'Rental granny' service deploys 75-and-up anime vtuber grandmas to 'resolve issues of young people'

(Image credit: MetaGrandma / YouTube)

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.

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.

Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.

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