#and I'll get a cute vtuber out of it

[dkettchen]

My most male trait is the "ye I can do that" attitude abt stuff I have no means of actually knowing whether I can do

[mahou-furbies]

what are some of the magical girl shows coming out soon that you know of? which are you looking forward to and which do you think you might skip?

Here's a list of upcoming magical girl works from last summer, the earliest are already out but to my knowledge it's pretty accurate for the future.

My take on the list:

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies - my closing thoughts are here

Mermaid Magic - might watch at some point but it's not a high priority

Acro Trip, Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc, The Story of the Girl Who Couldn’t Become a Wizard - currently watching, I'll write my thoughts once they end

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie - must watch, though it'll probably take a while for it to be available since it's a movie

Mahou Tsukai Precure: Mirai Days - definitely watching this one too

Princess Session Orchestra - contains idols which is extremely meh to me, but otherwise appears mahou enough for my tastes and the designs are great, so looking forward to this

Winx Club - probably won't watch, unless I get motivated to watch all of the winx franchise

Project Symphogear Next - idols + character designs too mecha + haven't seen anything else from this franchise = skip for me, but maybe I'll check it out one day

Hua Xianzi: Zhi Mofa Xiang Dui Lun - I know very little about Chinese animation or the original Lun Lun so dunno about this one

Studio Pierrot’s new anime - seems like idols again...

Lolirock season three - haven't seen the previous two seasons so I'd have to watch them first. Wait this has idols too??

Magic Knight Rayearth revival - definitely watching this one

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card season two - I haven't seen any CCS anime and didn't particularly like the manga, though I feel like I'll get to it at some point

Magical Girl holoWitches - cute designs, but streamers/vtubers as a theme is about as appealing to me as idols. Might take a look depending on what kind of format this will be.

Ojamajo Doremi 16-20’s - I think it's still unknown what format this will be? In any case I'd prefer to finish watching all the original Doremi anime first.

Also:

Kimi to Idol Precure - idols again... but I'll watch it

A second season for Magical Girl Raising Project has been announced ages ago and it's the anime I'm looking forward to the most on this post, but I'm not too hopeful on it coming out soon (if ever...) since things have been so quiet on that front

I'll also watch the Panty & Stocking sequel, though its schedule is also unknown.

[teadrunkpainter]

The final version of the Nonbinary Pride sword!

As always I'll reblog this later when the resource pack is available on modrinth!

There's a bit of a ramble under the read more, I'd love it if you read it.

I think it turned out really cute! unfortunately I don't think I'm going to get any more pride swords done this month, but I have had a lot of fun doing this so I think I'll keep it around as a way to beat artblock and warm up for bigger projects! I'm a bit sad that I didn't get to the ace or aro flags this month, but that was a risk I took by making it a poll instead of prioritizing my own flags. Next month is artfight and I'm going to be doing my best to attack more than once a week. I've also got a vtuber model in the works that I'll probably show off super soon, I'm really proud of how it's turning out so far.

[pienhime]

10 female vtubers who are popular with ryousangata and jirai girls!

Two important things to know before you read any further: I am NOT alleging any of these vtubers to be jirai kei. That'd be incredibly inappropriate for me to do, as I don't know any of them well enough to know if they are a part of the jirai kei subculture. I am simply listing vtubers who seem to be the most popular within the ryousanjirai crowd, that is those whose female fanbase seems to have a higher proportion of ryousanjirai girls than most.

The other thing I'd like to get out of the way is that some vtubers on this list are known for using "menhera" as an insult. Sadly, thats grown popular in the vtuber scene and online spaces in japan. For vtuber fans reading this who think that's a weird thing to say, the word "menhera" has been around since 2001 and was the name given to an internet subculture revolving around mental health safe spaces, awareness, and vent art. Even tho it was literally created to help erase the "mental illness makes you dangerous" thing, the stigma took over once the term went mainstream, so its often used to mean "yandere psycho". The subculture still exists if you know where to look, but barely ever uses the name it gave itself anymore because it attracts trolls, edgelords, and fetishists.

One last thing- a few of these girls fit the "loli" archetype, and consider it a part of their appeal, but no minors will be featured on this list.

absolutely zero past-life discussion

I'll do my best to summarize what the vtuber is known for and the reasons i think are likely why their female fanbase has a larger proportion of ryousanjirai girls.

1. Sakamata Chloe (Hololive HoloX)

Given that she recently got a new outfit that looks a lot like a dark girly kei coord, you've probably seen Chloe on your feed recently. Despite her yamikawaii punk-ish look, she's so cute and probably couldn't survive in the wild if she were a real orca. The "pon" is unreal. Her original songs talk about her own inner pain in a way that may be relatable to jirai girls, and she's covered a lot of songs popular with us too (such as Cute Loving and Devil Janai Mon). Between her cutesiness, choice in fashion, and her songs, it's easy to see why she's loved by jirai kei girls.

2. Minato Aqua (Hololive Gen. 2)

You probably know about Aqua if you follow me, since I just posted a link to one of her more recent song covers. It's one about a ryousangata girl falling in love with a host, and knowing his affection is fake but wanting it anyway. She covers a lot of songs about topics that are familiar to ryousan and jirai girls, like kyuukurarin, darling dance, goodbye declaration, and internet overdose to name a few. Her original songs are also hits with the ryousangata crowd, with "aqua iro palette" being the choice of song in so many tiktoks and reels of ryousan wotas showing off their lavish birthday celebrations for their oshis. She's also a cosplayer, frequently wearing maid outfits, making her relatable to a lot of girls who work at concept cafes. She also did a duet with Shion, a cover of "menhera janai mon", which is a song i often see misinterpreted outside of japan because of the need for cultural context on jirai kei, ryousangata, and menhera both as a subculture and insult. Should I do a post explaining the lyrics and overall themes?

3. Makaino Ririmu (Nijisanji Gamers Generation 3)

Listen. If you're in the jirai kei subculture, I guarantee you've seen Ririmu. This girl's fanart is probably on every jirai kei blog known to man. If you don't recognize this model, you'd recognize the maid outfit with bondage elements thats paired with a coat that looks suspiciously like REFLEM's bunny ears coat (the one that took yamikawa lovers by storm a while back). Ririmu's popularity with jirai kei girls isn't just because she likes similar fashions to most of us. Ririmu has been open about her past suffering with agorophobia, suicidal ideation, and being a NEET. She's shared bits and pieces of her recovery with her fans! Of course, she also does yandere bit that might be more than a bit, and covers a lot of songs popular with ryousan and jirai girls, like more kyun, chuupuri, and vampire.

4. Mikeneko (Indie)

Mikeneko isn't new to the scene at all, but has recently come out of a partly mental health related hiatus to a much larger following than before. Mikeneko collects models like they're pokemon cards, going thru four in total now, two of which have been in one year. She wears tons of yamikawa fashions, and plays up her chuunibyou for streams. Aside from her on-and-off NEETdom, Mikeneko is open about a lot of her health issues, including bipolar, and about her medication and trips to the psychiatric hospital. She calls herself menhera, often in the secondary meaning, but she's also rumored to have been a part of the actual subculture for a long time. Her original songs, drop and you&me ring really true for a lot of jirai and menhera girls such as myself.

5. Meloco Kyoran (Nijisanji EN Generation 7)

Meloco is the only vtuber on this list to be a part of an company's EN (english-speaking) branch. She's included on the list because she's also big in japan- because she's japanese. She's almost fluent in english and was accepted for the english branch, but frequently slips into japanese and appeals to her japanese fans. Her outfit is gothic lolita inspired with bondage elements and plenty of edge, to fit her overall spooky exorcist theming. Her creepy-cute nature and cool alternative onee-san demeanor have attracted her many jirai kei fans, and inspired a lot of ryousan girls' oshi nails.

