Shishiro Botan

Shishiro Botan (獅白ぼたん) is a female Japanese Virtual YouTuber associated with hololive, debuting as part of its fifth generation of VTubers alongside Yukihana Lamy, Momosuzu Nene, Mano Aloe, and Omaru Polka.

Profile
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Personality
Before debut, many of her fans believed she would have a deep voice; instead, she is fairly high pitched, and fans describe her as "Miko without a lisp." Contrary to her background profile of being lazy and carefree, Botan has a strong sense of responsibility and prefers a structured work environment. Her stream patterns tend to reflect this, usually built on a weekly schedule posted on her off days. Botan's cool, mature appearance belies a cheerful and easygoing nature. She appears as very laid back during streams, even through intense gameplay and abrupt chaos. Maintaining an uplifting, fun stream experience is very important to Botan, and she will even refrain from playing some games if she is concerned it could result in a poor experience for the fans. She even takes the time to enable English subtitles for her foreign viewers. While around the other members of 5th generation, she is considered the "father" of the group, watching over and helping the others as the most experienced gamer.

Despite her earnest and motivated nature, Botan has admitted to enjoying being the silly member of a group, and has shown a propensity to play around much more when in the presence of her seniors. She has an inclination for teasing those close to her, as can be seen in many interactions with her peers in the 5th generation. She is very free-spirited, and her laughs are a characteristic prized by her fans. When playing games, rather than getting frustrated when struggling, she’ll often resort to joking Japanese, such as "tachukete," or making her speech overtly feminine and polite.

Botan's earnest nature also shows in her perceptiveness towards others' feelings. She is aware of her skill in video games as well as her low position and comparably short length of time as a member of hololive. She frequently takes these into consideration when interacting with other hololive members. This can result in her hesitating to directly offer help to her seniors or directly proposing plans for collaboration streams. Despite this, she still usually takes steps towards providing help, even strategically getting other members to ask her for help.

Botan cares deeply for her fellow fifth gen hololive members, and sometimes acts as a leader for the group. She also has a bit of a mischievous streak—examples include dragging her friends into playing horror games and attempts to eat Tsunomaki Watame. Botan laughs often, even—maybe especially—when she encounters a challenge.

Background
She was introduced on hololive’s YouTube channel in a small introductory video along with the rest of the fifth gen on 6 August 2020. Her Twitter account was created in April 2020, she made her first tweet on 6 August. Her YouTube channel was created on 12 April 2020, but she debuted on 14 August 2020 during a stream, also reaching 100,000 subscribers during that day before debuting, making her the first member of fifth generation to reach that milestone.

2020
On 18 August, Botan reached 200,000 subscribers on YouTube channel.

On 11 September, she opened her channel membership feature, also reaching 300,000 subscribers on the same day.

On 31 October, she reached 400,000 subscribers on YouTube channel.

On 12 December, she reached 500,000 YouTube subscribers, making her the 25th hololive member to reach this milestone, and the first member of hololive's 5th generation to do so.

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

2021
On 1 January, she debuted her second 2D costume, a new year kimono during a stream.

On 4 January, hololive's official Twitter account teased a future announcement regarding three of the four members of hololive fifth generation.

On 12 January, Botan announced that she would get her 3D model during a stream.

On 16 January, she debuted her 3D model during a stream with more than 100,000 live viewers. Botan also reached 600,000 subscribers shortly after.

On 17 January, she released her first solo cover song "Will" by MeltyCat.

On 3 March, she reached 700,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel during a singing stream.

On 23 May, she reached 800,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel during a Minecraft stream.

On 27 July, she reached 900,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel during a singing stream.

On 12 August, she announced on Twitter that she would debut her first original song "Lioness' Pride" on 14 August.

On 1 September, hololive's Japanese Twitter account announced that Botan and Lamy would receive their third 2D costumes.

On 2 September, Botan debuted her third 2D costume. In this costume Botan got a new hairstyle as her hair now reaches past her lower back in contrast to her usual hairstyle that just reaches below her shoulders. Botan wears a white dress shirt with a black body belt, a small black tight shorts, pantyhose and black shoes. In another variant she just wears a black and gray top with a dog tag that includes her name, her birthday and her debut date. She can also wear a black vest over her blouse and a pair of night vision goggles on her eyes.

