Towa I'm glad it did. Because it raises questions about the nature of virtual youtubers. Are they idols? Are they streamers?

Certainly, with like Nijisanji vtubers, most of them would play this sort of thing off. Interactions between men and women are encouraged and fans engage in (rabid) shipping. Here Achikita Chinami addresses it directly

One very telling comment on that video - "(purity) isn't what we expect from Nijisanji." And I think that's a super salient point.

I've long said that the main appeal of virtual youtubers was their candor and authenticity. Their willingness to talk about parts of their lives that you see nowhere else in Japanese media. Their frankness and honesty when speaking to their audience.

And that's in large part because they have this virtual mask to deflect criticism to, that fans can fixate on instead of their personal lives. Their IRL identities are never really at risk.

With Idols in Japan, there's no privacy. Their private lives are public interest, so they can't be candid and they must always live up to the highest standards of their worst fans, or risk public outrage. They can't "be themselves", not really.

But what this Towa situation shows is that maybe there's not as big of a gap as I thought, the fact that she was forced to make this apology for something completely harmless. But then, if we expect vtubers to act like idols - doesn't that subvert their appeal in the first place?

And indeed, when we check her channel and her twitter most fans are saying, "Towa did nothing wrong." Even most of the Japanese. Most people are reasonable enough and can divorce Towa's character from her private life, and have no wish to intrude.

But hololive is a company founded on an idol image, which is more important than you'd think. It expedites them through Japanese business. Vtubers are still new and poorly understood, but say "we're an idol company" and things become easier.

But it also holds you to unreasonable standards for this streaming generation, and hurts the talent you're there to promote. And, likely, long term profits too, trying to cling onto a dying idol industry rather than embracing social change.

Towa's not the kind of person to care about this sort of thing, nor are her colleagues, who've all been through this sorta thing before. But the corporation cares. They can't risk their image as an idol company.

But that's just such a dated model. Nijisanji is just as profitable and does many of the same things without sticking to absurd regulations. It seems that this decision to throw Towa under the bus was made out of fear, more than anything else.

Fear that a handful of angry 5ch idol otaku would bring their whole operation down. Why should we give this much control over people to a handful of obsessive, cancerous fans - who don't even make up very much of hololive's revenue! I know for a fact those shitheads are stingy.

But this is the time when the whole operation is in flux, that we have to decide - are vtubers idols? Hell, I certainly don't want to see Coco or Matsuri or Miko held to idol standards. Then we won't get fun stories about porn mags and stuff.

There's no faster way to kill the entirety of virtual youtubing than by tacking it onto an insular, dated, and ultimately self-destructive idol industry. I hope that Hololive realizes that.

Actually, more than hope. I'll use what miniscule influence I have to call on @TheQuartering to address this issue. Like it or not, he's become a respected voice. And look, you'll get to dunk on some big corporations and the worst kind of fandom. Brownie points, eh?