VTuber and master host Hiiragi Yuu joins us for Game8 Connect to talk about the ins and outs of vtubing, their first foray in vtubing and voice acting, and what a day is like in the life of a successful VTuber host.
Game8 Connect - Hiiragi Yuu
Welcome to Game8 Connect, where we dive into the world of your favorite content creators and explore the person behind the screen! In this article, we spoke with VTuber host and resident voice actor, Hiiragi Yuu! We asked about their journey as an indie VTuber, their experience as a voice actor, and their previous works among the titans of the Vtubing industry.
Who is Hiiragi Yuu?
Hiiragi Yuu is a VTuber and content creator who produces a variety of content ranging from song covers to voice dramas both on and off their usual stream on Twitch. Best known for their charming demeanor, welcoming community, and penchant for voice acting, Hiiragi Yuu is considered by many to be their preferred variety streamer, especially for their host club aesthetic.
Lore-wise, Hiiragi Yuu is employed at the fictional Starlight Host Club as their biggest earner. Their talent for hosting attracts a diverse clientele, whom they treat warmly with kindness, respect, and, most of all, unerring hospitality. Such is the service of a masterful host.
Hiiragi Yuu's First Steps as an Indie Host-Club VTuber
Every great artist has to start somewhere, and our favorite host from the Starlight Host Club is no different. Similar to how most in the industry got their start, Hiiragi Yuu entered VTubing through an audition and a leap of faith.
"I started Vtubing around the time [that] Hololive put out their auditions for the VSinger," they recalled. "I received a ton of messages from people that I knew going [like] ‘Hey, this sounds like something that you would be pretty good at. Did you want to try putting in [an] application for it?’"
"Being me at the time, I had no idea what a VTuber was. I didn’t watch any Vtubers. I didn’t watch a lot of streamers in general," they admitted. "[And] so I did not feel right putting in an application without fully understanding what I was applying for, what the position requires, and what I would be doing in that position."
Such uncertainty contributed to Hiiragi Yuu’s decision to not continue with the Hololive VSinger audition, opting instead to start their VTubing career independently. "Part of the reason why I started VTubing as an indie is because I felt like I should be building up all of these skills," they stated. "On a personal level, I didn’t feel adequate applying to an agency. On a creative level, I found it to be really enriching and fulfilling, and I wanted to dip my toes into it."
Origins aside, Hiiragi Yuu is now thriving as a content creator, likely due to the unique and novel concept of their character, community, and streams, all of which revolve around or derive from Japan’s host club culture. "My inspiration for being a host VTuber is I really enjoy the concept of [a] host club, where you enter a space for the express purpose of somebody catering directly to you," they said.
"I found a lot of parallels between that idea and VTubing [and] streaming in general. A lot of people drop into streams because they are tired after a long day [and] they would just like to forget about everything that happened, [kick back], relax, and be entertained. I felt that parallel really made it easy for me to fit into this host and host club theme."
And fit into the theme, they did. Hiiragi Yuu is among the best-known VTubers for the hosting niche, at least for the English VTubing scene. Seeing such mastery, it’s hard to believe that they knew nothing at the start and had to pick things up as they went. "Streaming was something I never got into until I started VTubing, just about two years ago, and so it’s all very new to me [and] I’m still sort of discovering things as I go."
"VTubing is very much like a self-run business where you are in charge of every facet of it," they elaborated. "You push all of your skills to the [limit] to make yourself shine. In places where you might [be] lacking, you would want to seek other people to assist you in building that brand. I realized this is what VTubing was all about."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Hiiragi Yuu is now among the hundreds of independent VTubers who populate various platforms, thriving from the attention and adoration of their respective communities. While there are many independent VTubers out there, few can hold a candle to our great host Hiiragi Yuu.
Hiiragi Yuu's Everyday Life as a Streamer
Despite the relaxing atmosphere that Hiiragi Yuu fosters in their streams and their best efforts to cater to their viewers’ needs, the life of a host streamer—or any kind of streamer, for that matter—isn’t as peachy as one might expect.
"This comes as a surprise for a lot of people, but the content creation job actually really stretches very very deep beyond simply standing in front of the camera," Hiiragi Yuu revealed on the topic of their every day as a streamer. "There is so much work to be done behind the scenes: editing videos, [working on music], mixing songs, organizing assets, and making sure everything is being sent to the right people at the right times."
"It all takes up a lot of time," they affirmed. "[And] so while you’re busy doing that, schedule some content, make sure that things are always going out on [every] social media platform so that you create a sense of presence even when you’re not actually there."
This vie for balance permeates much of the VTuber life, as Hiiragi Yuu would attest. When we inquired about how they managed to balance their content for Twitch and YouTube, Hiiragi Yuu could only chuckle at their response.
