Bungo Taiga: The Resilient Tiger VTuber

The VTubing community is generally seen as a wonderful place, filled with wholesome and supportive people. From the talents themselves, to the artists, and the fans alike, they all lift each other up and help create a cozy little corner in this vast space that is the internet.

But as is the case with most communities, this one is not without its issues and controversies. Some people have unfortunately left due to said issues, but others have stayed strong and built themselves back up.

We’re highlighting one such VTuber who has remained with us – Bungo Taiga. If you want to know more about him, read on!

Getting to Know Bungo Taiga

Bungo Taiga is an English-speaking indie VTuber who hails from Canada. He had his Twitch debut on April 27, 2020, and revealed a 3D model during that stream. He is normally known as just Taiga but since that name is taken by many people, Bungo was added to it. That’s a reference to the anime Bungo Stray Dogs (coincidentally, his fans are also called Stray Dogs). He is a snow tiger who describes himself as bratty, affectionate, energetic, and athletic. His birthday is on May 28, and he is around 1000 years old. He stands at 5’4” or 162cm and weighs 110 lbs or 50kg.

Taiga mainly streams on Twitch but has a YouTube channel dedicated to his clips. He dedicates most of his streaming time to playing Minecraft or doing “Just Chatting” streams with his community. Fans remember him for his quick tongue, sharp wit, and very colorful vocabulary, but his fun and easy-going nature is what makes them stay. Well, that, and the countless instances of him saying lewd and even questionable things so casually. You can look all that up on his YouTube channel, there are tons of them.

There’s another side to him that you wouldn’t expect, though. Our snow tiger is one heck of a singer with an unreal vocal range. Check out the time he covered Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” or Eurythmics’s “Sweet Dreams”. It’s like a different person takes over him when it’s time to sing. If he ever considers making music somewhere down the line, then there’s no doubt he’ll be a huge hit.

Appearances and Lore

Besides his unexpectedly great singing and the energy he gives off on his streams, the thing that makes Taiga memorable is his look. He is what you would call a “femboy,” someone who identifies as male but adopts a female aesthetic. All his models feature him wearing feminine clothes with a winter theme.

DDMavis made his first 3D model and it goes all in with the snowy theme, even including earmuffs and a hoodie with cat ears. The sleeveless turtleneck, jean shorts, high socks, and boots are definitely something you’d see women wear. He would keep this all the way until April 2021, and the next model was definitely something to remember.

The next model takes a turn for the canine, as Taiga debuted a Live2D that turned him from a snow tiger into an anthropomorphic dog person. That means there was a certain point in time when you could consider him a dog VTuber. His clothes remained similar though, only dropping the hoodie. The halo only confirmed that he was now a snow angel and not a snow tiger.

His latest model debuted in August 2022 with ChickenPres doing the art and ApulSauce being the rigger. Taiga goes back to being a snow tiger with a demon form that has horns and a dark halo. The rigging and animation here are next-level in terms of detail, with very lively movement and expressions. There’s even some hand tracking integrated into it! The clothes are pretty similar to his previous two models, but they have that extra “tiger” in them. Still quite feminine, all things considered.

There isn’t too much information about his lore apart from him being a snow tiger turned snow angel who also happens to have a demon form. He does say that he’s made of snow, which gives him the power to change into any form he wants.

The Bungo Taiga Controversy

Okay, this is going to be quite messy.

Taiga has, unfortunately, been the subject of controversy and drama for some time now, going all the way back to 2021. There’s a lot of information to go through with many people speaking out. Tons of Twitter threads were made, and unfortunately, some of them don’t exist anymore. If you just want the gist of all the things that happened, you can refer to the video above or look into this Google document created by an independent investigator. Otherwise, let’s read on and try to unpack everything.

Initial Accusations

The controversy started on May 2021. Someone named gilk made a Twitter thread that has a Google document accusing Taiga of multiple damning things. For context, gilk was a former moderator of Taiga’s streams and his Discord server. The first document gilk posted was about Taiga being “a racist pedophile”, but the link is gone now as it was flagged as a violation of Google’s Terms of Service. The second document is still present, and it contains a lot of Discord screenshots showing Taiga having a terrible attitude toward his moderators. Some examples of it are:

• Getting heated about his statistics and viewer count on Twitch, even complaining that people who are close to him aren’t watching his streams.
• Saying that some people on his Discord server are “stealing his viewers” because they were on a voice call together or playing with fellow community members while he was streaming.
• Disrespecting his own moderators and talking to them like he owned them.

A second moderator named ahzy came out with a second set of allegations not too long after gilk brought his out. These had actual screenshots of the racism and pedophilia that they accused Taiga of. It’s better that we don’t go into too much detail here, but you’re free to check out the Google document as well as videos of their Discord chats provided in the link above.

Many people in the VTubing community turned on Taiga, shocked by the news that came out. His reputation took quite a fall, even more so when Nux Taku briefly went over the controversy in this video. While Nux only skimmed parts of what happened, his reach and influence were more than enough for people to stop supporting Taiga.

A Defense and the Ensuing Kerfuffle

Not everyone was against Taiga, however. A few days after gilk and ahzy made their posts, Helsang, one of the other moderators, posted his own Google document trying to defend him. He talked about gilk and said he was removed as a moderator for “inappropriate behavior.” Gilk, he claims, was using his position to get close to Taiga without doing any moderation work on both his streams and his Discord server. He said the claims were born out of vindictiveness because gilk couldn’t get the relationship he wanted out of Taiga.

