I Want to Be a VTuber Chapter 43 Discussion

The only non-5-star review here. TL;DR: It's good but way too repetitive.

Normally I wouldn't rate a series only 50 chapters in, but this one's an exception. Someone compared it to act-age, and while there's some truth to that, it set my expectations way too high - then led to just as much disappointment.

1. Let's start with the MC.

If you're familiar with novelpia TS nomance novels, you already know this kind of MC, just take one of those MCs and that's basically her. That's not a problem by itself since npia TS MCs are generally good, but it also means she doesn't stand out.

The real issue? She's basically a munchkin Mary Sue with way too many overpowered talents. She has a photographic memory for anything entertainment-related, can recall a kids' ad she saw 20 years ago by chance. She can perfectly mimic any actor's performance after watching for a few minutes, then she understands the character's depth better than the actor who just performed it. She even has ridiculous physical strength, can deadlift four times her BW like wtf?

It feels like the author can't decide if this is supposed to be a semi-realistic self-discovery story or a wish-fulfillment power trip, but they're trying to do both and it doesn't work. She's almost like Kei Yonagi from act-age, who also has that method acting talent, except Kei isn't as OP and doesn't have a decade to learn to control her emotion so her instability made her more interesting. Here, even though our MC does suffer from alexithymia, her overpowered skillset pretty much cancels out any real weaknesses, it limits the character growth after the initial setup.

2. The writing

Then there's the writing which is my main gripe. It's enjoyable in parts, but mostly feels dragged out. The author keeps rehashing stuff that just got explained literally a chapter (or even a few paragraphs) ago. Plus every time she acts, the other characters' reactions to her acting are way overdone. Every. Single. Time. It's just people circlejerking over her talent stretched out over an entire chapter every chapter, if the author didn't keep recycling the same joke it could've actually been pretty good.

Showbiz stories that focus more on acting itself (and less about the behind the scenes like OnK) show how the MC's acting skills can also impact others in meaningful ways while the MC is on stage, like how ActAge did. Here, it's mostly just hype about how amazing she is while she performs, and the few times she does impact others it's outside of acting (*minor spoiler* like getting her best friend to switch agencies or helping a casting rival realize their crush is a womanizer). A good author would work those moments into the *actual* acting scenes, showing how MC's performance pushes others to confront their own insecurities on camera, but that's not happening here.

3. Conclusion

AA is one of my favorite series, and I rated it a 4/5. I Want to Be a VTuber is good, but it doesn't hit that same level many times, so 3 stars it is.