Now that Hololive's owl-girl Mumei has left the nest, here's one last tribute song to memorialize her, in case she's still lurking (she does like to watch, y'know...).
Set to the tune of "Reflection" from Mulan (lyrics, music). Her fandom uses "-mei" to refer to various personas of hers, like "lolimei" for when she talks about her school days. So IRL-mei is who she is in real life.
I really had a think about this, which way should it be framed? -- her online persona is the real, primary one, and her IRL persona is a disguise? Or the other way around?
For Gen X-ers and earlier, our IRL selves are the real thing, and we adopt masks or disguises online.
For Millennials and Zoomers, though, they live and grew up so online, that's their primary unmediated self -- strange as it may seem, given that it is technologically mediated. But in the sense of not disguised -- not very much anyway. And their IRL persona is the more heavily guarded, disguised, not so recognizable version of their true online self.
Moom, in her role as a paranoid schizo conspiracy theory Disney princess, always kept her online persona heavily guarded from her family and friends. And although she shared lots of personal details with her audience, she still kept her IRL life at some distance. Leading two lives, or trying to live in two worlds at the same time.
But I think her online persona was/is the real one -- whether as Nanashi Mumei from Hololive-English Council, or in her earlier online existence(s), she used her cyber-persona to confide in people, vent, open up, express herself, and in general be her true self. Her IRL persona, as she shared many times with us, was mostly a blurry cloud to those around her, a ghost in a black hoodie (or something like that), as one of her schoolmates described it to her.
So I wrote this from the perspective of her online persona being the deep-down true one, and her IRL persona being a secondary, shadowy projection of it.
Recently she mentioned that she's going to open up to her family about what her vtuber persona and experience were, to some degree anyway. That's the story of character growth and maturity for raised-online Millennials and Zoomers -- being able to discuss your username, avatar, posting history, content archive, and so on. That's the *real* you, and you don't just share it with any ol' group of people from IRL!
It took getting such a fascinated welcoming reception from online audiences, to convince Moom that she really is talented, lovable, and... interesting! She would never want us to call her "cool". ^_^
We're glad we could play a role in giving you the confidence necessary to Just Be Yourself (TM) with those close to you IRL, you sweet schizo songbird, you. ^_^
* * *
Look at me
I could never last out in normie life
Or sail normie waters
Can it be
I was meant to spark fan-art?
Now I see
If I talked to them through my live2D
Their view of me would press restart
Who is that owl on screen
Singing proud in worldwide streams?
Why is IRL-mei someone I won't post?
Somehow I cannot priv
The girl who lives in my archive
When will IRL-mei share
Who I am online?
When will IRL-mei share
Who I am online?
Up next: her rendition of “I’ll Make a Fan Out of You”
ReplyDeleteHeh, that would also work with her being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl -- transforming withdrawn sad sacks into confident go-getters.
ReplyDeleteAnd seeing it as a fun whimsical challenge -- "Oh, this emo doomer thinks he could never care about anything anymore? Well, mister, I'll make a fan out of you!" ^_^
Much like how a drill sergeant looks forward to transforming his grunts, only this is in a feminine charming way rather than a masculine barking way.
It's crazy how many guys on 4chan say "vtubers cured me of my misogyny", starting off cynical, apathetic, doomer, girl-hating, then all of a sudden they're sincere, cheering, uplifted, and girl-appreciating.
Or keeping it about her transformation, "Sister, I'll make a dancer out of Moom" -- about her going through idol boot camp, and Kiara as the choreographer senpai / drill sergeant. She's the experienced one in that domain, and now she's gonna whip the noobs into leg-shaking shape! ^_^ (Very fitting, since we know how much German speakers love cracking the whip...)
ReplyDeleteThat would be an ironic / two-lives transformation cuz Moom didn't start out as the idol or dancer type (although she took some dance classes as lolimei). Musical theatre, perhaps, theatre kid perhaps, but not a dancer.
Another sign of her confidence boost and transformation -- mooming along with the other bird-girls to the "Holotori Dance" music. Awwww...