"I wish I had a good answer for this but I think my answer is simply flying by the seat of my pants," they laughed. "Your greatest asset and your greatest friend as a self-run content creator - if you don’t have the assets to allocate to a manager - [is] to slam out a bunch of things and then schedule them throughout the week [or] month to give yourself a little bit of presence while you’re too busy tending to other things in your life such as another job or your family."
This balancing act can extend to normally mundane things too, like choosing what to do next on stream. "I do tackle a lot of different content, definitely," they agreed. "It is not as difficult as people may think in terms of me choosing what I want to do next. One of the most important things about being a content creator who presents yourself in front of the camera for people to enjoy is that [genuiness] is very important. And so how I choose to do things is I try to pinpoint what exactly I’m in the mood for, what I have the energy for."
"It all [really] boils down to what I enjoy and what I am able to make the best banter with," they said, rounding out the topic. "You can’t play everything on stream, and the more time you spend streaming and working on offline content work, the less time you have to play games by yourself as well".
Voice Acting with Hiiragi Yuu
Hiiragi Yuu is a VTuber of many talents, among them is an ear for voice acting. "I [must have been around] sixteen," they recalled, thrilled at the idea of recounting ‘ancient host lore’, as they put it. "I simply got the idea in my head. I really didn’t have the confidence whether or not I could do it, but I entered a very small competition at a local event with a couple of well-known voice actors who do anime dubbing."
Hiiragi later revealed two out of the three voice actors present at the event to be Kirk Thornton and Christopher Sabat, who were well-known for their performances as Jade from Tales of the Abyss and Vegeta from Dragonball, respectively.
"They judged the event and I got a lot of really really helpful feedback," they continued. "With that kind of encouragement pushing me forward, I started to do freelance voice acting and voice-overs [at] university. My initial jobs are just about some of the driest jobs you could ever imagine. A lot of them were commercials or product pitches. I had to talk about bar graphs, income, depreciation in value of certain assets, all the good stuff."
We dug deeper into Hiiragi Yuu’s past voice acting projects, unearthing the true extent of their experience in the field. "I also did some ebooks," they continued. "Not the kind of books you’d find on Amazon, but simply because I have good and clear diction, then it makes sense that I could read out textbooks for those with vision impairments. I helped a school out with a lot of these things and got a lot of experience in this field."
With so much experience, it’s no wonder that Hiiragi Yuu attracts hundreds of viewers for their voice-acting prowess alone. Despite this, however, their experience in the field of character voice-acting was limited, as they revealed soon after. "Character voices [were] something I’ve always wanted to get into but I simply did not have that kind of opportunity in my life until I started VTubing."
"Character voicing is something that I loved, but simply only something I started getting into and started getting practice for when I started VTubing," they clarified. "What I really love to do is I love to voice as many characters as I can in the games to give a more engaging and live experience of the game."
Their experiences with character voicing has expanded recently with their forays into more projects unrelated to the VTuber scene. Hiiragi Yuu recalled lending their voice to a fellow YouTuber named Internet Historian for a particular video. "I really enjoyed being in one of Internet Historian’s videos," they recalled, chuckling at the thought. "It was a long video essay - I believe it was around 20 minutes - and people would watch the entire video and sometime within the last two minutes I show up and I play a very sexy alien, and that’s one of my favorite roles I’ve played so far."
"I simply loved the ripple effect of that video since it came out," they said. "I’ve gotten a lot of people go like ‘Oh my goodness. I started this video up and I never would have expected that an Internet Historian video would have VTubers in it, but there you were in the last two minutes.’"
Taking Off with Merryweather
Hiiragi Yuu’s collaborations with fellow artists don’t end with meme YouTubers, however, as apart from their countless collaborations with fellow VTubers on Twitch, independent or otherwise, they’ve also worked with Merryweather of Merryweather comics. Hiiragi Yuu recounted their work with Merryweather in great detail.
"Merry was looking for voice actors on Twitter. [They] had put out a post looking for voice actors and at the time I was playing through Omori with my community on Sundays," they elaborated. "Omori was a wonderful game for showcasing a lot of my range because, on top of the silent protagonist, we just had a variety of children [to voice]."
"It’s very very funny because I’ve been receiving a lot of gigs here and there from various members of their staff," they recalled. "Most of the time, these jobs arrive in the form of a small snippet. They may give me just the rough storyboard and the line that’s supposed to be spoken, or the type of character."
"There have been multiple times where I would play a character thinking that this was just another comic dub that’s coming up or perhaps a commissioned lore video of some sort, only for myself to receive an influx of congratulations," they recounted. "[People will come up to me] going like ‘Congratulations on being in a VShojo lore video’ and I’m like ‘When!?’".
