I was thinking about it earlier and I really do not understand how the western audience has basically fooled themselves into whatever warped image of Holo, small corpos like phase and indies they have.
Holo is not some alien entity separate from the rest of the industry, let's get that out of the way first. I know both Holodrones and people who don't care for Holo who act like it is and I do not get why. Hololive has always had more edgy content specially when relating to sexuality and degeneracy, they were called "erolive" in the early days for this reason and if anything changed it was youtube censoring coomerbait content like ASMR and bikinis.
I see a lot of people claiming that Holo "became safe" but I really do not see the difference, I still see JP clips from this year where Nene and Polka act like creepy old men to scare a VSPO girl. We had Holosummer last year in which the MOST CONTROVERSIAL BIT WAS THE HORNY BAITING SCENE FFS. Do people have goldfish memory now? Or do you just selectively remember what fits your dumbfuck narratives?
On the kayfabe aspect, this is something which I think a lot of people misinterpret or maybe we ran away with the concept when it evolved beyond burly dudes smacking each other in the 80s. The word "kayfabe" seems to make people think that the vtuber has do some perfect character impersonation that never wavers and they always play the fool, that does not exist, idk why people act like that is what is meant when we say "kayfabe".
Let me give you a little hint so you get it... ALL CONTENT CREATORS DO KAYFABE. Yes, all of them do, even the ones who are (((real))), not because they are literally playing a character but because they are not being their actual irl selves, every streamer presents themselves to audiences in a way that is different from the way they speak to their family and friends. That is kayfabe to me, you are hiding your human flaws and more controversial opinions to give a performance that is ABOVE reality, it does not strictly mean being a fucking mime who does not feel because he ain't supposed to. And yes, kayfabe does vary, some people play it up, some people do not, "It's on a spectrum" as Bill Nye once infamously said.
In that regard Holo isn't different from any other corpo except some very casual indies, all of your oshis who take this job seriously WILL change the way they speak, change the way the act and change how they present themselves to appeal to you. Argue all you want but that is A FACT, you do not know these people irl and you never will if they take their job seriously, you are drinking the parasocial juice and you are in love with a persona. This isn't some machiavellian plan either, people naturally change their demeanor to be more appealing, specially in an industry as competitive as this one. They will do anything to stand out and exaggerate their personalities to appear more interesting. I still remember how many of you were so shocked when you saw Pippa's alt blubbering incoherently and acting like a big softie, and no, digging into someone's personal life does not count as "knowing them".
So in this regard, Holo isn't any more "kayfabe" than anyone else, they just really enforce the no touching zone between streamer and audience. Nobody fucking believes the stupid fucking lore, stop attacking that goddamn strawman already. What we mean when we say "Holo does kayfabe" is professionalism and a standardized experience, that's it. Some people just like having content which will always be on the same standard of quality, and I admit, some indies are FUCKING INCREDIBLE, but for every amazing singer there are 100 vtweeters, when you like indies that is your decision to go out and look for the cream of the crop, not everyone likes doing that, whether that is for better or worse I will let you decide.
Idk why some many people want to conflate idols with vtubers. Sure, the two industries share some similarities, but I think it has become an overplayed buzzword that was initially used by nip businessmen like Yagoo to give A POINT OF REFERENCE, not a direct analogy, but I guess nuance has vanished from society completely these days.
Aka gets it perfectly right here, the only aspects of Holo which separate it from phase or idol or whatever is scale and limits, Holo has bigger scale and stricter limits. That is fucking it. Idk if it's jealousy or contrarian bullcrap, Holo cordoning itself from everyone else or what have you but this treating Holo like something alien to the rest of the industry needs to stop, both from fans and non fans. And yeah, Holo fans are the biggest architects of Holo's own terrible reputation among some people, I will never deny that.
I like Hololive because I don't care who the person behind the avatar and the personality they portray on stream is, I wanna get home and watch some funny shit by people who couldn't ever exist in the real world. And if you scoff at that then I guess you don't like any kind of entertainment except historical or reality TV because guess what: most stories and characters in entertainment ARE FAKE. I know a lot of people came into vtubing to have some "Deeper connection" with their oshi, and those people have sensibly relocated to indieville where there's less competition, I am not one of those people and I HATE that everyone seems to assume or believe that that is the only reason one watches streamers for, as if the entertainment value on its own wasn't enough.
Sticker me as much as you want, I acknowledge not everyone (or anyone) will agree with me but Idc, this is my position, self reflection and industry analysis has only reinforced it. In the end, shitpost if you wanna shitpost, bait if you wanna bait, but let people watch what they wanna fucking watch. If you're gonna give a corpo shit then do it for valid reasons like PROVABLE EVIDENCE of mismanagement or mistreatment, not some retarded headcanon you have and whatever /vt/ told you. Just because someone is a professional and has to show less of themselves doesn't mean they have it worse than you because you get to decide HOW MUCH you want to show that Tuesday, it does not mean they are under some vile serf style servitude scheme, that is their fucking job and if they didn't like how much money it makes them then they would've quit long ago.
Although I wouldn't necessarily say accurate.
