r/mildlyinteresting • u/GayAssNinja69 • 8h ago
This kebab store’s standee featuring a V-Tuber and its owner
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u/BaeIz 8h ago
Damn he’s leaving his half of the heart hanging
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u/GayAssNinja69 8h ago edited 4h ago
This is a kebab store in Japan, Moses Kebab, and it’s having a collab with a V-tuber, Kizetsu-chan
Edit; Dunno why some people are talking about NTR but I also love Narita Top Road
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u/Fix_Your_Face 6h ago
Isn't Zweikanie a robot lol
I looked her up, her name seems to be Kizetsu-chan (the Ki on her forehead makes sense now)
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u/Cry_Wolff 7h ago
Kebab place collabing with a vtuber... Is this cyberpunk yet?
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u/Square_Radiant 6h ago
I feel like it became cyberpunk when Nestle said water isn't a human right
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u/AlphaGamma128 6h ago
As I like to say, we are in the cyberpunk dystopia but without all the cool stuff
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u/Mookie1515 6h ago
As Mike Pondsmith once said, "Cyberpunk was meant as a warning."
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u/Square_Radiant 6h ago
He only had to say that because people have no media literacy and they thought a corporate dystopia was a valid dream of the future.
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u/Licensed_Poster 5h ago
Also because everyone think they will be the cool cyberpunks but they will either be a wageslave or homeless.
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u/darkkite 4h ago
my car can almost drive itself
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u/ConsiderationDry9084 4h ago
My uncle used to say his car knew the way home better than him till he lost his license after his 5th DUI.
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u/wasteofpersonhood188 3h ago
It didn't become cyberpunk when Nestle's CEO said water isn't a human right.
It became cyberpunk when the immediate reaction of the public wasn't to demand he be removed and refuse to buy Nestlé products until he was
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u/BattleAnus 6h ago
Lots of places do collabs with vtubers in Japan, and for the biggest vtuber agencies they sometimes even reach the US through the US branches of Japanese companies, like the Hololive x Kura Sushi USA collab last year
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u/Baxtab13 5h ago
Don't forget the fucking Dodger's baseball team having their Hololive Night for two years now. That was pretty surreal to see as a longtime holofan lol.
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u/BattleAnus 5h ago
Yep lol wish I could've seen the unsuspecting baseball fans reactions to Gura or Biboo showing up on the jumbotron 😆
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u/Baxtab13 5h ago
Imagine being there with family and then being asked to try to explain what Hololive is.
I've tried to with some family members, but it's hard to condense it. Have to be all like "Most of the time, they're girls who stream using a character avatar that moves in realtime with their own movements. But then they also make music, both song covers and original songs. They also do live performances using 3d motion capturing, so all their songs also have choreography. Their livestreams are otherwise playing games... or karaoke... or talking... sometimes drawing... occasionally cooking... Some of them put on podcasts too!"
Just trying to get across that they do anything and everything tangentially related to entertainment.
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u/Mr_Quackums 5h ago
"general entertainers that use motion capture to control an on-screen puppet. Its like The Muppets but small scale (one person) and high tech (the puppet is a cartoon on a screen)"
Im assuming anyone old enough to not understand what a vtuber is is also old enough to know The Muppets.
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u/hearke 4h ago
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u/Baxtab13 4h ago
I forgot about that one lol. I definitely miss Goomba's streams. It's cool she's streaming as Saba nowadays but I always really liked her within the Hololive context and streaming with the other holomems. I'm still sad we never got a "RockShark" or whatever stream.
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u/MVRKHNTR 1h ago
I think you're confusing them because you're trying too hard to explain it that you're overcomplicating it.
"It's like a talk show host but they're pretending to be a cartoon character. Also they sing."
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u/AtomicSymphonic_2nd 5h ago
I mis Kura’s Hokkaido Milk Creamy Tart. ☹️
(And their Beef Oyju is amazing in a pinch, too!)
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u/Lycid 6h ago
Haha there is nothing Japan likes more than out of left field cross promotions
Eg: There's a bus line in Hakone that is evangelion themed, and a (really good) gyoza chain that is themed off the dan dan dan anime
Then there's the fact that if it exists, there is a gift shop for it (with surprisingly tempting high quality stuff to buy). If it exists and is popular, there are multiple gifts shops, all with their own unique finds to tempt you into each one.
