Watarai Hibari

Watarai Hibari (渡会雲雀) is a Japanese Virtual YouTuber affiliated with NIJISANJI, debuting as part of the unit "VOLTACTION" (ヴォルタクション) alongside Fura Kanato, Shikinagi Akira and Seraph Dazzlegarden. Previously, he was enrolled as a student in VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY (VTA) as part of its first generation.

Profile
The heir of a phantom thief family. He longs to be the "good thief" that can catch people's hearts. He does not steal for money, so he makes a living from a part-time job at a cafe.

Personality
Hibari is outgoing, talkative, enthusiastic, loud, and according to his debut-mates, nearly perpetually cheerful and high-spirited. He is a natural performer and has a flair for the dramatic, in line with his backstory of being from a family of phantom thieves. He has been referred to as the quintessential extrovert, and as someone who enlivens the atmosphere and raises the mood of whatever group he's part of.

However, he is also infamous for being book dumb and lacking some degree of common knowledge, which he himself acknowledges. For example, he occasionally interrupts the other members of VOLTACTION or other collab partners of his to wonder what the idioms or phrases they just said mean, and honestly believed that the reciprocal of 6 is simply the number 6 written backwards; during a stream in which the VOLTACTION members all took a comprehensive exam, he had by far the lowest score - earning him the dubious honor of the title BAKATACTION.

Despite this, he is often described as being an exceedingly nice person and quite sensitive to the needs of others, to the point where his senpais are afraid of him. While not a natural leader, he provides a great degree of both emotional and technical support in other ways to VOLTACTION as well as other livers behind-the-scenes.

Appearance
He has short purple hair with hot pink underneath and light yellow eyes. He has a black jacket with pink accents and black pants with white sneakers and red accents and black soles and laces.

Background
On 5 November 2021, Watarai Hibari made his first appearance on the VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY channel as part of its first batch of students.

On 11 July 2022, ANYCOLOR announced that Watarai Hibari would debut directly into NIJISANJI as part of the unit "VOLTACTION", the second wave of Livers formed from VTA graduates. In preparation for his debut, Hibari received a full redesign, and all YouTube videos previously created during his time in VTA were hidden.

Hibari's YouTube channel was created on 2 July 2022, and his Twitter account was created in June 2022. His first tweet was made on 13 July 2022.

Debut
VOLTACTION started their activities on 13 July 2022 and had their first stream on 16 July 2022. Hibari was the second of the group to hold his first stream. Afterwards, all four members of VOLTACTION appeared on a special debut program on NIJISANJI channel, hosted by Hanabatake Chaika and Joe Rikiichi.

The short version of VOLTACTION's first original song, "INLAID" (インレイド), was released earlier on 13 July 2022. This song was written and produced by of STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION.

2022
On 16 July, on the day of his first stream, Hibari reached 50,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

On 18 July, Hibari reached 100,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel in less than 2 days after debut.

On 14 August, Hibari reached 150,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

On 31 August, Hibari released his first music cover "StaRt".

On 19 October, Hibari reached 200,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

2023
On 12 January, VOLTACTION announced that that all four members would receive their second 2D outfits, and would reveal them via a stream relay with 30 minutes allotted for each member. The relay was held in the same order as their debut streams with Kanato going second, holding his stream at 23:00 JST that same evening.

On 28 January, Hibari reached 250,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

On 26 April, VOLTACTION announced a 3D model debut stream relay, with Hibari as the second person to have have his 3D model debut on 12 May.

On 12 May, Hibari reached 300,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel during his 3D Debut stream. On the same day, Hibari also announced that his first original song, "skylark", will be released later that night.

On 5 July, VOLTACTION announced that they would be celebrating their first anniversary since debut with a live 3D concert, "RAISE the VOLTAGE", which was streamed for free on the group's YouTube channel on 15 July. At the concert, they debuted their third original song, "RELOAD!!!!", which was written and produced by OSTER project.

On 23 July, magazine revealed that VOLTACTION would be featured in its 2359th issue as part of its NEXT Generation 2023 segment, which was released on 2 August.

On 19 August, Hibari reached 350,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

On 1 November, announced that VOLTACTION would be interviewed and featured in the magazine's December issue.

From 4-11 November, coinciding with the second anniversary of their VTA debuts, the 8 former members of VTA's first generation who ultimately debuted with NIJISANJI held the Ano 8-Nin Nayutan Medley (あの8人でナユタンメドレー), a cover relay in which each member sang a different NayutalieN song. Hibari released a cover of "Newton Dance" (ニュートンダンス) on 11 November as part of this relay. The relay concluded with a cover of "Alien Alien" (エイリアンエイリアン) by the full group on 12 November.