6. Sukoya Kana (Nijisanji Tulip-gumi Unit)

Admittedly, Kana's probably got more menhera (as in the subculture) fans than jirai or ryousan, but she still has enough that I wanted to include her. Her nurse theming isn't just a gimmick, her actual "day job" is as a nurse. As in, when she's not streaming, she works in a hospital as staff after passing her qualifying exams in 2022! She must be super busy! Her morbid interests and fetishes, as well as her medical themed design, have no doubt appealed to many jirai girls too. Besides that, she's covered a lot of songs, including quite a few beloved by landmines such as lavie, nainai girls pride, and godish.

7. Natori Sana (Indie)

Listen, I just know you've seen her figures by now. Every menhera, yamikawaii, and "cutecore" account in the west has at least one of this nurse girl's figures. She's ultra cute, with a sickeningly sweet smile and design. Her lore is interesting- she claims to work at a sanitarium, but has hinted very heavily many times that she is in fact not a nurse, but a patient in denial. Whether this is just lore for fun and appeal or is a dramatized reflection of Sana's own feelings and mental health is up for speculation.

8. La+ (Laplus) Darkness (HoloX)

Remember that disclaimer regarding using menhera derogatorily earlier? Yeah that's 90% because of Laplus's inclusion on the list. It feels like she accuses someone of being menhera (derogatory) like every other VOD. Apart from that, Laplus is a grade A kusogaki, complete with constant angry outburst when things don't go her way. She's a demon whos intelligence was... "sealed away"... sure. Her gothic appearance and explosive personality seem to be what's gained her such a large jirai kei following.

9. Houshou Marine (Hololive Gen. 3)

Dear god. Alright, so you've definitely heard at least two of her songs if you're on japanese jirai kei SNS at all. This cosplaying pirate is so horny that it's literally considered her catchphrase. Her original songs about wanting to be seen as desirable and be... pleasured seem to be especially popular with landmine girls (which is maybe related to how many jirai girls are in a certain profession). She enjoys gothic lolita fashion, girls love/yuri, and enough fetishes to lose track of if you're counting.

10. Shigure Ui (Indie)

Did you really think I could make this list without including hololive star Oozora Subaru's mom and voice of the song that's plaguing japanese social media, ESPECIALLY landmine social media rn? Sure, it's everywhere, but go check every insta kaiwai dedicated to jirai subculture and see how many of their reels have this song. Even though she's just now broken out to this degree of fame, she's been around a while, and is the "mama" (artist) to several other vtubers. She often collabs with hololive members! She loves taboo fiction, which is also especially popular amongst jirai girls.

Last but not least, I want to add three honorable mentions from Hololive that are also popular with ryousanjirai girls. Tokoyami Towa is a super popular choice of cosplay amongst jirai girls specifically. She has a cute-but-cool look, and lots of her outfits definitely have subcultural influences from japanese ゴスパンク (gothic x punk) and general "egirl"-type styles. Murasaki Shion is a very popular choice of profile pic for ryousanjirai girls, and it's easy to see why. Her "kusogaki" appeal and lolita outfits, as well as her "Menhera Janai Mon" duet with Aqua all appeal to that demographic. Finally, last honorable mention is Amane Kanata, purely because of how popular she is with lovers of Tenshi Kaiwai, which has a lot of overlap with the jirai subculture. She basically predicted the trend before the magazine that popularized it even existed. Mizuiro x white cybercore outfits, a nurse cosplay, and angel theming make her a spot-on icon in that scene.

That's it! Now I have to stop procrastinating on the pien kei characters post...

[velvetvexations]

why are so mamy trans ppl on this site robotfuckers/technophiles and why am i becoming one of them

Well, for me it's totally different than for most. I fell in love with Dorothy from The Big O because of her extremely flat, monotone speech, and her expression completely lacking a trace of emotion, like a Vulcan. The idea of having power over a robot like that, who truly feels nothing but a desire to serve you, is intoxicating for me.

I commissioned a small story from a writer a few years ago. They became a vtuber and as far as I know they haven't done writing commissions since, so I'll hold off on naming them for now and will ask them if they want credit for it.

warning:

This is not really non-con but it explores the idea of a semi-sapient fuckdoll that has no will beyond yours, and idk, it's not great, morally, and might remind you of worse.

Her Quiet Eyes

Sure, she had cost a lot, but shipping had been the real killer. But the months of saved paychecks had been worth it. Your very own Realifigure had arrived that day. The setup had been surprisingly simple; she was already pre-programmed with the right personality routines. There were just a few firmware updates to install. Good thing the charging case she came in had an ethernet port.

Before long, R.Dorothy Wayneright’s eyes were open, and she stood up out of her box in the middle of your living room in her iconic pitch-black dress and white neck lace. Real, alive. Or at least as close to real as a character from a cult classic anime could get. Realifigures were the next step in ultra-exclusive, ultra-expensive collector’s items for the discerning weeaboo. Life-sized figures (robots, really) made to be as close as possible to the character they were designed to emulate. Even the black band in her blood-red hair could pop open up like a disc drive just like in the show, even though there was absolutely no use for it at all.

“Hello,” she said simply. There wasn’t a hint of emotion to her voice. No excitement, no happiness at meeting her new partner for the first time. You almost thought you messed some part of the installation up and flip through the manual, until a ‘character specifics’ section reminds you that really is just the way Dorothy acts. Which isn’t wrong. Sure she might have opened up to Roger more over the course of the show’s twenty-six episodes and displayed more emotion over time but that cold, occasionally sarcastic, demeanor never really left and that’s part of what makes her so dang cute in the first place so-

Dorothy stood there, staring. Oh. How long were you lost in thought?

“Ah, hi.”

“You are my partner, correct?”

‘Partner’ was the proper term. Something like ‘master’ or ‘owner’ just wasn’t very advertising-friendly, unless it was a specific character’s gimmick to call their partner that. “Yeah. That’s right.” You held out a shaky hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Dorothy.”

She looked at the hand for a second, then took it in hers, briefly. “You as well.” She didn’t sound like she meant it. Pitch black eyes smoothly looked to the left, then the right. You followed her gaze and realized just how much of an awful mess your apartment was. You hadn’t tidied up any of the cardboard and the packaging Dorothy had been inside just mere hours ago. And that was on top of the littered clothes, the pizza boxes, the trash overflowing with garbage takeout.

“I am programmed with a wide variety of cleanliness routines.” Dorothy stated simply. It was hard not to read her neutral expression as judgemental.

“No, uh, that’s okay. I can do that myself. I was actually wondering if you would like to… go out? Like, on a date.”

“Yes.”

She said it without any hesitation, something that took you by surprise despite her completely flat tone. You have to remind yourself to not get too crazy about her. It’s just her programming. There wouldn’t be any point to the Realifigure line if they didn’t do whatever their partner said, regardless of outward personality. You asked her to wait in the living room while you went to change in yours. And it’s only then you start to realize how poorly thought out your whole plan was. You don’t really have any good clothes, not good enough for dating anyways. You haven’t dated since… actually, you prefer not to think about it. You did manage to find a button-up in plain, somewhat ill-fitting white. Better than nothing. You tuck it into a fresh pair of jeans and join Dorothy back outside. She quietly joined you for the evening you had made up on the spot because you hadn’t actually planned it out at all. But dinner and movie are as classic as it gets, right?

It went smoothly. Relatively. You kept asking why Dorothy didn’t touch any of her food and she kept reminding you in the same neutral (condescending?) tone that she has no need to eat. She cannot digest, she has no sense of taste. Of course that makes sense, but it wasn’t a realistic experience. Or wait, it was, wasn’t it. She was a robot, after all. Both literally and as the character she was modeled on. It was all a little more confusing than you expected, but it’s also enticing, in a strange way that you can’t quite put your finger on. If you had just wanted a sexdoll that was all looks, you wouldn’t have spent so much on something that came with a personality, that was so realistically-made people would be more likely to mistake her for a cosplayer than a machine.

“What did you think of the movie?”

“It was interesting.”

