"VTuber Legend" Anime Adaptation Announced

Nana Nanato's light novel VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream is getting an anime adaptation. The official Twitter account of the title has announced the green-lit today with an illustration from the light novel's artist Siokazunoko.

The Story: From Seiso to Yabai

The light novel, which was first serialized in May 2021 and currently has five volumes, tells the story of former wage slave Yuki Tanaka (20) who now works as a virtual streamer for the fictional Live-On group, described in the story as one of Japan's top VTuber companies.

• Tanaka is the talent behind the fictional VTuber Kokorone Awayuki, a gorgeous, polite personality who delivers only the most ladylike content. Unfortunately for her, she has a low subscriber count—worse, her savings are at rock bottom.
• One night, Tanaka thought she has ended her stream as Awayuki. She cracks open some drinks and more than a few crude jokes while watching Live-On's video archives.
• What she felt as her impending doom was actually the start of her skyrocketing fame, as her manager revealed to her that everyone at the company was just waiting for her to snap all along.
• Since then, Kokorone Awayuki is recognized as a rowdy drunk character. She is even welcomed into the fold by her Live-On fellows who turns out to be as crazy as she is. Her views and finances went up, and for the first time in her life, her work is actually fun.

J-Novel Club holds the license to the title for overseas distribution and is currently streaming the third and fourth volumes. In Japan, the sixth volume is set to be released Friday, January 20.

Both the release of the sixth volume and the anime adaptation are announced in a video featuring the voice of Ayane Sakura (Vividred Operation, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Charlotte).

In addition, Hololive's Houshou Marine hosted a "collaboration stream" with Kokorone Awayuki in September 2021.

Other VTuber References in Anime

Prior to this announcement, we have seen the increasing relevance of VTubers in Japanese media including:

• Some Hololive VTubers have made their guest appearances in anime titles such as The Detective is Already Dead, Lupin III Part VI, and The World's Finest Assassin, as well as singing the ending theme song for The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! and dubbing clips from Megaton Musashi,
• CounterSide Global's collaboration with Hololive English -Myth- among other game collaborations,
• Bandai Namco's Denonbu which casts Nijisanji VTubers,
• Mixed-media project Lie:verse Liars co-produced by ANYCOLOR, Kadokawa and BALCOLONY.,
• The cameo of several Nijisanji talents in WIXOSS Diva(A)Live,
• Kizuna AI's anime project Kizuna no Allele which is set to be aired this year,
• The I Fell in Love So I'm Streaming It manga currently published on the GANMA platform which features a virtual singer talent,
• and Nijigasaki High School Idol Club's IT Team member Rina Tennoji doing a VTuber challenge.

Banner Photo: Illustration by Siokazunoko / @kokoroneawayuki on Twitter