This is an anime blog, and consequently I don’t write about things that aren’t anime (or at least, related to it, say, manga.) very often. Consequently, I do feel out of my depth here, for more reasons than one. You may or may not know who Kiryu Coco is, why she’s leaving the talent agency (Hololive) she’s a part of, or why any of that matters, but if you’re familiar with Virtual Youtubers at all, you’ve probably at least seen a few of her clips.

Coco is an international superstar in a medium where that’s still a very new idea. She is probably the single most visible VTuber to ever retire (“graduate” in idol industry parlance, which the virtual talent industry has a habit of nicking). There is a hole that will be left in the digital landscape in her absence, and that’s worth contemplating. And, well, I’m reasonably sure she’d find the idea of “contemplating holes” to be at least kinda funny.

In truth, I’ve written and scrapped an entire other version of this article already. Talking about my personal feelings felt like the wrong approach; I am a fan of Coco, but not a diehard, and I know people who are going to take the loss of her talent much harder than I am. But, having typed out the objectively-minded from-a-distance version of this piece, that felt wrong too. So back to personal feelings we go. I figure exposing my own weaknesses as a VTuber fan is a small price to pay. She deserves this much, at least.

I first became aware of Coco not long after Hololive’s official English branch debuted. I was a latecomer to the phenomenon, and had just kind of assumed that like the idol agencies that virtual talent agencies loosely base themselves on, that most VTubers were, you know, idol-y. Pure, sweet, and definitely talented, but scrupulously professional. Maybe a little boring.

HoloMyth, as the EN branch is called, broke some of that illusion for me, but if one still thinks as I did, they should watch some of Coco’s work. She speaks in an odd, always slightly-strained sounding pitch, with a southern drawl even in Japanese. While she’s definitely capable of being genuine when the occasion calls for it, and seems like a nice person at heart, most people get into Coco because she is loud, rude, and swears like a sailor. “Good morning, motherfuckers!” is not a catchphrase someone takes up lightly.

Coco’s activities, I soon learned, supplemented the usual idol / streamer VTuber routine with a metric ton of assorted shenanigans. She reviewed reddit memes, casually fucked with other Hololive members, moved in with one of her genmates, sold drugs, got low during her 3D debut, and in one particularly memorable instance to me personally, streamed while tripped out on sleeping aids. Which she later re-streamed with her own mildly alarmed meta commentary.

One might naively assume that this sense of humor–very stereotypically “American”–would have made it hard for her to get a domestic fanbase, but she stands as one of Hololive’s most popular talents, both in Japan and abroad. Being funny but also having a big heart, as it turns out, is kind of a universal language.

Not that everyone is a fan, of course. I could, if I wanted to “do my job as a critic”, trot out the various controversies she’s been involved in, none of which were her own fault. I could even make (mostly quite minor) criticisms of my own. But why? Now is hardly the time.

It is clear, even to a casual observer, that being part of Hololive meant a lot to Coco. I could speculate on her reasons for leaving (Cover Corp claims it was a mutual agreement, and as cynical about companies of this nature as I can certainly be, I don’t disbelieve them), but to do so would feel disrespectful. What I will say is that I suspect she is irreplaceable. There will never be another Kaichou, and that is, from any reasonable point of view, a loss for Hololive, for virtual entertainment as an artform, for us the fans, for her fellow idols, and so on.

There’s a lot of pithy advice one could toss out. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” and so on, but it would not change the fact that this sucks. People have a right to tears, if they feel the need to cry.

The one silver lining for this, in as much as there is one, is that retirement is not death. While Hololive’s anonymity policies prevent her from explicitly saying where or when she will pop up next if she decides to ever pursue a career in the industry again, if she does, people will know. If she doesn’t, we can only wish her the best in life. And it is indeed our responsibility to do so, as fans.

Finally, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, Coco stands as perhaps the single most famous virtual entertainer to ever retire. There’s something to be said for going out on a high note.

I always struggle with ending articles, especially if they’re not happy ones. So, instead of worrying myself with what prose is the prettiest, I would like to share just one more Coco moment I’m inordinately fond of. Her first appearance in the HoloGraffiti shorts (one of sadly only a very few). In which she inexplicably decides to “do a raid”. It’s a cavalcade of wonderful nonsense, as most of the HoloGra shorts are, featuring fellow Hololiver Fubuki dropping “fun facts” and Coco herself doing….things. At one point there’s a T. Rex. Hearing her particular pronunciation of “Jurassic” is a delight, too.

I really can’t think of much else to say. Rarely do we get to dictate the circumstances of our meetings and leavings in this life. So in that one sense, and that sense alone, we can at least take some comfort.

Until we meet again, Kaichou.

---

This article isn’t very indicative of my general work. But if you liked it, you can consider following me here on WordPress or on Twitter.