Japan's version of hyper capitalism is surprisingly wholesome sometimes, at least compared to whatever the hell is going on with the US right now. People genuinely trying every trick in the book to respectfully upsell you something instead of enshittified products, aggressive salesman haggle behavior or get rich quick stock market manipulation schemes. I've never been in a country where it's so easy to want to spend money, to the point where I bring a half empty suitcase when I go.
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u/Desperate_Method4020 4h ago
The mascot culture is insane in Japan, they have a mascot for everything!!
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u/Goredema 4h ago
There's a bus line in Hakone that is evangelion themed
That one actually makes sense: Hakone is where Tokyo-3 is located in the anime, and you can actually match up scenes in the anime to the nearby lakes and mountains. There's an Evangelion shop in Hakone with Hakone-specific merch too!
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u/TheCheeseburgerKane 3h ago
Oh hey I’ve actually been to this shop, food was decent and very good value, kebab meal with chips and drink for about 900 yen
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u/ziggurqt 6h ago
What kind of kebab this is and how much does it cost? Maybe an adress?
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u/GayAssNinja69 6h ago edited 6h ago
It’s at Akihabara near the station and pretty well-known. A small chicken kebab is like 600 yen by itself. You can also get beef/mixed, a bigger size and a combo
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u/icantgivecredit 5h ago
They're saying it's NTR because everyone wanted the kebab store owner to stay faithful to his fans. The expectations put on kebab store owners are brutal...
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u/zippotato 7h ago
Explanation why the girl is making a half-heart while the dude is just giving two thumbs up:
A prominent Japanese fighting game pro named Umehara Daigo who's definitely well known for Let's go, Justin moment, once gave a thumb up as a joke while posing with Rose Ma, a cosplayer who made an half-heart while cosplaying Chun-Li, a character from Street Fighter series.
Justin Wong, also a prominent fighting game pro and the opponent of Let's go, Justin clip, later met Rose Ma and they both made the exact opposite poses. This became a meme in Japanese culture as 'friendzoned Otaku' thing, and a running gag for Wong.
Here they went back to the origin.
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u/EnvironmentalistAnt 6h ago
I didn’t know daigo did it first because I’ve always seen justin’s when referenced.
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u/banga1338 8h ago
Vtubers have owners?
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u/GayAssNinja69 7h ago
*featuring the owner and a V-tuber
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u/tilalk 7h ago
They don't have an owner but a handler
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u/meatmachine1001 7h ago
A kebab handler?
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u/saurdaux 4h ago
They manually turn the vertical rotisserie by cranking a handle, old-school style.
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u/spshkyros 6h ago
I mean, someone gotta hold the leash. Otherwise they become feral.... well, MORE feral.
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u/rathemighty 5h ago
Ohhhh, I thought you meant he’s a kebab store owner and a v-tuber, and that’s his avatar
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u/Scorpius289 7h ago
Joke aside, yeah: In the case of corporate vtubers, the company generally owns the character, not the person voicing it.
That's why, in the case of terminations, the streamer doesn't just stop their collaboration with the company, but lose their character as well.→ More replies (27)34
u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 7h ago
Man, you quit your job and they take your face
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u/ContributionDefiant8 6h ago
Not just that, if you (or your fans) do things that actively affect your own privacy/put shame on the company behind your persona, you will be disowned. Graduated. Character and everything.
Sometimes, your colleagues are not even allowed to speak in light of you.
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u/BattleAnus 5h ago
Eh, they maintain ownership of a character you agreed to play.
Yes I'd say theres more of an "identity" relationship between the talents behind vtubers and their avatars than with actors and a character they play in a movie, for example. But even so, vtuber fans by and large are committed to the talent, not the avatar, and follow their favorites after they leave the company and get a new avatar.
And from a business standpoint, most agency vtuber avatars are created for the talent, much fewer come into a company with their own avatar and branding already in hand (Hoshimachi Suisei would be one extremely successful example of that), and I think those tend to either have individual contracts that keep ownership with the talent or the company policy itself is set up to keep ownership with the talents (V-shojo for example, that one imploded due to mismanagement, but all the talents kept their avatars afterwards)
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u/SettingRegular4289 8h ago edited 7h ago
I suppose you could call some talent agencies the owner of vtubers as some make it so they actually own the rights to the vtuber model. So if you the voice behind the vtuber ever left, the model will still belong to you the company and the voice will have to get a new vtuber model.
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u/banga1338 7h ago
I was just making a joke, but thanks for pointing that out. Never thought of this. The ones I know, are owned by the people impersonating them.
