VTuber Spotlight: Ecotone

With VTubing’s recent popularity, new VTubers are sprouting up on every streaming platform. But most don’t have what it takes to be a top VTuber; the sheer commitment, consistency, and talent.

That’s why most VTubing industry newcomers end up getting discouraged. They don’t climb the rankings quickly enough and quit their careers as VTubers before it even begins!

However, that’s not what our guests today did. Even though they are new to the scene, they’ve been consistent with their streaming schedule, committed to their fans, and are quite talented. We had the pleasure of interviewing your favorite dynamic duo, Kairi and Raika from Ecotone.

So, without any further ado, let’s get straight to what they had to share with us and their fans!

Introduction

Kairi (a deer) and Raika (an octopus) are a pair of VTubers who stream as a duo under the name Ecotone (their Discord here).

They belong to an indie VTuber group named Yokomeshi and are from the Philippines. Both of them are real-life siblings; Kairi, the younger of both, brings the chaotic energy to their streams, while Raika seems to be the voice of reason!

Their VTuber models were designed by Capririusart and modeled by Akkalime, while Raika herself illustrated them. Most of their streams start with a greeting, “Ikuyo, Ecotone,” to hype up their viewers, and they end them with a Japanese goodnight, “Oyasumi, Ecotone.” Cute, right?

But enough of my yapping; who else can introduce them better than themselves?

Q: Both of you, please give us a quick self-introduction!

“Hello, we are Ecotone! We are a Filipino Vtuber duo in the Philippines! “

Raika: “I’m Raika, an octopus!”

Kairi: “And I’m Kairi, a deer!”

Personalities & Lore

Both of the VTubers’ personalities are in contrast to each other, making the duo more dynamic and their streams a lot more fun.

Kairi is a bit quirky and choatic. At the same time, Raika’s personality is calm yet fun. However, their combination is quite unusual, especially with one being a deer and the other one an octopus. They shouldn’t have even come across each other given that they live in different habitats, let alone stream together.

So, how did they end up together? Let’s get the answer straight from the source of this lore.

Q: So it’s not every day that we see a pair of VTubers streaming as a duo! Can you tell us about where the two of you met and how Ecotone was created?

Raika: “We are real-life sisters (but don’t think too much about how a deer and an octopus can be full-blooded siblings), and it felt right to stream together.”

Kairi: “We tell our viewers two things when it comes to Ecotone’s beginnings. One is what Raika mentions, that we are sisters. The other is more of our “lore”, where we met in Ecotone due to Raika being stuck in seaweed and Kairi being conveniently there to free her with her butcher knife. We let the viewers decide which one they would rather believe, but we assure them that whichever one they prefer, our dynamic won’t change. “

Well, Kairi turned out to be quite a kind-hearted deer for an apex predator. Raika should feel lucky that she didn’t end up on Kairi’s plate as her dinner!

Ecotone’s Origin

Ecotone is a pretty unique name for VTubers. Most VTubers’ names are influenced by Japanese media, be it from a manga or some anime character. But how did Ecotone come up with their name? Well, we asked them, and here is what they had to say:

Q: How did you two decide on the name, Ecotone?

Raika: “It was mostly Kairi’s effort when it came to naming ourselves.”

Kairi: “I went through so many options for Raika to approve of, most of which are just octopus and deer in Japanese or Tagalog mashed together:

ShikaTako, ShikoKata, TakoShika, Pugusa, Usagita, Octodeer, RECTO?, Deus, Kaka etc. “

Raika: “They were all terrible.” 

Kairi: “But at the end of the list was Ecotone! I did my scientific research and yes, it is a real word. It means the meeting of two different biomes! It was perfect, considering Raika is an octopus from the ocean, and I am a deer from the land.”

Now that’s a creative process! The important thing here is that they came up with a totally original name that represents both of their traits and is just plain cool: “Ecotone.” That is indeed a cool name.

The Sibling Banter

In my opinion, the best part of watching Ecotone is the constant back and forth banter between Raika and Kairi. They have that sibling energy that is nowhere else to be found in any other VTubers’ streams.

We couldn’t resist asking them about this delightful chemistry between them both!

Q: Honestly, the best part of having the two of you on together is the constant banter! Do you think that’s part of what attracts your viewers?

Raika: “Definitely!”

Kairi: “Being sisters means we have a telepathic kind of connection! Our viewers like that.”

Raika: “No. That’s not how it works.”

Aaannnnndddd the banter continues…But seriously, there’s a bit of truth in what Kairi said. You’d know if you have a sibling; we always know what mischief is cooking up in each other’s minds. And that’s what sets Ecotone’s streams apart from any other VTuber out there. This chemistry is what makes them a lot more fun to watch!

The Consistency And The Success That Comes With It

If you are choosing VTubing as your career choice, you’ve got to commit to it and be consistent. And that’s what our favorite VTuber sisters are doing. They invest a lot of their time in scheduling, planning, and managing their streams.

But between the two of them, who does most of the behind-the-scenes work? Let’s ask.

Q: It looks like you two have a pretty full-stream schedule. How do you make time for VTubing, or are you doing this full-time?

Kairi: “I have butcher school, and Raika makes sure to make the stream schedule fit around mine.”

