NIJISANJI virtual YouTuber Tsumugu Kataribe returned with a hour long live stream on August 15, breaking a seven year silence that no one quite expected.
Despite debuting all the way back in January 2019, Tsumugu only managed to pull off a grand total of three livestreams before seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth forever. Since then, her example has often been used somewhat ironically by fans to encourage talents to take extended breaks if they are feeling unwell or burnt out, given that her lack of activity never preceded a graduation or hiatus announcement. Her last post was in March 2019, simply reading "Hyphe" (a type of fungus).
This year, however, showed several signs that Tsumugu was not gone forever. Not only did she make an appearance as an NPC in the annual NIJISANJI Koshien project, her signature was also spotted at the NIJISANJI Fes event. A new video was then suddenly posted to her channel on the beginning of this month, showing summer-themed visuals and teasing the date of August 15.
Fast forward two weeks and Tsumugu is talking to the audience like nothing ever happened. Her excuse for being gone for so long? She "went to heaven," drawing on her character profile as a ghost girl haunting a school library. Her avatar becomes more and more translucent over the course of the hour, eventually fading out with the promise to see her viewers in the next life.
One important piece of cultural context here is that August 15 is Obon, a holiday in Japan where families reunite and visit the grave of their ancestors. Tsumugu returning on this day makes total sense, but whether or not this will become a regular occasion remains to be seen.