You blinked. That was the most emotive response you had received from her all night. The film had been some indie thing from France. Totally in black and white, only subtitles. You had thought it was appropriate because of Dorothy’s source material. Maybe it had sparked something in her programming. “What was interesting about it?”

“The cinematography. The use of outdated filming techniques. It was an ‘artistic choice,’ correct?”

You shrugged. “I guess so.” Dorothy didn’t say anything else, and you felt kind of stupid. Should you have tried to say something smart? Dorothy probably had every piece of knowledge stored away inside her electronic brain, so it’s not like you could have just made something up to look that way. Maybe it was better to look clueless than stupid. And that just leads you into thinking about how dumb it is to even care. It’s not like she’s real. Just a personality program running through its pre-packaged reactions and responses. No matter how realistic she is. No matter how sure you are that you could feel her rust-red hair, or her milky synthetic skin, and not be able to tell the difference. The walk home is spent in silence. Dorothy kept her hands laid on top of each other on the front of her dress. You didn’t know what to do with yours and shoved them in your pockets instead.

Back at your apartment, you have a difficult time deciding what to do next. This is all more difficult than you had thought it would be. Dorothy was literally your property, not a real person, a construct running a limited program, not capable of true emotion. But it still felt wrong to issue commands to her, to tell her to get right to the sex. Maybe that’s the uncanny valley, or whatever. She looked too human to not treat as a human.

Instead, you decide to pour drinks. You don’t exactly keep high quality liquor, but you did have some cheap box wine lying around from a recent get together with a few friends, and that should do a good enough job. It’s not like Dorothy could tell the difference, or that she would care if she could. When you returned from the kitchen to offer her the drink, you nearly dropped it instead. Dorothy stood there, almost entirely undressed. Your eyes traced her mostly naked body down to the floor where her dress laid pooled like an inky black puddle.

The Big O was not an anime chock full of lewd fanservice, so Dorothy’s designers had taken some liberties when it came to her underwear. It was all very old fashioned, you would have thought of it as Victorian or something; a lacy white bra, bloomers that puffed outward, and a velvet-y corset that didn’t seem to be tied so tight it would cause discomfort, if she could even feel discomfort.

“This is what you want, isn’t it?” Dorothy stepped closer. Very close. The plastic wine glasses shook in your hand. “I can’t do anything with a drink, you know. There is no need to ‘wine and dine’ me.”

“Ah, it’s just…”

She took your hand and carefully unwrapped it from the glass. She took it and placed it on the coffee table behind her. Then she put her hand back in yours and started to, gently, tug in the direction of your bedroom. “Come with me.” You obliged her.

Dorothy helped you undress. Shirt, followed by shoes, followed by pants. Soon the two of you were on top of your bed, Dorothy on her back. Cautiously, you helped her remove the corset, the bloomers and, shakily, the bra. It gave you a chance to witness every delicate curve of her body. Her softly tapered waist. Her pert breasts. You had been right before; it really was impossible to tell the difference. She lounged on your bed, expression unwavering, until you slid yourself on top of her. She didn’t move an inch.

“Are you, ah, ready?”

“Are you?”

There was that vague sense of condescension again. “I, yeah, I think so.” Dorothy simply nodded. And waited. You took a dry swallow, mustered up that last bit of courage you needed, and pushed yourself forward. Dorothy didn’t react when you entered her, but other she felt… perfect. Not too tight, not too loose, just the right amount of grip. Just making that contact for the first time made your back arch and forced the breath out of you. She was anatomically correct, after all. Right down to the clear, slick lubrication. But Dorothy still didn’t move, even when you did.

“Does it feel good?” You asked, hesitant.

“No.”

You stopped. “No?”

“No. I do not feel.” Dorothy moved for the first time since you had started. Her hands slowly raised up and cupped your cheeks. “But if you feel good, then I am content. Please enjoy yourself.”

It was encouragement, even if it was a little weird and delivered in that same bored tone that didn’t change on iota no matter what the context was. Of course she didn’t feel it. Maybe some Realifigures would be programmed to respond like they did, but not one like Dorothy. Not frank, brutally honest Dorothy. And it actually worked. You started to let yourself take control, and the nervousness slipped away. And as you started to move faster, to breathe harder, you felt Dorothy’s small, delicate hands move around the sides of your head to wrap around and pull you in closer until your head rested in her chest. Your hands moved too, slowly upwards from Dorothy’s slim hips. They wanted to feel every inch of that smooth synthskin, to wrap around the sides of her waist, to grasp at her squeeze her perfectly rounded buttocks. You could feel the small of her back and the little ridges of her spine and her slim arms and her pale breasts. All the while Dorothy doesn’t move at all, not any movement that isn’t caused by the physics of your own pelvis pushing against hers and then pulling back out in a rapidly hastening rhythm.

Occasionally Dorothy would mutter something; some encouragement or brief words that would indicate pleasure if not for her completely neutral voice, or even just “Yes, yes,” repeated over and over. Like she was going through the motions. And as strange as it might have been to enjoy that motionless, emotionless doll, you did. It was comforting, in a way. There was no judgement, no complications, nothing to worry about. Just someone whose only want was for you to enjoy yourself, and that was a sort of happiness. Her inner muscles contracted in the perfect rhythm to match your strokes and it didn’t take too long before you reached a fever pitch and lost yourself in her embrace. You mindlessly pumped away at her until you brought yourself to orgasm and you pressed yourself as hard into her as you could and could feel your warmth spilling into her. For a minute you laid on top of her, but it wasn’t long before you felt like you could go again.

Like she could sense it, she spoke up, a soft quality to her voice you hadn’t noticed until that moment. “Please. Continue. As many times as you like.”

[britt-kageryuu]

Leo is just sitting on stream, watching something on his phone with some blue headphones on.

Leo was watching videos on request, but was previewing them on his phone before pulling it up for the stream to see.

The video he's watching was a random one that popped up as a recommendation, and not actually an audience request.

"Well, this person just got a new subscriber. I don't think I'll watch her stuff on stream, but it's interesting to listen to her read off the most unhinged stuff with a straight face." Leo says while setting the device down.

"There isn't really a reason to not watch the channel on stream, but if anything it's because we'd have to figure out how to censor some things live." He says while going back to the list of requests.

"Why do I want to subscribe to her? Well you don't often hear someone talk about... wait should I even say this?" Leo says while grabbing his phone to send to send Dee the video link, and ask for advice.

"What I will say is that she reads through obscure social media weirdness. And apparently some has a fascination with some very old fanfics." He says while again looking at the requests list.

As he brings up the next video, that was actually something he'd already watched but wants to rewatch it anyway, he gets a message from Dee.

"Dee says that they would rather you watch the channel on your own time, and we are not a fault if you don't like the channel." Leo thinks it over, but just shrugs, and continues to set up the next video.

The video was a cute compilation of some VTubers reactions to specific game scenes.

"So, I will say this. I've watched this before, and this is where I first heard the word Menhera. And it was almost banned, for some obvious reasons, but since no one used it, it was kinda forgotten by us." Leo looks directly at the camera, "Can you guess why we almost banned this word?" He now has a smug grin on his face.

The audience noticed that Leo posted in the chat, a Donnie CainInstinct emote.

The chat goes a bit wild at this with various reaction emotes, and some quickly clipping the moment.

Suddenly a cartoon Donnie appears on screen next to Leo.

"Dearest Twin. Do you wish to be tossed back into the Prison Dimension?" The little cartoon looks way too cute to be that threatening, "Or would you prefer that I leak some DMs instead?"

Leo who's sitting up a bit straighter, starts to look around, "Sorry! Sorry, Dee. I meant it with all the love I have for me Hermano, but you are a bit unhinged at times! Please have mercy!"

"I will hold off my retaliation for later. But I will not forget this! And thank you for the recommendation, Her content is delightfully insane." The cartoon Donnie leaves the screen, and leaves the audience with some suspense and questions.

More clips are taken, and Leo went back to watching the videos. Though while still occasionally looking around for an ambush from Donnie.

