INTERVIEW with Independent VTubers: Shippo Mokomo

Shippo Mokomo is a great example of why exploration of Japanese VTubers shouldn’t stop at corporate talent. Covering the spectrum of indie games from breakout hits to titles you’ve never heard of, Shippo Mokomo exemplifies hobbyist VTubing. While streaming of all types has become a cottage industry, like many things on the internet, it originally started as a fun and novel way to connect with people; and that mentality is exemplified in Shippo Mokomo’s streams. 

What’s the elevator pitch for you and your channel?

I mostly play indie games on my YouTube channel, focusing on finding listeners who have similar taste in video games as mine rather than appealing to the majority of the population by playing triple A titles. I play various genres but particularly like puzzle games, which I believe not so many streamers play to completion, as well as adventure games in which you solve mysteries. Some of them blow up your mind by totally replacing the way you see things, and I really love that moment. (The best game I’ve ever played is Outer Wilds!) 

I like chatting, and I do talk a lot on stream. While I have a free chat stream once a month, I chat a lot anyways whatever the game I’m playing, and my listeners like it. (Actually, I’m very chatty even at home, so it doesn’t really matter whether I’m live-streaming or not!)

Why’d you get into VTubing? What makes VTubing preferable to traditional streaming or “fleshtubing” for you?

I actually didn’t know about VTubers at all when I first thought of live-streaming. I decided to live-stream as a hobby around November 2020. At that time, my girlfriend, who is now my wife, was busy at work and I had so much free time alone. In addition, we used to live in a so-called “share house” and communicated with many housemates every day, but then we moved to an apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic and lost  a significant amount of everyday social communication. After living in that  situation for several months, I came to the conclusion that I should start live-streaming to communicate with more people. I like talking and playing video games, and so I thought I would enjoy it.

Almost at the same time, one of my friends in the U.S. sent me a video clip link of VTuber Inugami Korone playing Mario without speaking Japanese, and I really enjoyed it. I first totally thought that VTuber was something popular in the U.S., and soon later, I found that it was a new live-streaming culture started from Japan. (In this sense, I can say that I kind of reverse-imported VTuber culture.) Because of this fortuitous encounter, I decided to live-stream as a VTuber. I would have become a non-VTuber streamer if my friend had not messaged me.

In this way, I didn’t have any strong feelings about VTubing at the beginning, but now I enjoy my VTuber life a lot and truly think that I made a great decision at that time. I like myself as Mokomo very much, enjoy communicating with my listers, and have made VTuber friends who I hang out with both online and offline. VTubing is now an important part of my life.

I believe you previously taught Japanese in America. How’d you like that experience and do you think it influences your approach to VTubing?

Since VTubing is a hobby, not a job for me, I intentionally try not to show my professional knowledge or skills during live-streaming. Most of my streams have a large amount of free chat time, but I rather talk about random topics that neither harm nor help you, or unimportant things you would probably forget on the next day. However, my earlier career as a teacher of Japanese at colleges in the U.S. always helps me talk in a way that everyone can easily understand, which actually requires certain skills and experience. 

This is not my professional skill, but being able to speak English helps me sometimes as well. It’s nice that I can communicate with listeners overseas in English. Not all of them show up to my live-streaming often, but as far as I know I have listeners from five continents. When I started my VTuber life, I never thought such a thing would happen. Also, even when a video game doesn’t have Japanese translation, I can still play it on stream while live-translating to make sure my Japanese listeners can understand what’s happening.

My experience of living in the U.S. also helps me sometimes. For example, when I played Vemba, which is about an Indian family that moved to North America, it was nice I could explain to my Japanese listers about the social background of immigrants such as language barrier issues between the 2nd generation and their parents.The game couldn’t have been fully understood just by translating texts, and I was happy that I received positive feedback on the stream. Also, my current job has many business trips overseas, and my listers enjoy my GeoGuessr streaming because some of my guesses are based on my actual experience of traveling abroad and seeing things on-site, not the knowledge gained specifically for the game.

How does VTubing fit into your life and broader career? Is it something you are trying to do full-time or is it closer to a side-hustle that bolsters your other pursuits?

For me, VTubing is 100% a hobby. I like my job (most of the time!), and with my job I can have various experiences that I can never have with VTubing. So far, I’ve never thought of making my living through VTubing.

I earn some money from my Youtube channel and merchandise, but I keep telling my listers that all of my income from Vtubing will go to new commission art and something else that I can eventually show (return to) them, saying that Vtubing is what I want to spend money on, not where I want to earn money. (I have my YouTube membership to let my listeners use the custom emojis of Mokomo, but if YouTube allows me to set a membership fee to zero yen, I would immediately do so!) 

What are the biggest issues in the VTubing space right now and, subsequently, how can the VTubing space improve?

Actually, I don’t think there is a large difference between VTubers and what you call “fleshtubers.” They are just slightly different ways of expression. Rather, I think the larger difference lies between whether they are professional (making their living with it or belonging to an agency) or non-professional (doing it just for fun).

In the VTubing space, the “professional” VTubers in big agencies are influential in a way that they look like the solid definition of VTuber. Some independent VTubers or people who want to become VTubers seem to aim to be like those professionals unconsciously, without considering or forgetting what they actually want to do as a VTuber, and then they look depressed or irritated when they cannot meet their vague but high expectations.  Since there are already numerous independent VTubers with various styles and different interests, I hope such diversity of independent VTubers becomes more visible, broadening the idea of VTubing.

Do you have any advice for people looking to start Vtubing?

I don’t really like to tell other VTubers what to do, but I came up with two pieces of advice: 

1. VTubing is nothing special, but I enjoy it a lot!
2. If you have no idea what to talk about on stream, turn off your computer and go out! Your real-life experience makes your stream more interesting!