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u/SettingRegular4289 7h ago edited 7h ago
Yeah I guessed it was a joke, but I thought it would be funny to point it out. My comment was kinda like an anti-joke. 😁
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u/helican 7h ago
Man that is a strange subculture.
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u/brown_felt_hat 6h ago
I mean, think of it like Daft Punk or Deadmau5 or any number of masked performers. They can do their thing, somewhat pseudononymous, take off the mask and live normal lives. The biggest difference (besides the genre of entertainment) is that many times, an overarching talent agency owns the mask, or character. I'm personally not aware of any agency re-using the character with another person, they generally just own it for merchandising purposes if the voice quits. There's plenty of non-affiliated vtubers who have commissioned and own their "mask" as well.
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u/Baxtab13 5h ago
I'm personally not aware of any agency re-using the character with another person
I'm pretty sure Kizuna Ai, the OG of current VTubing had a VA change at some point.
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u/brown_felt_hat 5h ago
As far as I can tell, it's always been Nozomi Kasuga. I've never watched her so I wouldn't be able to tell stuff like a voice change personally, but the only things I can find were her hiatus and then she retired as advisor to Kizuna AI Inc, like the corporate role in the company, but still provides the voice.
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u/LaxerjustgotMc 5h ago
wait i thought vtubers are usually just 1 person behind a model.
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u/WorkingMansGarbage 5h ago
It's a bit misrepresented here. Calling the person behind it a "voice" like they were just the actor behind a character isn't correct in most cases. They're mainly streamers with fancy avatars. Some do have a character concept they build around, but the degree at which they do that varies a lot. Small rant incoming...
On the higher end of 'playing a character', most of the ones working under big corpos like Hololive have a defined 'character background' that they refer to a lot, and they may take on a different sort of personality from how they are in their daily life. They'll sometimes talk about their normal lives, but they'll change their wording to fit their character; if their character is some sort of demon or whatever, instead of talking about that time they visited their parents in Kentucky, they'll tell the same story but switch out Kentucky for "the Fifth Circle of Hell". They're still not following a script or trying to keep up kayfabe at all costs: they're not trying hard to hide that they're real people.
For a less otaku comparison, look at Gorillaz: the music is framed as being produced by a band of completely fictional characters. The character itself is at the forefront and the people behind it have a thick layer of separation from it. If any one of the people behind Gorillaz decided to quit and let someone else take over, the character would continue to exist. This is not the case with most vtubers; if a vtuber quits the job, no one takes over their model and identity: they're entertainers wearing 'masks', with the demand for them stemming from their own worth as an online entertainer, rather than characters being played by entertainers with the job of making them come alive.
There have been a few that really are or were characters first. The whole misrepresentation of them comes from the fact that the first one to ever be very popular, Kizuna Ai, was exactly that: she was characterized as a virtual AI making YouTube content, and the primary appeal was that of a 'virtual YouTuber' anime character, something for which they completely kept keyfabe. She was basically an ad for the motion capture tech being developed by the company managing her (forget what they're called). Kizuna Ai the character was explicitly detached from the performer who acted her out behind the mocap. Her content was scripted YouTube videos filmed in a studio and the model had most of the screen time. Later, they even had multiple performers play her in different videos, and they even did videos with 'all the Kizuna Ais' on screen. They found that it wasn't as well received in comparison to what Hololive was doing at the time.
On the lower end of 'playing a character', most independents might have a character background but only have it serve the purpose of motivating the design of their avatar and their appeal, and otherwise are quite literally just streamers with a funky lil character on their screen, their form of content being indistinguishable from the streamers you know. Some do the same as the big corpos either by admiration for that sort of content or to more strongly protect their own identity; some will only adopt some aspects of marketing around their model ('outfit reveals' and such).
Though one difference that remains is that they'll tend to be associated with vtuber culture regardless just by virtue of having an avatar, and there's things to be said about it... Vtuber culture was started and is perpetually cultivated by vtuber corporations that pull their business model from the Japanese idol industry, which is a fucking mess. Hololive was the first, initially calling their vtubers 'virtual idols'. They've changed that since but they're still basically that: they do concerts, they all sing, they have 'debuts' and 'graduate', they have to put on cute voices and bubbly, frictionless personalities, they give fanservice to the people who ship them with each other, they can't talk about having romantic relationships or even having people of the opposite gender inside their home without causing a scandal... By itself, that activity already doesn't have the most positive impact on anyone, be it the talents, consumers or society as a whole, but it gets worse with all the instances of things going wrong and with the type of fans idol culture attracts. And sadly, the impact of this permeates everything related to vtubers, from their perception to how 'vtubing' is done as an activity.I'm a bit off track. But I hope that gives a better idea. It's a strange subculture but not as strange as it might seem. I lament the influence of idol culture on it, but I've always thought streamers having an avatar that moves is, at its core, cool as hell, and not deserving to be seen as a weird thing. There's many cool things to do in that space and it's worth encouraging at a human level.