On 25 September in celebration of the fifth generation first anniversary, Botan got a new hairstyle with shorter hair, unlike her other costumes in this style she wears fuchsia colored earrings as well as two hairpins, one light blue and the other yellow that seem to be melting, additionally Botan also has lights of those colors in her hair to represent her generation mates.

On 16 October, Botan reached 1,000,000 YouTube subscribers, making her the 23rd hololive member, as well as the 18th member of hololive JP, to reach this milestone. It also makes her the first of hololive's 5th generation to reach it as well.

On 18 December, Botan debuted a new 2D accessory as she can wear a "SSRB" on top of her head.

On 23 December, Botan debuted new 2D accessories, a Santa hat and beard.

2022
On 7 February, she debuted new accessories for her third 2D costume. A white sheep themed mini hoodie, the sheep's head is the hat and light pink face, yellow horns, the hoodie is adjusted by a green strap with yellow pompoms at the tips, the edge of the hoodie is mint green.

On 7 March, hololive's Twitter account announced that the members of the fifth gen would get their 3D idol costumes.

On 13 March, Botan debuted her 3D idol costume.

On 14 March, she debuted a new accessory for her third 2D costume. A sleeping hat with wolf ears clearly inspired by Little Red Riding Hood.

On 11 August, as part of the "hololive Summer 2022" event, Botan debuted her 3D swimsuit. Unlike the original swimsuits from 2019 that had individual designs, these swimsuits are meant to be matching outfits similar to the 3D idol costumes. The swimsuits come in two types one with thin straps for the top and a diagonal cut mini skirt and the other one has ruffled straps in the top and an even mini skirt. Both version are white with various patterns including hololive's and Holoearth's logos, hearts and sparks. The swimsuits are personalized by including different colors to match each talent. Additionally they have the option to wear a hoodie.

On 17 August, she released her second original song "I I I Love You."

On 24 August, Botan debuted a new accessory for her third 2D costume. A dark version of her sheep hoodie with purple gradient on its wool. The sheep's head is black with a white mouth, and has purple horns that curve up and outward. The hoodie's straps are now purple with yellow star-shaped pompoms at the tips, the hoodie's shoulders have a purple flame motif. This hoodie is modeled and themed after La+ Darknesss.

On 28 August, continuing the "hololive Summer 2022" event, Botan debuted her 3D yukata on hololive's Japanese channel. Like other 3D costumes the yukatas have a variety of styles that hololive members can choose from. The yukatas come in various colors and patterns including fireworks, flowers and goldfish.

On 1 September, hololive's Japanese Twitter account announced that she would get her fourth 2D costume.

On 3 September, Botan debuted her fourth 2D costume. Botan got two new hairstyles, one with loose hair and another with low twintails. Botan wears a white T-shirt decorated with three black SSRB silhouettes, the middle with letters that read: "GAOO" three times. The T-shirt is falling from her left shoulder revealing her black bra's string, which Botan can also remove. Underneath the SSRB silhouettes is another text reading "LA-LION". She uses black denim shorts. She wears a single gray sock on her right foot and black and gray shoes with lime green elements. Botan can also use a dark gray jacket with gray and white camouflage pattern sleeves and lime green ornaments.

2023
On 19 March, Botan debuted her new 3D idol costume during hololive 4th fes. "Our Bright Parade" DAY2.

On 23 March, Botan debuted new accessories for her fourth 2D costume. She can wear the night vision goggles from her third 2D costume, while also debuting a black cybernetic visor with green buttons and LED lights. The LED "eyes" on the visor have various expressions that are independent from Botan's face.