Helsang also noted that the racism and transphobia allegations were untrue, as he did not hear Taiga say anything racist and transphobic on stream or on Discord chats. He said that Taiga was respectful and accepting of trans people, and there were many civil public discussions on his Discord server revolving around trans people and their issues.

The one thing he did acknowledge was Taiga’s attitude toward his moderators. He said that Taiga is a passionate person with many insecurities and was always hard on himself. Those are the root causes that created his immature outbursts and verbal abuse. He even says on the doc that Taiga is “an egocentric person with an especially immature history.”

The community did not take kindly to this, as many pointed out that it wasn’t just gilk and ahzy who had issues with Taiga. Several other moderators of his Discord server had also voiced their concerns regarding his attitude. Some even accused Helsang of covering up for Taiga (since he didn’t directly address them) and being a victim of his abuse.

Taiga did not help his cause, though. He was responding to gilk and ahzy’s tweets by questioning their character and not directly addressing the claims. People saw it as him deflecting and blaming other people. He would write a Tweet with his “final thoughts”, saying that he was trying to make amends and be better. He followed that tweet up with a statement, saying that he would block those who tried to dogpile him. Lots of people saw it as him being defensive.

All this in a span of a few days. Taiga still kept going with his VTubing activities. This wasn’t the last of him.

Big Donations, Big Problems

A few months after the initial kerfuffle between his moderators, someone named adrians_reality joined Taiga’s community. He was notable for being a “super fan” of sorts.

Adrian would casually donate thousands and thousands of dollars to Taiga. He built a great friendship with him and tried to be an active member of his Discord community. However, the members didn’t warm up to him as much which led to a falling out between him and Taiga. He has a long post detailing his side of the story, but you’ll need to find it yourself since it contains personal information.

What is written there, though, is that the moderation team, as well as some members, were critical of the posts and opinions he made. He implied they were jealous due to the attention he got from donating so much money to Taiga.

New Model, Old Issues

When Taiga re-debuted with his new “$9000 model” in August of last year, he made this tweet to showcase it. However, he had to take it down shortly after because certain VTubers got the misconception that they needed to buy an expensive model to succeed. He had to reinforce the point that VTubing is a hobby first and foremost. Still, there were some who didn’t take it well.

His new model also arrived with old issues. People who witnessed the controversy he had with his moderators in 2021 still thought poorly of him. This time, though, instead of the rather vague “final thoughts” post he made, Taiga addressed the accusations made against him and explained his side of the story. Here, it details a few things:

• He did not engage in any pedophilic acts and has tried his best to keep minors away from content flagged as NSFW
• He acknowledged that a lot of the jokes he made were crude and inappropriate, but he made them when he was still a teenager, around 15-17 years old.
• He also admitted that his behavior was terrible, saying that he was extremely volatile when stressed. He knew he lashed out at those trying to make him feel better.
• He was afraid to address these claims properly because a lot of people ended up judging him and finding him guilty without letting him explain his side of the story. This was why he ended up blocking a bunch of people, too.

Taiga’s “Exoneration”

A few months later, burnbern8, the independent investigator mentioned at the beginning of this section created “The Exoneration of Bungo Taiga”, a Google Doc with his own take on the issue. He said that it was Taiga himself who was the victim of harassment and stalking. 

Apparently, gilk and ahzy’s documents made to expose Taiga were done just a few weeks after both of them were banned from his Discord server. The contents of the documents themselves leaned more heavily towards Taiga’s attitude problems. Little was said about the pedophilia or racism claims, leading burnbern8 to believe that they were created to harm instead of to inform.

adrians_reality also shared those documents, but with him, there was something much worse. When he left the server, he created and hosted a website for the sake of “exposing” Taiga. He also made attempts to stalk Taiga by traveling to Canada and staying there for a considerable amount of time. Adrian was rich and would threaten Taiga with multiple lawsuits to get him into a legal battle.

Also, we haven’t mentioned it much, but a lot of the claims about Taiga’s pedophilic behavior were him openly liking and consuming loli and shota content (basically, anime characters who look like children but aren’t children), as well as commissioning artists who specialize in them. Some of these commissions were NSFW, too. Taiga himself said that he never had any contact with a minor that was sexual in nature. Adrian, gilk, or ahzy apparently made accusations that he groomed someone, but there was no mention of this in any of their documents.

The “exoneration” put the controversy in a new light and Taiga has managed to get back on his feet. Some people who refused to associate with him before have returned and sent their support. The three people who made the initial allegations have not responded to the exoneration document at the time of writing this. So for now, it’s safe to say that Taiga can move forward.

Takeaways

I hope you’re still with us after that. Now, what exactly can we take away from the controversy that surrounded Taiga? Let’s see here:

• The issue was handled poorly by all parties involved. gilk, ahzy, and adrians_reality were vindictive, but Taiga was immature in the way he responded to those allegations. Speaking of maturity, though…
• We’ve all said awful and regrettable things when we were teenagers. Let’s not hold it against them too much since there’s still a lot of time for them to grow up.
• In general, when dealing with issues like this, it’s better to listen to all sides of the story before making any judgments.
• Like burnbern8 said in his document, how you feel regarding loli and shota art is up to you. The topic of the “morality of drawings” is very contentious and it’s best that you decide for yourself whether it’s acceptable or not.

What’s Next for Taiga’s Future?

Despite everything that has happened, Taiga has managed to persevere. He is currently sitting at 105,000 followers on Twitch and 158,000 subscribers on YouTube. With his controversial past seemingly behind him, it looks as if his Vtubing career can continue in earnest. We don’t know for sure what the future holds for him, but it’s definitely a lot brighter compared to before.

We’re looking forward to his continued growth, both as a content creator and as a person!