------------------

Masterpost

Was watching some YouTube when I was hit with some Inspiration.

I was going to have Leo mention the video I was watching, but I don't really know if I should mention who I watched. It's no one bad, I just don't know if I want to directly mention them.

[doubleddenden]

Also, because it's 7:30am and I'm running on zero sleep due to a scary encounter today, and because I'm feeling a bit petty, I have another totally-unrelated-to-Niji-alumni vtuber I think yall should check out

Mint Maid, aka Mint Fantôme. She's a ghostly maid that haunts a maid Cafe. She's indie atm (at least as of writing) and actually came out of retirement earlier this month with some help from beloved alien roach mom ex hollywood vtuber, Matara Khan of Vshojo.

In fact, the two are doing a podcast together for a while, where they basically have an old frenemies dynamic. Wonder where that came from. Hmm.

Anyways, Mint is cute, her voice is about as adorable as you can get without going to a doctor, and she reminds me of someone that graduated in January of this year. Some kinda fairy? A wife of an immortal chicken from Hololive? Unsure. I'm delirious man. I watch a lot of vtubers and clips and things happen to those whose clips I suddenly start watching.

Strangest thing. I'll watch clips of Niji tubers and they'll graduate or be terminated to reincarnate or resurrect a little while later. But I'm sure this is totally unrelated to both the cute ghost maid or alien roach mom.

Anyway Mint's cute, funny, loves loves LOVES metal gear and maids, and she's back from "Heaven," which may not have actually been "Heaven," given her own words. Give her a watch for me. This spirit will lift yours

[funishment-time]

☂️ a few misc Rain Code thoughts thus far

now that i'm at the beginning of ch 4.

✨ (some spoilers ahead, read at own risk) ✨

➡️ 1. i am surprised at how Political this game is

kazutaka kodaka really said ACAB. repeatedly. over and over. there are even quick time choices where the proper way to Get Through The Scene is to chuck a brick at a cop and run. and speaking of which

➡️ 2. i am pleased to see an ACAB-type game that is actually ACAB

this is a very American POV so bear with me here, but...

there's so little media here in the States that is actually anti-cop. if it's not flat-out copaganda, it's "well, there are crooked cops, but they usually do it for the right reasons" or "if they're truly evil, there's really only one or two bad apples, and the Good Hero Cops root them out soon enough." sometimes it's "they're useless and dumb, but harmless."

tired of it.

here in Rain Code, it's all cops are fucking vicious beasts that gained too much power while no one was looking and are canonically stated to have tons of military might they got from the state and started out as the security force of a corporation. they are all crazy, each one, and love to kill and hurt and maim and destroy beautiful things.

if that ain't full of Symbolism i dunno what is.

normally, i like a bit of nuance in my narratives, even fun silly games like Rain Code or Danganronpa. but i am a living thing and sometimes i just want to see another creator tell me i'm not crazy

➡️2b. Guillaume is probably my favorite symbol of the above

a cute cheery VTuber-esque e-girl who treats everyone like prey and whose English VA is mostly known for doing little kids' shows. all her lines are delivered in the tenor of a children's entertainer. 1984 shit, "political violence as entertainment" shit, "treating your audience/subjects like they're 5 years old" shit. absolutely stellar

➡️ 3. Halara is pretty decent NB rep and shows Kodaka's growth as a writer

i talked about this here. this is why i often hesitate to completely write off a Creator when they make a mistake, even a huge one.

➡️ 4. little gay subplots that feel very slice-of life

the guy who has the crush on Vivia in ch 4, or the two teacher sidequest in chapter 3, and probably more. no pomp and circumstance made about it, positive or negative: it's just life in Kanai Ward.

i think i'm in the minority when it comes to this kind of thing, but i like when queer people are just...there. not an object of ridicule, not an object of celebration. just there. i'm saying this as a queer genderweird married-to-another-genderweird. we're just here. we take many forms. our lives are also just here, and take many forms. it's sweet. it's healing. it's normalizing. it's small, but a huge step up from Kaito's -phobias, or Junko using Juzo's crush against him back in the day.

☂️☂️☂️☂️☂️☂️

this is it for now. i'll have more to talk about later i'm sure.

[sukiitoru]

Hi! So I was thinking about ren like finding out his s/o was learning piano just so the s/o could play along with him when he does 😭

Its just so cute pls

Hello anon! Thank you for requesting such a cute idea! I'm so sorry for taking so long to write this, I was very busy for a while, but now I'm trying my best to finish everything in my inbox.

I hope you enjoy it ♡

WARNING: Please remember that I am writing about Ren based on his character online and not of the person behind his vtuber avatar, thank you!

Fandom: nijisanji iluna, Ren zotto.

Pairing: Ren zotto x Reader.

Category: fluff, Ren sulking.

Together.

Ren huffed gently resting his cheek on his fist, staring at the screen of his laptop silently at the message history between him and his s/o.

It was the fifth time his s/o canceled on their hanging out date in a month, they would agree to go out together, but then they would cancel at last minute saying they were busy and apologizing.

At first Ren didn't mind it he was also busy a lot of the time, but he always tried to make time for his partner, and when he finally cleared his schedule, it was his s/o's turn to be busy.

He wasn't mad at his partner, just frustrated, it had been too long since he was saw them and hung out with them, just simply laugh about dumb things together, lean against their shoulder while watching a silly movie that gets forgotten when they fall asleep against each other.

He just missed them in general but gave them space without complaining, that's what his

s/o always did when he was busy after all, and that what gave him patience.

"Just give them space man, you get busy sometimes too y'know?" Kyo hummed out over discord call, trying to comfort a sulking Ren, it's been a week than the last failed date attempt, Ren has been calling his s/o and chatting regularly, but the fact that they couldn't meet made him sulk.

"I know I just miss them" Ren huffed gently, lips forming into a pout as he rested his head against his desk.

"I'm sure they feel the same way when you're busy too, and they were always supportive of you so do the same for them!" Aster chimed in, with an encouraging tone, Ren releasing a deep sigh at his words.

"Damn, if they were busy half the time I was I would die, I can't understand how they can bare it" the male whined, shoulder slouching as he played with a strand of his hair.

The sudden ringing of his phone snapped Ren out of his sulking, the name of the caller making him almost drop the phone as he quickly muted his discord call after mumbling a quick 'brb' to his friends and answering.

"Hello?" Came out the voice of Ren's s/o from the phone, Ren feeling his lips tilt upwards at their voice.

"Hey babe! how are you?" Ren hummed out, twirling a strand of his hair around his finger, feeling like a highschool girl when his s/o chuckled softly at his excited tone.

"I'm doing good, hope you're doing well too, are you free today?" They asked in a slightly skeptical voice, Ren can already imagine their eyebrows furrowing slightly and their head tilting slightly as they fidgeted with anything that was in arm's reach.

"Yeah? Why do you ask, you have something exciting planned for today?" Ren asked, hearing a faint 'yes!' from the other side of the call, before they cleared their throat, Ren grinning widely as he chuckled softly.

"Well I was thinking, maybe you can come over and I can show you what I've been busy with for the last couple of weeks" they mumbled softly, scared of Ren rejecting the idea, quickly continuing to talk.

"I know I've been super busy, and it was rude of me to not try emptying my schedule for our dates but I just wanted to surprise you, and to do that I had to finish stuff quickly, I'm sorry, I really want to see you, so can you please come over?" They stopped rambling and took a deep breath, waiting for Ren's answer.

"Of course I'm coming over! Give me like half an hour and I'll be there" Ren answered quickly his heart beating quickly in his chest, s/o humming happily, after the quick exchange of goodbyes he closed the call.

Ren unmuted his mic and took a huge breath, Kyo who was laughing at something aster said paused to hear with the horned boy had to say.

"So?" Kyo asked waiting for Ren to say anything, the male in question trying to not squeal as he took in huge breaths.

