Tsunomaki Watame

Tsunomaki Watame (角巻わため) is a female Japanese Virtual YouTuber associated with hololive, as part of its fourth generation of VTubers alongside Tokoyami Towa, Kiryu Coco, Amane Kanata and Himemori Luna.

Personality
Watame speaks in a pleasant tone befitting her image of a soft fluffy sheep. Her voice has been noted by fans to be especially soft, mature and womanly. However, in direct contrast to this image, Watame often amuses herself by making crazed facial expressions. Her wide-eyed, psychotic smile has become iconic on her channel, even appearing on some of her official merchandise (a double-sided pillow cover). She also bobs and weaves her head and body around, which has become one of her signature gestures that she does especially when singing.

She seems to be okay with her fellow hololive members eating her during collaboration streams, as she reassured her fans that even if she was eaten she would respawn after an 8-second timer.

Profile
A sheep bard that goes around everywhere. She loves singing and is fluffy! YES! FLUFFY! Being a herbivore, she loves potato chips.

Background
Her Twitter account was created on November 2019, while her first tweet was made on 25 December, her YouTube channel was created on 4 December and her debut stream was on 29 December.

2020
On 10 April, at the end of Watame no Uta, she addressed the fact that her neck was orange, telling her viewers that she would get it fixed. Later the same day, during a Tetris 99 stream, she received a minor model update, with her neck now matching the rest of her body.

On 8 July, she announced during a stream that she would get her 3D model (this was already teased during Amane Kanata's 3D debut).

On 12 July, she debuted her 3D model during a stream, being the third of her generation to do so, where she also debuted her first original song Aimai Chocolate.

On 17 December, Watame teased a few reveals for her next stream. Next day on 18 December, she revealed that her model was updated to the 2.0 version, one of the new features she highlighted is the fact that she can now have a more natural smile compared to the well-known "V" shaped mouth that her model had by default, however her previous mouth shape is not lost as she can still use it if she wants to, her model also features other refinements in her expresions and movement. The other teased announcement is that her original song Amai Chocolate would be available in various online music services starting 19 December.

On 29 December, hololive's Twitter accounts announced that eight of their members would get "New year" costumes, Watame being one of them.

Also on this date, Watame held her "1st Anniversary Live Fever!!" to celebrate one year since her debut on YouTube, in the concert she debuted her second original song Donten Hitsuji「曇天羊」("Cloudy Sheep" in English), a song featuring Mori Calliope, shortly after her live she debuted the song MV.

Watame no Uta
Watame no Uta (わためのうた / Watame's Songs Corner) is a weekday series of videos on her channel that started on 3 February 2020, beginning at 5:45 JST, with the intention of making it easier for her viewers to listen to her singing.

In the first segment Watame sings two songs, it is then followed by Tsunomaki janken (つのまきじゃんけ / Tsunomaki's rock, paper, scissors) where the viewer can "play" against Watame, the third segment is Kyou no Hitokoto Kiryu Coco (今日の一言桐生ココ / Kiryu Coco's Comment of the Day) where Coco share her funny opinions, although other hololive members have also appeared. Finally, Watame thanks her viewers for watching Watame no Uta by adding a short comment and then invite them to watch Asa Coco Live News.

In later episodes, she added the section called Tsunomaki Taisou (つのまき体操 / Tsunomaki Exercise), in which she parodies the morning exercise skits of Japanese morning shows, usually occurring on Mondays.

Originally the show was intented to end on 31 March 2020, however on 26 March Watame announced that the show would continue for another month, with the intention of becoming permanent if the show is still supported by her viewers.

On 26 June 2020, Watame no Uta segment reached its one hundred edition, this milestone marked the end of the show on a weekday basis, the new schedule of WataUta being now every Monday. Watame said that she would start vocal training.

Fans

 * Her fanbase is officially called "Wata-mates" (わためいと). Notably, the Membership option on her YouTube account is referred to as "Member-Sheep".

Trivia

 * She was noted for having issues with her internet connection during her streams and had multiple disconnects due to her "faulty connection", thus earning her a slightly amusing reputation of being prone to disconnect, as shown here. Though she later announced that she fixed her connection.
 * The first syllable of Watame's first name, "Wata", translates to "cotton" (綿) in Japanese; cotton having a look and texture very similar to that of wool grown by and sheared from sheep.
 * Though usually partially obscured by her bangs, Watame has extended, fuzzy ears like those of a sheep. Watame's sheep-ears tend to involuntarily wiggle when she blinks. She does not have human ears.
 * Watame is known to be an avid snacker, with a particular predilection for potato chips. Her favorite variety appears to be Consommé flavor, while she has a particular dislike for spicy varieties. Watame frequently enjoys potato chips while on stream, with her chat frequently responding to the crunching-sound with posts of "Potato Chip ASMR".
 * Watame's voice, as well as distinct mannerisms such as her laugh, have been noted by fans and even hololive members to be extremely similar to that of Oozora Subaru's illustrator and VTuber Shigure Ui. Subaru even claimed that when she watched Watame's debut stream she became confused and thought that it was actually Ui streaming under a new identity. Ui's design notably contains several fuzzy little fluff-balls that heavily resemble the texture of Watame's wool. The idea of a conspiracy where Watame and Ui are secretly one and the same has become a minor running joke among both fanbases, though it is not taken very seriously, especially since the two have done collaborations together.
 * She is the sixth hololive member to join the official hololive Subreddit as a moderator after Roboco.
 * One of her nicknames is "Watamelon", which is a portmanteau of "Watame" and "Watermelon".

Media

 * Watame Ch. 角巻わため - YouTube channel
 * Tsunomaki Watame's corporate profile on hololive.tv (EN)
 * Tsunomaki Watame's corporate profile on hololive.tv (JP)
 * @tsunomakiwatame - Twitter account
 * 角卷绵芽Official - bilibili channel
 * 愛昧ショコラーテ - Amai Chocolate's Music Store Links

Twitter hashtags

 * 角巻わため - General
 * #ドドドライブ - Stream talk
 * #わためいと - Fans
 * #つのまきあーと - Fan art
 * #わたわた動画 - Video clips
 * #わためのうた - Watame no Uta

Further readings

 * 角巻わため - Nicovideo Encyclopedia
 * 角巻わため - Pixiv Encyclopedia
 * 角巻わため - Unofficial hololive Seesaawiki
 * 角卷绵芽 - Moegirl Encyclopedia
 * Tsunomaki Watame - Hololive Fan Wiki
 * Watame Club - Tsunomaki Watame's Unofficial Discord Fanclub