버추버 인터렉티브_쇼토

SPECIAL

버추버 인터렉티브_쇼토

2024.10.14

Try clicking each VTuber and their signs!

The decision

Shoto

I used to work at a small research company, for less than a year. When I was working at that job, I spent my days off dreading the idea of having to do what I was doing. I woke up on work days and days off with the same old feeling of never really enjoying anything. My job was in a field that I never even enjoyed in the first place, and I had only entered that field because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had chosen the job because it was comfortable, paid a decent wage, and I knew that my parents would be happy with it. But then one day, when I only had $900 in my bank account, I decided to spend it all on a new computer and start streaming. It was a very big risk because I had been saving up to lease a car, but that $900 investment turned into something irreplaceable. I think it was the best decision I ever made in my entire life. I was streaming at the same time that I was working, so I would wake up really early, go to my job, come home, eat a quick meal, then get ready to stream for the rest of the day and into the night. That was my daily schedule back in 2021, and I remember realizing that I was slowly starting to fall in love with that side of my life. I loved making people laugh. I began to get a lot of positive feedback, and I realized maybe this could be what I wanted to do, rather than pursuing the career that my parents wanted me to. So I started finding myself using more of my vacation days and paid time off from my new job so I could have more time to stream at home for my fans. That was the first sign that I already wanted to quit my job and commit to streaming. I ultimately made that leap of faith in early 2022. I just decided to commit to being a full-time streamer, and it was the best decision of my entire life. I can support myself and my family, and I have my community to thank for letting me be able to do that.

The reason

Shoto

When I was a little kid, I had very little time to grow and be personal with my mom, dad, and sister. It was quite lonely, actually, especially since my parents cut themselves off from the rest of the family. Back then, when I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of my time with my cousins, because they grew up with me and were essentially my friends. But then we moved away to a different place. And on top of that, my parents moved me to a school further away from the rest of my family. I felt more isolated after that. My sister is almost 15 years older than me, and because of that big age, gap we didn’t grow up together and our relationship never really felt like that of close siblings. I got pretty friendly with a lot of people during high school, but I never really felt like I had a deep connection with them. My family grew up quite poor, living on welfare for a while, so my parents took their work very seriously, and that’s a big reason that they had very little time for me. My grandma had to take care of me, and when I was old enough I helped her take care of other family members. They all cared a lot about working to be able to make money for a better life. But my parents wanted to focus on paying off the house and bills and being able to support me and my sister. They cared a lot more about my studies than helping develop my personal life or connecting with me on a parent-to-child level. I’m sure there are a lot of my fans that can relate to this, since it’s a very common upbringing for a lot of ethnic families. One of the few things that carried me through that lonely period of my early life was watching streams and YouTube and being invested in online communities, since I wasn’t able to talk much with my parents or my sister and I didn’t really feel like I had a close connection with many friends when I was a kid. I was able to make friends online and I learned a lot about online culture. I used to watch Markiplier and a lot of different League of Legends streamers. From 2011 to 2016, I would watch them every day when I got home from school. So while I did my homework and before bed, I was always watching something on YouTube or Twitch to make myself feel like I had company or something to entertain me. The reason why I wanted to become a streamer was that I wanted to be able to give back to people that were like me, who needed a form of comfort in their life. Not everyone grows up privileged and has the money to buy any game that they want to play. The only time I got video games when I was a kid was at Christmas, when other family members were able to give me games. There were always a lot of video games that I wanted to play but never got to. So I resorted to watching YouTubers play those games, and that’s how I learned about the culture of YouTubing and live streaming as a kid. I wanted to be like them and give back to people like me, people who wanted some company and wanted to watch someone play a game that they couldn’t afford.

Family enough

Shoto

I grew up with a sibling who wasn’t always there for me. My mom and dad do what they think is best for me and I know that they love me, but at the same time, I understand that they can’t be perfect. I love them a lot of course, and still appreciate what they do for me, but I feel like it’s okay for any person out there who went through something similar to me, who didn’t have a good relationship with their family, to be able to find people in their life that could be a new parental figure or sibling figure to help them grow and find healthier relationships. Being in the streamer space and finding my own friends on the internet helped me find people that I feel were good parental figures, filling in for what my mom and dad couldn’t do. Many of my friends are like a brother or a sister to me. Those people are some of my closest friends today, and I’ve even had the honor of being able to meet them in real life. Recently, I went to Los Angeles for my birthday, which I was able to celebrate with others for the first time in ten years. I think being able to celebrate your birthday with friends in person is important. We drank a lot and they brought a cake for me, and we were able to just enjoy good food and laugh together. That day, I felt like I had finally found the people that I wanted to be around, and I’m glad that I have people that care enough about me and are enough of a family to me to make me feel loved in a way that I missed out on when I was a kid.