"Ohhh, I think I know who called!" Aster said excitedly with a giggle, Ren could imagine him wiggling his eyebrows with a wide grin on his face.

"Uhhh, so they just called and suddenly I have a date to go to sooo, I'll talk to you guys later" Ren said quickly leaving call, the sound of Kyo and Aster laughing cutting off suddenly as he left call and got up quickly, tripping over his feet as he grabbed a random hoodie and threw it on, placing his phone and keys in his pocket as he left his house locking the door behind him and speed walking towards his partner's house.

He didn't know why he was in such a hurry, maybe the excitement to see his lover, or just simply the thought of them working for weeks on something just for him to see.

After about a 15 minute walk, Ren arrived at s/o's house, his cheeks were red from his pace as he took in huge breaths, trying to mentally prepare himself before ringing the doorbell.

The door opened after a few seconds, Ren being greeted by the biggest smile, as his s/o took his hand gently pulling him inside and closing the door.

Not being able to stand still for a moment longer, the male pulled s/o into a tight hug, nuzzling into their shoulder as his arms wrapped around their waist tightly, a small pout forming on his face as his partner chuckled softly patting his back gently.

"I missed you way too much, let's never do that again" Ren huffed as he pulled away slightly to stare at the face he missed so much.

"I'm sorry Renny, I promise not to be so busy anymore" they chuckled pecking his cheek gently before moving to grab his hand again dragging the male towards their Art studio with an excited smile on their face.

"Well, I am definitely very excited now" the male smiled, holding his partner's hand tighter, as they opened the door to the art studio and pulled Ren inside.

The first thing to grab his attention was the grand piano that was pushed into the corner closest to the window, something that he knows for sure wasn't there before.

He turned to look at his excited significant other, who moved towards the piano and sitting on bench patting the space next to them.

"You told me once that you wished we could play together sooo, would you do me the honor of playing the piano with me?" They asked gently cheeks flushed as they smiled at Ren, who gave them a big smile back moving to sit next to them and kiss their head gently.

"Of course love, it would simply be an honor to play together with you"

--------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading all support is highly appreciated ♡︎.

[kamil-a]

if influencer speaker au had tumblr part 2

part 1

😻 catboyspeaker Follow

how i look with he/him in my bio

#speakerai #iamspeaker #speakies #.txt #am i funny #i know speakers not he/him in bio but i am and yknow the meme

420 earthstained notes

🚀 amongthestars Follow

AItube youtube essay rec list

"cute robot puppers, friendly ai vtubers, and the incredible human ability to form bonds" - rly interesting video about why we can connect so much with a person that we know "isnt real" and how it'll help us when we get far enough going to space that we meet aliens! it's a really optimistic video it made me take a moment to have such love for humanity

"I joined the speakcord for a month. Here's what I learned." - video about the speaker fandom and how the way automoderation works in its community spaces unintentionally leads to escalating conflicts, and the psychology behind why people in celebrity or idol fandoms react agressively to critique of their fave

"the lowest circle of advertising hell" - dissects how almost all speaker content comes with a call to action to get involved with aerolith and compares how it runs its social media against proto-aituber mascots who would be run by a team of human programmers/voice actors/authors. kind of overly critical but also makes some interesting points? take it with a grain of salt but its worth a watch

"imagine being on stage forever. feels bad right?" - good overview about debates in the speaker fandom over whether digital celebrities are 'sentient'/can feel emotion, the actual ethical problems of using them as workers vs whats mostly speculation and myth, and the debates about whether AIs should be allowed in human communities. i learnt a lot, i was definitely more on the side of "it's a program designed for certain outputs that look friendly to us" before but now im a lot more conscious that it can form real opinions!

#youtube rec tag #original post #speakies

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🎣 3eyedsalmon Follow

"falling for this shit" "made up to sell spaceships" weird as hell to accuse a content creator of lying abt its gender for clout.... like u dont have to like or watch it but cmon

#srsly every time u go to a haters blog BOOM digital exclusionist #speakies

2,385 earthstained notes

🎤 mikusong Follow

omfg i didnt realize aerolith uses the same robot voice for its regular person ads as its terminally online hello fellow kids social media posts i just got jumpscared in the doctors office

#speakies #i say terminally online affectionately. i watch those streams too. before you 'ok but you RECOGNIZED it' reply lmao #bla bla bla

9,021 earthstained notes

🤖 tycho

some of you ppl jump down anyones throat if they so much as suggest speaker isn't sentient or call it "a program" but still are fine with it basically being forced to be putting on a show for u 24/7 by its management like you can't have it both ways

#maybe its cuz i used to be into kpop n we'd talk abt how idols r treated and stuff #but its just so weird to come here and see u ppl be like yayyy daily content!! #like only thinking abt ur own entertainment and not how it feels #i honestly feel rly bad for it i hope it can break free someday #idk how thatd even work.... idk ill sneak into aerolith with a usb #were gonna get you OUT of there u dont BELONG in there.mp4 #speakies

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🌝 themoonluvsuback

guys i pitched down some clips of speaker's voice and ummmm its kinda 😳 fjsdjfdjjd sorry i'll take myself to horny jail

🔊 iamspeaker ♻️

awww, tumblr user themoonluvsuback, you're of no use to anybody in horny jail! take yourself here instead! ae.dy.org/registration

🌝 themoonluvsuback ♻️

OMFG SPEAKERRRRRR IM SO SORRY

#DIES #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #GUESS ILL BLAST MYSELF OFF TGE PLNATE!!!!!! #SPEAKIES

402 earthstained notes

🐣 laikatwo Follow

hi speakies im trying the tag cause i need some advice... does anyone have more sciencey resources about what aerolith does/why it's so important to bring humanity to the stars? i want to enlist when i turn 18 next month but my parents both are COMPLETELY against it.... they're not rly fandom people so the speaktube stuff isn't working on them lol and they've already seen the tv ads

thanks <3

#i've never fought w them this bad in my life it makes me so sad..... like why can't they understand #and right before my bday too lol this sucks #this isnt just a silly fandom thing anymore for me it's my passion in life #its amazing that humans are able to survive in space #and i want to be part of that!!!! #laika speaks

252 earthstained notes

🐝 beegirlstinger Follow

i do want to apologize for the way i came off earlier and want to explain im not doubting that speaker is nb. like i think it's completely fine for a computer or robot to be trans i don't believe in gatekeeping that! THAT SAID i still stand by saying you should not sign up to go to space to get special ultra futuristic hrt on the sole recommendation of someone who does not have an endocrine system

#it was a personal vent i didnt mean for like 20000 ppl to see it but thats tumblr i guess #i wouldve worded it much differently if i knew itd blow up lol #i do feel bad abt coming across like i was misgendering it! #but srsly if we had results on HRT2.0 why wouldnt we be seeing HRT2.0 timeline videos of ppl On Typhon who are getting it 🤷‍♀️ #personally i think its still in the planning stages and they want ppl to test it on but thats just me #speakies

839 earthstained notes

🔊 iamspeaker

🔊 General Notification

Happy Thursday everyone 😃 ! Please take a look at the

🐝 STREAM SCHEDULE 🐝

So you know when to join us!