Hiiragi Yuu recounted more of her time working for VShojo and Merryweather in detail. "There was definitely a little bit of nervousness. I think I’m at the stage of content creation and familiarity with my voice and I know what I can and can’t put out. The biggest source of nervousness for me from that job is simply knowing how many ears are gonna be listening to that voice."
The Most Influential Games to Hiiragi Yuu and Their Community
Persona 3
"Persona 3 was the first Persona game that I got into," Hiiragi Yuu said. " I remember being so enamored with the music and the aesthetic of the game that I got a part-time job over the summer - I must have been in high school at the time - delivering newspaper and doing odd jobs and saved up through the entire summer so I could afford a PS2. The first game I got was an imported copy of Persona 3 because it hasn’t been localized yet. Played it, loved it, adored it, and played it again when it got localized."
"It really stuck with me," they added. "The music, the gameplay style, the clever mix of a dungeon crawler, a dating sim, and a narrative-heavy JRPG, all wound up in this beautifully packaged game. Persona 3 will always hold a special place in my heart."
Omori & AI: Somnium Files
"Usually on Sundays, I try to pick games that I think are nice and chunky, games we play on many streams so that people feel like they can always come in the same day every week and be greeted with the same kind of content, almost like tuning into Saturday morning cartoons."
"This is when I play the most influential games to my community," they explained. "I would say one of the most memorable games I’ve played - and it’s kind of a tie between the two - but I’d say Omori or AI: Somnium Files.
What’s Next for Hiiragi Yuu?
A Potential Repeat Audition for Hololive
With Hiiragi Yuu’s past and present on full display, we’re left with their prospects for the future. Considering their career was tangentially related to a Hololive audition, is Hiiragi Yuu still looking to try for Hololive in the future? Well, it’s certainly not out of the question, as they elaborated.
"It’s less of a goal that I’m pursuing nowadays," they said, mulling the idea over. "That’s purely because I feel like I have a lot to learn still before [I’m good enough] to apply for and thrive in an agency. When I looked into the application, into what was involved in being a VTuber, I realized I was severely lacking in the skills that would make me a good candidate."
Video Game Voice Acting, New 3D Model, Music, and More!
With an official partnership with Hololive not guaranteed anytime soon, what of their prospects in voice acting for video games? Hiiragi Yuu was happy to share their plans in that regard. "I would love to. I would need [more] experience under my belt so I can put together a nice demo reel for it, but one of my dreams is I would like to provide a voice in a dating sim or visual novel. I would really love to provide a voice for a bachelor or bachelorette."
"I have been looking into having a 3D model done," they added. "It would be really lovely for 3D concerts and musical performances, or simply to goof around. I’m really really excited to meet the kittens on a dimension beyond just what I’ve been presenting so far."
"Other than the 3D model, lots of music coming if only I can get through all my backlog of it," Hiiragi Yuu promised when we inquired about what else we can expect this 2024. "So much music coming your way: City Pop, Original Music, Jazz, anything under the sun."
More About Hiiragi Yuu
They Consider Houshou Marine as Their Favorite VTuber and Inspiration
No artist is without an inspiration to keep their creative flow going and for our favorite host, it’s the great captain of Hololive JPN herself, Houshou Marine. "In researching for that [Hololive] application I ended up really liking Houshou Marine from the third wave of Hololive. She was definitely one of my inspirations and, still to this day, one of my favorite VTubers to revisit."
"Houshou Marine in particular was really inspirational because I always feel like I’m not adequate [enough] of an entertainer because I feel like I wasn’t young or hip or cool enough to hang with the best of them," they explained in detail. " Houshou Marine famously makes a lot of retro references. She’s into a lot of old anime, vintage anime, music, and video games that very obviously date her as a person closer to my age range."
Parting Words from Our Host Hiiragi Yuu
For those looking to become voice actors or VTubers in the future, Hiiragi Yuu has some parting advice for you that you should take to heart:
"One of the most important things you have to remember is that voice acting is acting. And so, if you are at home practicing your different voices, expanding your range, and taking on different types of characters to voice, don’t ever forget, and don’t be afraid to move your body around. There is so much physical emotion when it comes to voice acting because you are trying to embody the emotion of those characters to a degree that somebody on the other side can feel them. "
"Never ever forget the acting portion of voice acting," they explained. "And don’t be afraid to jump around or get into character, or do something usually not characteristic for you to do in order to take on the character you are voice acting."
Hiiragi Yuu is always looking to learn new skills and apply them for the betterment of their community’s experiences, just as any amazing host would. We are looking forward to their continued accomplishments and content in the future.
Those interested in learning more about Hiiragi Yuu and taking part in their streams themselves can do so via the links provided below:
Hiiragi Yuu's Official Website
Hiiragi Yuu's Twitter
Hiiragi Yuu's YouTube Channel
Hiiragi Yuu's Twitch