Korea

Shoto

One of my favorite experiences from Korea was when my friends and I went to Lotte World. Actually, we went there twice. The first time we went, it was on a very busy holiday and we didn’t know about Magic Passes. The lines were really long and we got there really late, so we decided to just walk around and see how it was and go on only a couple rides. And then, the next time we went, we decided that this time we were going to get Magic Passes so that we could skip the lines and enjoy as many of the rides as possible. But, unfortunately, it was raining that day.(sigh) We were really sad, because we didn’t get to ride the roller coasters or a lot of the other outdoor rides, and those were the rides that I’d really wanted to ride with my friends. But it was really awesome anyway, because I love going to amusement parks and seeing everyone just enjoying being a kid again. A lot of people don’t take the time to be a kid, but being at an amusement park is one of the few times that I feel like nobody is going to judge you for wanting to enjoy just being a child again, because we always have that inner child in us. Wow—and we bought some cute animal ears and wore them (laughs), and some cute backpacks and stuff, and just wore them around the whole day. I wanted to buy this school uniform and dress up and fit in with the vibe of the amusement park too. Because I missed out on a cool opportunity to ride every single ride at Lotte World, when I come back, I will definitely go to Seoul again for a little bit, and I also want to spend more time if I have the chance to visit Jeju or Busan. (laughs)

Music

Cover songs

Shoto

Whenever I rehearse a song to cover, I try to find a part where I can add my own uniqueness or my own personal flair that differs enough from the original. I try things like doing a little bit more vocal fry, stretching out a note, adding more vibrato to the end of a note to add a bit of “Shoto” taste to it, or doing my own ad lib that’s different from the original. It isn’t too noticeable in my current covers, but if you pay enough attention, it sounds a little bit more unique. It helps the songs feel more like “Shoto,” in my opinion, and not too similar to the artist’s rendition, so people will think, “Oh, this is Shoto’s cover of the song!” and not be like, “Oh, this sounds really close to the original song.” And this is something that I’m still learning more about as I practice, too. Singing and vocal work isn’t easy, but at the same time, finding your own style is the hardest part. I’m still learning a lot about good singing techniques and proper practices, but I love music a lot. And that’s why I want to keep practicing to find my voice.

Original songs

Shoto

Honestly, I’m starting to delve more into writing my own original songs instead of doing covers. I’m working on two original songs at the moment, and I’m going to be able to share them with the world at some point. Instead of having somebody else write the entire song for me, I’d rather be a part of the process, so it feels personal. I always try to be as unique as I can, but it doesn’t get any more unique than being able to write the lyrics for my own original song. I’m still learning, and I feel like, in the future, I would like to do more stuff in terms of music production, but for now it’s just a hobby. I know my main love and passion is streaming and content creation. That will be something that I want to do for the rest of my life.

Face reveal

Shoto

Two years ago, if you were to ask me if I wanted to show more of myself, I would have probably said no, but I think over time I’ve grown more comfortable with the idea, because I’ve grown closer with my community and they’ve inspired me. I came to understand that they respect who I am as a person, so I felt very comfortable showing my hair at first. Then I showed a little bit of my face, my eyes, and my upper body. I remember I talked about working out a lot on stream one time and people were like, “Oh, show proof. Can you show us pictures?” So I was like, Hmm, should I post a shirtless picture or should I just show myself with a shirt on?—because I am proud of how my body looks.(laughs) But at the same time, I didn’t want to reveal so much of myself in that way. It felt too personal. So I was more comfortable with just showing what I look like in a compression shirt, because that’s usually what I wear whenever I go to the gym, and they show the features of your upper body really well. And then I realized people actually liked those posts. I was surprised, because I thought that most people wouldn’t enjoy seeing a VTuber show a little bit more of their body. The most VTubers would show back then was usually just their hands, and even then they would usually wear gloves on stream. I know that my community is very loyal, very understanding, and very respectful of me, but also I know there is a portion of fans in the VTuber community that believe VTubers should never show their real face or any part of their body, because some fans are more in love with the character, rather than the real person. I really disagree with that, because it’s the person behind the model who makes the VTuber come to life and shine with personality. So, me showing a little bit of myself is like a public statement that I’m a real human being. I’m not just playing a character. I wanted to make other people understand that this was okay. There are no hard and fast rules like that in VTubing, in my opinion. You should do what makes you happy.

