They want to be your anime best friends — on your phone and IRL at Dodger Stadium

Kou Mariya hasn’t shown her enactment to her family. That’s due to the fact that Mariya, not her existent name, is surviving a dual identity, and to support her privacy, lone the astir ineffable of confidants — oregon concern partners — tin cognize her existent persona.

Mariya, to her much than 84,000 followers connected YouTube, is simply a friendly, flirtatious vampire singer, arsenic excited to chat astir her digitized outfits and accessories arsenic she is to sing a precocious ’90s popular song. She performs arsenic an animated avatar utilizing question seizure technology, which matches her facial expressions and assemblage movements to the drawn figure.

Mariya spends a important information of her days arsenic this cartoon character, astatine erstwhile wholly existent portion being wholly artificial. She is simply a nonrecreational performer, though her signifier is virtual. Instead of a glimpse into a country oregon a home, her surroundings are afloat drawn — she could beryllium successful a formation mounting 1 time and an ornate bureau the next.

As a VTuber — that is, virtual YouTuber — Mariya is portion of a movement, 1 led by those weaned connected Japanese animation who are present uncovering ways to marque phantasy world-building consciousness individualized and personal. We link via video conferencing software, her determination successful the U.S. a secret, and Mariya appears successful her anime form, her silver-white hairsbreadth occasionally obscuring her welcoming oval eyes, which blink often arsenic she speaks. Her dependable is affable and warm, and it ever-so-slightly dips into an precocious registry erstwhile she laughs oregon needs to stress a point. She nervously chuckles that she’ll beryllium aged “so bad” erstwhile she admits the archetypal anime she fell successful emotion with was “Speed Racer.” Whether I’m talking to Mariya the vampire quality oregon Mariya the performer is ne'er rather clear.

Kou Mariya, hosting a Thursday nighttime performance successful Hollywood, is simply a affable vampire VTuber.

(Kou Mariya)

This play Mariya volition beryllium hosting a performance successful Hollywood with different fashionable VTubers. There volition beryllium unrecorded musicians, but the VTubers volition beryllium virtual. Mariya says she’ll beryllium performing from an off-site determination to support her identity.

Those successful Los Angeles volition person aggregate opportunities to instrumentality portion successful a VTuber clang people implicit the Fourth of July holiday. Mariya connected Thursday volition big the Fantastic Reality presented by IRIAM performance astatine the Vermont Hollywood, a show that makes virtual and existent musicians and features Ironmouse, a horned, operatic demon who was concisely the astir subscribed streamer connected Twitch.

Even much mainstream, a big of VTubers associated with Japanese steadfast Hololive volition invade Dodger Stadium for the 2nd twelvemonth successful a row. Saturday evening’s Hololive Night volition diagnostic 3 of company’s English-speaking talents — Ninomae Ina’nis, IRyS and Koseki Bijou — virtually cheering connected the team, singing the seventh-inning agelong and past starring a post-game creation enactment connected the field. A peculiar lawsuit summons volition see playing cards of the VTubers.

Hololive, a part of Cover Corp., is 1 of the largest VTuber endowment agencies successful the world, with astir 90 progressive performers crossed its assorted divisions. The company’s U.S. bureau is based successful L.A., and its concern with the Dodgers is to recognize, successful part, that the squad has a ample Japanese fanbase, acknowledgment to megastar Shohei Ohtani. Cover CEO Motoaki Tanigo, however, has a broader goal, and that’s to further bring VTubers to the masses.

“There are 2 reasons,” Tanigo says, via a translator, for wherefore Cover has targeted L.A. arsenic 1 of its cardinal markets. The first, helium notes, is owed to the information that a ample portion of the company’s fanbase resides successful the L.A. region. The second, helium stresses, relates to his concern goals, particularly the video crippled firms Cover hopes to spouse with. “Doing events successful the Los Angeles country is not lone important for our idiosyncratic engagement, but it’s a large accidental to amusement to our concern clients that we person a beardown following.”

VTubers person averaged 50 cardinal YouTube views annually implicit the past 3 years, according to a caller YouTube Culture & Trends report. A YouTube illustration of 300 virtual creators recovered that they drove 15 cardinal views crossed the site, with 1 cardinal coming from the U.S. alone. Almost each of these VTubers are steeped profoundly successful anime lore, civilization and tone. And portion determination are fashionable antheral VTubers, a fig of the astir celebrated are female-facing. Cover’s roster, for instance, is much than three-quarters female.

Hololive characters connected the Dodger Stadium scoreboard astatine past year’s event. Hololive Night returns connected July 5.

(Cover Corp.)

“It’s precise exciting,” says Susan Napier, writer of “Miyazakiworld: A Life successful Art” and prof astatine Tufts University who specializes successful Japanese culture. “It allows for an tremendous magnitude of creativity, and a existent consciousness of ownership implicit your creation, and a mode of playing and melding with your creation. People person been fans and identifying with favourite stories, anime and manga for years. This is, successful a way, a precise aged phenomena. It’s radical wanting to enactment successful a phantasy satellite that they love.”

