Today I want to look at Michiko as an entertainer and inspiration, instead of looking at a product or work done by and for the vtuber community like my first two spotlights. What Kind of Vtuber is he? What has he gone through to become a vtuber? Does he have amazing content? Lets find out.

Initial disclaimer, I refine the scope of my spotlights to English vtubers, Mostly because I can’t speak Japanese and would have a very hard time coordinating or communicating with them. Now with that said Michiko did learn to speak Japanese from gaming and lived there for a couple years before moving back to the Philippines, but he speaks amazing English and includes subtitles for his videos when needed. Because of the fact that an English speaker can watch and reasonably understand what is happening and communicated directly with him I find he falls under the English banner as well. Also all art shown is done by Michiko unless otherwise stated.

Michiko’s Story

I posted on a subreddit asking for ideas on who some readers might want to see articles written about, and Michiko spoke up and was nice enough to volunteer himself. I found that incredibly forthcoming and kind that he was already ready to work with me a bit, and shared his story on becoming a vtuber. I myself found his story, like many maaany others, to be incredibly inspiring. Nothing gets me more excited as an aspiring vtuber than reading every unique experience and story I can find.

What follows will be me summarizing what he was kind enough to share with me through a chat over on the sub about his life and what led to his decision to become a vtuber. Michiko had been working as a voice talent for a lot of corporate projects online, in the Phillipines, and a bit in Japan, like ads, educational videos, etc for many years and often had coworkers tell him he should start a podcast because of his knowledge and opinions on game design and other areas as well. He gained a lot of knowledge in the area of game design because he had been working on an indie game himself for years that he would later learn to be a bit more than he could handle, Seeing that he didn’t have enough knowledge in coding and art/ design. He struggled with the notion he would have to either hire people to cover what he didn’t know, take classes on the subjects, or move on entirely. Due to money constraints, he reluctantly had to choose the latter and move on from his project.

fast foreward to April 2020 and he had finally totally moved on from his project and was discussing his next life choice with his friends. They strongly urged him to go ahead with a podcast and offered many suggestions on the type of content and structure saying that he could thrive when talking about gaming in general like design, news, and more with guests who are not gamers but wanting to learn more about gaming. He only had one hangup, he was not sure whether or not there would be an audience for that as most Japanese viewers that are not interested in games won’t go out of their way to listen to gaming content even as a guest. He wanted to hit that market where he could talk about games, teach others about them like he would have in the podcast but in an organic and fun way, then somebody else recommended doing vtubing.

Now Michiko was not very sure of himself in this regard because he had a track record of struggles with art and design, and since he is a freelancer he had to be smart with his money and was unsure if having to hire someone to do his avatar would be feasible. Then one day he found a Live2d tutorial on youtube by Kira Omori, and that was the motivational boost to give it a go. He went on ahead and started designing and rigging his avatar himself. The whole process from thought, to designing, to rigging his avatar took him all about 20 weeks of daily work. those 20 weeks were definitely intense and he said there were many times he felt like quitting, but he persevered from the encouragement of many friends and family. He also got encouragement from some fans of his old narration content he was creating and sharing around as well. But at the end of those 20 weeks he had an avatar ready to roll and he did just that he started streaming.

Streaming/Content style and type.

In my chat with Michiko he explained that he wants to stress the idea that his stream types are chill streams that he would want you to keep on in the background while working on other things or just like a relaxing hangout. I love this idea because I feel there are different types of content, even just energy of said content, out there for different viewers. Some like hyper energy engaging streams, others like to feel as though they are chillin with a friend on a Saturday just drinking, snacking, and playing some couch co-op. I definitely get more of the latter’s vibes from Michiko. He sort of takes on a teacher roll subtly with his content as he likes to explain game design to his audience as he experiences them in real time.

The type is, as you have probably easily figured out, gaming content mostly. Michiko told me that he is usually interested in playing games in the genres of:

• sandbox
• simulation
• strategy
• Rogue-Like/Lite
• Hardcore
• and many others as well.

With all of that said I highly urge you to check out his introduction video down below and go check out his channel and show some support. I would very much appreciate if you tune into his streams and subscribe to him as he was such a blast to work with and plays some amazing bangers like Terraria. You can find all of his socials up on his youtube channel’s banner here.

With all of that said I really appreciate all of you who have read all the way to the end. I hope that if you enjoyed this weeks vtuber spotlight that you’ll give me a follow and a like here on my blog, as well as give a follow on my twitter linked at the tops and bottoms of the page. I really appreciate every view and hope that this inspires many up and coming vtubers like myself, and if it has or you have any other comments please don’t be shy and leave a comment here or on my twitter, I will respond to every single last one here and over there. Till next time!