And so, to walk the talk after my discussion with Churiri-sensei, it was immediately off to more Live-Onning. It was important to kick the shenanigans off strong with this first stream of mine:
“The strongest character debate—has there ever been a more pointless endeavor?” I said in a stiff, narrator-like voice, the first thing the viewers heard as my stream flickered to life.
: It bodes really well you cold-opened your stream calling it a pointless endeavor
: you said the quiet part out loud!
: it's over
: kay, pack it up boys, stream's over
: a more fruitless endeavor does exist: your attempts at remaining seiso
“What is the strongest character debate? It is a debate in which people fiercely argue over which fictional character could beat up all the others in a particular work of fiction or whatever their obsession of the week is.”
: aaaand she keeps going
: hey, don't ignore your chat, streamer
: lol
: is this an awa-chan type stream?
: not if I have anything to say about it ￥220
“But unless the creator of the work has graciously given us a power hierarchy, these debates quickly devolve into absurd what-ifs and imaginary fights. There’s no logic, no real basis—just a bunch of fans trying to kick and scream their favorite character to the top.”
: I mean yeah but did you have to say it like that?
: someone sounds rather bitter lol
: probably a veteran of a few such debates herself
: just how many skeletons does this seison't streamer have in her closet?
“And so what results from such an unwinnable and prejudiced debate? A glorious mess of shit-slinging, name-calling, and enough slander to rival the comment section of a Yahoo News article. A true breeding ground for bias and baseless hot takes—welcome to the strongest character debate.”
: yahoo news catching strays LMAO
: it's a metaphor for how unproductive and destructive these arguments are. bullets fly everywhere, harming indiscriminately
: I dunno, this feels kinda subjective
: can't deny that these arguments are liable to get out of control
: don't act like you don't get angry when someone trash-talks your oshi
“All right. Well. Good evening, everyone. It looks like another nice, light snow is falling tonight. Awayuki Kokorone here,” I said, slipping back into my usual tone, setting the stage for a nice, seiso Awa-chan stream. “So today’s event, as I just mentioned, is a strongest character debate—featuring all your faves here from Live-On! Woo-hoo! Did you all like my little dramatic cold opening there? I tried to up the stakes by sounding all serious, but I don’t know, maybe that wasn’t me. Aha ha ha...” I laughed bashfully. The opening had already been avant-garde enough; I tried not to make the introduction any more confusing for the viewers.
: oh look at you acting coy. Fine. but only because I like you.
: coy (seiso)
: Live-On doesn't need any more additional stakes, ma'am
: buckle in for another crazy stream boys
“And by the way, what I said earlier only really applies to casual debating. There’s also ranked, competitive strongest character debates, but we’re not going to get into that right now. Too many rules, too serious. I just want us all to have some fun, you know?”
: ranked, competitive strongest character debates...?
: Okay, but your little intro didn't make it sound fun at all...
: how are we even gauging "strength" in this context?
“Oh, that’s simple. Just who would win in a fight.”
: bruh LOL. because if there's anything VTubers need to be ranked on, it's their ability to throw hands
: doesn't really feel like a VTuber thing to do in the first place...
: eh, basically everything is a VTuber thing these days
: I always knew Live-On was a shonen manga!
: this strongest character debate is liable to devolve into a nastiest character debate
Still think this is all a bit too vague? Same here—welcome to the club! But don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll figure it out as we go. As I mentioned earlier, today’s stream is all about the strongest character debate, featuring us, the members of Live-On—a generational talent of a VTubing agency that’s been growing so fast, we put even shonen manga protagonists to shame! These debates aren’t just for online message boards or forums—they happen on playgrounds too, between friends. I’m sure many of you have had similar discussions at some point in your lives.
No? Still don’t get it? Then...screw it, just look at this:
“Let’s jump right into it. To make our lives a little easier, I’ve taken the liberty of creating a little placeholder-y tier list beforehand! Behold!”
[S] Hareru Asagiri
[A] Shion Kaminari Ehrai Sonokaze Churiri
[B] Nekoma Hirune Mashiro Irodori Kaeru Yamatani
[C] Awayuki Kokorone Hikari Matsuriya Alice Soma
[D] Chami Yanagase Tadasu Miyauchi Dagger
[Z] Sei Utsuki
: Huh?
: cool tier list bro
: bruh what is thissss LMAO
: go ahead, put yourself in S, we won't say anything
: there's a lot to unpack here, but you have to at least separate Shuwa from Awa and the boss from the zookeeper
: Alice in C-tier? What are you smoking?
: go read the official character bios, then come back and remake this list.
: just Sei-sama casually in Z-tier LMAOOO
: this tier list already reeks of the maker's bias. (bias against herself and her ilk, but bias nonetheless)
: I'm dying. For an Awa-chan stream, the chat sure is Shuwa-riffic
: Perhaps her being Awa-chan for this stream is a precaution
Ugh, why do I even try?
“All right, all right. Calm down, everybody, calm down. Listen. I’m not saying this is the best tier list in the world, but coming from me, an actual streamer affiliated with the org, it has to mean something, right?”
: no
: if anything, your affiliation makes your opinion mean less
: mm-hm
: if we wanted your StroZero-addled take, we would've asked for it. Now give us the official take.
: StroZero-addled LOL
“Yeah, coming from the snark-lords who would say, ‘Yeah, well, that’s just the official power ranking’ even if we had one. Ahem. Anyway! Enough of that, let’s get this debate underway, shall we? And just so you know, I won’t be holding back. If you think I can’t throw down, you’ve got another thing coming. I’m like PreCure up in this. I will beat you and your mother up.”
: Hoh? Them's fightin words
: I'll have you know these hands are rated E for everyone
: Then let's go
: which one are you supposed to be, Cure StroZero?
: oof that's a nasty counter...
That was the gist of the plan explained. Next, chat and I would use my tier list as a jumping-off point for impassioned debate and discussion, ultimately rearranging the tier list into one that was universally agreed upon (if such a tier list exists). Not even counting the split personalities some of the talents had, that was already fourteen streamers we had to talk about. Things could devolve pretty messily pretty fast—unless we set up some ground rules first.
“To make things easier for us, why don’t we decide on the all-important S-tier first? These would be Live-On’s most prolific streamers—the undefeated, as they say. Currently, I have Hareru-senpai and Hareru-senpai only in that coveted top spot. If you have any thoughts, then please go ahead and share them.”
: i'm sensing passive aggression
: well, yeah I think Hareru goes in S
: no objections here
: wait but didn't Awa-chan call Hareru a Jagen the other day?