/vt/ - Virtual Youtubers

KIARA LOVE

VTubers want to have their characters looks and personality be recognizable.
For this purpose it is easiest to stick to easily recognizable features, such as certain colours (Olli = Red & White, Ina = Black & Orange), manners of speech (Pekora = peko & HaHaHa), or patterns of behaviour (Marine = horny, Kusotori = ).
Once such a feature has been established and connected to the character, it is difficult to change. This is in part due to the fact that dropping a feature will mean a reduction in overall recognizability until a new feature is established to replace that loss.
Consumer brands face a similar problem.
They too want their product to be recongizable, and as such use unique colours, fonts and icons. The difference between brands and chuubas is that chuubas have to change part of a character they regularly play, which is much more difficult to do than simply printing your logo with a new font. On top of that, using a new external appeareance can aid in conveying a new internal concept. Example: a shift from red to black for cola bottles indicating a new product that is sugar free.
So in order to completely change how a vtuber character is perceived, one should follow these steps to ensure that recognizability doesn't suffer:
1. Begin introducing a new non-visual feature that is easily recognizable.
2. Begin waning off old non-visual feature
3. Change the outside appeareance to reinforce the new non-visual feature (new outfit comes with new personality)
4. Finish waning off old non-visual feature
5. Finish introducing new non-visual feature
Steps 5 and 4 should be interchangable, and the opimal course of action depends on the specific situation, as waning off a feature too quickly may cause too sudden of a reduction in recognizability. Introducing a new feature too quickly could cause the new feature to be attributed to the old character as well. It's a balancing act.

And now that you have read my wall of text, this is where the fun begins.
Kiara fucked up all of those steps.
1. Complains about people only seeing her as .
2. Does barely anything about it. Even encourages it by introducing related emotes.
3. Gets a new outfit that is more slutty than before and reinforces the image.
4. Maintains her character.
5. Keeps bitching about how she is only seen as .
Sasuga, Kusotori.
As a contrast: here is what Gura did.
1. Complains about being seen as just the nervous little shark and jokes about her character's size.
2. Starts being more sassy and being more assertive simultaneously, even reviewing her debut stream and making fun of her (old) self.
3. Gets a new outfit that, while cute, also reinforces the agressive side of her design (cats can scratch)
4. Starts playing as Scout, the robust country girl. Further reinfoces strong image.
5. Entirely stops, drops and rolls on the scaredy-cat act.
I love watching the klutzotori fail at her one and only job. It's my main reason to keep watching.