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Parasociality Killed the VTuber Star - Anime Feminist

animefeminist.com · 1,742 words · saved by 1 readers

While many people can maintain a healthy relationship with them as entertainment personalities, others developed an unhealthy level of parasocial attachment, particularly to the female creators. These parasocial fans have caused incident after incident, making the space unsafe to VTubers and the audience alike, and are even suspected to have caused some of them to “graduate,” or retire from streaming. The most infamous of those incidents is the case of Kiryu Coco.

Content Warning : discussion of online harassment At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the anime industry found itself in crisis, alongside much of the rest of the world. Shutdowns were causing series to be delayed left and right, including highly anticipated titles like the second season of Re:Zero: Starting Life in Another World. Starved of both entertainment and socialization, many fans turned to a new format for both: video game streamers who use anime-style three-dimensional rigs to stream instead of their faces. These virtual YouTubers, also known as VTubers, proved to be an essential

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