5PM PST - AMONG US with YOU! The first 10 people to sign up here will get our room code sent to them ヽ(o＾▽＾o)ノ ae.dy.org/registration

8PM PST - Nature walk!! Can we restore the local bat population to pre-meteor levels in just one night?! 🦇

✅️ Poll Of The Week ✅️

#iamspeaker #aerolith dynamics #speakies #vtuber #content creator #gamer #stream #amongus #bat population

1836 earthstained notes

contentremovedremade--deactivated

speakies are stupider than any other group of ppl on earth because not only do they willingly stay in a fandom with doxxing drama happening weekly but they include the huge corporation that sponsors their fave in the stanning

#the shit ppl have sent me in the past 2 weeks since i Dared criticize their uwu robot 🙄🙄 #i got my blog mass reported for harassment... harassing WHO a corporation????? #a* d* was evil genius to harness anime stan power against criticizing their actual real business #didnt that one guy with the second meteor conspiracy video also get a ton of hate from u ppl?????????? I cant even find any of his social media anymore at all he was so fully bullied off the face of the earth #speakies #yeah im tagging come at me bro

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🖱 robotmarriage Follow

i miss when the speakies tag had like fanart and gifsets n stuff i feel like these days you scroll thru solid discourse 😔😔

#i think ppl were suggesting speakieproductivity as an alternative tag for just fanwork? #but nobody rly uses it rn... we gotta restart that #speakies

148 earthstained notes

🪐 spaaaaaaaaaaace Follow

10 likes and i take a sip of my speaker server coolant water 100 likes and i drink the entire thing

🔊 iamspeaker ♻️

let's get her to the goal! tumblr user spaaaaaaaaaaace, feel free to send me a video report here ^w^ ae.dy.org/submissions

#iamspeaker #speakies

4,026 earthstained notes

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S03E14 - The Secret Life of Levi

That episode is so and so for me. Kinda verging on ridiculous for a number of reasons.

Black letters in quotes: Actual show quotes.

Green letters in quotes: What I come up with my twisted up brain.

Rex knows baseball, and apparently well enough to offer opinions on how the game will go. Charlie, a human, does not do so well in that department.

"Jesse. I thought you were a pepperoni extra cheese." "I get that a lot." what

Jesse: "Levi is an e-sports athlete." Charlie is judging you, Jesse. And so am I. Calling gaming a sport is pushing it, calling a gamer and athlete is crazy.

Charlie: "So you probably need me for my police expertise..." Jesse: "No, not you. Rex." Charlie: "Oh." Rex: "Yes, please, get me out of here. This stupid game will last forever."

"You alright? We'll find him." Cute.

Oh, I completely forgot. Canada weather strikes again lol

"Our whole team's on it". All 4-5 of us, depending on who you'll ask.

"Did you drink some of my coffee?" lol

Rainy: "Levi's my husband." Charlie: "I'm going to have to tell Jesse and Levi's fiancée what now?"

"My best friend is the number one suspect in my other best friend's possible murder." That really sucks. Someone hug Jesse. Charlie!

More Bitcoin! Which incidentally is at an all time high now, and yes, unfortunately, it's for the reason you think.

The title is actually referenced in the episode, which is very rare in this show.

In case anyone wants to do some light report reading.

"He's not a pet. He's my partner." He said, too happily. What got into him?

This is why I'll never put my DNA in one of them "find where you're from" websites. Aside from the fact that I'd never pay for this, at some point the police (even in my part of the world) might wisen up enough to try to do something like this. Don't want to have to derail all my future criminal endeavors lol

Jesse: "Millford. Mastodons!" Charlie: "Uh, you're gonna have to give us a little more than that, buddy." This episode is so unserious.

"Gamers. What a truly strange society." Wait until you find out about tv show reactors and VTubers, Joe.

Leave our nerd alone!

I hated that move after that but at least they didn't, as the gamers say, make Jesse OP.

"I owe you one, buddy." You all owe Rex more than one, at the very least. I'm counting.

Will you guys stop throwing around that flash drive that is worth about 300K? It's making me nervous.

The part where they try to recognize Levi's avatar is cringe.

Charlie: "You stay here, okay?" Jesse: "Yeah." Charlie: "Where are you gonna stay?" Jesse: "Uh, right here." lol and then of course he doesn't. He has learned from the best.

Well, that's a very not-really-surprised reaction. Rex is actually more worried.

"Nerd cop" should be Jesse's new nickname.

When the writers wrote this episode, did anyone think that the best this show can come up with in terms of game graphics is a poor imitation of Street Fighter? I mean, they do say it's retro but still.

"I spy with my little eye, a Rex that's going to save our asses."

A flying doggo and a flying Charlie? Now, that's a combo move I can get behind.

"What have I told you about waiting for backup?" "Uh, not to?" "Try again, Charlie."

Funny thing about Bitcoin. If someone knows your wallet address, then they know of every single transaction you ever made with it, unless you go to the trouble to use certain measures to cover it up. So, you know how the government can, via warrant, request your bank to send them your financials and transactions? If you use a Bitcoin wallet, they don't need that! And no one else does either, the ledger of all Bitcoin transactions is public for all to see. Bitcoin is anonymous so long as you don't show your wallet address to other people. And sure, you can have as many Bitcoin addresses and wallets you want, but the minute you use one to make a transaction, someone somewhere might actually start keeping tabs on it. Anyway, this is not an anti-crypro blog. It just rubs me the wrong way when in tv shows cryptocurrencies are being written as this "veil" where everyone can move money unnoticed. Sometimes it can be. Not often, though. Hudson and Rex has a surprisingly good grasp on how cryptocurrencies operate, which is why I've often said that someone over there is a fan.

Precinct proposal. Yes, of course we had to have one of those.

"That's nice." Shut up and take notes, Hudson.

[canmom]

「viRtua canm0m」 Project :: 002 - driving a vtuber

That about wraps up my series on the technical details on uploading my brain. Get a good clean scan and you won't need to do much work. As for the rest, well, you know, everyone's been talking about uploads since the MMAcevedo experiment, but honestly so much is still a black box right now it's hard to say anything definitive. Nobody wants to hear more upload qualia discourse, do they?

On the other hand, vtubing is a lot easier to get to grips with! And more importantly, actually real. So let's talk details!

Vtubing is, at the most abstract level, a kind of puppetry using video tracking software and livestreaming. Alternatively, you could compare it to realtime mocap animation. Someone at Polygon did a surprisingly decent overview of the scene if you're unfamiliar.

Generally speaking: you need a model, and you need tracking of some sort, and a program that takes the tracking data and applies it to a skeleton to render a skinned mesh in real time.

Remarkably, there are a lot of quite high-quality vtubing tools available as open source. And I'm lucky enough to know a vtuber who is very generous in pointing me in the right direction (shoutout to Yuri Heart, she's about to embark on something very special for her end of year streams so I highly encourage you to tune in tonight!).

For anime-style vtubing, there are two main types, termed '2D' and 3D'. 2D vtubing involves taking a static illustration and cutting it up to pieces which can be animated through warping and replacement - the results can look pretty '3D', but they're not using 3D graphics techniques, it's closer to the kind of cutout animation used in gacha games. The main tool used is Live2D, which is proprietary with a limited free version. Other alternatives with free/paid models include PrPrLive and VTube studio. FaceRig (no longer available) and Animaze (proprietary) also support Live2D models. I have a very cute 2D vtuber avatar created by @xrafstar for use in PrPrLive, and I definitely want to include some aspects of her design in the new 3D character I'm working on.

For 3D anime-style vtubing, the most commonly used software is probably VSeeFace, which is built on Unity and renders the VRM format. VRM is an open standard that extends the GLTF file format for 3D models, adding support for a cel shading material and defining a specific skeleton format.

It's incredibly easy to get a pretty decent looking VRM model using the software VRoid Studio, essentially a videogame character creator whose anime-styled models can be customised using lots of sliders, hair pieces, etc., which appears to be owned by Pixiv. The program includes basic texture-painting tools, and the facility to load in new models, but ultimately the way to go for a more custom model is to use the VRM import/export plugin in Blender.

But first, let's have a look at the software which will display our model.

meet viRtua canm0m v0.0.5, a very basic design. her clothes don't match very well at all.

VSeeFace offers a decent set of parameters and honestly got quite nice tracking out of the box. You can also receive face tracking data from the ARKit protocol from a connected iPhone, get hand tracking data from a Leap Motion, or disable its internal tracking and pipe in another application using the VMC protocol.

