On VTuber Pikamee’s Graduation & How Transphobes Are Doing Her Dirty!

The VTuber community mourns the loss of another streamer, as the beloved Amano Pikamee, or Pikamee for short, will cease all activities at the end of March after a sudden hiatus. For three years, she brought joy and laughter to many people during the COVID lockdowns, so it is understandable why many would wish to celebrate her last month as a performer the best they can.

However, what makes this departure notable and worse when compared to other goodbyes is how transphobes are using this as justification to harass other people online. This conflict has raged all over social media, and it’s getting out of hand. Here’s what happened:

What Is A VTuber, And Who Is Pikamee?

If you’ve been active on the internet for the past few years, you might have heard the word “Vtubers” floating around or at least seen one. For the uninitiated, a VTuber, or “viral YouTuber,” is an online entertainer who uses a digital avatar to represent themselves. This trend started in Japan in the mid-2010s and is now an international online phenomenon. VTubers borrow a lot of concepts from Japanese idol culture, especially in terms of jargon: “graduation” is a euphemism regarding one of the members leaving the group. This can mean that a specific member is retiring or is pursuing other goals, like being an actor.

Like idol groups, VTubers can be either independent or part of a company with other VTubers. Pikamee is part of the latter and is affiliated with a VTuber agency based in Japan called VOMS Project. Pikamee is widely known for streaming games such as Octodad, Overcooked 2, The Henry Stickmin Collection, and much more. The community has fallen in love with her because of how easily she makes the audience laugh and spreads joy throughout the community, and is labelled to be the nicest VTuber in the community.

Hogwarts: The Harassment, Hiatus & Graduation

Because J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books on which the game is based, is transphobic, Hogwarts Legacy has generated a lot of controversy since its release on February 10. Many groups of people have been trying to cancel the game since its announcement and urging people not to support it, but this had the opposite effect, which caused sales to skyrocket. The game is still quite popular and fun, but has gotten a bad wrap because of its association with Rowling. This, however, did not stop Pikamee from expressing her desire to play the game.

Pikamee had been on hiatus since 7th January, but broke the silence around the 6th or 7th of February, stating she would return. To celebrate her return to the platform, she planned to play the new Hogwarts Legacy. But the plan was cancelled, and she returned to hiatus. On 1st March, Pikamee posted a thank-you message on Twitter with a YouTube video link attached, where she formally announced her graduation.

https://twitter.com/amanopikamee/status/1630915928723521544?s=20

This post was immediately followed by an official announcement by the VOMS Project on Twitter in regards to Pikamee’s graduation. The announcement states that the graduation was planned long in advance, with her last day being on the 31st of March.

Although the reason for Pikamee’s graduation was never explicitly stated, many assumed that it was because of the hostile welcome and hate speech she encountered in her initial return stream. These were, but not limited to, doxxing, harassment, and even death threats.

Important Notice pic.twitter.com/oASH3igb6k

— VOMS Project (@VOMS_Project) March 1, 2023

Transphobes On Open Season

Twitter has not been very kind to Pikamee, but it is admirable to see how she is taking all this in stride (despite her announcement to quit). However, the transphobic community has taken the opportunity to use Pikamee’s graduation as justification to spread hate (which it is not), and it is nothing short of nasty.

Discussions and threads in the VTuber community have mostly revolved around this topic, and it is slowly getting out of hand as streamers, such as Utano Pandora, have received threats not to collaborate with one another via their emails.

As stated earlier, this planned graduation had been in the works for a long time, but it came at such a bad time that people couldn’t help but link the two. The problem has gotten so out of hand that a representative of the VOMS Project has stepped in to clear it all up. He stated in great detail that the event had been long planned, way before the controversy began.

Regardless, spreading hate is not okay, especially if that person had no association with creating the game or made any transphobic comments. Pikamee simply wished to enjoy the game before she finally said goodbye. Unfortunately, these events happened too close together, which, to an extent, justifies the people’s conclusions but not their actions. We hope nothing but the best for Pikamee in all her future endeavours.

Image source: Wikipedia Commons [1], [2], Reddit, Trusted Reviews

Story source: GameBraves, Kotaku