© Agency for Cultural Affairs.
OGURA Kentaro
In 2016, Kizuna AI introduced herself as a “virtual YouTuber” for the first time, marking the birth of VTuber culture. VTubers typically use motion capture technology to animate their characters and create videos. In some ways, these generated works resemble traditional animation, which is produced using frame-by-frame techniques. So, can VTubers be classified as animation? This essay explores the relationship between VTubers and animation by examining their respective origins.
What is the exact relationship between VTubers and animation? Journalist HIROTA Minoru identifies two key characteristics defining VTubers: “They utilize motion capture technology to move 2D and 3D characters, and they share videos and live broadcasts over the Internet.”1 Motion capture (MoCap) is a technology that tracks a subject’s facial expressions and movements, mapping them to computer graphics (CG). This technology is also used in virtual reality (VR) to project the user’s movements onto avatars in virtual worlds. Many people would agree that VTubers primarily leverage these technologies to post videos and conduct live streams on platforms like YouTube, using 2D or 3D character representations.
However, when we consider historical progression, today’s VTuber culture largely emerges with Kizuna AI, who labeled herself as a “virtual YouTuber” in 2016. This act inspired others to follow suit. Before Kizuna AI, there were earlier examples that fit the aforementioned definition, such as YAMATO Ami, who started uploading videos in 2011, but they are often not recognized as VTubers. As such, for the purposes of this article, VTubers2 will be defined as those who present themselves as virtual YouTubers or similar terms (e.g., VTuber or “virtual livers”).
So, can the videos and live streams of VTubers be considered animation? Let us try to apply the definition provided by the Academy Awards. In the Animated Feature Film category, an animated film is defined as “a motion picture in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique,”3 and no less than 75% of its running time must employ such techniques to qualify as an animated film. Although the most prominent frame-by-frame technique is stop-motion,4 which is used in cel animation, among other techniques, the Academy Awards also recognize computer animation as a valid form. At the same time, they clearly state that MoCap is not considered an animation technology. With this exclusion, films that use MoCap to animate the movements of their main characters, such as Avatar (James CAMERON, 2009), are omitted from the animation category.
Based on this definition, VTuber videos / live streaming “utilizing motion capture to move 2D and 3D characters” would not be classified as animated work, as they do not rely on animation technology. On the other hand, videos uploaded by VTubers that depict movement using frame-by-frame techniques, without MoCap, could be considered animated works. Even if a 3DCG model is used, the distinction depends on whether the movement is applied using MoCap or by the animator (by hand). As such, by using the US Academy Awards definition, we can, to a certain degree, instrumentally distinguish whether or not something qualifies as animation.
Of course, the definition one may choose varies between individuals and industries. For example, the Japanese 3DCG work Business Fish (SUMIDA Takashi, 2019) uses MoCap for its entirety yet is touted as a “new-style animation.” According to motion graphics history researcher TANAKA Daisuke, GHOST IN THE SHELL: SAC_2045 (KAMIYAMA Kenji, ARAMAKI Shinji, 2020), which uses MoCap throughout, is “generally more accepted as animation.”5 Case in point, on Netflix, the platform that produced the work, it is categorized under “Anime.” There are also many animation productions today that can be seen partially using MoCap, for example in dance scenes. In many of these cases, MoCap is applied to a so-called “Cel-Look” 3DCG, which mimics the appearance of traditional cel animation,6 making characters visually similar to those in conventional anime productions. So, to some degree, the Japanese anime industry seems to have reached a consensus that even if the movements are created using MoCap, a work can still count as animation or anime if it is created within the context of traditional animation.
Now then, what about VTubers? Hand-drawn animation videos uploaded by VTubers, often presented as “animation MVs” (music videos), are not uncommon (Fig. 1 and 2).
