As I try to start writing this post, I can’t help but feel this is something I’ve dreaded to say. And yet, the truth is that since the beginning of this year – and perhaps slightly into 2022 as well – I’ve essentially brought my Vtuber-esque activities into a quasi-hibernating, semi-retired state. Anyone who has still been following me this year would already know this, but it’s not something I want to outright say, in large because I have made no long-lasting friends, nor is there a happy, celebratory ending.
But, at some point it’s something I must write about, or else I feel the original purpose of this blog is left unfulfilled.
Without really knowing how to say it, the decision to write this came from the main topic I wanted to write about today, which is properly putting down my ‘Vtuber Lore’, so to speak. I originally had the gist of it on this website’s “About” page, but as part of a slow downplaying of my Vtuber persona, I replaced it with a more generic About page and a longer portfolio and fanart page. But first, let us briefly go over the last three years.
Blog Genesis to Now
This website was created in 2020 as a place for me to write down my knowledge of the earliest Vtubers starting in 2017 – I myself am one of the first English Vtubers, and I collected a lot of technical and software know-how in that time. At the start of the year, I had gotten my first personal VR headset, and wrote a Google Doc about several theories to mitigate motion sickness, based on my personal experience with the Oculus Rift DK1 in 2013. Realising I had something bigger to write about, I made the WordPress site as a more permanent – and Google searchable – location.
My most prominent post – and really the only one for the longest time – was an extremely comprehensive hardware and software manual on all available English and Japanese Vtuber software. Everything from the first generation, essentially.
In any case, 2020 was also when the Vtuber community began to fully shift into being a western extension of ‘Japanese idol’ culture. This is marked by the debut of Hololive English. Pretty much every other type of Vtuber slowly fell to the wayside, and all of the layman’s expectations of how to be a Vtuber, what one is, and how one behaves, became a facsimile of Japanese idols. The first flag I encountered for this was probably when a stranger asked who I hired and how much I paid for my model, instead of asking about software and my art skills directly. You can simplify this as being the beginning of the ‘second generation’.
Since then, I think I never really knew where or how to fit in. Some of us first generation-ers adapted, and some did it successfully. Some graduated, retired, or just stopped. Some dedicated themselves to software development. Some started adopting more 18+ and gravure modelling types of content. And some discarded the identities and nuked all of their content, because they were in fact hired and debuted as the personalities for Hololive English.
I find it odd to say that I am acquainted with at least one of all of these types of people. I won’t name names, and I doubt they remember or think about me. I don’t think I ever did any of the right things to get to know them better, or become friends. I think the opportunity has long passed. It’s something I regret quite deeply, and now, five years after debuting, I don’t really know if I have much left to take away, outside of some fanart that I still look at fondly.
Either way, writing these personal topics was not really the intended purpose of this site – it started expressly as a repository of my personal knowledge and research, but I suppose at some point or other, I also had to share my personal experience. Hopefully, this will be the only one for a while. My current state of affairs does not make for a good story.
What’s next for me? I don’t really know, but the site, YouTube, and Patreon will still exist. I will still create, and I do still hold on to my Vtuber materials, even though everyone is gone. This site is still about recording memories.
Vtuber Lore
Something that has always been difficult for me to communicate is that Eiri Sanada was never a ‘pure’ Vtuber persona. While I have been acting in a semi-retired state this whole year so far, I’m not going away. That’s because I always insist on this being a pen name first.
As a result, my ‘lore’ has actually always been a little fluid. My take on a Vtuber has always been extremely traditional – if you know who Lord British is, then you in fact don’t need to read any further.
Eiri Sanada – or at least, some variant of this name – is primarily my video game character. Not just an avatar, but my character. Her appearance changes because games are always different from each other, but she always has the same themes and motifs: Blue hair. A fondness for ice and snowy themes. Particular clothing preferences. And so on. As a Vtuber, some of these became more cemented and fed themselves back into my video games, so there are some more new motifs now. But the core concept is the same: When I play a game with character creation, I always make her, and it was natural for me to become her when I became a Vtuber.
And that’s basically it. Much like Richard Garriot, Eiri started to blend with my personal identity in a strange way when I used her directly as my persona instead of just keeping her as a video game character.
But that’s a story for another time.
Eiri Sanada 