Tag Archives: fuwamoco

FUWAMOCO, Momoi Haruko, and the Genshiken DVD that Changed Their Lives

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The twin VTubers of hololive, Fuwawa and Mococo, have talked before about their fondness for Genshiken. Last month, they revealed another connection to Kio Shimoku’s beloved story about a college anime and manga club.

FUWAMOCO dedicated an entire karaoke session to the otaku icon, voice actor, and moe singer Momoi Haruko. At the beginning of the stream, they explained that not only is Momoi their kami oshi—essentially their all-time favorite—but that she was the very person who introduced them to the idea of Japanese idols and the Akihabara subculture of the 2000s. 

FUWAMOCO then kicked off their setlist with the opening to “Kujibiki Unbalance,” and afterwards revealed that they learned about Momoi and idol culture thanks to bonus footage on a Genshiken DVD, in which she (as part of the band Under17) performed the Kujibiki Unbalance opening! It was their first time seeing a crowd cheering together with glow sticks, and upon learning more about Momoi, connected to the fact that she was an anime fan who felt like she didn’t fit in. Essentially, she’s their idol in more than one sense of the word.

The twins proceeded further down Akiba memory lane with songs like “Mouse Chu Mouse,” “Tenbatsu Angel Rabbie,” and “Ai no Medicine.” That last one was the opening to Nurse-Witch Komugi-chan: Magikarte, a Soul Taker spin-off in which Momoi played the main heroine. FUWAMOCO even covered “NANIKA”—one of Momoi’s newest songs, for which the twins themselves contributed to the chorus!

Partway through, Momoi herself actually sent a superchat to FUWAMOCO, making this one of the most memorable karaoke streams ever. Seeing them thanked by the actual woman who inspired them to take this path, it felt like a true full-circle moment for the twin demon guard dogs of hololive. And to think: It was all because of Genshiken.

Chalk up another win for my favorite series.

I Found Out FUWAMOCO’s Favorite Genshiken Character

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When the Virtual Youtuber group “hololive English Advent” debuted last summer, something in particular caught my eye: The twin demon guard dogs known as FUWAMOCO listed Genshiken as one of their favorite anime. As a fan of the series (in case you haven’t noticed), it was exciting to know there were a couple of VTubers with a fondness for Genshiken. But it left me wondering, who is their favorite character?

Last month, Fuwawa and Mococo did one of their popular karaoke streams—one that later turned out to be a special stream to announce their move to Japan. As if to call back to some possible younger days as otaku,, lot of the song selections were from the 2000s, including “Soul Taker” and “DANZEN! Futari wa Pretty Cure.” Then, they said the magic words: “Kujibiki Unbalance.” 

While regular readers of Ogiue Maniax probably already know this, Kujibiki Unbalance is the name of the fictional series-within-a-series in Genshiken, as well as the title of its opening by Under17. As FUWAMOCO began to sing the theme song, I sent a superchat asking about their favorite character, knowing there was always a possibility that they wouldn’t notice. To my pleasant surprise, they responded.


The answer: Madarame. As arguably the most iconic character of Genshiken, he deserves it.

The only caveat is that only Mococo answered, so I don’t know if it’s Madarame for both of them or just her. If I ever get the full answer, I’ll be sure to make an update.

The Advent of Pitch Accent: Pronouncing FuwaMoco’s Names Correctly

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The new Hololive English generation, HoloAdvent, has made their debut after more than two years of waiting. Among the five Virtual Youtubers are actually a pair of twins—the Abyssgard sisters Fuwawa and Mococo, collectively known as FuwaMoco. And while there is a lot to potentially talk about (including the fact that Fuwawa is a Genshiken fan!!!), I want to focus on one thing: The pronunciation of their names.

During their inaugural stream, Fuwawa and Mococo made some requests to viewers about their names. First, their last name isn’t pronounced “a-BYSS-gard” but rather A-byss-gard.” Second, their first names are “FU-wa-wa” and “MO-co-co,” and not fu-WA-wa” and “mo-CO-co.” With those specifics, FuwaMoco has brought overseas Hololive fans back into the realm of “pitch accent,” a prevalent element of the Japanese language.

The Pitch Accent Rabbit Hole

Much has been said about Japanese and pitch accent already. Multiple language-learning Youtubers, such Dougen and Yuta, have dedicated videos to the topic. Use of pitch accent can differentiate meanings of words, but more often, hitting the correct pitches can make your Japanese sound more natural and easier to understand for native speakers. 

In the realm of Hololive, it’s one of the things that makes Inugami Korone’s regional accent so distinct. As heard in the above video, her pitch accents are very different from those of the more standard Japanese spoken by Murasaki Shion.

It’s even to the point that native Japanese speakers can have trouble with Korone. However, because pitch accent is hard to teach from a textbook and not as prominent in English, it can be a challenge for those going from English to Japanese to even pick up on the differences. Even in those Korone videos, there are comments from people saying that they can’t really hear the difference.

Nailing FuwaMoco’s Names

Incorrect pitch accent isn’t necessarily a deal breaker when it comes to learning Japanese, and how much you want to devote to it is a matter of personal priority. Is sounding closer to native speech more important than learning a wider vocabulary or memorizing kanji, for example? But if your goal is to pronounce FuwaMoco’s names correctly, then you can start from there.

Let’s first look at their family name, Abyssgard. While technically it’d be “Abisugaado” in Japanese, for our purposes, we can ignore those particulars (and in fact, FuwaMoco do the same.)

When focusing on the “Abyss” part of it, the incorrect pronunciation is “a-BYSS” and the correct one is A-byss.” When wrong, it sounds more like the English word “amiss,” while the right one is closer to how you’d say “pumice.” 

“Pumice Guard.”

“Abyssgard.”

You can then carry that distinction to their given names, Fuwawa and Mococo, because those follow a similar pattern: FU-wa-wa and MO-co-co.

Going Forward

Keep in mind that the above guide is not a universal rule or anything. If you continue to study Japanese pronunciation, you’ll definitely find plenty of words that don’t follow those specific pitch accents. Also, regardless of whether you can say their names perfectly without effort or you find it to be a struggle, it doesn’t make you less of a fan.

And in the meantime, let’s enjoy their singing.