Discography

 * ''Main page: Shishiro Botan/Discography

Events

 * On 8 April 2021, she appeared on Marvelous' YouTube channel as a guest host for a No More Heroes 3 livestream.
 * On 7 June 2021, hololive's Japanese Twitter account announced that Botan and Minato Aqua would appear as virtual ambassadors in a collaborative campaign with Red Bull. By buying a limited edition package of the brand on Amazon, participants could get promotional stickers featuring original artwork of either member. Stock of the product ran out the same day as the collaboration was announced.
 * On 26 June 2021, Village Vanguard Twitter account announced that the members of hololive 5th Gen, would appear in limited edition goods with "Kemonomimi Cafe" as the theme.
 * On 13 August 2021, hololive's Twitter account announced that 12 members including Botan (representing the Saitama Seibu Lions) would participate in a collaboration with the six professional Japanese baseball teams from the Pacific League, each team represented by two hololive members. The collaboration include promotional merchandise that could be brought, including hats, posters, keychains, among others, also a promotional match between ORIX Buffaloes vs SoftBank HAWKS scheduled for 3 October 2021 at the Kyocera Dome Osaka stadium called "hololive day."
 * On 5 September 2022, the Japanese game magazine website Famitsu announced that they would collaborate with Botan, Aki Rosenthal, Tokoyami Towa, and Takane Lui to write reviews about games. Each member would write a column every month. On 23 September, she wrote her first article, a review of the game Call of Duty.
 * On 3 October 2022, it was announced that the goods, food, drinks, game, and sauna featuring Botan, Usada Pekora, Shirogane Noel, and Sakamata Chloe would be available at the hololive x RED° TOKYO TOWER collaboration event, which would be held from 3-27 November 2022.
 * On 10 November 2022, it was announced that a collaboration between hololive and Post Office Product Sales Service Co., Ltd. featured Usada Pekora, Shiranui Flare, Shirogane Noel, Houshou Marine, Tokoyami Towa, Takanashi Kiara, Moona Hoshinova, and Shishiro Botan in new year's postcards and some merchandise including: clear files, tapestries, standees, face towels, jigsaw puzzle, T-shirts, and happi. The merchandise would be available to order starting from 14 November 2022.
 * On 2 December 2022, hololive's Twitter account announced a collaboration with Tobu Zoo, featuring Shishiro Botan, Inugami Korone, Nekomata Okayu, Ookami Mio, Shirakami Fubuki, and Usada Pekora in games, foods, merch. The event would be held from 2 to 29 January 2022. Especially, special birthday cakes to celebrate Pekora birthday would be sold for limited time from 12-22 January 2022.

Mascot and Fans

 * Her fanbase is officially called "Bodan"「ぼ団」, but this term was gradually replaced by an alternative name, "SSRB."
 * The mascot representing SSRB is a bomb-like tetrapod with lion-ears. The base versions are ball bombs in grey, ivory or digital camouflage; each with a fuse on their heads.

Name

 * Botan's surname Shishiro「獅白」can be divided as such,
 * The first kanji Shi「獅」is the first kanji present in Shishi「獅子」which means "Lion."
 * The second kanji Shiro「白」means "white."
 * So her surname can be translated as "White lion."

Likes and dislikes

 * Her favorite manga includes Parasyte, Naniwa Kin'yūdō, and Naruto.
 * She likes building PCs as a hobby and assembled the PC she uses for streams.
 * Botan was the one who helped Takanashi Kiara with her PC when she had to relocate, disassembling her PC for shipping and advising her to "protect her GPU with her life" due to an ongoing GPU shortage at the time.
 * She cannot drink alcohol for health reasons, and unlike Lamy, Botan can't eat spicy food.
 * She is very fond of Ramen, as evidenced by her opening Menya Botan (麵屋ぼたん) in Minecraft, including ramen bowl and chopsticks in her 800k sub merch, making ramen for her 3d birthday stream guests, etc.
 * Botan also is a fan of dessert and side-menu items, such as McDonald's apply pie, KFC's biscuits (bread), Mos Burger's onion rings and Wendy's pastas. For Mister Donut, she like original flavored Pon de Ring, French cruller and churro.
 * She has mentioned that the McDonald she frequently visits appeared to reserve apply pie for her, as she had ordered it quite often.
 * Botan enjoys video games, with first-person shooters (FPS) among her favorite genres. In particular, she prefers modern military-themed shooters, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Rainbow 6: Siege.
 * She has an interest in ancient Chinese history and can speak Mandarin Chinese on a basic level.