Raika: “I have more free time compared to Kairi because the only schools in the sea are of fish, not really for octopuses. As the older sister, I wanted to take care of responsibilities like scheduling so she wouldn’t have to worry about it! A lot of the stream-managing falls on my shoulders, not that I mind!“

Honestly, given that their streams are the primary source of entertainment for us fans, we don’t mind Raika managing the streams either since she’s amazing at it.

But hold on. Whoa! Did Kairi just say something about a butcher school? I think we need a bit more explanation on that. Let’s figure out what she’s butchering, and if it lives in the sea…

Q:Did you say butcher school?! Dare I ask… what are you butchering?

Kairi: “Deers have evolved to become apex predators, so I want to be able to learn how to prepare and cut meat. That’s what we are butchering :)”

Hmm… So, Kairi really is an apex predator deer in training! I thought she was just joking around about that in her streams. Suddenly, I don’t feel that secure anymore. But I think I’ll be okay. I came in peace, and she wouldn’t eat her interviewer, right? Right?

But you know, success is inevitable with that much commitment and the talent that Ecotone is blessed with. And thanks to that, Ecotone is seeing a lovely increase in subscriber count across all platforms. Their Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok channels are all growing!

We went on to ask them to share with us their secret recipe for success.

Q: I saw that you had really amazing follow growth towards the end of 2021/beginning of 2022. Did you change anything about your streams, or did deer and octopuses suddenly become in vogue?

Raika: “I think it all came down to our hard work and consistency paying off. We found ourselves being noticed even by bigger Vtubers we’ve looked up to for a long time. We’ve had this personal rule to try and keep all of our content to be family-friendly, which isn’t always easy nor popular in twitch communities.”

Kairi: “But we’re lucky that the people who found us want to support us in how we are building Ecotone. The growth was still a big surprise to us, though. I guess you could say that Ecotone has had very humble beginnings, and so seeing people take notice made our hearts so warm.”

We’re all rooting for your success, Kairi & Raika, and our support is always with you!

Ecotone’s Favorite Streams To Do

We all love watching Ecotone’s streams, and we all have our own favorite kinds of streams that Ecotone does. But what about them? What type of stream do they love doing?

We asked them, and here is what they had to say:

Q: Your success is definitely well-deserved! Speaking about focus, what are your favorite kinds of streams to do?

Raika: “Our favorite is definitely horror games.”

Kairi: “It’s not.”

Raika: “Yeah, it’s not. We’re very bad with horror games, especially Kairi. We usually have me play the games, and Kairi focuses on the chat, so she won’t freak out too much.”

Kairi: “Our community loves seeing our reactions during scary scenes and thrilling chases! Seeing our community enjoy our gaming makes it fun for us too. We also do a lot of Karaoke and Special Event streams like anniversaries and milestones.”

Raika: “Everything we do and achieve in Ecotone, we want to share all of it with our community.”

Embracing & Sharing The Filipino Culture

As we all know, Kairi and Raika are from the Philippines, but their streams are in English. So, it was only natural to ask them why they chose to stream in English. Here’s what they had to say about that:

Q: Both of you are Filipino streamers, but you’re more often than not streaming in English. Why did you make that choice, and how are the Filipino and American VTuber communities different?

Raika: “We were blessed enough to have been able to speak and practice English growing up; you could say that it’s a language we feel comfortable in.”

Kairi: “We came into VTubing with a want to share parts of our Filipino culture, so we wanted to make sure that our streams are still accessible outside of the Filipino community as well.”

Raika: “Funnily enough, VTubing has helped us be exposed to other cultures as well. Our viewers are always supportive and happy to share their own cultures and experiences when we talk about our own.”

We, as English speaking fans, are thankful to learn that Kairi and Raika feel comfortable speaking English, and that we are able to learn so much about Filipino culture through Ecotone.

Speaking of Filipino culture, we asked them to share a thing or two about it, as we can’t get enough of it! Here’s what they shared:

Q:That’s really heartwarming! How about you share a thing or two about your culture here that you’d like us to know?

Raika: “It seems that many people are surprised to know that Filipinos start getting ready for Christmas in September. We put up Christmas lights and play Christmas songs in malls. We just love Christmas that much.”

Glad to hear that Christmas comes so early in the Philippines.

What’s In The Future For Ecotone?

With their eyes set on future goals, Ecotone is looking forward to growing into a more popular VTubing channel. Looking at their talent and commitment, I must say that they deserve all the success that comes their way.

Q: What are your future goals for the rest of 2022–2023?

Raika: “We’re definitely hoping to grow our Youtube channel!” 

Kairi: “Big 1000, hopefully soon!”

Raika: “We’ve also always talked about our dreams of having 3D models one day.” 

Kairi: “My sister and I love idols, and we’ve been going through a big training arc! One day we will show you all our dance moves.”

We can’t wait to watch those dance moves, Kairi; we hope that day comes soon!

Wrapping Up

With that, we wrapped up the interview! If you liked it, make sure to stay tuned for more interviews of your favorite VTubers in this series of interviews, “VTuber Spotlight.”

And if you are a VTuber and want us to interview you, just DM us at @DereProject.

That’s all, folks!