The Vtuber Commentary Community

[The Proctor]

In recent months there have been a lot of relatively new faces in the vtuber commentary community. Like it or not, these people are starting to become quite a significant force in terms of market influence. I see them frequently on my timeline now, and they're discussed quite often on both the forum and TVA's Discord.

I've also been contacted by several of these individuals in the past. As it stands, TVA has decent links with the Under the Tea Podcast, and I've appeared on their show once as of the time of writing.

Many commentary vtubers are, to be frank, pretty stupid. For example, Mujin refers to the Kenji fanbase and orbiters as a 'vtuber agency' in the title of his video, which is so blatantly wrong it's hilarious. Others are more reliable and do better research. I would like to structure this thread so that it serves as both a catalogue of vtuber commentary channels, and also running commentary on their merits, demerits, biases and ways they can improve.

I do not like lies, misinformation, propaganda. I do like well-informed commentary, comedy and analysis. If there is a way I can promote the latter while making it harder to create the former, I am happy to do so.

What this thread is for:

• Frank and open discussion of vtuber commentators and their communities.
• Critique and feedback of their videos.

What this thread is not for:

• Meaningless 'fuck FalseEyeD, omg I would turn Rima Evenstar into my pet showpony and feed her oats' posting.
• Pointless lamentation that 'normies' are infiltrating the vtuber community and giving dumb takes. WE KNOW THAT ALREADY.

Spoiler: WIP List of Commentary Channels

FalseEyeD
theArmcha1rExpert
Legal Mindset
Rima Evenstar
Depressed Nousagi
Mujin
Kuri Rinji
Under the Tea Podcast
Khyomaruu
Elara
Statictokyo
Erundel
Rev says Desu
Salvi The Blue Squirrel
NuxTaku

 

[The Proctor]

Reserved.

 

[Nenélove]

This only serves to give these people further visibility which they do not need, this community needs less drama not more.

DRAMAFAGS DESERVE THE ROPE.

 

[The Proctor]

This only serves to give these people further visibility which they do not need, this community needs less drama not more.

The drama happens whether or not it is commentated on. I would much rather it be as visible as possible to dissuade others from engaging in it and imparting people with important lessons on how they ought to conduct themselves online. Without the publicization of things like Nijisanji's failings, Niji would have gotten away with most of its wrongdoing.

People need to be warned, people need to be informed, people need to be aware. That is how we avoid another Coco, another Selen, another Cyberidol, etc.

 

[Paladin]

I would like to add TheArmcha1rExpert to the list as I feel his commentary videos on the nijshit deserve praise for the expertise he brings in as a media major and the quality editing.

 

[Nenélove]

The drama happens whether or not it is commentated on. I would much rather it be as visible as possible to dissuade others from engaging in it and imparting people with important lessons on how they ought to conduct themselves online. Without the publicization of things like Nijisanji's failings, Niji would have gotten away with most of its wrongdoing.

People need to be warned, people need to be informed, people need to be aware. That is how we avoid another Coco, another Selen, another Cyberidol, etc.

Indeed. I do not hate drama (I frequent this forum after all) and I do not think we should ignore the less than savory aspects of the industry.
But in my view of things, drama has become a hot commodity in the vtuber space, which it shouldn't be, with loads of people only paying attention to see what burns next and who can profit off of it the most. That is my grievance with dramatubers, they DIRECTLY PROFIT from these things, at some point they are gonna start lighting fires of their own because they are financially incentivized to see the world burn.

Dramatubers are proto-journalists, and the more their influence grows the more hold over how the industry grows they have. Nousagi has already said he's been consulted by potential agencies on how to operate. These people have biases which they will act on and the more others listen to them the easier it will be to sway public opinion with outright lies.

 

[Stunned But Dumb]

Does rev says desu count for the list of commentary channels? He's a general culture war youtuber/vtuber/drama tuber but covers tons of vtubing drama, big or small. His latest video was the update on the Shondo/camila apology. I won't pretend I watch him, so I don't know how much he gets right but he's there

 

[Ｍｕｒｒａｙしないで]

That is my grievance with dramatubers, they DIRECTLY PROFIT from these things, at some point they are gonna start lighting fires of their own because they are financially incentivized to see the world burn.

And a lot of people bought newspapers and watched cable news TV after 9/11 happened. Should they not have covered the news because they profited off of it?

Speaking as someone who didn't make a dime during my attempt at "dramatubing," I feel like the "profiting from the misery of others" argument was basically a lazy way to discount someone for covering your pet chuuba or corpo in a negative light - so it's something you'd see the Nijisisters saying pretty often whenever Niji's latest fuckup surfaced. There was even one of the former members of AkioAIR who would pull that shit when I and others covered AkioAIR, which was bizarre and Stockholmy.

As for trying to start fires of our own, I don't know, maybe there are people who want to do that sort of thing, but I imagine it'd be found out pretty quickly - it would be its own drama for their peers to cover. It's so much better to tell the news than be the news.

