Looking back on six months of hope with IRyS

Hololive’s English branch has been doing a great job ever since the five Myth girls first burst onto the scene in mid-2020. In the highly competitive VTuber space, it’s remarkable to see performers manage to go the distance, putting out consistently enjoyable videos and streams on a near-daily basis over the long term. And the latest to celebrate a noteworthy milestone in her career is IRyS, a late addition to Hololive English who occupies a curious space somewhere between the first “holoMyth” generation and the second “holoCouncil” wave.

IRyS debuted six months ago in July of 2021 with perfect timing; everyone around the world was really starting to feel thoroughly beaten down by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic coupled with all the other chaos happening in various hotspots, and thus a message of hope was exactly what we needed. IRyS didn’t make any sort of lofty promises to fix anything, but it was immediately apparent from her first appearance that she strove to be a comforting presence, and one that people could draw at least a certain amount of inspiration from.

IRyS was initially positioned as a “VSinger,” which made her seem like something separate to holoMyth’s efforts in the VTuber space. Specifically, it seemed like Hololive’s English branch was hoping to replicate the success of Virtual Diva AZKi, a member of Hololive’s “0th gen” alongside Hoshimachi Suisei, who initially operated as an independent VTuber on Hololive’s Inonaka Music label, but who subsequently joined the agency.

No-one quite knew what the “VSinger” moniker meant at the time, and to be honest it’s not really that much clearer now, since many of the other Hololive girls have been busily putting out original songs and cover versions both before and after IRyS’ debut.

What we do know, however, is that IRyS is very much a fixture in Hololive’s English lineup now, frequently appearing on collaborations with other members and clearly being a beloved part of the community. And while she’s yet to break a million subscribers, unlike all of her holoMyth predecessors, she’s comfortably ahead of her holoCouncil kouhai and still gaining subscribers at a steady rate month on month, suggesting that people are still discovering her and enjoying what she does.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look back at some of IRyS’ streams and clips over the last six months, and enjoy the hope that our one and only nephilim has brought us.

Stop laughing at funny numbers

I mean… she has a point. It’s not obligatory to go “nice” any time you see the number 69 and yet everyone does. They are, as IRyS says, just numbers. And her deadly serious death stare of death towards the end of this clip should convince you all to just grow up and stop being such silly billies. This clip comes from one of IRyS’ streams on Terraria, which has been a popular choice among her audience.

Don’t try and be smooth

If you want to get a nephilim to pay attention to you in “that” way, you have to do better than this. IRyS may be the embodiment of hope, but she ain’t going to give you false hope, brother, even if you spend a hundred dollars complimenting her tiddies. Aside: who has a hundred dollars just lying around to do this? Interestingly, this is also from a Terraria stream, but a different one.

It’s just a finger

Or is it? IRyS seems to think it might be representative of something else, but doesn’t seem to quite want to say what. Chat seems to get the picture, though. This is part of IRyS’ stream on the notoriously provocative and very amusing game Plug & Play.

On debuting alone

IRyS was obviously in a very interesting and potentially difficult situation by debuting alone, so in this clip she talks frankly about how that was for her — and how her senpai in holoMyth helped her out as she was getting ready to go live for the first time. Although she’s obviously someone with a fair amount of confidence in herself, one can only imagine how terrifying it must be to debut to an audience with an endless hunger for new VTubers!

Pekora forgets IRyS is Hololive English

As you might expect for an agency with international talent, a lot of Hololive’s performers are multilingual, and IRyS is no exception. In this clip, she collaborates with several of Hololive’s Japanese VTubers and is so fluent in Japanese that dear old Pekora actually seems to forget that she’s an English VTuber first and foremost. Adorable.

Spicy fanfic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YUqB1MfRrY

Bae and IRyS have a… complicated relationship. I’m not sure much else needs to be said.

IRyS and Calli sing together

A collab between two of Hololive English’s most talented musicians was always going to be a special moment — and delightfully, unlike a lot of karaoke streams, this one remained archived for everyone to enjoy at their leisure. It’s well worth a watch, since they both have quite the set of pipes on them. Plus any opportunity to see Calli’s ponytail flopping around is always a delight.

Mind your ears

IRyS hasn’t done many ASMR streams, but this one is absolutely worth your time and attention. Sit back, relax and let IRyS cut your strangely papery hair, lacerate your ears, rejuvenate that papery hair with special hand (and hair) cream and tell us a story about Ciderella. As one commenter has it, “something about the imminent danger at any moment makes this ASMR strangely relaxing”. Quite.

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A hearty congratulations on six months of success for IRyS, then — and here’s to six more.

Subscribe to IRyS on YouTube here.

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