VTuber Connect: Animation As Democratized
VTuber Connect considers itself a love letter to a frankly recent development in the landscape of otaku culture — VTubing: the whole (live-)streaming industry built around face-rigging and animanga-styled models or avatars — , and to use a romantic, kinetic visual novel demonstrates an ability to communicate to an audience through its own codes.
The scope of the visual novel itself is focused on the two main protagonists, and the setting is oftentimes domestic: most of the game occurs indoors, and especially in bedrooms. But this focus adds to the game’s dramatic quality as the reader is therefore engulfed in the growing relationship of two dysfunctional human beings, both seeking human warmth.
If the main relationship featured is one of friendship, drama and ultimately romance, one has to address the cultural divide between Makoto and Shouma when it comes to VTubing: Makoto is the person behind Mana, the VTuber that Shouma idolizes. A situation leading to insightful discussions around the relationships behind (live-)streamers and viewers, with philosophical implications.
The game thereby becomes a social commentary on the subject of parasocial relationships, in general and in particular about the case of VTubers. Because models are used and there is often an anonymity from the VTuber, parasocial relationships in the case of VTubers are unique — in one of the scenes, the question of the VTuber’s relationship towards erotic fan-arts is briefly addressed.
Live-streams end up slicing the visual novel in episodes, though progression is occurring towards the anniversary stream, as the story approaches its climax. They are occasions for acting, singing, drawing, gaming… And they require much preparation, whether it be technological (hardware with graphics cards and the set-up in Makoto’s bedroom, software though it’s not really touched upon storywise) or in marketing (the merchandises, the agency)…
The more passive nature of the visual novel as an artform in the landscape of otaku culture, as a medium that combines the codes of still visual arts and literature, is at play here. Indeed, the stillness inherent to VTuber Connect as a work of art is determining in its speech on animation. Because we are taking the viewpoint of a viewer as narrator, he can only take guesses at what is occurring onscreen, and the ideas of ‘acting’ and ‘performance’ end up dominating the idea of ‘animation’. The ephemeral of frames is aggregated in what really matters to the average human.
And indeed, animation is merely a filter that is applied to the acting. Which occurs in one of the streams about gacha rolls, when Mana aims for a very rare character. An over-the-top reaction makes her slump on a chair, and her model reaches for its rigging limits. It means that animation and real-life acting are blurred in the context of VTubing, in a similar way to motion capture in cinematography.
If we try to look at the bigger picture in terms of the advances of technologies, telecommunications and society in mere decades, VTuber Connect has things to say on modernity and our current social condition, that will surely acquire historical value as time goes on. And a key part of its message is about the democratization of animation, as well as the possibilities it has opened up to many different people.
The ability to be given another chance, to make a big change in one’s expressed identity, and to share connections with others. For a type of acting, of spectacular conventions to be born. For cultural codes to be deformed…
If you appreciated this article, I sincerely recommend to give this visual novel a short read. Its artistic direction is rather polished, and its writing is both dramatically progressive and rhythmed by funny punchlines. And it’s relevant overall if you wish to gain an enhanced understanding of otaku culture.