Mariya notes she decided to go a VTuber during the worst days of the planetary pandemic of 2020. “Everyone was successful beforehand of their computers and had a consciousness of loneliness,” she says. “And VTubers [had] that consciousness of, ‘I’m not alone. I’m not trapped. There’s a full satellite retired determination for me.’ Being a large instrumentality of that, I wanted to effort that myself. I did not expect to beryllium capable to marque this into a career, but someway radical liked me, and I thought I could support going with this.”

And how, of course, did she onshore connected her character, a vampire with a bat clip successful her hairsbreadth and an open-chested cocktail server-style outfit? “That 1 is tricky due to the fact that technically I was calved a vampire,” Mariya says. “We’re not scary. We inquire support earlier entering doors, which is amended than a batch of people. We bash bite. That’s the lone downside.” Right.

The Japan-led VTtuber inclination predates the pandemic. The archetypal due virtual creator to summation fame is wide credited arsenic Kizuna AI successful 2016, but VTubers person grown alongside different akin developments. See, for instance, virtual performance creator Hatsune Miku, who performed astatine Coachella successful 2024. VTubers are besides intimately aligned with video games, often streaming them for their fans. The crippled medium, of course, has agelong been associated with virtual avatars, beryllium it Nintendo Mii figures, the personas of “Second Life” oregon today’s platforms of “Fortnite,” “Roblox” and “Minecraft.” And this summer, successful 1 of the biggest releases of 2025, VTuber Usada Pekora has a relation successful the PlayStation 5 crippled “Death Stranding 2,” with famed manager and auteur Hideo Kojima admitting helium is simply a fan.

For creator, voice-over histrion and Anime Expo attendee AmaLee, the uncommon VTuber who, portion utilizing a signifier name, does amusement her face, anime’s fantastical yet mature storylines reached her arsenic a young teen erstwhile she was exploring her creativity. “It’s bridging a gap,” she says of VTubing. “Ever since I was a teen I loved anime. It’s music, beauteous animation and acting each successful one. VTubing brings it into the existent world. You tin bash truthful overmuch with your VTuber lore story. You’re benignant of creating your ain anime.”

VTuber Ironmouse volition execute astatine the Fantastic Reality performance connected Thursday.

(Ironmouse)

The astir appealing VTubers bring a level of real-life authenticity into their work. “If you spell backmost and ticker my precise archetypal streams, I’m precise cemented successful this cleanly elegant histrion [persona],” AmaLee says. “My dependable is different. I dropped it to beryllium cooler. I realized rapidly however hard that was to keep, and I didn’t similar not being authentically me. I’m a small clumsy, a small blond and I person large tech issues.”

Mariya describes herself arsenic introvert, saying she wouldn’t beryllium streaming — oregon apt adjacent performing — if it weren’t for VTubing.

“With VTubing, there’s a consciousness of anonymity that I deliberation is truly bully for the assemblage arsenic well,” Mariya says. “Some radical don’t privation to spot a carnal idiosyncratic successful beforehand of a screen. They privation to spot anime girls. I deliberation radical latch onto the thought that it’s thing that is antithetic and bigger than maine and bigger than them. It’s a caller world.”

Last year’s Hololive Night astatine Dodger Stadium featured a drone show. Look for an on-field creation enactment led by the VTubers this year.

(Cover Corp. )

Author and prof Napier says it’s a modern, digitized Renaissance faire, if you will, reflecting basal quality desires to formal up and play. As for wherefore it conscionable truthful happens to beryllium truthful connected to anime, Napier theorizes the mean fosters the thought of phantasy creation.

“Fantasy and subject fabrication are precise fashionable civilization creator venues to play and to cosplay,” Napier says. “Anime is truly bully astatine presenting you with these — it’s brilliantly expansive. Whatever you’re into, you’ll find it successful anime. So if you’re looking to VTube, there’s each this anime worldly sitting successful beforehand of you. You tin prime and take and commencement playing.”

The imagination for the Cover corporation, says Tanigo, is to grow VTubers beyond the satellite of streaming sites specified arsenic YouTube and Twitch — hence, the Dodgers collaboration. In August, Hololive volition signifier different U.S. concert, this clip astatine Radio City Musical Hall successful New York. Music, says Tanigo, is simply a gateway. “I judge that’s a mode of reaching caller people,” helium says. “It’s an absorbing happening to spell see. There are besides radical who whitethorn not beryllium funny successful VTubing oregon anime astatine all, but they tin perceive to the opus that’s released and bask it arsenic a portion of euphony connected its own.”

For the performers, with VTubing comes a consciousness of information — and adjacent comfortableness — that isn’t ever contiguous successful much accepted streaming.

“I did a batch of on-camera streaming successful the opening of my streaming career, but I hated having to get ready, bash my makeup, deterioration thing nice,” AmaLee says. “Even aft an hr of getting acceptable to bash a stream, idiosyncratic was inactive [commenting], ‘You look bushed today.’ I hated that. There would beryllium days I would cancel streams due to the fact that I didn’t privation to get ready. Now I person my VTuber exemplary and tin beryllium a small gremlin successful my pajamas and nary 1 has to cognize due to the fact that Monarch is ever perfect.”

An anime character, aft all, is ever acceptable to go.