Usada Pekora

Usada Pekora (兎田ぺこら) is a female Japanese Virtual YouTuber associated with hololive, as part of its third generation of VTubers under the name of "hololive Fantasy" (ホロライブファンタジー) alongside Uruha Rushia, Shiranui Flare, Shirogane Noel, and Houshou Marine.

Personality
Pekora hails from the nation of Pekoland, where she claims she is a member of royalty. While not much is currently known about Pekoland, it is assumed that its denizens are, like Pekora, Animals humans with rabbit-ears and comparatively long lifespans, and that the rabbit-motif apparent in Pekora's fashion and accessories is significant to their culture. According to Pekora, "peko" is the only word in the Pekolandish language. In-line with her claims of a royal upbringing, Pekora's personality can be described as outwardly bratty, haughty, immature and surly, but genuinely playful and friendly. But when not on camera she has been noted by other hololive girls as polite and shy, as well as one to internalize her pain (as noted by Hoshou Marine) which ended up prematurely ending one of her streams with her in tears.

Pekora is infamous for mischief, to the point where other hololive members will instantly become suspicious of any project if they learn that Pekora was involved. While her intended victim is usually Sakura Miko, no one is exempt from her trolling, not even herself. Pekora's fans appropriately display this same kind of attitude and are known to ruthlessly tease her through the chat when the opportunity arises. In spite of everything, Pekora still wants to be recognized as a real idol, but to her chagrin, fans mostly think of her as a "comedian" and "crazy rabbit", not helped by her constant sprees of often self-inflicted misfortune. Even when she is in a idol-like scenario, something always backfires on her. Fittingly, she is also particularly well-known for being able to almost instantly flip between smugly gloating and desperately begging for help/forgiveness depending on whether or not she has the upper hand in a situation.

Pekora has a distinctive laugh (frequently represented in text as "AH↓ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑") somewhat resembling that of an older female aristocrat, and frequently interjects her sentences with the "-peko" suffix, though she has been known to forget this occasionally. She asserts her dominance by shouting "PE↗ KO↘ PE↗ KO↘ PE↗ KO↘".

Profile
"Hiya-peko! Hiya-peko! Hiya-pekooo! I'm Usada Pekora, peko!"

A lonely rabbit-eared girl who loves carrots. She loves them so much that she always brings a few anywhere she goes.

Background
Pekora was one of the four hololive VTubers first announced on 13 June 2019 as part of the third generation, but she and Uruha Rushia were not open for audition.

On 7 July during the hololive karaoke session, her name and Twitter account were officially announced alongside Uruha Rushia.

On 28 May 2019 her Twitter account was opened while her YouTube channel was opened on 3 July. She debuted on YouTube with her introductory stream on 17 July.

2019
On 10 December during a stream she announced that she would get a 3D model, which was later reconfirmed on her Twitter account. Her 3D model was shown during a stream on 14 December, being the third of her generation to get it, after Shirogane Noel and Uruha Rushia.

2020
On 1 January she announced on Twitter that she would debut a new year's 2D costume, which was later revealed in a stream the same day. This is her second 2D costume overall.

On 24 January along with the other hololive girls up to the third generation, she debuted her 3D idol outfit at hololive's 1st fes. Nonstop Story.

On 4 December, she reached 1 million YouTube subscribers during a stream being the fourth member of hololive to reach this milestone after Gawr Gura, Inugami Korone and Shirakami Fubuki and the third to do so on the Japanese branch. She is also the first member of hololive JP's 3rd Gen to reach it.

On 13 December, she revealed her VTuber job to her mother live on a stream with over 120,000 viewers. Pekora previously had kept it a secret from her family, and had previously decided to reveal it upon reaching 1 million subscribers.

2021
On 12 January, on her birthday stream, Pekora debuted her first solo original song: Pekorandom Brain!「ぺこらんだむぶれいん！」 with the official MV of the song being published just a bit later.

On 6 March, Pekorandom Brain! has surpassed 1,000.000 views.

On 1 April, Pekora debuted her third 2D costume, a prison outfit during a stream in which she was tossed in jail for various crimes not limited to stealing carrots, cruel pranks in Minecraft, being a gambling addict instead of saving the world in Dragon Quest and for being too cute. The costume features an ear-sock beanie, chained bunny eared collar, a carrot styled ball and chain strapped to her ankles (and Don-chan) and a ripped shirt, all of which styled after classic monochrome prison stripes. She was not allowed her freedom unless she could prove she had redeeming qualities that her friends remember about her, all while trying to scheme how to break out.

