San Francisco Frontiers - Digital divas: Can Japan's virtual YouTuber craze crack America?

Pink-haired musician and livestreamer Mori Calliope looks just like a character from an anime cartoon, brought to life on stage through a hologram-like illusion.

Platforms like Netflix have helped take Japanese anime mainstream -- and Calliope's Tokyo-based talent agency wants its roster of virtual YouTubers, or VTubers, to be the country's next big cultural export.

"I don't really like most streamers, but then when I discovered VTubers, I realised, 'hey, you know, I'm actually into this'," said Calliope concert attendee Luigi Galvan.

"They look like anime characters, I like anime, so it was easy to get into the VTuber format that way."

The actors behind VTubers use motion capture techniques to communicate directly online with fans, who can pay to highlight their comments to the character and other viewers.

Nearly half of top VTuber agency Cover Corp's virtual stars under its famous "hololive" brand speak primarily in English, not Japanese, and the company recently opened a US office to accelerate business in North America.

Tokyo-based QY Research predicts that the once-niche VTuber market will make almost $4 billion annually worldwide by 2030, up from $1.4 billion in 2024.

Around 4,000 fans attended the recent concert in Los Angeles, hololive's first solo artist gig outside Japan.

AFP asked Calliope -- in her avatar form -- if virtual YouTubers can really crack the US market.

"A couple of years ago, my firm stance was, 'No, it won't'," said the star, who has over 2.5 million YouTube subscribers.

"But these days, I like to be a little more hopeful," added Calliope, whose actor wished to remain anonymous like most in the industry.

- Korean rivals -

Calliope, who playfully calls herself a "Grim Reaper" on a mission "to harvest souls", likes black gothic outfits that contrast with her long pink hair.

An alter ego helps audiences "see and appreciate you for what lies within" instead of age or looks, allowing VTubers' talent as musicians and raconteurs to shine, she said.

Calliope is one of Cover Corp's more than 80 hololive VTubers, who together have 80 million YouTube subscribers globally, from Indonesia to Canada.

While Japan reigns supreme in the VTuber world, the country could face fierce competition from neighbouring cultural superpower South Korea in the coming years, warned Cover Corp's CEO Motoaki Tanigo.

"Aspiring K-pop singers have survived tough training and are already professional," making the country a potential goldmine for VTuber actors, he told AFP in Tokyo.

"Can we easily find people like that in Japan? Of course not."

South Korean VTuber companies "stand a good chance of growing exponentially" in the important US market because American audiences prefer polished performers, Tanigo said.

In contrast, in Japan, fans often cherish the process of unskilled idols evolving, he explained.

Global expansion can also come with political risks, with one popular hololive streamer incurring the wrath of Chinese viewers by inadvertently suggesting self-ruled Taiwan -- which Beijing claims as its own -- was a country.

- Human touch -

While VTubers live in a digital world, Tanigo said the human element behind the characters is an important part of their appeal.

"In principle, we won't" use generative AI technology to create new virtual talents, he said.

"This whole business is based on fans' desire to support someone because of their extraordinary artistic talent," Tanigo said.

"I think fans would be left feeling confused as to what, or who, they are rooting for."

Calliope fan Ian Goff, 23, agreed, saying he is fascinated by the actors behind VTubers, and their avatars are just the "cherry on top".

"You can make a character with AI, but you can't make a person with AI because that's what makes the VTubers who they are," the San Diego resident told AFP.

In the rapidly growing, competitive industry, VTubers risk overexerting themselves by livestreaming almost non-stop to grow their fandom.

"The longer they go on livestreaming, the more fans watch them," said Takeshi Okamoto, a media studies professor at Japan's Kindai University.

"This can potentially amount to exploitation of their passion for the job."

Yet the professor -- who himself doubles as a zombie-like VTuber -- sees a bright future for the industry.

With the popularity of virtual worlds like the Metaverse, "a day might come where it becomes more normal for us to live as avatars", he said.

"Our lives, then, could more seamlessly fuse with VTuber stars."

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J.Peterson--SFF