It is the same when 3DCG models are used. The video series holonograffiti,7 which TANAKA previously pointed out does not use MoCap, is referred to in hololive’s official YouTube channel playlist as “[3D anime] Gensen horo gura (Selected Holographics) [3D-animation].”8
While this is merely a trend, when frame-by-frame techniques are utilized in the VTuber industry, those works tend to be clearly classified as “animation” or “anime.” In contrast, even for VTubers with anime-like appearances, when MoCap is used for regular videos/live streaming, they are generally not labeled in terms of genre. Writer IZUMI Nobuyuki elaborates:
In general, the visuals created by their motions are being called “anime” less and less. I believe the “Virtual YouTuber Kizuna Ai” movement—which heavily emphasized the idea that it was VR technology, not animation technology, and YouTuber videos, not TV shows—played a big role in this.9
As previously mentioned, Kizuna was the first to introduce herself as a “virtual YouTuber” and is regarded as the pioneer of VTuber culture. Regarding her choice of self-labeling, Kizuna explains as follows:
I have always considered myself a YouTuber, but I began calling myself that with the somewhat simple notion that I am a virtual being, different from humans, and I love the way it sounds. That’s why I use the term “virtual YouTuber” to describe myself.10
Kizuna sees herself first and foremost as a YouTuber. In the following section, we take a look at the views of film historian André GAUDREAULT. By drawing on this perspective, we explore how works made with similar technologies can be seen as either animation or YouTuber productions.
It is broadly believed that the “birth of cinema” happened in 1895, when the LUMIÈRE brothers (Auguste LUMIÈRE & Louis LUMIÈRE) used their invention, the cinematograph, to host public screenings. GAUDREAULT, however, distinguishes between the invention of the cinematograph as a device and the birth of cinema as an institution.11 “Early cinema,” so to speak, used equipment like the cinematograph within the same context as traditional cultural series,’12 such as the magic lantern, and there was no explicitly established cinema system. According to GAUDREAULT, cinema as an institution only emerged between the late 1900s and the early 1910s.
I believe the same logic applies to early animated films. James Stuart BLACKTON’s 1906 stop-motion film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (Fig. 3) is widely considered the world’s first animated film.
The term “animation,” however, only came to refer to stop-motion techniques in the late 1910s and was not used to describe a genre until the 1930s.13 At the time, this work was promoted simply as a “comical new product.”14
This work can also be understood in the context of lightning sketches, a form of vaudeville art (Fig. 4) where chalk drawings are altered rapidly by adding new lines, transforming their shapes almost instantaneously. BLACKTON excelled in this art form.
He directed two films, The Enchanted Drawing (1900) and Lightning Sketches (1907). These works used a stop trick technique in which the camera stops filming for a moment while the drawings are modified, causing the lightning sketch to appear as if it’s moving on its own (Fig. 5). For Humorous Phases of Funny Faces produced in between these in 1906, the stop trick technique was used in succession (frame-by-frame) so that the drawings appear to be moving in a sequence. This means that the world’s first animation film emerged at the intersection of the lightning sketch cultural series and early cinema’s experiments with the stop trick techniques.
Meanwhile, artists like Emile COHL converted their comics into moving images using stop-motion techniques, and these works came to be known as animated cartoons. Despite the fact that they used techniques similar to those in Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, they can still be seen as part of the comic cultural series. Before long, this term was not only limited to works based on comics, but was established as a genre in its own right. Eventually, the genre of animation grew to include not only puppet animation using stop-motion and abstract animation but also a wide range of creative works.15
Finally, let us return to VTubers and consider them through the lens of the concept of cultural series. Although MoCap has been used since the 20th century, it has become more widespread in recent years due to reduced costs and simpler devices. Additionally, a diverse range of expressions and movements have also become possible with CG. Business Fish and other examples mentioned earlier can be seen as a use of these techniques in the context of the anime cultural series. At the same time, these technologies were integrated into the Vlog (Video Blog) cultural series to create YAMATO Ami, which was further combined with the YouTuber cultural series to produce the virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI. This article argues that the VTuber genre was formed in its own right when followers of the Kizuna movement, such as DENNOU SHOJO Siro, built upon her movement. Yet, rather than being independent movements, they are interrelated, as is shown by cort (TSUJI Shohei), who was involved in the creation of Kizuna AI as well as contributed to the MoCap-based live broadcast program Minarai diība (*nama anime) (Minarai Diva [*Live Anime]) (ISHIDATE Kotaro, 2014).16
In contrast to mainstream story-telling animated films that developed as an extension of the lightning sketch cultural series, today’s VTubers emphasize improvisational activities, such as gameplay, chatting, and variety content. One can also find videos and live streams that show the process of drawings in ways reminiscent of lighting sketches. This shift seems to indicate that the anime-like visualization of characters is evolving along a different path from that of traditional animated films.
notes
*URL link was confirmed on March 11, 2024.