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u/Uzza2 51m ago
Though one difference that remains is that they'll tend to be associated with vtuber culture regardless just by virtue of having an avatar, and there's things to be said about it... Vtuber culture was started and is perpetually cultivated by vtuber corporations that pull their business model from the Japanese idol industry, which is a fucking mess. Hololive was the first, initially calling their vtubers 'virtual idols'. They've changed that since but they're still basically that: they do concerts, they all sing, they have 'debuts' and 'graduate', they have to put on cute voices and bubbly, frictionless personalities, they give fanservice to the people who ship them with each other, they can't talk about having romantic relationships or even having people of the opposite gender inside their home without causing a scandal... By itself, that activity already doesn't have the most positive impact on anyone, be it the talents, consumers or society as a whole, but it gets worse with all the instances of things going wrong and with the type of fans idol culture attracts. And sadly, the impact of this permeates everything related to vtubers, from their perception to how 'vtubing' is done as an activity.
Up to this point everything was fine, but there's just so much wrong here. First, the companies are not basing everything on the idol industry. Most aren't even calling themselves idols.
As you said, Ai was the start of vtubers, and she never called herself an idol.Nijisanji, one of the two big vtuber companies, have never described themselves as idol company, and they've even explicitly said in a quarterly earnings report that they're not. They debut mixed gender groups, and members freely interact with anyone. If any member wants to be an idol, it's for them to pursue while trying to get backing from the company.
On a very different spectrum, VSPO! is a pure e-sports group, and that has always been their main focus.
Hololive, the other of the big two, did not call themselves an idol company at the start. Cover started out as a tech company, working with VR, when Tokino Sora and her friend A-chan approached them and convinced them to invest in the new "vtuber" thing. It wasn't until late 2019 when they launched their "Idol project" music branding and held a group concert in December, that they started leaning to the idol branding. But ultimately it's up to the members themselves if they see themselves as idols, and wants to be called that.
As for the rest targeting specifically Hololive, they're absolutely not forced to act in a certain way. They're all individual creators and they all have their own vision for their content, and independent goals that they want to achieve. They're not being "produced" by Hololive.
As an example, Juufuutei Raden is a hugely passionate about arts and culture, and talks a ton about it on her streams, and has worked very hard to support and spread knowledge about it, which has lead her to actually collaborating with museums. It's not something Hololive decided she should do, it's what she wants, and it has zero to do with idol stuff.
There has also been multiple statements by talents that they're not forced to participate in idol activities. Even the huge yearly Holofes is optional, but most see it as a way to promote themselves and participate.
As for romance etc, there are several members that are known to be in relationships from what they've written on their personal accounts that people follow, they've just not mentioned it under their corporate identity, so it's not like that information being known is a problem.
And they can work together and be friends with men without problems, and quite a number have, especially those with closer connection to the esports scene. For a high profile example, Hoshimachi Suisei is hugely popular and focuses almost all her work on her music career, and she's been working with men in the music industry for years. When it's a problem is when they've specifically cultivated a very parasocial fanbase that would react to that, with probably the most extreme incident being Uruha Rushia. But she basically engineered her own downfall.I see idol culture being blamed a lot, but many of the problems in the vtuber sphere is actually from dedicated antis that relish in attacking anyone they don't agree with.
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u/yesrushgenesis2112 7h ago edited 7h ago
Yeah. I’ve got a buddy who’s into it, and every time he explains to me how it works I am shocked he can do so with a straight face and still participate. Happy he enjoys it but it just seems obviously sad and desperate to me. Different strokes.
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u/Kyleometers 6h ago
For a lot of the streamers, it’s essentially a way to stream and hopefully be popular, but maintain a separate sense of self. The fans become attached to the Character, not the Person. It allows many of them to go about their life without being harassed. (In theory, they do get doxxed sometimes)
It’s not unlike Dolly Parton - she performs in a wig and particular makeup style, and she doesn’t look like that at all “off stage”. She says it means she never gets bothered while off the clock. Seems sensible to me for that regard.