2022

 * On 14 September, it was announced that VOLTACTION goods would be sold at Animate Girls Festival 2022, which was held from 5-6 November. A secondary campaign, "Luxiem × VOLTACTION ～Secret Mission～ in AGF2022", was announced on 2 November in collaboration with NIJISANJI EN's Luxiem; those who successfully solved the campaign's riddles would receive an exclusive acrylic keyholder.

2023

 * On 28 April, Taito Toys released a VOLTACTION Street Style series of original collaboration goods via kuji (i.e., received goods are randomized). The goods featured original artwork of the members in streetwear, and included a poster standboard, large cushions, face towels, badge sets, posters, and rubber charm straps.
 * On 29 May, makeup brands Love Liner and iCouleur announced a collaboration with the members of VOLTACTION, with tie-in goods available to purchase from 14-30 June. They featured original artwork of the members in casual clothing, and included eyeshadow palettes and liquid eyeliner designed by each member as well as acrylic stands, with stickers and postcards as purchase bonuses. The campaign also included a pop-up event at @cosme's flagship Tokyo location in Harajuku from 18-19 June.
 * On 15 August, convenience store chain announced a sales campaign in collaboration with VOLTACTION which ran from 22 August to 4 September, with customers reaching a certain purchase threshold eligible to receive goods featuring original artwork of the members.
 * On 25 October, perfume brand Anideal announced the 4th volume of its collaboration series with NIJISANJI, this time featuring the members of VOLTACTION. The collaboration featured original fragrances designed by the members, which were released on 28 November.

Mascot and Fans



 * Hibari's fans and channel members are officially called "Hibarista" (ひばりすた), a portmanteau of Hibari's name and "barista".
 * His fanmarks are ♦️ (playing card suit diamond) and ☕️ (hot beverage).
 * His mascot is named "Hibari-san" (ヒバリさん), whose name is differentiated from that of human Hibari by being written in katakana. Like its name suggests, it is a hibari (雲雀, skylark).
 * The concept for Hibari-san originated from a drawing of a skylark that Hibari made when he was a VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY student which would accompany his streams and social media posts. This concept was later fleshed out into being an actual companion for Hibari by his artist Ninahachi upon his NIJISANJI debut, as seen in his reference sheet.
 * Its current design, a skylark with purple wing feathers and tufts of purple and pink plumage resembling Hibari's hair and diamonds in its eyes resembling Hibari's pupils, was finalized for his 3D debut.
 * It shares a naming pattern with Seraph Dazzlegarden's mascot Mimizuku-san, who is also simply named after the name of its species in Japanese.
 * A large Hibari-san plushie was released on 13 July 2023 as part of the lineup of VOLTACTION's first anniversary goods.

Relationships

 * "VOLTACTION" (ヴォルタクション) or "VOLTA" (ヴォルタ) - Hibari, Fura Kanato, Shikinagi Akira, and Seraph Dazzlegarden.
 * They are debut-mates and fellow graduates from the first generation of VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY (VTA), and are the first debut wave from NIJISANJI to have received their own dedicated social media and YouTube channel on launch.
 * The unit's name is a portmanteau of the English words "voltage" and "bolt-action"; the four of them came up with the name together.
 * Media: YouTube | Twitter | Instagram
 * Hashtags: #VOLTACTION - General tag #ヴォルタ - General tag (Japanese) #ヴォルタノアジト - Stream tag #VOLTA展 - Fanart tag
 * Emoji: ⚡🔫 (tentative)
 * "Kachoushigetsu" (花鳥牛月) or "KTG" - Hibari, Uzuki Kou, Tachibana Hinano and their coach, Mondo. They were teammates in the VSaikyo Season 5 happened on 15 April 2023.
 * "Judgement" (ジャッジメント) or "JMT" - Hibari, Morinaka Kazaki, Makaino Ririmu, Ex Albio, and Min Suha. They were teammates in the 2nd NIJISANJI VALORANT Custom happened on 2-3 May 2023.
 * "Ano 8-Nin" (あの8人, Those 8) - Hibari, Amagase Muyu, Umise Yotsuha, Ponto Nei, Fura Kanato, Shikinagi Akira, Seraph Dazzlegarden, and Kaburaki Roco. They are the 8 former first generation VTA students who ended up debuting with NIJISANJI.
 * "Kamupotage" (かむぽたーじゅ) - Hibari, Amagase Muyu, Ponto Nei, and Fura Kanato. They were former classmates in VTA's first generation's class 1 before debuting with NIJISANJI.

