VTuber Takanashi Kiara perches at Beverly Center’s Hololive pop-up store

As children, we all had heroes who encouraged us, made us laugh, inspired us. We all wished on every star that they could talk to us or offer advice or have a conversation with us.

For more than one million fans, VTuber Takanashi Kiara might be that figure. And despite the fact that she is accessible only through a screen, these avid followers have somehow bridged that divide. On Sunday, Kiara made an appearance in Los Angeles to support the local community.

Fans crowded the Hololive pop-up event at the Beverly Center, buying merchandise, making friends, and expressing their gratitude to their favorite entertainers. Running from February 16th to the 27th, the pop-up was opened ahead of VTuber Mori Calliope’s “Grimoire” concert at the Hollywood Palladium on February 26th.

On the event’s opening day, however, fans lined up to meet Mori’s Hololive colleague Kiara, a phoenix-themed VTuber with 1.5 million subscribers.

The pop-up event also comes at a time when L.A.’s communities are left reeling from the Southern California Palisades, Eaton, and Hughes fires. COVER Corp, the Japanese entertainment company behind VTubing franchise Hololive Production, has donated $30,000 to L.A. Wildfire Relief and hopes that the event will encourage fans to band together and donate to the cause.

But who is Kiara, and what are VTubers?

VTubers are “Virtual YouTubers,” interacting with their audiences and streaming with a live virtual model. Through motion tracking software, a visual model (often an anime-style character) recreates the talent’s motions on stream.

When they got their rise in Japan during the mid-2010s, VTubing was still finding its groove. VTuber models were bare, lacking facial expressions, three-dimensional depth, and were missing the human smoothness that fans see today.

With tools like full-body tracking and Live2D, which animates static images in real time, VTubers are now able to accurately replicate their performers’ reactions and movements on stream, and even dance and sing in real time for their concerts. VTubers often play games and participate in variety-show-like activities like quizzes on stream, as well as sharing original music and covers on their channels.

VTubers are the evolution of the global idol phenomenon originated by groups like AKB48, a Japanese idol group founded in 2005. From the terminology to the fan chants, it’s clear that VTubers retain the essence of what it means to be an J-pop idol. However, due to the nature of the medium, anyone, no matter their nationality, location, or appearance, can be an idol.

Just like with real life idols, companies such as COVER Corporation manage and support these VTubers, scheduling events, collaborations, and handling PR for the talent.

In the explosion of popularity that resulted from lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hololive showed the viability of a fully virtual idol company by bringing in hundreds of thousands of yen in profits and catapulting VTubers into worldwide pop culture.

COVER Corp. began to expand across languages in 2019, recruiting talents for the Hololive English, Hololive Indonesia, and Hololive China branches. Hololive EN’s first generation, named “HoloMyth,” was new territory for talents like Kiara, who debuted with four other members in 2020. From the start the idols faced many unexpected setbacks.

For Kiara, that meant account suspensions on YouTube within her first year of streaming, being shadow banned in 2021, contracting bronchitis in 2022, and countless difficulties she kept under wraps.

Yet, even with little to no equipment and no staff to help her in her self-admitted “rat-infested” house in Austria, she began to build a real community, helming the imaginary Kiara Fried Phoenix fried chicken company and entertaining her now 1.5 million subscribers amusingly represented as chicken workers.

“When we debuted, there was a pandemic. I thought, I’m gonna meet all the members, hang out… But that barely happened. I was pretty alone,” said Kiara in an interview with Annenberg Media.

Another setback was HoloMyth’s lack of 3D models that capture full-body movement. Usually Hololive VTubers would have their 3D models created and available about six months after their debut stream, yet HoloMyth had to wait over a year and a half for access to their models.

“[The pandemic] delayed our access to 3D for a long time. One of my biggest talents that I was hoping to show off was dancing, and I couldn’t do it for a long time. It was a long desire for us, and I’ve been trying my best to go all out on it ever since. I learned how to do all the tech behind it. It was basically self-taught.”

To fans, the obstacles she faced along the way highlighted her passion and determination to achieve her dream.