Events

 * On 20 September 2020, A PVC Garage Kit of Pekora was released by Ringo Renmei.
 * Garage kits are professional quality PVC statues one assembles and paints themselves using parts included in the package.
 * On 10 October 2020, Nissin's character Curry Meshi-kun's Twitter account announced a collaboration between hololive and the Curry Meshi brand named "Curry Meshi WEEK" where she, Oozora Subaru and Minato Aqua would appear as the central characters of the collaboration (with other members also appearing) forming the unit name "Spice Love." debuting an original song on hololive's YouTube channel called "カレーメシ・イン・ミラクル" translated as Curry Meshi in Miracle and a special stream held on 11 October.

Mascot and Fans

 * Pekora's scarf is actually her pet named Don-chan.
 * Her fanbase is officially called "League of the Hare Alliance" or "Nousagi"「野うさぎ同盟」in Japanese and are represented as rabbit fur balls with carrots clipped to their ears.

Quotes

 * "KI-T-RA, KI-T-RA, KI-T-RA!!!～～～♪" (きｔら、きｔら、きｔらああ！！！～～～♪) - Pekora's victory cry, based on Japanese cellphone slang

Trivia

 * Pekora's character model features small highlights in the center of each eye's pupil that resemble the facial profile of a rabbit.
 * The black lines on the top of her dress are actually the top of a strapless leotard which, when combined with the dark tights and her natural rabbit features, forms the stereotypical "Bunny Girl" outfit, a classic, sexy, Playboy Magazine-inspired waitress attire typically seen around entertainment plazas like casinos, though has taken on a life of its own within Japan with various pronounced restylings that fit its colorful creative ecosystem. Pekora herself seems fond of the classic look, as she often uses Bunny Girl outfits found in the video games she plays when available.
 * After the topic of headphones came up during a stream, Pekora claimed that she can successfully use headphones with both sets of her ears (both the human pair and her rabbit-ears).
 * While many of her fellow hololive members have questioned whether her bunny ears are real or not, Pekora has claimed that her human ears are actually fake, added by her "Mama" so humans would be more accepting of her.
 * While the carrots lodged in each of Pekora's braids are typically presumed to be fake and decorative accessories, an outro-scene in a holo no graffiti episode shows Shirakami Fubuki, Roboco and Natsuiro Matsuri attempting to use them as an ingredient for curry, indicating that they may instead be real, edible carrots. However, in another episode of holo no graffiti, removing the carrots from Pekora's braids resulted in several hololive members becoming temporarily trapped in a sort of pocket-dimension in the space in Pekora's hair that the carrot had occupied, so anything consistent about the nature of Pekora's braid-carrots is hard to establish. It is better to dismiss it as typical comical nonsense HoloGra is known for.
 * While Pekora's personality can be described as somewhat bratty, boisterous, immature or sometimes outright antagonistic, several hololive members have described this as being contradictory to her true, off-stream personality. Personal friends like Sakura Miko have described her as being extremely easy to get along with, polite, respectful and even somewhat reserved.
 * Pekora's penchant for casually committing morally questionable acts while playing games (most infamously her actions towards Villagers in Minecraft) has earned her a reputation as a "war criminal" among western fans.
 * Pekora established her own company, Usada Kensetsu, on the hololive Minecraft JP server and recruited Moona Hoshinova as her first employee. Moona recruited Amane Kanata as the second employee. She builds many facilities that help other hololive members.
 * According to herself, her age of 111 years is actually 3 years old in Pekoland, as 1+1+1=3.
 * Also according to Pekora, bunny girls don't wear panties.
 * Pekora has shown herself to be a gambling addict.

Media

 * Pekora Ch. 兎田ぺこら - YouTube channel
 * Usada Pekora's corporate profile on hololive.tv (EN)
 * Usada Pekora's corporate profile on hololive.tv (JP)
 * @usadapekora - Twitter account
 * @usadapekora - Marshmallow account
 * 兔田佩克拉Official - bilibili channel

Twitter hashtags

 * #兎田ぺこら - General
 * #ぺこらいぶ - Stream talk
 * #野うさぎ同盟 - Fans
 * #ぺこらーと - Fan art
 * #ひとくちぺこら - Video clips

Further readings

 * 兎田ぺこら - Nicovideo Encyclopedia
 * 兎田ぺこら - Pixiv Encyclopedia
 * 兎田ぺこら - unofficial hololive Seesaawiki
 * 兔田佩克拉 - Moegirl Encyclopedia
 * Usada Pekora - Hololive Fan Wiki