MAYU Iizuka sheds her soft-spoken personality and starts cackling, screaming and waving wildly in a makeshift studio in Tokyo as her avatar appears on a livestream before hundreds of fans.

Virtual YouTubers like Iizuka, who animates and voices a character called Yume Kotobuki, have transformed a niche Japanese subculture into a thriving industry where top accounts can rake in more than US$1 million (RM4.3 million) a year.

The videos are designed to make fans feel they are interacting directly with their favourite animated idols – with viewers sometimes paying hundreds of dollars to have a single comment highlighted on a livestream.

“When I am playing video games on my channel and succeed at something, my fans congratulate me” and pay tips “as a way to show their appreciation and support”, said Iizuka.

The 26-year-old uses a motion sensor worn around her neck, laptop and webcam to appear on screen as Yume, whose facial expressions are controlled by a producer.

With her squeaky voice, short skirt and huge purple eyes, Iizuka’s avatar follows a popular model for VTuber characters, which often resemble the hyper-feminine heroines of Japanese anime.

Since emerging about five years ago, the VTuber world has swiftly grown, with about 16,000 active streamers globally, according to data firm User Local, and growing fanbases on other platforms like TikTok and Twitch.

Japan’s regional governments have used them for promotion, and The Batman stars Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz even gave a recent interview to a top Japanese VTuber.

Super Chat

VTubers generate money in ways similar to traditional livestreamers, including through YouTube’s Super Chat system, where the more a fan shells out, the more attention is drawn to their comments.

In fact, the nine top-earning YouTube accounts for Super Chat in the world last year were all VTubers.

All nine are affiliated with one Tokyo-based talent agency, and each earned between US$700,000 and US$1.7 million from the cash gifts, according to data analysis site Playboard.

Most fans spend only a few hundred yen per comment, but the most dedicated sometimes splurge 50,000 yen (RM1,673) to post impassioned missives to their virtual idols.

Kazuma Murakami, a 30-year-old car parts inspector, has been known to spend 10,000 yen to get his comments highlighted in red and seen by his favourite VTuber.

“I really want her to notice that I am here again, visiting her channel,” he said.

Another VTuber fan, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Kazumi, has adorned his tiny one-room apartment with posters, framed pictures and keychains featuring his favourite character, Mio Ookami.

The 30-year-old computer engineer spends time after work and on weekends immersing himself in Mio’s videos and crafting digital illustrations of the black-haired “wolf girl”.

“I dedicate five, or maybe 10 hours to thinking just about her.

“She is like family to me.”

Fans’ devotion and willingness to pay big money is linked to the way other fan subcultures function in Japan, said Noriyuki Nagamatsu, a digital business specialist at advertising firm D.A. Consortium.

“Super Chat is essentially an extension of a longstanding culture where idol and anime fans try to support their ‘oshi’, or favourite, by splurging on their merchandise.

“It is also a way of winning attention from their beloved and feeling superior to fellow fans.”

Human ‘soul’

VTubers usually keep the person behind the character – often referred to as their “soul” – out of the picture, and like many fans, Kazumi said his love is directed towards Mio the avatar, not whoever plays her.

But the line between virtual and real can become blurred.

A Japanese court recently ruled in favour of a VTuber actor who argued that online slander against her character amounted to an attack on her.

Virtual YouTubers can “transcend age, gender or physique… but what is important is that there is a real person there who is speaking and reads the comments in real life,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Kazuhito Ozawa.

For Iizuka, a professional voice actress, making the rare decision to reveal her identity after four years of making videos as Yume was nerve-wracking.

“Part of me was afraid that fans of Yume, who has big, shiny eyes and a perfect belly, might be disappointed to find out what the ‘real’ person inside looks like.”

But “so far, the response from fans has been very kind”, she added.

And the more outspoken, vivacious personality of her virtual self is even gradually rubbing off on Iizuka.

“I used to baulk at public speaking, but Yume is such an experienced livestreamer that my identity as her has been helping me speak more confidently.” – AFP, May 7, 2022.