>>69487595Oh boy. I already explained why this misconception of thinking the only thing that separates Holo from other forms of vtubing is idol culture, and I hope anyone following phase knows it's more complex than 'I'm watching a normal streamer using a anime png', but I would like to reexpress my thoughts on the matter. I will use only Pippa for exemplificative reasons, this decision is not moved by any ill intent nor it is an act of denigration to compress all of phase into the figure of Pipkin Pippa, it's just because she is the only chuuba of the company, I feel, I deeply know. Pippa has a lot more in common with Holo chuubas than with most Twitch or Vshojo figures, that being said Pippa is not an "idol" in the truest sense of the world, the denomination of Mega Idol is amusing and his initial purpose was indeed facetious, but I think it's a nice way to express the nature of the shadow Pippa casts daily to entertain her viewers. The idea that the West has of idols is extremely reductive and wrong, most of the people on this board think Idols=Girl who partakes in singing, dancing, and heavy kayfabe shenanigans. This is again, reductive, I can't say it's a wrong statement per se but many of the people here need to realize what is really the heady factor of Idols and the basis of idol culture. Before delving into that I also don't know why many of the people here think Idol culture=oppressive system for its talents, my best bet is that most of the posters are just regurgitating the opinions of someone else without a real interest in that aspect of Japanese culture, they are hylics, to put it bluntly. There aren't a lot of books about Idol culture in English, most of the works by researchers like Hiroki Azuma are sadly untranslated but we have still some material by researchers like Galbraith, Galbraith in his "Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media and Culture" confutes many of the misconceptions around Idol and culture and briefly touches the concept of virtual youtubers(it was the start of the phenomenon so a lot of his takes don't take in consideration the rapid evolution the media had), but what is really important is that in this essay Galbraith refutes the concept of idols as a form of entertainment that purses a golden industry standard, on the contrary, he claims, and I concur, that the real charming point of such performances and actors is not the streamlined simplicity of girls dancing and singing, no it's something more, what really leads to the concept of pushing one girl, supporting her, Oshii, it's something more simple yet ignored. Idols don't have any particular talents or outstanding talents, there is a reason they are not singers or any other kind of performers, but they have something more over those people, an invisible yet sturdy and sublime edge. Idols despite being unreachable and so dazzling have a lot in common with your average Joe, they are trying hard, hard work is a common concept shared by all humans, and people are extremely sympathetic towards a girl working hard to reach her goals despite the lack of a divine talent. In the past men tried to give human qualities to gods to create a sort of bond between the terrain and the divine, even Christianity has a similar concept, Pippa constant negging of herself and putting herself down despite her capabilities, that makes her human, but at the same time her always standing up and striving for something more makes her a role model, in a sense, that resilience, that force of will and fervor to reach even an higher summit. That's the charm of idols and vtubers. A carminis ode to humanity.