VTuber Legend begins with a livestream hosted by Yuki Tanaka (Ayake Sakura), a young woman who operates as the VTuber Awayuki Kokorone, under the network of Live-On. After bidding her viewers farewell, Awayuki neglects to shut her dream down so her viewers are privy to when she proceeds to get drunk. In her stupor, Awayuki bluntly admits to her struggle to make it big and she makes some crude jokes while reacting to her peers’ streams. When she sobers up, Awayuki is beyond embarrassed but this hidden side of her has garnered her channel a ton of renewed attention and her manager reveals that this personality is what the agency had been looking for from her. With no other choice, Awayuki decides to lean into her drunkard personality.
I’m not an VTuber aficionado. I’ve seen some Hololive EN streams as well as a ton of clips but other than that, I haven’t really fallen through the rabbit hole. One thing that I have noted about this profession however is that acting polite and pure tends to not sell. People like it when their oshi is unhinged and quirky. Even the most guarded or mellowed personality has their fair share of oddball moments. With that in mind, it’s not too surprising that Awayuki’s princess act only garners her a small following and what really gets her attention is her going in the complete opposite direction.
As for the management being completely okay with this, it is a little weird that they were just waiting for Awayuki to show her true colors. You’d think they give some input ahead of time so that she produces better results for them. Approving alcohol is a little surprising as well since you never know what might come out of Awayuki’s drunken mouth. I can however buy their acceptance and encouragement. Watch a couple VTuber clips in real life and you can see how lenient these companies can get with their talents.
To be frank, this premiere can be a little boring at first. A good chunk of it is dedicated to Awayuki’s impromptu drunk stream, which has its fair share of laughs but it drags on for a bit too long. I’d argue that it would be funnier if the show cut right when Awayuki gets drunk and we then follow her as she learns what happened while she was drunk. I definitely joined the episode more once the Awayuki sobers up. In particular, it’s fun seeing the other members of Live-On contact her about all the lewd jokes she made. I was afraid things would get super awkward or maybe even toxic but everyone seems amused at the idea of Awayuki wanting to have sex with them, with some even playing along with it. I hope things stay this way. At least for me, a big appeal about VTuber collabs is how well everyone seems to get along with each other.
Something that you may notice about this show is that every VTuber character is depicted as their avatar, even when a given scene is set in real life. Not once does this premiere show Yuki’s real form; she instead looks exactly the same as her Awayuki character. I kind of get the reasoning here. It’d be a lot easier to identify everyone if they each only have one form onscreen. That said, it’s like having Clark Kent always dress up as Superman when he’s supposed to be Clark in some scenes. Not knowing what anyone looks like in real life kind of breaks the show’s sense of immersion. I suppose the alternate interpretation is that Awayuki very much dresses up like her avatar in real life but if that’s the case, why even bother making the virtual avatar and rigging it up?
While I wouldn’t call this premiere a particularly strong one, I enjoy enough that I’ll check out some more of the show. I at least want to see a little bit more of the main character’s interactions with her peers. The drunkenness and the sex jokes mixed with the rather wholesome camaraderie could be a very fun combo.
Watch VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream on Crunchyroll
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