Miscellaneous

 * When throwing grenades in FPS games, Botan often punctuates her throw with a calm or playful utterance of the mimetic "poi" (ぽい). Used as an interjection, "poi" suggests tossing an object lightly, easily or without paying much attention, e.g. a ball of wastepaper into a nearby trash bin.
 * Botan is supposedly not very good at fighting games and racing games.
 * Horror games seemingly don't scare her at all, especially if the player character has a gun.
 * This trait led in part to Botan's recurring "horror date" collaboration live streams with fellow fifth-generation hololive member Yukihana Lamy. Botan's indifference to most horror-game scares plays against Lamy's susceptibility to them, with Botan gently teasing Lamy throughout once Botan determines what about the game provokes the most energetic response from her partner.
 * Resident Evil Village, a game that has managed to scare many, only managed to startle her once, when she was playing through the game again on a higher difficulty and she ran into an enemy who wasn't there on the first playthrough.
 * She from time to time struggles in games when luck is involved or even being a major factor.
 * When playing Fall Guys for the first time, Botan failed in guessing passable obstacles three times in a row, leading to her elimination.
 * Botan often hit pities in gacha games or got the wrong card when a super rare comes.
 * She tried to breed blue Axolotl in Minecraft but still to no avail after getting 2000+ with other colors.
 * When playing blackjack from the Nintendo's 51 Worldwide Games with Usada Pekora, she was ranked the lowest at -200 points after losing scores in three consecutive rounds. Later in another collaboration with Oozora Subaru, Yuzuki Choco and Himemori Luna, she played this again and got a further lower -300 points, won a 2nd place only because Subaru and Choco had worse luck.


 * Botan has some video editing skills, as demonstrated by the introduction in her debut stream, which was made by herself.
 * She has a large Russian-speaking fanbase. This is possibly due to her outfit's resemblance to an Adidas tracksuit typically worn by gopniks.
 * She is the fifteenth hololive member to join the official hololive Subreddit as a moderator.
 * Botan is known for "attracting" rainy weather in her Minecraft streams, leading to viewers calling her Rain Girl (Ameonna, a Japanese yōkai associated with raining).
 * She is known for using shopping cart in acrobatic motorcycle game Trial Rising, which is referenced in one episode of the holo no Graffiti. Ironically, she occasionally struggles to drive when switching back to normal bikes.
 * She is known for making very ridiculous rides in theme park building game Planet Coaster, with rollercoasters inducing extremely high g-force on tourists being a common sight. The known highest g-force currently recorded on her rides is 96G.
 * Botan has jokingly threatened to put her fans for a ride on the high g rollercoaster after she found 9.2% of them have moderate feeling for her in a Twitter poll, this has become a joke among SSRB that misbehaving or not liking Botan could earn a ticket for the ride as punishment.
 * She is the organizer of the UsaKen Summer Fes, the second largest event in hololive Minecraft server after the Sport Festival, attended by 31 hololive members from all three hololive branches.
 * In a collaboration stream with Takane Lui, Botan named Usada Pekora as the hololive member she would like to have as a younger sister. Coincidently, all three of them are the youngest sisters in their respective real life families.
 * Her choice for "hololive member she would like to have as an elder sister" is Himemori Luna.

Media

 * Botan Ch.獅白ぼたん - YouTube channel
 * Shishiro Botan's corporate profile on hololive.hololivepro.com
 * @shishirobotan - Twitter account
 * u/shishirobotaaaaan - reddit account

Twitter hashtags

 * #ぐうたらいぶ - Stream talk
 * #SSRB - Fans
 * #ししらーと - Fan art

Further readings

 * 獅白ぼたん - Nicovideo Encyclopedia
 * 獅白ぼたん - Pixiv Encyclopedia
 * 獅白ぼたん - Japanese Wikipedia
 * 獅白ぼたん - Unofficial Hololive seesaawiki
 * 狮白牡丹 - Moegirl Encyclopedia
 * 시시로 보탄 - Namu Wiki
 * Shishiro Botan - Hololive Fan Wiki