Rock n’ Roll, Controversial Themes, and VTubing

While most VTubers tend to explore J-Pop and Vocaloid music in their music-based content, Studio Emiko-run VTuber talent Ciel Chandelleur took a different approach: Heavy metal, hard rock, and visual kei – Essentially making her one of the few, if any, rock n’ roll VTubers in the market.

This of course doesn’t mean she is more free on expressing her musical tastes. Rock music – especially more extreme styles such as heavy metal and visual kei (which itself might apply to broader concepts such as the fashion worn by musicians under this umbrella or the culture of their fandoms) – is no stranger to including sensitive or outright disturbing subject matter in their lyrics. One of the worst offenders of this in the history of rock and metal is the entire genre of black metal itself, whose lyrics tend to be a subject of controversy due to its frequent mentions of Satanic themes and their associations with church arsons conducted members of the Norwegian scene during the 90s.

Emiko Hosokawa – the character designer and self-proclaimed manager of Ciel – herself ran to this issue with the songs she was intending to add to Ciel’s karaoke song list. During New Year’s Eve after she saw Ciel posting about her comparing Powerwolf’s “1589” to something that sounds like a hypothetical collab track between said band and the (in)famous Japanese visual kei metal act Dir En Grey, she was reported to have listened to Dir En Grey’s “mazohyst of decadence” – A song about the contentious issue of abortion. The song’s first minute was described by Emiko as having the sound of “heavily flanged guitars accompanied by what sounding like a feeble baby getting killed”, and to make matters worse, how Kyo, Dir En Grey’s vocalist, delivers the lyrics with occasional outbursts of simulated weeping, along with similar “baby-killing” sounds appearing throughout the track, rendered Hosokawa a nervous wreck for the rest of the day. Hosokawa also recalled that she spent much of the night crying due to what she ascribed as an “examination of conscience”, presumably as an effect of listening to said song.

“I can’t believe what the f[..] have I listened to.”, said Hosokawa. “It’s not actual music one can enjoy, it’s torture. Odds are that only serial murderers and rapists are the ones who enjoy this kind of music, which is something that makes me feel iffy”. Another remark by Hosokawa states:

I admit Diru (Dir En Grey) is one of the biggest names in the visual kei scene Ciel loves. While she indeed has songs about the occult and other squicky matters in her karaoke song list, “What-the-f[..]-is-this-Diru-track” is plain unacceptable. Who knows if people’s gonna look to Ciel’s design while she sing said song and then rile up accusations of her being pro-life?

Regarding this statement, Hosokawa alludes to the usage of Christian symbolism in Ciel’s design – which is something Hosokawa has been doing with almost all character designs she has done. In lore, Ciel is a practicing Catholic (although belonging to a fictional in-universe interpretation of it and would not frequently bring this up on-stream), and to reflect this, there is at least a cross somewhere noticeable on her design. In recent times, there have been perceptions from the public that organized religions are suppressing the freedom of speech by declaring abortion a sin as grave as murdering other people, leading to several protests that have tarnished the reputation of both the secular and the religious. Because of this, Hosokawa worries that if Ciel sings songs with such controversial subject matter in her karaoke content, she might inadvertently attract backlash which then again might force her to retire prematurely. And by extension, this backlash might extend to Hosokawa as a designer as well, due to her tendency to include Christian symbolism in her designs.

On the topic of the views of Drillimation Systems, the company has vowed to stay in line with an unbiased view of the world, regardless of their consumers’ religious beliefs. For a long time, religion has influenced laws in some jurisdictions, particularly those where Islam is the dominant religion. Abrahamic religions do not allow abortion in some form regardless of the gestational stage, but may only be necessary if the mother’s life is in danger. Aside from that, Occultism was the reason the Parental Advisory label was introduced, and it is no secret that it was Christian groups that were panning certain songs over certain lyrical content.

There are many heavy metal songs whose lyrical content is acceptable among a general audience, but many artists tend to go on the dark side of things. Market research has shown that heavy metal songs tend to favor older audiences rather than the younger ones.