While many thought it to be a mere trend that would die out in a few months, the march of the Vtubers has been progressing for a while now and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down just yet. Recently, viewers noticed that a background girl in the second episode of the second season of How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord bared an incredibly notable resemblance to the Japanese V-tuber Usada Pekora. At first it may be hard to tell as the colors are a lot darker to fit into the world of this anime, but further inspection indicates this is absolutely Pekora. While her outfit is different, she has her bunny scarf around her neck and distinct carrots in her hair.
To my knowledge, it appears Pekora had no idea this was going to happen. On Twitter she saw the character and fan speculation but merely replied with her famous “PEKO?” which tells us jack shit. This sparked some to look into what other places V-tubers have been showing up in, and YouTuber Choco Virus posted a video showing where Kiryu Coco has a brief appearance in the manga Girls Und Panzer. Judging from the video’s title, it seems this is just another Coco manga appearance to add to the pile. These appearances are cute and speak to the Vtubers’ influence in Japan, but do they signal anything for the future? I think so. We already know that Hololive plans to expand their content creation prowess into anime and manga with their Hololive Alternative project. Whether some of these cameos are somewhat planned, or if it’s merely other creators liking said Vtubers and including them in their own projects, either way it’s getting fans used to the idea of seeing Vtubers in these other mediums.
At this rate I feel like Hololive has locked down Vtubers as being popular for at least another year or so. At that point it will depend on how far they’ve gone to remain in the public eye as people are always trying to move on to the next latest and greatest thing. For now though, you may want to keep a lookout while you watch your favorite anime. They could be anywhere. Do you keep up with Vtubers? When can we get some Vtuber hentai appearances? Leave a comment below, peko!
