Tag Archives: v4mirai

REM Kanashibari, the Quiet Danger

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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!

VTuber Mono Monet Likes Genshiken

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Mono Monet, a VTuber from the agency V4Mirai, recently revealed herself to be a Genshiken fan. 

What’s more, I was directly involved in this reveal! During a chat about a different topic, I was specifically called out by Mono for having “Ogiue” in my name. It spurred her on to start talking about the series, and the possibility of doing a Genshiken watchalong at some point.

This is the second time I’ve seen a VTuber explicitly express a fondness for Kio Shimoku’s title. (The first was when FUWAMOCO from hololive sang “Kujibiki Unbalance.”)

The above clip is over 20 minutes long because Mono talks about not just her love of Genshiken itself, but also Evangelion and what she looks for in fiction. It’s quite interesting overall, and Mono is just full of good takes, particularly when it comes to the appeal of flawed and messy characters.

VTuber Music: The Current-Day Character Image Songs

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These days, I listen to a lot of VTuber music. They dominate my playlist, which might come across as an odd choice because while quite a few are wonderful singers, you’re not going to get professional-quality results all the time. Even so, there is something that makes VTuber music that feels special in current times: They remind me of anime character image songs.

In the 1990s and up through the 2000s, image songs were pretty common. Whether it was Ranma ½ or Suzumiya Haruhi, shows with large casts would have voice actors sing songs based on their characters, and often as their characters. This feels less prevalent in anime over the past decade and change, but with VTubers, it’s like practically every original song (and even covers to some extent) are just inherently image songs because they work off of the VTubers’ personas.

The “issues” with VTuber music are also reminiscent of complaints about image songs. “Why listen to people who can’t actually sing all that well?” But it’s just as much about connecting to the characters being portrayed as it is about the inherent musicality of a song. You’ll get some performers who are excellent at what they do, but real skill is a bonus rather than a requirement. Better yet, if there is improvement, you get to really see them come into their own rather than just starting as amazing. One of the best things is hearing someone perform one of their songs live and realize that they actually sound better than the studio recording they did back when they were still a little shaky.

To end off, I’m curious about if any readers are fond of any character songs, be they anime, VTuber, or maybe some other category.

So…do you have any favorites?