Virtual Youtubers, or Vtubers for short, are becoming an increasingly important presence in Japanese entertainment, music and media. As reported by virtual entertainment media site MoguLive, their numbers have doubled in the past year from 4,000 in July 2018 to over 8,000 as of May 6th 2019. Famous Vtubers such as Kizuna AI, Kaguya Luna, Mirai Akari and YuNi not only have entertaining topics on their regular broadcasts, and do things like invite other Vtuber guests or stream video games, they are also involved in a wide gamut of activities ranging from music, some of them singing and recording their own original albums, to performing as DJs, appearing as guests or even regulars on mainstream television and radio, and emceeing at various events, both real and virtual.

Considering their increased popularity, many fans have surely been wondering when they'd begin to see festival events bringing Vtubers together. If anime singers and voice actors have Anisama (short for Animelo Summmer Live, the biggest annual anime songs music festival in Japan hosted by Dwango and Nippon Cultural Broadcasting), why can't Vtubers have one?

It seems that their prayers have been answered!

V-Summer!

Organized by ActEvolve on their VARK virtual concert platform, V-Summer! will be largest virtual live event to date with a total of 15 top-ranked virtual acts scheduled to perform during the two days of the last weekend in August, the 24th and 25th.

The event will be emceed by Mirai Akari and virtual singer YuNi, the latter being no stranger to the VARK platform, as we saw in our report of her amazing Christmas concert last year. As a highlight of the event, none other than internationally known entertainer and pioneer of virtual music culture Hatsune Miku will perform on both days.

Lineup

  • V-Summer! in VARK DAY 1 (MC YuNi)
  • DAY PERFORMANCE: AZKi / Tenjin Kotone / OMEGA-SISTERS /Hatsune Miku
  • NIGHT PERFORMANCE: SUNTORY NOMU / Higuchi Kaede / Shinonome Megu / Hatsune Miku
  • V-Summer! in VARK DAY 2 (MC Mirai Akari)
  • DAY PERFORMANCE: MaRiNaSu (β) / TOKINO SORA / Super Sonico / Hatsune Miku
  • NIGHT PERFORMANCE: Pinky Pop Hepburn / Fuji Aoi / Hatsune Miku + 1 Other(TBA)

Tickets

Tickets for V-Summer! can be purchased until August 4th 23:59 JST. Each ticket for VARK performances costs 5,480 JPY, or 19,9600 JPY for a pass covering all performances. Nicovideo livestream tickets cost 4,500 JPY, or 16,000 JPY for a pass.

The VARK application runs on Oculus Go/Oculus Quest only (in Japanese), but the live performances will also be available via livestream on Nicovideo.

More details on the event such as campaigns, additional artists, limited goods, and more, will be announced soon!


Links


By - Ben K.