"Dramatubers," or, to be more generous, vtuber news reporters, serve several purposes in my opinion:

• Documenting in real time the events that have happened in this industry for researchers in the future. (Before you mock the idea of vtuber historians, consider if you've ever watched a video or read an article or forum post about an earlier internet phenomenon like the Eternal September, Dancing Baby, HWNDU, events in Runescape or EVE Online, personalities like Chris-chan, JustinRPG, Star Wars Kid, Boxxy…)
• Giving context to events that happen that those only following "official" sources would have no clue about, such as the events around Selen's termination - imagine how odd that would look if you just were following Nijisanji EN's Twitter account.
• Not just reporting on bad news but also good stuff - new debuts and generations, redebuts of fired talents, new agencies, existing agencies trying new things, etc, to help people find chuubas and agencies who they might not have heard of before but who end up being exactly what they want to see.
• And doing all this in a centralized location so that people don't have to dig through original sources themselves. In most cases this means a single channel which does periodic videos and/or streams but in my case it was narrowed down even further to a weekly show.

 

[La+ de Central Norte]

Does Narukami count even if he is a Jap?

 

[Nenélove]

• And doing all this in a centralized location so that people don't have to dig through original sources themselves.

So spoonfeeding people? I don't think this is the valorous public service you make it out to be. People should do their own research, journos have NEVER not used their control over information to shape narratives and manipulate people, it always happens, it always leads to pozzing.

 

[agility_]

Much in the same way barnacles encrust into the hulls of ships or the bellies of whales, commentary youtubers were always going to surge and expand.

 

[Ｍｕｒｒａｙしないで]

So spoonfeeding people? I don't think this is the valorous public service you make it out to be. People should do their own research, journos have NEVER not used their control over information to shape narratives and manipulate people, it always happens, it always leads to pozzing.

Again, I make the comparison to traditional news media. I could dig up my own sources and do on-the-ground research to see what's going on in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, or I could spend a lot less time, money, and effort (and not risk putting my life on the line) by reading articles written by people who have already done that. Yes, bias exists, but the answer to that is for the reporters to be open about their biases, and the consumers to be aware that such biases will always exist and to critically consume the news being aware that it may be off the mark because of it.

 

[Paladin]

So spoonfeeding people? I don't think this is the valorous public service you make it out to be. People should do their own research, journos have NEVER not used their control over information to shape narratives and manipulate people, it always happens, it always leads to pozzing.

It is a consequence, but I think it is worth it to aggregate various journalistic pitfalls and praise into one place for newbies to understand. With this thread, it is easier to source when a commenter pushes bullshit on their audience instead of it being buried in an event thread. Also, it keeps the discussion thread pollution to a minimum, with the information being analyzed here so that only new or important info is posted in the home or event thread. Think of this as a small price to pay to see significantly less journo content in your feed.

 

[Sankisei]

Do Spanish ones count?
Or for that matter "Vtuber Commentary" from other countries count?
Because i know a few

 

[Azehara]

Indeed. I do not hate drama (I frequent this forum after all) and I do not think we should ignore the less than savory aspects of the industry.
But in my view of things, drama has become a hot commodity in the vtuber space, which it shouldn't be, with loads of people only paying attention to see what burns next and who can profit off of it the most. That is my grievance with dramatubers, they DIRECTLY PROFIT from these things, at some point they are gonna start lighting fires of their own because they are financially incentivized to see the world burn.

The ones that are willing to misrepresent issues only to create even more drama should be shunned. That said by their nature of just covering shit (most of it being negative) they will find themselves in a spot where the fans of the person getting commented on will try to stir up drama just to damage the reputation of these people.

 

[Stunned But Dumb]

Here's another that was recommended to me just a bit ago. Salvi the Blue Squirrel. Smaller reaction channel thats kind of new. I think his vtuber drama vids became his most popular quickly, so he transitioned to focusing on vtubing news, but thats just me assuming from looking over his video history

 

[Aquatic Novellite]

There's also this 2 to occasionally 3view. Likes to tangent from vtubing into totally not politics, but he has some vtubing content at least.

 

[The Proctor]

Do Spanish ones count?
Or for that matter "Vtuber Commentary" from other countries count?
Because i know a few

Spanish vtuber stuff is always something I'm curious about because it sounds absolutely wild whenever people like Busujima Bibi talks about it. So go right ahead.

 

[Takodachi]

Spanish vtuber stuff is always something I'm curious about because it sounds absolutely wild whenever people like Busujima Bibi talks about it. So go right ahead.

On one hand, I wish Bibi talked about about the ES drama side of things, because shit is wild and akin to a telenovela. But on the other hand, ES Vtubers are rabid, almost as much as chinks, so I can understand why she tries to keep them at arm's lenght.

But of all the ESL Vtubers I know, I sincerely believe Bibi is the best equipped to talk about this kind of stuff, because she is smart, far smarter than she lets on during streams.

 

[MerelyTourist]

This only serves to give these people further visibility which they do not need, this community needs less drama not more.

DRAMAFAGS DESERVE THE ROPE.

Hard disagree, it'll be good to have a list of people with integrity versus people who jump ships every other week, chasing nothingbughers and disowning their mistakes.
Reporters vs journalists, if you will.

Here's another that was recommended to me just a bit ago. Salvi the Blue Squirrel. Smaller reaction channel thats kind of new. I think his vtuber drama vids became his most popular quickly, so he transitioned to focusing on vtubing news, but thats just me assuming from looking over his video history

About him, i really like his tiemstamps. Please everyone do the same.