VTubes descends on Los Angeles with multiple concerts

Co Maria did not show her work for her family. This is because Maria, not her real name, lives a dual identity, and to protect her privacy, only the most close – or business partners – can know her true personality.

Maria has more than 84,000 followers On YouTube, she is a friendly vibrant vampire singer, and she is excited to chat about her clothes and digital accessories because she sings pop song in the late nineties. It leads as an animated personal image using movement capturation technique, which corresponds to its facial expressions and body movements to the form.

Maria spends a large part of her days like this cartoon character, at a time that is completely real while being completely artificial. She is a professional supporter, although her stage is default. Instead of taking a look at a room or house, its surroundings are completely drawn – it can be in the beach environment one day and an ornate office the next day.

As VTuber-i.e. YouTube Virtual-Mariya is part of a movement, led by those who are on the Japanese animation who now find ways to make the construction of the imaginary world feel individual and personal. We communicate through video conference programs, its location in the United States is confidential, and Maria appears in its anime shape, and its silver white hair sometimes blocks its welcoming oval eyes, which often flashes as it speaks. Her voice is friendly and warm, and it decreases dramatically in the upper record when she laughs or needs to emphasize a point. It is a nervous laugh that it will be “very bad” when you admit the first anime that fell in his love was “Speed ​​Raceer”. Whether you are talking to Maria, a vampire or marija character, the performer is never clear.

This week, Maria will host a concert in Hollywood with the other famous VTubes. There will be direct musicians, but VTubers will be virtual. Maria says she will perform from a site outside the site to protect her identity.

Those in Los Angeles will have multiple opportunities to participate in a VTuber crashing course during the July 4. Maria on Thursday will host Wonderful reality A concert in Fairmont Hollywood, a performance that makes musicians and real and real features IronMoseThe Horn Demon, briefly briefly subscribed signs on Twitch.

The most prevailing, a group of VTubes associated with the Japanese Hololive company will invade Dodger Stadium for the second year in a row. Saturday evening Hollyf night It will include three English-speaking talents of the English-language company-Ninomae Ina’nis, Irys and Koseki Bijou-chanting almost to the team, singing in the seventh half, then leads the post-game dance ceremony on the field. A special event ticket will include VTubes.

Hololive is a section of Cover Corp. , One of the largest VTuber talent agencies in the world, with approximately 90 active performance across its various sections. The company’s office in the United States is located in Los Angeles, and its partnership with the evaders is partially aware that the team has a large Japanese fan base, thanks to Megastar Shohei Ohtani. However, Cover Coip Cover Motoaki Tanigo has a wider goal, which is to increase the fetch of VTubers to the masses.

“There are two reasons,” says Tano, through a translator, for the reason for targeting Cover La as one of its main markets. The first, as noticed, is due to the fact that a large part of the company’s fans base is in the Los Angeles region. The second, as he emphasizes, is related to his commercial goals, especially video game companies covering the hope of partnership with them. “The events in the Los Angeles region are not only important for our user’s participation, but it is a great opportunity to show our customers from our business that we have strong followers.”

The average VTubes offer reached 50 billion views on YouTube annually over the past three years, according to YouTube’s culture and trends recently a report. YouTube sample of 300 virtual creators found that they led 15 billion views through the site, with 1 billion coming from the United States alone. Almost all of these VTubes are deeply steeped in the traditions of anime, culture and tone. Although there are famous male VTubers, the number of the most famous of which is a female confrontation. Cover menu, for example, is more than three quarters of females.

“It is very exciting,” says Susan Nabir, author of “MIYAZAKIWORLD: A Life In Art” and a professor at Tuffs University specializing in Japanese culture. “It allows a huge amount of creativity, the real feeling of ownership of your creation, a way to play and mix with your creation. People have been fans and got to know the favorite, anime and manga stories for years. This, in some way, is a very old phenomenon. It is people who want to participate in a fictional world they love.”