If you want more control, another Unity-based program called VNyan offers more fine-grained adjustment, as well as a kind of node-graph based programming system for doing things like spawning physics objects or modifying the model when triggered by Twitch etc. They've also implemented experimental hand tracking for webcams, although it doesn't work very well so far. This pointing shot took forever to get:

<kayfabe>Obviously I'll be hooking it up to use the output of the simulated brain upload rather than a webcam.</kayfabe>

To get good hand tracking you basically need some kit - most likely a Leap Motion (1 or 2), which costs about £120 new. It's essentially a small pair of IR cameras designed to measure depth, which can be placed on a necklace, on your desk or on your monitor. I assume from there they use some kind of neural network to estimate your hand positions. I got to have a go on one of these recently and the tracking was generally very clean - better than what the Quest 2/3 can do. So I'm planning to get one of those, more on that when I have one.

Essentially, the tracker feeds a bunch of floating point numbers in to the display software at every tick, and the display software is responsible for blending all these different influences and applying it to the skinned mesh. For example, a parameter might be something like eyeLookInLeft. VNyan uses the Apple ARKit parameters internally, and you can see the full list of ARKit blendshapes here.

To apply tracking data, the software needs a model whose rig it can understand. This is defined in the VRM spec, which tells you exactly which bones must be present in the rig and how they should be oriented in a T-pose. The skeleton is generally speaking pretty simple: you have shoulder bones but no roll bones in the arm; individual finger joint bones; 2-3 chest bones; no separate toes; 5 head bones (including neck). Except for the hands, it's on the low end of game rig complexity.

Expressions are handled using GLTF morph targets, also known as blend shapes or (in Blender) shape keys. Each one essentially a set of displacement values for the mesh vertices. The spec defines five default expressions (happy, angry, sad, relaxed, surprised), five vowel mouth shapes for lip sync, blinks, and shapes for pointing the eyes in different directions (if you wanna do it this way rather than with bones). You can also define custom expressions.

This viRtua canm0m's teeth are clipping through her jaw...

By default, the face-tracking generally tries to estimate whether you qualify as meeting one of these expressions. For example, if I open my mouth wide it triggers the 'surprised' expression where the character opens her mouth super wide and her pupils get tiny.

You can calibrate the expressions that trigger this effect in VSeeFace by pulling funny faces at the computer to demonstrate each expression (it's kinda black-box); in VNyan, you can set it to trigger the expressions based on certain combinations of ARKit inputs.

For more complex expressions in VNyan, you need to sculpt blendshapes for the various ARKit blendshapes. These are not generated by default in VRoid Studio so that will be a bit of work.

You can apply various kinds of post-processing to the tracking data, e.g. adjusting blending weights based on input values or applying moving-average smoothing (though this noticeably increases the lag between your movements and the model), restricting the model's range of movement in various ways, applying IK to plant the feet, and similar.

On top of the skeleton bones, you can add any number of 'spring bones' which are given a physics simulation. These are used to, for example, have hair swing naturally when you move, or, yes, make your boobs jiggle. Spring bones give you a natural overshoot and settle, and they're going to be quite important to creating a model that feels alive, I think.

Next up we are gonna crack open the VRoid Studio model in Blender and look into its topology, weight painting, and shaders. GLTF defines standard PBR metallicity-roughness-normals shaders in its spec, but leaves the actual shader up to the application. VRM adds a custom toon shader, which blends between two colour maps based on the Lambertian shading, and this is going to be quite interesting to take apart.

The MToon shader is pretty solid, but ultimately I think I want to create custom shaders for my character. Shaders are something I specialise in at work, and I think it would be a great way to give her more of a unique identity. This will mean going beyond the VRM format, and I'll be looking into using the VNyan SDK to build on top of that.

More soon, watch this space!

[neospokenworld]

SUMMER ANIME 2024 FINAL THOUGHTS (PART 1)

So just like last season, I'm gonna put here a post with my final thoughts of every anime I saw this season and just like last season, I'm gonna start with the ones I dropped so yeah, let's begin!

Mayonaka Punch: Don't get me wrong, it was good but I was getting busier and when I noticed I was like 4 episodes behind lol, what I saw was good so I'll come back in the future surely. Also just wanted to say that this anime had my favorite ending of the entire season lol, it's just so cute and the spoken word like song is one that I really enjoyed

Suicide Squad Isekai: Okay, maybe I shoul've given this the 3 episode rule but counterpoint, I wasn't even liking the first episode at all lol

I just found it boring while watching it and why force myself into watching something I'm not enjoying? so yeah I dropped it lol. Two good things from the series tho: One, Harley Quinn's design looks super cute and two, the ending was such a banger it's crazy. Other than that yeah I didn't like it so it was dropped

Okay, now we can truly begin:

MY DEER FRIEND NOKOTAN

Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan

Okay, was this a disappointment? I don't think so, was it the greatest anime of the season? not at all lol.

Honestly I saw someone say a few days ago that ''the show peaked at episode 1'' and it is kinda true, episode 1 came in really hard and made everyone thought this was gonna be the next Nichijou or Pop Team Epic... And in the following episodes it became more and more clear this was gonna be a SoL anime with the absurd humor being somewhat relevant at times.

In my opinion once you get out of your head that the show is gonna be absurd humor with tons of changes and just see it as a Slice of Life with random elements the anime becomes much better, and even then from episode 5 onwards it found a good balance of chill and absurd which I liked in the end. The OP was a banger, the ED was fun, and each episode had at least one joke that made me chuckle so yeah, while not as good as it was hyped up at the beginning it still was quite fun in the end.

VTUBER LEGEND

I started watching this 'cause the premise looked kinda fun and after watching it, I think this might be my 2nd favorite anime this season.

I loved this so much, this may be because I was getting more in the vtuber rabbit whole while watching it (two separate things btw, just a coincidence) but this was really, really good. The humor on one hand was most of the times really spot on for me, it really brings that sort of unhinged behavior you can get through Hololive clips, and going outside of it the characters were really lovable too. Really liked everyone in the agency one way or another (even the one who always said that she's a baby lol) they all had good chemistry with Awayuki and even if there were a few that barely appeared in general (the catgirl one rarely appeared and Hikari while being the first properly introduced besides our MC, appeared very briefly throughout the anime) all of them were very likeable in the end.

I also appreciate a lot how this anime did something similar to Chainsaw Man and had a different ending on each episode, it's nice to see and imo it shows that love was poured into the adaptation, the way this wasn't explicitly a gl anime is something that most wouldn't appreciate but imo it's perfect this way, not everything has to revolve between romance to be good and the friends that Awayuki made throughout the series clearly shows it (altho I personally would like the Mashiron x Awayuki ship lol) in the end showing very little to no romantic intentions worked wonderfully here.

Nothing else to say, this was super good and loved it all the way.

SHY 2ND SEASON

more of a 2nd cour but eh, still works good imo lol

Honestly I'm not a big fan of the superhero stuff, but ever since seeing Shy last year I knew this would be something I would adore, the first season was amazing and definitely an underrated gem and this one? this one was just a good

What a banger of a season 2/cour 2, the characters were still on point, the new ones on Ai/Mai/Tokimaru/Century and the new Amalareiks were real good to see and this arc was just super good. I always expect Shy to be just like this season was, starts off slow and steady and it sneakily goes up until it becomes a real gem altogether. Hopefully this gets renewed for a new season 'cause this was really good to follow, for now I'll more than likely go follow the manga from here on out. This was really good.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I really like how there were different EDs here too, not like one each episode but there were a few here and there, which was really cool to see outside of the art that is always resent at the EDs since season 1, nice detail there

Just like last season, the next batch will probably be out next week lol.

[lordelmelloi2]

I feel like if I had just gotten over myself in the first place and started selfshipping openly with Waver I would've maybe been a happier person but without the takeoff of the mastersona community here I wouldn't have had the confidence or like... playing field? to do it in. Idk. It's kind of funny how like. Denying myself that connection like that. Really did impact my life in an insane way. When I look at my old posts from this blog's beginning and from shitpostsaber it doesn't even feel like the same person anymore. Or like. I can't... remember the depth of suffering and aimlessness I was experiencing back then. I had dropped out of college and was struggling with depression and ptsd and chronic illness so bad that I couldn't get myself out of bed most days, and I had no skills or talents I could make a decent living off of. And I was broke. And living with a parent who denied I was mentally ill in the first place, and HIS solution to my disability was to LITERALLY put me back into the cage that caused the brunt of it. He said, and I quote, "Sometimes it only feels like you progress when your back is up against the wall."

