Vox Akuma speaks out on fanservice divide in NIJISANJI VTuber’s content
YouTube: Vox AkumaVox Akuma has grown to become NIJISANJI EN’s biggest VTuber by providing a mix of chill gaming content and playing up some fanservice for the audience. However some fans feel like he’s strayed too far, and he agrees, with the star looking to change up his tone.
Vox Akuma and the rest of NIJIJSANJI EN have catapulted into VTuber stardom in 2022. The demon from the past has a legion of more than a million Kindred, who have diligently supported him on his climb to become the biggest English-speaking talent in the agency.
However, as he has grown, there has been a divide of sorts in that fandom. While he got his start with cozy and chill gaming content, some fans started sending suggestive Superchats with elements of fanservice involved. Always wanting to please those sending money his way, Vox typically replied positively, and it led to a spiral of others doing the same thing for recognition.
It came to a head at the start of December as some Kindred pointed out the difference in the star’s chat from his debut a year ago to now. It was once full of healthy discussion, but with it now full of suggestive content trying to get a reaction out of Vox, it started becoming uncomfortable.
Vox is aware of this, and addressed the divide in his fandom on December 4: “I think a lot of my experiences in my first year, having all of this success, has hit me with a lot of experiences that have changed the way that I think about these kinds of things — but not always accurately.
“I’m really sensitive to the idea that some people don’t like aspects of my content that other people do like. It’s an obvious concept, but it gets under my skin a lot. In an ideal world, I would just be a really palatable and enjoyable person that the majority of people really enjoy watching.
“But what I’ve been experiencing, over the course of this career I’ve fallen down a certain rabbit hole — purely of my own creation — that’s made me into a certain type of content creator.”
The NIJISANJI star admits he fell into the hole of becoming a “fanservice VTuber” purely because he “just enjoyed the approval” of seeing someone in his chat being thankful for him fulfilling their request.
As the same names cropped up in chat on a daily basis, it reinforced the pattern. However he believes it also has the potential to alienate new viewers — and at times it’s also made him uncomfortable.
“If I found my content as a brand new person, I think I’d find it somewhat impenetrable in a way. There are so many in-jokes and so many traditions, not to mention I agree with people that having a really sus aspect to almost every single stream is kind of exhausting.
“I want to be able to make the right thing for everyone, and I want more people than just the people who enjoy this very specific style of content to watch me, but I think over time it’s become so dictated by what a small minority of people want me to do that it’s scaring away anyone else.
“For example, streams like a Minecraft stream can just be me chatting and relaxing with everyone which is my favorite thing to do; or it can be one person making an intimate request and because that’s what I do, I’ll respond to that and give it to them and suddenly there’s an avalanche of people that want me to stop and pay attention to them individually.”
To try and combat the divide, the star is going to consider new chat rules with his community. A stream has been scheduled for December 5 to discuss the matter, with Vox Akuma asking for input from all Kindred.
He’s aware he has a diverse audience, and he doesn’t want to alienate some fans to please another set. Finding that middle ground is going to be tough, but at the end of the day, he wants everyone to remember he is just an entertainer and “it ain’t that deep”.
“All I’m trying to do right now is keep my fingers on the pulse of what is generally enjoyed by the majority of people who watch me because I’ve made the mistake in the past to appeal to people who don’t watch me and forgetting what made my own content special in the first place.
“At the end of the day, I am a YouTuber. You are watching a guy who is playing video games online. It ain’t that deep. The main thing is creating a community that is nice to be a part of, and content you enjoy watching. That is all.”