February 5 is the official birthday of REM Kanashibari from V4Mirai. I first discovered her in October of 2024 during a Halloween karaoke relay, and since then, she’s become one of my most watched VTubers, so I want to share why I enjoy watching her so much.
REM’s background lore is that of a sleep paralysis demon who is “born to nap, forced to yap.” However, her appeal is best summed up in her own words: “I’m not a comfort streamer, I’m a discomfort streamer.” Using her soothing voice, she banters with her chat, engages in off-the-cuff role plays, and brings to life a variety of low-key yet bizarre stream ideas. The result is an engaging experience that’s as relaxing as it is head-scratching.
Like many other VTubers, REM does ASMR, and her approach really hits a perfect sweet spot for me. Some ASMR creators might take a more intimate approach, acting as an emotionally healing salve. Others go for something emotionally intense, like yandere roleplay. But REM tends towards much sillier and more experimental scenarios that are tinged with an irreverent sense of humor. Her ASMR themes have included “the worst airline ever,” “rat dying in a glue trap,” “smoking 500 cigarettes,” “crab giving a haircut,” “surgeon who just found out your payment was declined,” and “smothering you with her official hug pillow merch.” One of my absolute favorites is her “pushy door-to-door ASMR salesman” stream, where she uses one of her earpicks to pick your front lock:
According to REM herself, she originally didn’t plan on being an ASMR creator, which is funny because it suits her sleep paralysis demon motif so well. While VTubers often move over time in trajectories away from their lore, REM has, in a sense, grown closer to her concept.
Instead, her original motivation for getting into VTubing was actually to sing, and while she isn’t releasing new music all the time, she does have a number of nice releases. I recommend her 3D concert performance of “Deal with the Devil” (the opening to Kakegurui), REM’s Sleepover (a collab concert with lots of great guests, including Roca Rourin), and her first original song “Stay with Me ???”:
Oh, and she once ate jellied eels because of a donathon goal, and it is apparently the most vile thing she’s ever tasted. As someone who’s wanted to try the (in)famous London dish for years, I appreciated her attempt and lived vicariously (?) through her.
Overall, REM creates an energy all her own, and I’m always looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next. I think she’s very welcoming, and the only barrier is how many jokes about Brazilian butt lifts you can take from her and the chat before tapping out.
PS: REM is having a multi-day birthday celebration. Playlist is below!
I’ve been avidly watching VTuber concerts both online and offline this year, and I just wanted to give my brief thoughts on a variety of events from 2025 that I didn’t write about otherwise.
holoX and La+ Darknesss
holoX celebrated their anniversaries around the start of December. While we have no shortage of talented dancers now, there’s still something that stands out about La+ Darknesss’s dancing. In particular, I find the way she moves her arms to be very appealing, and I suspect it’s because she really knows how to move her arms from her torso/core, rather than from her hands.
I also have been listening to Takane Lui’s recently released album, Lapis Lazuli, and kind of regret not getting the physical release. And of course, I’m beyond excited for holoX’s first live venue concert next year!
Myth
I think Kiara can get lost in the shuffle a bit, but what I’ve come to realize is that she’s very good at fully leaning into a particular quality. Some talents are always going to be cool even when they’re trying to be cute, or vice versa, but Kiara can go 100% in being cute, cool, silly, sexy, etc. in a given situation. Her concerts throughout the year really showcased this facet. Her performance of Fake Heart with La+ is my personal highlight (see above), though I need to mention the fact that she brought Ame for a guest appearance.
I’m looking forward to seeing her March concert with Ina, who’s been improving in her own right.
Rewinding things back to the beginning of the year, I’m also glad that people showed up for Calliope Mori’s second solo live in Los Angeles, despite the deadly wildfires that were plaguing the area. Also, what I’m about to say isn’t new information at this point, but I’m glad she continues to carve out a unique sound for herself.
REM Kanashibari and Roca Rourin
I plan on writing about her more in the New Year, but REM has quickly become one of my favorite VTubers. In addition to some convention concert appearances, she also had her first online concert, called Sleepover Stage. I find myself listening to their cover of “Murder on the Dancefloor” with Roca Rourin regularly. The two sound really good as a duet, and I hope to hear more of them in the future.
Flow Glow
Flow Glow, a hip-hop and pop–themed generation from the hololive branch known as “DEV_IS,” made a hell of an impact with their 3D debuts. Isaki Riona’s probably the best in the entire company at singing and dancing. Mizumiya Su is small but has very powerful moves that literally give her the most air time in hololive when she leaps. Kikirara Vivi backs her cute movements with clear dance experience too. And while Rindo Chihaya and Koganei Niko appear to be not as skilled, they’re both quite athletic in their own right, keeping up with the others and even bringing a lot of strength in terms of singing. Even more than their direct predecessors ReGLOSS, they are focused heavily on music and performance, and it’s clear how much experience they have.
ReGLOSS
Speaking of ReGLOSS, they had their first live concert this month, titled Flashpoint! It’s a great achievement, and you can really tell how much they worked on it. Ririka and Raden have noticeably improved in their weakest areas (dancing and singing, respectively), and while straining her voice in some places, Kanade is still the vocal center of the whole group. Hajime’s solo performance was amazing, and felt like a reminder to everyone that she’s no less amazing a dancer compared to her juniors in Flow Glow.
I do miss Ao’s sound, though. She was the only one with a deeper voice, and it provided a nice contrast to the rest of the girls. During an encore performance of their first single, “Shunkan Heartbeat,” the current members of ReGLOSS actually left a silent space where Ao would usually sing for one line, as if to pay tribute to their friend.
Vroom Boom Duo (Baelz Hakos and Todoroki Hajime)
This year was also when we finally got to see the two marquee dancers of hololive join forces. Bae’s Non-Birthday celebration featured them doing the song “Gingiragin” together, which was followed by a performance of “Bareru” for Hajime’s own birthday. The latter was one of the most impressive things all year because they were filmed with one continuous shot. Creative camera cuts can cover up flubs, and here they were, showing the world that they didn’t need any editing magic.
HIMEHINA
Hime and Hina really make clear just how comfortable they are as veterans of this space. At their 7th Anniversary concert, their ability to just match up with each other and harmonize is maybe second to none. Also, I mistakenly thought La+ would be singing with them, but she simply did a bit of MCing.
Suisei and AZKi
As the two former members of the now-defunct INNK music group, these two have had a specific and unique connection. It almost goes without saying that these two are among the best singers in hololive and VTubing, but when they perform together, they just work so incredibly well. AZKi’s almost flawless execution and Suisei’s powerful voice balance each other out nicely. Suisei these days is more popular, but AZKi is so subtly and deceptively good to the point that I feel like it can be easy to gloss over her. However, once you pay attention, you realize how incredible she is.
Tokoyami Towa
Towa’s husky voice continues to stand out in a sea of many talented singers, and I hope she can
Nekomata Okayu
Seeing Okayu go in so many different directions is pretty amazing. It’s one thing to get a solo live as someone who started off dedicated to making music, but to transition into it and then get a second solo live is downright astounding.
Phase Invaders Wish
I was glad to see the first gen of Phase Invaders get a group concert because they were my introduction to Phase Connect. The resulting event, First Transmission, successfully highlighted each of their strengths, even when some were clearly more practiced hands at performance than others. Lumi’s singing ability and Ember’s dancing skills made themselves apparent, and Jelly came across as comfortable on stage despite being inexperienced. Dizzy is the least stage-inclined of the four, but she found an answer in the form of sensual choreographies that took advantage of her fitness and flexibility.
OGIUE MANIAX 