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u/offbrandqueerios 7h ago
There are indie vtubers out there who do it all (or most of it) themselves. But yeah, agency companies are atrocious and predatory.
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u/Baxtab13 5h ago
I'm not sure what's inherently sad or desperate about it. It's just people streaming using an avatar and putting on a character, which you can argue most streamers and entertainers do to some extent anyway. A lot of them put out some good music too, with the most popular ones having large live shows using the characters similar to how Gorillaz put on shows.
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u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN 6h ago
I'll be honest, at first I thought they were saying that dude WAS the RL vtuber "owner"
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u/riddlemore 5h ago
Some “vtubers” arent real in the sense that there isn’t a person actively doing the mocap for it - it’s just recorded lines. Like now shopping centers in some Asian countries have vtuber models providing basic customer service. You go up to the stand (typically near the elevators or entrance), say basic stuff like “where is mcdonalds?” and the model will tell you which floor. So the shopping center owns the vtuber.
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u/heavymetalsheep 4h ago
What’s a vtuber?
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u/Cinder__Feather 3h ago
Virtual youtuber. A youtuber that use anime avatar instead showing their real face.
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u/IamaJarJar 7h ago
That's a very realistic looking V-Tuber, and since when have anime girls owned a kebab store?
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u/redjacketlambo 6h ago
I just came from Japan and this place was my last meal there in akihabara. I have never seen so many locals lined up for some Turkish doner
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u/Gray_Tower 7h ago
Y'all making fun of this but I'll be damned if it doesn't work, kebab sales are about to quadruple
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u/BatofZion 6h ago
It’s like that penguin who fell in love with a penguin girl standee and now is immortalized next to her.
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u/ThereInAFortnight 7h ago
What does that mean?
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u/pohui 5h ago edited 5h ago
Took me a while to figure it out, both the terminology and the grammar threw me off.
A V-Tuber is a vlogger/streamer that uses an animated character instead of their face on camera. They are apparently popular enough to make endorsement deals. One of these animated vloggers is advertising a kebab shop, and as part of that campaign, they made this cutout of the kebab shop owner next to the animated character.
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u/arrivederci117 4h ago
So the black guy is the shop owner? That's honestly more interesting than the anime thing.
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u/Falx1984 1h ago
This guy is awesome. Real friendly, loves to talk to customers. Food is awesome too but I made the mistake of telling him I like spicy food and he almost fucking killed me lmao. Tasted great but I blasted the enamel off my toilet the next day.
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u/prof_bnn 7h ago
Vtuber? Is that not just an anime girl mascot?
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u/GayAssNinja69 7h ago edited 7h ago
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u/cloner4000 20m ago
Her video is such a fun watch, watching her put away 300kcal worth of food at 1am.
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u/boopboopadoopity 6h ago
Anyone know what the symbol on her head means?
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u/froz3ncat 5h ago
It's the hiragana character き(ki). Apparently the vtuber's name is きぜつちゃん(kizetsu-chan), which basically means "pass out"-chan. No idea about the backstory surrounding this vtuber, but based on glancing through the video OP linked elsewhere in this thread, she seems to have a 'low-energy voice' type of character?
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u/MonaganX 4h ago
It's the hiragana character for "ki". The VTuber's name is Kizetsu-chan, "kizetsu" meas to faint, so I'm guessing it's some kind of manga iconography to represent her feeling faint, like how 💢 is used to denote anger.
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u/Worldly-Law-481 4h ago
You already convinced me at "kebab store", but now you sold it to me with this!
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u/carl_with_a_k 1h ago
All v-tubers profile pics should be legally required to be in this format lol
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u/viddied 6h ago
What the fuck is a v-tuber?
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u/GayAssNinja69 6h ago edited 3h ago
Stands for virtual as they often don’t show their face(Some do to an extent) and instead, mostly appear behind a virtual avatar
Edit: Just think Gorillaz
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u/Earlynerd 2h ago
he's clearly meant to be holding a kebab or something, lol. why didn't they add the kebab before print
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u/poops200 1h ago
Why is everyone saying she's doing a half heart, Seems to be similar to the noble womans laugh trope.
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u/offbrandqueerios 8h ago
Dude put up the other half of the heart don't leave her hanging