>>80971445>Secondly, and most fucking importantly, holofans are not unicorns. Several hololivers have talked about relationships before and some are even married.For the first (and some of the second) generation of VTubers, it wasn't really a job since there was little money to be made. It was more of a hobby. Even today, those early generations often seem to do as they please, not strictly bound by Hololive's instructions. However, with the increased exposure and money now involved, most, if not all, newcomers had to adhere strictly to both the written and unwritten rules esp in Japan.
It took a lot of effort from someone like Coco, with her unique and bold personality, to challenge these norms (though she still played along with ideas like the ‘NO MEN ALLOWED APARTMENT’). Hololive has definitely contributed to the rise of 'unicorn' fans which led to a situation where new generations of Vtuber fans believe that things like ‘no relationships’ are an unwritten rule and the default status to expect. Some even insist that VTubers explicitly state their relationship status to reassure fans that they are single, which in turn encourages financial support. Feels like once a girl starts VTubing, she implicitly agrees to lose her freedom over her in body and soul.
However Hololive is of course not the sole responsible; Nijikai popularizing Live2D and thus making Vtubing accessible to many, ended up turning the script-based virtual variety shows which Vtubing was, into a form of streaming with less and less care about building and playing a character. At best some quirks and live impro. And when the content isn't so interesting, the easiest thing to rely on is cultivating this kind of parasocial relationship, not always toxic but often.
Since basically anyone could start vtubing from their bedroom, a flood of people with no talent nor purpose took over the scene and helped redefine it in such way.
