this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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I don't even know what a vtuber retirement is. When they stop streaming?
When they stop streaming as that character.
The term "graduating" comes from Japanese pop idol culture, where a pop idol retiring is called "graduating."
Creepy and weird IMO
And I say this as a bit of a weeb
Its a culture difference. Its not my place to police another culture, I am just saying what the origin of the term is.
Culture is not a monolith
I am not about to say that someone's else's culture is wrong. Even if I personally feel that way, that is only my opinion, and only applies to me and how I might choose to interact with another culture.
I am not an authority on what is right or wrong in a culture, and quite frankly, neither are you.
And as we all know, you have to be a legally recognized authority on a subject to express an opinion about it online.
Fortunately, in my jurisdiction I'm licensed as a RightHandOfKaros-is-wierdologist.
I don't know the full ins and outs myself, but most of these VTubers are managed by agencies who own the rights to the characters they portray. The people behind the character get paid for their work, and they can choose to take better jobs elsewhere, but they don't get to bring the characters with them. Basically like how Tom Kenny (voice actor for SpongeBob) can't just decide to be SpongeBob somewhere else, he doesn't own the character.
When a VTuber decides to retire or if they take a better job with a different agency, the character "graduates," which I think is just used because it's a softer word than "retire." The fans just get to imagine the character is off doing bigger and better things, not that they're euthanized or locked in a storage unit somewhere gathering dust. In theory I guess the agency could continue using the character for merch and promo material, or even recast, though I have no idea how well that would go in an industry with fans as obsessive as theirs.
We've had First Gura, yes, but what about Second Gura?
Technically we are into third gura if im not mistaken.
Yup and all three of them got YouTube Golden Play Buttons.
When they leave their agency