Waifu Wednesday: Elira Pendora (Nijisanji EN)

Another blessed Waifu Wednesday is upon us, and today I want to talk about a lady who is very special to me — Elira Pendora.

I did mention in my most recent piece on VTubers that a Waifu Wednesday article on Elira was coming, and here it is. Here at Rice Digital, we’re big fans of all things VTuber — just look at our archive of pieces dedicated to them — and for me personally, the girls from Njisanji EN’s first generation of English VTubers have been some of my absolute favourites. 

Who Is Elira Pendora?

Elira is a member of Lazulight, the very first generation of primarily English-speaking VTubers from Nijisanji — a talent agency similar to Hololive that boasts a humongous roster of VTubers with branches all over the world. Alongside Elira, Lazulight also features the endearingly perverted feesh Finana Ryugu and everyone’s favourite OL fairy, Pomu Rainpuff. 

All three of these girls are adorable, endearing, and incredibly entertaining. Considering the success of Hololive’s English generation and the amazing amount of talent that the group boasts, Nijisanji EN has done an amazing job introducing us to a small group of equally incredible girls who quickly managed to establish a substantial following. 

When it comes to her character’s lore, Elira is a Solar Sky Dragon — a dragon who came from the heavens closest to the sun, and yet her personality and positive vibes somehow outshine even that description. Her character is illustrated by @Kamemesigogo — who also happens to be the same illustrator for Selen Tatsuki, the Lunar-Sky Dragon from Nijisanji EN’s second generation OBSYDIA.

Why we love Elira Pendora

I was actually there for Elira’s debut stream and I think that as soon as she made a “Deez nuts” joke I was willing to follow her anywhere. As someone who came from a predominantly Hololive VTuber background, seeing some meme-esque humour, which I’m quite a fan of, was really refreshing to me — this was before I encountered VShojo, of course.

From this point on I would watch Elira’s streams whenever I could, and in becoming more familiar with her I began to understand just how much this streamer spoke to me. Elira manages to mix in so much “zoomer” humour into her jokes along with a variety of trashy Twitch memes — I know, they’re the garbage of jokes, but I still like them!

She’s a VTuber so of course, she’s also a big ol’ weeb! I’ve lost count of how many times I have watched a stream in which all the members of Lazulight are having a collab and talking about stuff they grew up on. The conversation takes a turn to the 4Kids anime dubs and when Elira started singing the 4Kids One Piece rap I… That’s when I knew this was the VTuber for me.

Lazulight was my introduction to the wonderful world of Nijisanji, and I think that one of the biggest appeal elements of this group is how well the three of them get along with one another. Elira, Pomu, and Finana all bounce off of one another so well, and something I absolutely adore about them is how they drop in on each other’s streams. Numerous times a week Pomu, for example, will appear in Elira or Finana’s chat, and then get invited into discord so they can chat and play games together — they feel like such a genuinely close group of friends and that wholesome shit is something I love!

Why you’ll love Elira

If like me, you grew up on the Internet and the garbage memes that came along with it, then you too will adore our Solar-Sky Dragon. I can’t believe that throughout all of this I didn’t even mention her design! Her design is so unique and memorable, with her hair covering one of her eyes, the ear-like hair tufts on top of her head, the heart-killing fangs, and of course her pet dragon Pikl!

Elira also has quite the dynamic voice — one minute she sounds like a soothing older sister, the next minute she sounds like a gremlin after making some kind of pee-pee poo-poo or deez nuts joke, and then she blows you away with her singing. If you’re the type of person who loves going crazy for your waifus — of course, you are, why else would you be here — then Elira is going to resonate with you like you wouldn’t believe.

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