The folks at Japanese vtuber agency Otagroup are onto something. Its vtuber group of women aged 75-and-up aren't just 3D anime girl streamers anymore: they're vtuber grandmas for rent.
Otagroup gained some traction in the vtuber space when its 86-year-old vtuber Hiroko went viral on X and YouTube. And now it's going to offer an online counseling service called "rental granny" where you can hire vtubers like Hiroko to hang out with you personally.
In a report by ITMedia News (translated by Automaton West), the agency said it "realized that the experience of having someone that can rely on [you] greatly contributes to the wellbeing of the elderly," and that its goal is to "boost the self-esteem of the elderly, while also helping resolve issues of young people in urban areas as well."
After you apply to the program, Otagroup will pick the perfect vtuber grandma for you and will schedule counseling sessions to attend over Zoom and Google Meet. In addition to general life advice, you can apparently have your vtuber grandma help with other things, like paying them to show up as an extra in a movie.
Otagroup isn't playing around either. It hopes to turn this into a profitable enterprise and is currently looking to partner with nursing homes to expand its roster of grandmas.
I can't deny the benefits of having a granny in your life, whether they look like an anime girl or not. As long as the service isn't exploiting these precious grandmas, I think giving them a way to help others is a smart use of the anonymity vtuber avatars afford you. In a world where weirdos are trying to talk to their AI chatbots for life advice, I'd much prefer to see people signing up to chat with real people with real wisdom to share.