Maria notes that she decided to become VTuber during the worst global epidemic days of 2020. “Everyone was in front of their computers and had a feeling of loneliness.” And VTubers [had] This feeling, “I am not alone. I am not besieged. There is a full world for me. Be a great fan of that, I wanted to try it myself. I didn’t expect to be able to make this matter in a profession, but somehow I liked people, and I thought I could continue to do so.”

And how, of course, did she fell to her personality, a vampire with a racket clip in her hair and uniform like a cocktail server open? “This is difficult because I technically born a vampire,” said Maria. “We are not frightening. We ask for permission before entering the doors, and it is better than many people. We are too. This is the only passive side.” right.

It precedes the direction of Vttuber led by Japan the epidemic. It is widely attributed that the first suitable virtual artist to gain fame is Kizuna Ai in 2016, but VTubers grew alongside other similar developments. Look, for example, Hatsune Miku, who performed in Coachella in 2024. VTubes is closely consistent with video games, and often flowing to their fans. Of course, the game’s broker has long been linked to virtual gear, whether they were Nintendo Mii characters, “Second Life” characters or today’s “Fortnite”, “Roblox” and “Minecraft” platforms. And this summer, in one of the largest releases in 2025, VTuber Usada Pekora plays a role in PlayStation 5 “Death Stranding 2”, with the famous director and Auteu Hideo Kojima admits that he is a fan.

For the creator, audio actor and anime exhibition present HopefulThe rare VTuber that, while using the theater name, shows her face, her mature fictional stories from anime when she was in adolescence when she was exploring her creativity. “It is bridging the gap,” she says about VTubing. “Since I was a teenager, I loved anime. It’s music, beautiful animation, and all in one.

The most attractive VTubes brings a level of realistic life in their work. “If I go back and see my first cane [persona]”My voice is different. I dropped it to be cooler. I quickly realized how difficult it is to keep it, and I didn’t like to be original. I am a little clumsy, a little blond and I have great technical problems,” says Amali.

Maria describes herself as introvert, saying that she will not flow – or most likely to lead – if she is not for VTubing.

“With VTubing, there is a feeling of hiding the identity that I think is really good for the audience,” says Maria. “Some people do not want to see a physical person in front of the screen. They want to see anime girls. I think people hold the idea that it is something different, greater than me and greater than them. It is a new world.”

The author and Professor Nabeer says it is the modern Renaissance and digitization, so to speak, reflects the basic human desires of dress and play. As for the reason that the matter is to be connected to the anime, Nabir sees that the average enhances the idea of ​​creating imagination.

“Fantasy and science fiction are very popular artistic places to play and have a influence,” says Nabir. “A really good anime is to present with this – it’s brilliantly expansion. Whatever it is, you will find it in anime. So if you are looking for VTube, there are all these anime materials sitting in front of you. You can choose and start playing.”

TANIGO says, The Dream for the Cover Corporation is the expansion of the VTubers range outside the world of broadcasting sites such as YouTube and Twitch – and therefore, Dodgers collaborate. In August, Will Hollyv platform Another American concert, this time in the New York Radio City Hall. Tano, music, is a gate. “I think this is a way to reach new people,” he says. “It is interesting to see. There are also people who may not care about VTubing or Anime at all, but they can listen to the song that was released and enjoyed as a piece of music alone.”

For performance artists, with VTubing comes a sense of safety – and even comfort – that is not always present in a more traditional flow.

“I have done a lot of broadcast in the camera at the beginning of my flowing career, but I hated being prepared, making my makeup, and wearing something nice,” says Amali. “Even an hour after ready to do a current, someone was still [commenting]”You look tired today.” I hated it. There will be days I will cancel the flows because I didn’t want to prepare. Now I have my VTUBER and I can be a little bit in pajamas and no one should know because the monarch is always perfect. “

Anime character, after all, is always ready to go.