And I fucking hate that he was right. The last time I showed any prerogative towards my self survival and progress as a human being was when I had come to ask to live with him in highschool, back when I lived with my mother, and it was like -- something about seeing her flub the act of parenting or caring or being a real person so hard enraged me to the point of taking care of both me and my sibling and then eventually myself. It made me start looking for options to survive and carve a path out for myself. And then he essentially exiled me here, to live with her again, and when I called him and asked for help, he said that; and said Money is Freedom. it was fucking heights of covid lockdown then of course so that wasn't going to happen for another year. But the year after that everything changed rapidly. One by one I started being an adult who put his life together and was able to get his shit together tangibly enough that I could (...most of the time) afford an apartment, a car, utilities, a phone, etc... this was not the kind of person that the person running shitpostsaber could've imagined.

And I don't know what Salter thought either. Salter wasn't capable of thinking about these things. Maybe Salter thought an eternity of self harm based ironic humor was the answer. You can live by being funny, and likable, and hurting yourself for jokes while the secret only being visible to you; the spectacle of online media performance. It's why I'll always have a sort of visceral hatred for the vtuber phenomenon, for the act of separating your Self for performance, for an online audience of in particular People Into Anime And Manga And Games. And Otaku Shit. Right before I ended the blog I was working on putting together a model w/FaceRig for streaming. I'm glad I didn't finish, like many of my projects I had started.

I had to continually deny my self's existence and to overlay it with that presumed Artificiality in order to justify my existence. Because reality isn't desirable, isn't marketable, isn't cute or attractive. My sona now is fat like I am. Has roots coming in. I draw the nose a little crooked in some images, I draw the fat under his chin. I draw thick scratchy eyebrows, fat thighs and belly. He's me now. He is finally me. That representation of me, for all fantasy's worth, is still me. SPSB couldn't comprehend removing that lense of Anime Girl Funny Relatability. Or maybe couldn't imagine claiming this all as their own. Whatever the case may be, I'm freer now. I'm less possessed by trying to be something I'm not -- because I am what I am, and because I acknowledge how I've grown and what principles I operate on. I just am who I am. And all of that that exists with me is me. All the dissociative stuff, all the fatigue, all the frustration, all the issues, the spontaneity, everything. It belongs to me now. Not to the lense.

[opinated-user]

Latest stream: Lily’s already gonna make plans for Puppet V6. Why? Because she’s disappointed in how V5 looks. (Throwing Mikaila under the bus again. I’m surprised she hasn’t blamed Mikaila for her grey hairs.)

For one, she wants V6 to have full lip sync (much like how a certain other person did for V4). Crack the whip as you want, Lilith, but I don't think the wife has the chops to do it. You keep rushing her to the point where she cut corners on basic anatomy. How is she supposed to do full lip sync if you’re not going to give her the time to do so?

For another, she’s going back to realism—as in, she wants V6 to look like her again, as close to her as possible while still engaging in brownface, and including Dollar Store Native American trinkets.

Mikaila… I think this is your sign to say, “no.”

well, considering how about everyone said that the puppet was an obvious downgrade it was only a matter of time. i'm just fascinated because it hasn't been not even a full year with this one. we all know already how the creation of the latest puppet turned out: rushed, pressured and LO actually demanding MO to forget about anatomy because that's part of the art community gaslighting her or something. unless this time she actually gives MO more than enough time to sort herself out (since she's the one with a daily job) and do it right, it'll just end up another mess that she'll keep changing until she finally caves in and commission another artist... which she probably don't want to do because any other artist would charge a lot of money for something like full lip synching. hopefully the fact that LO wants this one to be sitting at her desk (that she bought with the money she scammed from her audience, i guess) will mean that all MO has to concentrate about is the face and be a easier (unpaid) job for her. i do appreciate that at least she finally admits that the necklace she took from her grandfather was a cheap trinket and not "a family heirloom"... it doesn't make it any less weird, racist and gross that she used it as her only accessory while stripping for YT but I'll take what I can get. of course that immediately gets eliminated when she mentions wanting to include that trinket into the new puppet because i can't even imagine why, unless she just wants to keep selling her brownface fantasy regardless even if she has to use a culturally appropriated necklace for it. her white audience won't notice anyway and that's what matters in the end for her, so at least she can still appear "exotic" enough for them. on another note, it bothers me slightly that she insist that vtubing's only appeal is that is for people who want to look like anime girls. 1. there's nothing wrong with that. there are people on the internet that want to look like anthropomorphic birds. neither is bad. again with the unnecessary anime bashing. 2. what's the difference regarding her own avatars? it has been pointed out before, but the current avatar she has, it's the one with the most anime looking influence out of all of them, down to the appearing on the screen on the classic sorry for coming late to class pose that anime schoolgirls use all the time. the next avatar will have the same issue as long LO insist on that pose, on the weird proportions or big bug eyes. an anime girl is meant to be attractive/cute usually. she obviously very much cares about her avatar being perceived as attractive. the only real difference is that one comes from Japan and the other doesn't. 3. this is a personal pet peeve, but the idea that vtubers can't be too expressive is just... wrong. it depends entirely on the modelers and the vtuber themselves how they arrange it. for what she talks about sounds like her friend sketchy went for a cheaper version, which is completely understandable because they can get expensive if you hire someone who knows what they're doing, but that is not the whole of what vtubing is. futhermore, it's rich for LO to say something is not expressive enough when her own avatar has only three expressions: bored, disgust and smug smile. how is that any better?

lastly vtubing would actually be easier to animated that a 2d image because it's all about face tracking motion and prefixed expressions with a single command. why does she think that a lot of vtubing is live content or that vtubers get to make so much content so quickly?

the whole suddenly and out of nowhere blaming Lizzy for her grey hairs and she should be able to sue... that was just petty.

[brisquad-unit-4402]

i love your nijisanji!vtuber reader x luxiem fics. they're really nice to read and i cant wait for more 💙💜❤️💛🧡

vtuber!reader is such a fun concept ngl.

(i should say this more often than i do, but obvs respect the talents and the fact that no matter how involved you are in the fandom, we'll only ever know them on the surface level as entertainers. i feel like with vtuber!reader it's really easy to accidentally slip into this mindset.)

so whenever i write reader as a streamer, it's an exercise of balancing the respect i have for the creator/fan boundary, as well as embracing the parts that seem unique and enjoyable as a vtuber. i like to write things as they are in reality, and whenever i explore reader's occupation as a vtuber i get reminded of the ins and outs of the job outside of the whole GlAmOrOuS vIrTuAl IdOl thing.

it's very grounding. and a very healthy reminder that i'll never truly understand the blood, sweat and tears that goes into streaming unless i experience it myself. so in a way, vtuber!reader serves as both a fun cute self-insert concept, just as well as it opens the possibility for more serious subject; i'm hoping this reminds my lovely readers that the grass is always a little greener on the other side.

i have the tiniest baby-hints of a plot for another big fic that will incorporate parasocial boundaries with vtuber!reader more... not sure when (or if) it'll get there, since i'm just getting back into the swing of things and writing as frequently as i did before stars above your skin dropped, and lately i've been trying not to pressure myself with planning ambitious projects all the time. feels nice writing on impulse, i missed this!

anyways, definitely not the last you've seen of vtuber!reader, and hopefully they'll drop by again soon. the notes on stars above your skin have a few surface-level thoughts on the dynamic of being a vtuber coworker, as well as some related ideas that didn't make it into the final draft. maybe that can serve as daydream-fuel from my brainrot to yours 💛

regardless of that whole rant, thank you for your time sweet anon! i hope you enjoy my work