Identity

 * Color: #192332 (main) #CD3764 (sub)
 * Background: Heir of a phantom thief family.
 * Occupation: Part-time worker at a café.
 * His is ESFP.
 * Hibari shares his character designer, Ninahachi, with Re:AcT and Sugar Stella members Yuiga Kohaku and Kogami Yukari, as well as the members of upd8's Cherry-Ko Kitaku-Bu (Nanyo Yuki, Hanagasa Ilya, Mogami Ren, and Nishikiyama Mutaka).

Character and Lore

 * The members of VOLTACTION were originally a group of close friends - all coming from criminal or otherwise morally ambiguous backgrounds - who attended the same boarding school, Erfolg College (エルフォルクカレッジ).
 * Instead of enrolling through legitimate means, he stole and forged identification papers to gain acceptance to the school. He initially did this to have a base from which he could experience the big city, as he ran away from his family's estate in the countryside in order to do so.
 * After honing their respective skills in the criminal underworld, Fura Kanato gathered them together due to a shared desire to use these skills to instead bring happiness to people. To do so, they meet at a hidden base called the Laundry (ランドリー), and carry out missions in secret. After learning about NIJISANJI, the members decided to start streaming in addition to their activities as VOLTACTION.
 * Though he aspires to be a "good thief" who prefers to entertain and steal "hearts" rather than steal for personal gain, he still uses skills he gained through his upbringing as a phantom thief as a member of VOLTACTION. These include casing mission sites for optimal entry and exit points, disguise preparation, lockpicking, safecracking, and forgery. As such, his primary contributions to the group are reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.
 * He is capable of seeing in infrared when wearing his mask, which allows him to detect beam security systems that operate in that spectrum.
 * Like the other members of VOLTACTION, he does not age.

CAFE Zeffiro

 * CAFE Zeffiro is a café owned and managed by Fura Kanato and the Venti Group, and acts as a front for VOLTACTION's activities in conjunction with Shikinagi Akira's Room 4S. Hibari works part-time at the café, meaning that Kanato is technically his boss; as such, Hibari occasionally refers to Kanato as "Owner".
 * Owing to their close friendship, whenever he encounters a problem at work, he prefers to mention it directly to Kanato instead of bringing it up with the café manager.
 * In order to protect clients' privacy, the primary way clients can contact Room 4S is by first ordering a small espresso with four sugar cubes at CAFE Zeffiro. As orders and requests are relayed through Kanato and Hibari, it can then be determined if the request warrants involving VOLTACTION as a whole.
 * Some of his duties at the café include taking orders at the front counter, preparing coffee, and developing new food and drink items for the café's menu.
 * He very much enjoys his work, referring to it as a part-time job he can do freely and leisurely - especially in comparison to Seraph Dazzlegarden's near-constant state of being overworked. The job has no overtime, and as the café manager is quite kind, they're very lenient when Hibari asks for time off due to his other commitments.
 * When shown in 3D, CAFE Zeffiro is shown to have a yellow exterior facade with a large covered outdoor terrace, while its interior appears much like a classic modern café, with ivory walls, indoor seating, and a baked goods case at the front counter.

Name

 * As "Watarai Hibari" is the name he went by at Erfolg College, it is unclear as to whether it is his "real" name or that of the person whose identity he stole in order to enroll.
 * His surname Watarai is written as 渡会, with 渡 (wata) meaning to give and 会 (rai) meaning to meet or gather.
 * His given name Hibari is written as 雲雀, which means skylark, usually in reference to the ; the male of this species is known for its long, clear, warbling song.
 * Likely in reference to this, his mascot Hibari-san is a skylark, and his first solo single is titled "skylark".
 * An alternative kanji reading for "hibari" is 告天子, which also means "skylark", but directly translates to "messenger from heaven".

Preferences

 * Likes:
 * Game: Apex Legends, VALORANT, Final Fantasy X, Escape from Tarkov, etc...
 * Anime:, , Major, etc...
 * Music: Vocaloid, anime songs.

Media

 * Watarai Hibari's corporate profile on NIJISANJI website
 * 渡会雲雀 / Watarai Hibari - YouTube Channel
 * @watarai_hibari - Twitter Account
 * @watarai_hibari - TikTok Account

Twitter Hashtags

 * #渡会部 - Stream tag
 * #わたらいらすと - Fan art tag
 * #お渡系会 - Thumbnail art tag
 * #秘雀絵 - NSFW art tag
 * #ひばくりえいと - Non-art fan project tag (e.g., cosplay, MMD, etc.)
 * #渡会盗聴会 - Comments about voice release
 * #ひばりーど - Egosurfing
 * #サクット雲雀 - Clips