Vibe Check #20 (May 2025)

Welcome to the 20th edition of our Vibe Check (our 5th Vibe Check for the year), where we talk about anything dealing with anime, Japan, Japanese culture, or anything that's on top of our heads that happened in May. Hope you have a happy reading~

Check #1: V-Tubers on YouTubers

For the past several months (last year and this year), I have been watching VTubers on YouTube. I want to try it since it's been somewhat of a craze.  The reason I haven't watched them on Twitch is that I am not a fan of Twitch because of the span of controversies with their streamers and the platform itself.

Plus, at the time, there hasn't been a particular VTuber I can sit down and watch for quite some time. I've heard of Gura Gura because she gained popularity during the COVID lockdowns, but surprisingly, I never took the time to watch her. I've heard about VSHOJO a lot, but never picked a VTuber that stood out to me at that time. 

One of the most common VTubers I tend to watch a lot is SmugAlana. She tends to be funny and knowledgeable about a lot in the gaming industry. Almost every morning, I tend to watch her latest YouTube videos. Despite that, she's surprisingly not the very first VTuber I've watched.

(I'm not fully sure if I can count him as a VTuber.) The very first VTuber I've watched was ItsAGundam. His comedy and harsh advice tend to be hard to swallow at first, but when you watch him more, it's not bad and funny when you don't think about it and just go with the flow of it.

I would say the shift of real-life influencers tends to be a lot more tedious than it was before. Tons of kids and teenagers tend to want that influencer lifestyle, however, it's a bad situation to go for recklessly.

Sacrificing your daily life and privacy (you and your loved ones) for fame and fortune is a price that some people are willing to pay, but others don't want that type of headache in their lives. They might want fame too, but want to keep their daily life and privacy limited as much as they can for their safety and peace of mind.

Who knows? Kira might be seen as a VTuber one day~

Check #2: Pokémon TCG Collecting Galore

Going back to collecting Pokémon trading cards has been a blessing but a curse. The blessing would be to collect the cards as much as I want. The curse would be hearing stories and watching short videos about scalpers buying up the newest cards from retailers around the country. 

Although there are certain Pokémon that I've never heard of because I haven't had the chance to catch up on the newest seasons and series, it's a nice feeling to be reminded of something that's from your childhood.

The sucky thing about the situation is the hoops the genuine fans have to jump around to get the cards. The worst is seeing kids saddened about not getting any kind of cards because of adult scalpers buying the packs and selling them for a profit.

In my honest opinion, influencers buying cards in a huge pack and displaying the rarest ones (plus showcasing how much profit they get from quality and rarity) were the main reason why there are a lot of scalpers camping outside of department stores. It sucks so bad because we're in the era of scalping something that back in the mid-2000s, many people would bypass anything dealing with Pokemon (or anything anime-related) trading cards without a hesitation nor a second thought. 

Also, because of the demand for Pokémon cards increasing almost every month, prices for even a small pack of cards are increasing by the minute. The bigger the pack, the more expensive it'll be. With the combo of scalpers buying the packs, emptying the shelves, and selling them for a profit, plus the demand for them constantly increasing by the minute, no wonder the nostalgia of buying Pokémon cards is decreasing by the minute.

The biggest thing I'll feel bad for is the kids who are into Pokémon. Some kids in this generation want to try something that happened when Gen-Z were kids, and Pokémon cards were one of the iconic things to try out. Mostly from their parents, who are into Pokémon, or they've stumbled upon one episode of the series would make them interested in the brand. 

That's why, as much as I can purchase a pack of cards; it's better to have a kid get a chance for a childhood than to hold on to nostalgia. 

It's great to buy some cards, but it's better to see a kid smile. 

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That's all for this month's version of Vibe Check. Tune in by the end of June to see what's been going on in June's Vibe Check. Thank you for reading, and have a good one~