Vibe Check #21 (June 2025)

Hey everyone. Welcome to the 21st edition of our Vibe Check (6th vibe check for 2025) where we talk about anything and everything dealing with Japan, Japanese culture, anime, or anything that's on top of our heads for June. Hope you have a happy reading~

Check #1: VTtubers Overdrive

Last month, I was talking about my time watching VTubers on YouTube and let me tell you this. The YouTube algorithm constantly recommends to me some Japanese VTubers who are playing mostly Mario Kart 8 or Mario Kart World. Out of 20 recommended videos, YouTube gives me, 4 or 5 of them are Japanese VTubers playing video games.

Watching some is nice and peaceful too, and a lot more peaceful to use for background noise when I am working on the store and the brand. However, it was surprising how popular they are when they're live compared to even semi-popular YouTubers. MoistCritical had an average of 10k viewers whenever he's live, but for some VTubers they even have 20k to 30k live viewers whenever they play a game.

If it became that popular on YouTube, imagine if I saw some VTubers that are from Twitch. I am sure that there might be an audience that can rival super-popular streamers. 

The sad thing about seeing the VTubers is two things: drama and language barriers.

Like any other popular social media influencer or content creator, VTubers have their fair share of drama inside and outside of YouTube and Twitch. From VTubers dealing with abuse to VTubers dealing with people doxxing their personal information to the public. This quote never ceases to amuse me: the more popular you are, the bigger the target behind your back.

The language barrier is a concern for me. Since I haven't studied Japanese in a very long time, translating from Japanese to English is a bigger challenge (especially at a time like that when I am heading to Japan in August), ever since YouTube recommended Japanese VTubers. So that means, even though I do like their content, translating to English can be tough to handle. 

Despite those, there might be a chance there will be one to three Japanese VTubers that I'll subscribe to on YouTube. 

Vibe Check #2: Anticipation for July 2025 

For the entire year, most anime fans (in my opinion) are amplified for two months in the year when the best anime series make their mark: July 2025 and October 2025. 

I included a good number of anime series I've watched that will be debuting their new season, My Dress Up Darling in July 2025. Ever since seeing the shipping of Gojo and Marin from the very first season, I was super amped up from seeing the trailer for the second season. That will come out on the day after the Fourth of July. 

Another anime series I can't wait for is Dan Da Dan on Netflix. Although it might be challenging for me to reconsider my Netflix account due to their constant price increase (which I won't be surprised if they increase by the end of the summer, calling it as it is), Dan Da Dan was mostly an immediate fall-in-love-at-the-first-episode type of series. The shipping between Momo and Ken, the amazing effects of Ken changing form, and the funny yet interesting moments of a love triangle make me invested in the series a lot more than the average.

There is a surprisingly good batch of anime series that are debuting next month that I watched trailers for:

• Ruri Rocks
• Turkey! Time To Strike
• See You Tommorrow At The Food Court

Like I said, the month of July and the anime series that are coming out will be the best! If it's that good in July, imagine it'll be for October 2025.

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That's all for this month's version of Vibe Check! Tune in the end of July for July 2025 Vibe Check! Hope you have a good reading~