“A good chunk of fans saw her as an underdog. She’s been through the worst of times. It’s good to see her getting what she deserves,” said Trevor Grisco, a day one watcher who goes by KFP Owl online. “The mic quality when she started wasn’t the best. But the fan interactions, the desire to connect with as many people as possible kept me watching. She’s very good at turning negative things into stream content. She puts her viewers’s entertainment first.”

That work ethic is central to Kiara’s identity and her iconography as a phoenix.

“My whole life, I always was a fighter,” she said. “People literally told me I couldn’t be an idol in Japan and… here I am. I always make the impossible possible somehow.”

In return, her fans come out en-masse to support her, some driving, some even taking flights to make it to the events. Each of the badges, polaroids, and charms represent a different occasion on which fans rushed to secure limited time goods, and so they display them as a badge of honor on their bags, across their chests, or pinned on their lapels.

Some fans even handed out “Oshi cards”, business cards that contain the individual’s socials for fans that appreciate their involvement in the community to reach out.

One such superfan is Jeremy Soon, a stalwart day one supporter of Kiara and Hololive EN.

“I was at rock bottom at COVID time,” said Soon.“I was getting laid off left and right. It was really hard for me. I was depressed. [Calliope Mori’s] song ‘Off With Their Head” said, ‘You gotta act before you talk.’”

With a turn, he infused the next sentence with plain, matter-of-fact belief in the power of Hololive’s influence. “So I did it. I got a job.”

Grisco, a long-time VTuber watcher, believes Kiara’s community may be the outlier in terms of fan loyalty and passion.

“KFPs are so dedicated because she’s more connected with her fans. She makes an effort to recognize viewers,” he said. “Recently because of monetary issues, I haven’t been able to send superchats.* However, during his meet and greet with Kiara, he was immediately recognized and welcomed warmly with a ”Hi Trevor!”

On the other hand, new fan Grant Wilhite weighed in on how VTubers differ from other streamers.

“It doesn’t feel like watching someone do a thing. It feels like talking with a group of friends. It’s being part of a community—when I watch streams I’ve got the fan discord on one screen and the stream on the other,” he said. “Maybe [the jokes are] just a silly thing to [others], but we get to take it, and just have fun with it. We had this joke about forming a union… we had union codes, a back and forth with her on Twitter. It’s like, Oh, you want to be a part of this as much as we do. She’s here for us as much as we are for her.”

In the four-and-a-half years since her debut, Kiara has seen how much her fan community has evolved and grown.

“Over the years I’ve really worked hard to make all these themes into a fun little package, and my community has been a big part of that role play,” she said. “They organize little events and get togethers, they’re always in the right attire, and they draw so much fan art, they make videos… we’re like a well oiled machine by now.”

By doing what they love, these VTubers bring a light to many people, and the community they build through their passion creates lifelong connections.

Being a VTuber fan means you’re an Oshi: a Japanese term for a person that receives your full love or support. Simply being an Oshi puts you in a brotherhood and sisterhood of like-minded fans and gives all kinds of people something to bond over.

VTubers are artists: singers, dancers, entertainers, and comedians that “exist to give people comfort,” in Kiara’s own words.

In hard times, with COVID-19, economic woes, and sudden wildfires, maybe it’s good to believe that anyone can achieve their dreams, no matter who, where, or what they are. Kiara started alone, isolated, doubtful. Yet, her once impossible dream was made possible by the millions that support her, a literal phoenix rising from the ashes.

Queen of newfound paradise

I’m begging you to see, I’m you, you’re all of me.

-Takanashi Kiara in her latest song “MIRAGE”

When asked what she has in store for the new year, Kiara simply said, “Watch. Everything is gonna be exciting to experience together.”

Kiara’s latest single “MIRAGE” can be streamed on YouTube alongside her regular livestreams.

*The word “superchat” refers to how fans donate to streamers on Youtube. The donation appears in a bubble that is highlighted to the streamer, and oftentimes the streamer reacts or reads out the message sent with the donation.