Wind the clock back for a moment to May 30. One sunny Saturday afternoon, countless fans made the trek from Yokohama Station to a sold out show at the 20,000 capacity multipurpose venue known as K Arena. You might assume that this was for a well known pop group like Mrs. Green Apple or a massive multimedia franchise such as The Idolmaster without any prior knowledge, but imagine the surprise when finding out that it was for an independent virtual YouTuber.
The story of Shigure Ui is one that breaks almost all of the perceived wisdom behind the virtual YouTuber industry. Despite never joining an agency, she has managed to perform at some of the biggest venues in the country, work with thousands of talented artists, and amass over two million subscribers. According to the VTuber Ranking site, Ui is currently the twelfth most popular VTuber in the world, just above Inugami Korone from hololive and Kuzuha from NIJISANJI.
That being said, Ui’s prominence in the pop culture mainstream has come under increased scrutiny as of late. Is Shigure Ui the artist really compatible with Shigure Ui the household name? Will public pressure force a loss of independence? Or can a happy medium be found between the two?
Even before Ui pressed the button to go live on her channel for the first time in May 2019, she was a known entity in certain circles of the early virtual YouTuber community. Not only did she provide the character design for Oozora Subaru, the second generation hololive talent was full of praise for her creator, referring to Ui no less than three times in her debut live stream from September 2018. She even used the last moments to reassure her “mother” that everything had gone off without a hitch.
Behind the scenes, Subaru and Ui seemed to have a relationship that went beyond mere character and character designer. Less than a month later, Ui made her first appearance as a virtual entity on Subaru’s channel in a now-deleted live stream from November 2: the only thing left from it now is a cute illustration that shows parent and child walking together. Despite complaining that her voice was wrecked afterwards, she clearly found the experience rewarding enough to begin her own activities as a YouTuber the following year.
At this point, Ui was still mainly working as an illustrator and character designer. Her first credit online dates all the way back to a Kasane Teto song from August 2013, but 2019 alone had seen Ui design the front cover for three light novels, including Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose by Shuichi Numaru. With this in mind, it was unclear just how much time Ui could really dedicate to her channel... certainly, no one could have predicted how things would turn out.
For the rest of 2019 and into 2020, Ui continued to live stream occasionally in between deadlines and other freelance commitments. It was during this period that an important piece of fan culture was born: the character of “Loli Ui” or “Shigure Ui (9 Years Old)”. More specifically, Ui first drew an elementary school version of herself for a live stream in January 2020 where she talked about some embarrassing moments from her childhood, but the true potential of this character did not become clear until later on.
During a live stream on February 20, Ui would do a full half hour answering questions as a grade schooler sat on a swing at a park at night. Here is where several important aspects of the character were born, including the fact that she has an intense fear and hatred of lolicons. A music video released earlier this year actually posits that Ui has three distinct personas: her regular sixteen year old self, her nine year old self, as well as a goddess-like variant by the name of “Ui Mama” that seems to play on Ui’s role as both a performer and the creator of several VTuber designs.
One of the reasons why Loli Ui merits such attention is because this character would ultimately catapult the otherwise niche personality into the mainstream. More than three years after the elementary school design first appeared on the scene, a 3D version was made for a live concert streamed in September 2023. Not only was this one of the most watched live streams in virtual YouTuber history at the time, the animated music video for “Shukusei!! Loli Kami Requiem" that dropped straight after would go on to make Shigure Ui into a household name.
It’s hard to overestimate just how pervasive Loli Kami Requiem was in 2023 and beyond. Despite the subject matter, thousands of creators on TikTok and YouTube used the animation as a reference to create dance covers and parodies, spreading the song far beyond the usual limits of virtual YouTuber culture both domestically and abroad. As a result, the original video reached one million views in less than three weeks and once again became the fastest to do so in VTuber history up until that point.
The ironic thing is… Loli Kami Requiem had already been available for more than a year when the music video first dropped. Ui had spent the majority of 2021 and 2022 working on her first album The rain doesn’t stop yet., including both Loli Kami Requiem and several covers, but the frantic animation and iconic dance was the secret ingredient needed to propel the track to international virality. Not that any of this came about by accident: Ui had already declared her intention to do more idol activities in April 2023.
On the whole, Ui’s career can be divided into the pre-Loli Kami Requiem era and the post-Loli Kami Requiem era. It doesn’t take much analysis to understand why the amount of tie-ups outside of streaming increased greatly after this point, including an art exhibition in August 2024 and a live event in October 2024 at the 5000 capacity Pacifico Yokohama Hall as part of her fifth anniversary celebrations. No doubt the added view count and larger subscriber base made it easier to justify bigger and bigger projects.
In 2026, Shigure Ui is arguably as well known as other virtual artists such as KAF or Hoshimachi Suisei. The sold out show at K Arena should be proof enough of that. Even so, critics have not forgotten the fact that Ui rose to prominence with a song about pedophilia and child sexual assault. Regardless of whether you think that criticism is justified or not, it still proved powerful and widespread enough to force mezzo piano to pull a recent collaboration with Ui just days before it was meant to launch.
With this in mind, the very thing that allowed Ui to shine through with limited resources and support is the same thing limiting her continued expansion. A mainstream agency would have never allowed a song about calling the cops on perverted weirdos, but that kind of unrestrained creative freedom is exactly what produced such a viral hit. Staying true to yourself is not exactly easy when working with brands known nationwide and holding massive events with thousands of dollars on the line, but that is the kind of world Ui will have to navigate going forward.
Of course, all of this hinges on the very idea that Ui wants to keep growing. If she ever wanted to go back to the days of drawing and streaming every now and again, her fans will follow. Perhaps we are all Shigure Ui: trapped by circumstance and yearning for freedom.
