Do you mean that the person playing the bear retired or that the bear skin was retired and the person is now appearing as something else ?
The person retired the model (last I heard circa 2023) and just appears as themselves!
Edit: I should also clarify that they revealed themselves well before actually retiring the bear model. There was a long period (years?) where they mostly or sometimes used the bear model, but sometimes were just themselves.
I find it interesting how difficult the concept of VTubers can be to understand for some people (not the one in OP obviously) - it's not like using an avatar (or a costume) to represent yourself is a new thing. Sometimes it feels like the world is going backwards in some regards...
It’s just “new thing weird”, really. No one had issues with people like HowToBasic or Dream not showing their face, it’s just that people see the virtual anime avatar and are confused (or horrified, if they’re that kind of people).
I fully believe it’ll become as accepted as anime if they don’t somehow lose the momentum.
Yeah, it's just kind of funny when people will interact with/consume content with a very similar premise to VTubbing without a second thought and then turn around and be utterly confused on "but why/how/what even is this?!".
I think what happens is that normally when someone is wearing a costume, it's because they're playing a character (dressing weird because you want to is just called "fashion"). So the logic goes person wearing costume -> person playing a character -> person is being "fake". The misunderstanding is that most vtubers (or at least furry ones), it's actually kinda the opposite; the vtuber "costume" is what they consider to be their real self.
Ehh, yes an no. For some it can absolutely be what they consider as their real self but for many it's the same thing as with any other content creator - a persona. It might be closer or further away from how they are in real life but I don't think one should take what VTubers do as a complete truth. At the end of the day they (especially the larger ones) are entertainers and some amount of "fakeness" will almost always be present. Not many people can be entertaining enough purely through their "normal" personality to build and sustain a community around themselves.
