[Interview] Vtuber Mom Ayamy chats with us at Anime Central 2024

We recently attended Anime Central in Illinois and had the chance to speak with Ayamy, a Vtuber illustrator who’s also responsible for creating character designs for many well-known Vtubers such as Yozora Mel, Hanamori Healty, Yaso Toiki, and Shabel Tonya. She’s also designed the character Endo Shimiko for the video game Blue Archive. Anime Central is her first American event where she had the opportunity to interact with her overseas fans directly. We sat down with her for a quick interview to know more about her as an artist and Vtuber!

KKS: Hi Ayamy, Welcome to the States!

Ayamy: Thank you so much.

KKS: Let’s start off easy, how did you get your start as an artist?

Ayamy: I’ve always liked drawing, especially cute girls. After I graduated from college, I wanted to see what I could do with my degree. I entered a game company and became an illustrator from there.

KKS: What attracted you to Vtubers specifically?

Ayamy: When I was creating my first hololive daughters, I was already a bit involved as Vtuber culture was beginning to emerge. From there, I delved deeper into the culture!

KKS: When you’re not broadcasting yourself, do you have any Vtubers that you’re watching?

Ayamy: When I’m not streaming myself, I do frequently tune in to my Vtuber daughters while they’re streaming.

KKS: Do you like seeing fanart of the Vtuber daughters you’ve designed?

Ayamy: Of course! I will look at each daughter’s art hashtags for fanart.

KKS: When you are live streaming, what’s the most rewarding and most challenging aspect of streaming as a Vtuber?

Ayamy: There have been a couple times where after I finished streaming where I reflected on it and felt that it wasn’t a very fun stream because of an environmental issue affecting my condition or the communication with my viewers wasn’t very good at all and I would be hard on myself.
As you know, being an illustrator I spend a lot of time at home by myself as a Vtuber so I can just hop on my computer and communicate with so many people at once so that would be the most fulfilling part about.

KKS: Drawing an illustration takes a long time, so when you’re doing an art stream do you find it more enjoyable to have an audience watch the long process?

Ayamy: Yea, first of all because people are watching I do get nervous about it however because I’m drawing for a book, I treat it as fanservice for my viewers and they’re able to see the drawing process

KKS: You’ve done a lot of art of many IPs, are there any IPs that you haven’t but would like to collaborate with?

Ayamy: Lately, my desire is to produce my own original work and characters so that’s currently my main focus at the moment. I also would like to create Vtuber designs for English-speaking Vtubers!

KKS: For anyone who would like to pursue drawing, what’s the best advice you can give them?

Ayamy: Sit down and draw! Then discover what you really want to draw and make that the most important part for you to continue. For example, I really like to draw cute girls’ bodies and that’s a big part of why I continue to illustrate.

KKS: This is common among artists but when you encounter an artist block how do you overcome it?

Ayamy: First of all, if you don’t sleep the negative thoughts won’t stop so it’s important to do that.Also to go outside and see things, it doesn’t have to be a museum, it can be as easy as seeing cute girls at the train station or seeing artbooks at a bookstore. All of those things are helpful in finding inspiration.

KKS: Let’s switch it up to your visit to America, any food that you’ve enjoyed or yet to try?

Ayamy: I really like hotdogs and pizza and Chicago happens to be famous for both!

KKS: Awesome, do you have any closing words for your fans who’ve traveled to meet you here at Anime Central?

Ayamy: Thank you to the fans so much for your love and support that I was able to come all this way to America! I will continue to do my best.