Agencies & independent streamers

Shoto

I see myself more as a variety streamer. I don’t really see myself as fitting a certain niche or having to go by a certain set of rules. But back in 2021, many, including myself, thought that you had to be just like agency or company streamers to be successful as a VTuber. But I quickly found out that you don’t have to do that—you can do what you please. You can find success in your own way as an independent streamer and VTuber. I have a lot of friends who are ex-VTuber company members, and they’ve told me many times about how hard that is and about all the expectations fans put upon them, and how there’s a lot of pressure from those fans as well to uphold a certain image, because you’re an idol. You have to show that you’re a role model for a lot of people. I think that there’s a huge difference in my sphere of VTubing compared to the sphere that surrounds the idol culture in VTuber agency companies, but you can see massive success in both. I think a lot of people these days look at me, Shylily, U-san, and Ironmouse. Ironmouse usually does what she wants like an independent streamer, despite being in a less strict agency, and she’s one of the, if not the, biggest VTuber. So you can be successful on both fronts, because clearly a lot of people watch people in agencies and a lot of people watch independent streamers like me. People that want to pursue VTubing will have to choose if they want to find success in a company or if they want to build something from zero as an independent streamer. That’s just up to you. The most important thing for me is to have fun with it. That’s the only reason I quit my job and became a VTuber. I love doing this. I felt a passion, a purpose, and a drive for doing the things that I wanted to do as a content creator. I’m still happy and I’m still able to do the things that I want to, since I make my own rules, so it’s a matter of what you are comfortable with.

Just do it and bend the rules

Shoto

Because I’m an independent steamer, I don’t feel like I’m obligated to do anything. I never really have to second guess or think too hard about the type of content that I want to do. I live in the moment because I feel like, if I’m motivated to do something, whether it’s play a game, or cook, or paint, then I’ll just do it. I stream when I have the motivation and drive to either play a game or do the thing that I want to share with my community on my stream. That means that I can give them the best version of myself that I can when I’m live. But if I had to bend any “rules,” or if I wanted to make a social compromise about the things that I feel like I need to do, it would be to make some sort of show to support a cause or advocate some type of charity. For example, one of my friends, Ironmouse, suffers from immunodeficiency and she runs a charity almost all the time to support the foundation for her disease. And that’s one of those times—because she’s a dear friend of mine and I feel like this is more on a personal level. I donate plasma because she’s taught me about her disease, what she goes through, and how hard her life is with CVID, and that for people with this disease it’s very difficult to be able to do the things that they want. It’s inspired me to talk about these things on stream before and also to bring awareness to it—so much so that I’ve already gone so far since I met her to donate my plasma for people with CVID. Also a year or so ago when I had my first big subathon, I donated 50 percent of all the earnings to World Central Kitchen, because I felt like they had a really strong message to feed those in need around the world. So when I’ve been inspired by friends in the community or there’s a certain cause that I know I want to stand up for, I’ll typically try and support those causes once I’m more educated about them.

Fans

Shoto

They are the reason I’m doing what I’m doing. They are the reason that I’m able to be as happy as I am these days. They are the reason that I’m able to see my friends. They are the reason that I’m able to enjoy living right now. I have a wonderful community. They are why I’m able to write songs now. They are why I'm able to be with my friends, travel and see the world with them, share these stories, and why I’m able to have so many amazing opportunities. I have an official Nendoroid now and I have a large figurine coming from Goodsmile soon. So many of these dreams that I always thought about when I was a smaller streamer with five to ten viewers... These dreams are now coming to life. The people that I admired as role models in the streamer sphere are my friends now. I never imagined that my role models would be my friends. It was very surreal to see that become a reality. And again, it’s because of the fans and the people who gave me a chance. It’s because of my community, who decided they wanted to watch me specifically and who wanted to stay and support somebody like me. I’m just a guy who screams a lot while playing horror games and can be extremely stupid. I’ve done things like blending up fast food and drinking it during a stream, for whatever reason, and they’re still around.(laughs) I’m able to just be as silly as I want, because they’ve allowed me to do that. I’m thankful to them, and no matter what happens in the future, I still want to keep doing this for as long as I can. I will always try as much as I can to be Shoto, because this is what I love, and the only reason I love my job is because I have an awesome fan base across the world. And they are the biggest reason why I’m still doing what I’m doing. I love them to the moon and back.