>>51930479Hype? What hype? Watching the thing made me sad because it was clear she doesn't want to be there, was utterly unprepared and that her skills have utterly atrophied. She has legit forgotten how to be a vtuber and the level of skill on display during those few moments she was actually talking puts her in an indie category, but an indie that's just starting out. She has declined so, so much it's shocking to see. The three song + animation dump was just that, a dump to hide her inability to entertain or even pretend to care. The animation just made me fucking depressed and I'm still sad and melancholy over it all. She's cannibalizing our nostalgia for first year Gura, and she hasn't been that Gura for TWO YEARS. She's not even a shadow of who she was and even when we get to see her once every few months it's all just forced and uncomfortable just as this stream was. She's faking it, we're faking it and it all amounts to a big pile of shit. She can't even sing anymore.
Whatever is happening to her has destroyed her or has completely removed vtubing as any kind of interest or priority, and now we're at the bit where the charade keeps going but any sort of content, quality, authenticity or mutual respect/emotional resonance is wholly gone. It's not even that she became a hollow idol (corporate stooge and mascot) as much as she simply fell apart. She just isn't the same person she once was, but she didn't grow or develop into something more, she regressed to such a point that she isn't fit to be a vtuber. Her skills have declined THAT much.
I have never in my life witnessed such a fall, such an utter dismantling of a talent of such influence, quality and overwhelming charisma. This isn't her falling into a lower tier, but an abyss. The actual, real Gura we fell in love with was the best vtuber in the industry bar none. Nobody, absolutely nobody could compare with her and I don't think anyone ever will. But this nothing she has become has rendered all that meaningless. We will never know what happened to her, if anything at all, but for all practical purposes her story is over. I don't see how she can turn this around nor do I see her wanting to. She's done. This birthday was a obituary, and comparing it to her first year celebration is impossible. Go watch that one and then this one, and try to pretend that even a bit of her is still left.
