Kimino Miya

Kimino Miya (キミノミヤ) was a female Japanese / English Virtual YouTuber, part of the Japanese Hanjo! Bilingual Vtuber Project by Chukyo TV Broadcasting Co and iDEACLOUD Inc. She was one of several Vtubers from XR Entertainment, a company run by the Chukyo TV Broadcasting Co and iDEACLOUD specializing in virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality entertainment.

She was often joined by Kokon, a fox-like animal on a flying cloud, and Ootsuta Eru, her younger sister VTuber.

Personality
She was lively and friendly, but a little fussy about money. She claimed to be a "beckoning cat" (maneki-neko), not a regular cat, and saw bear and raccoon figurines as rivals. While beckoning, she said "hanjo, hanjo!" She had an affectionately bickering dynamic with her partner/producer Kokon.

Her partner, Kokon, was easy-going. He was carefree and careless with money. He's been alive for so long that he forgot his age. Producing VTubers (Miya in particular) was his hobby, along with visiting tourist spots in Japan (featured on the channel as HANJO spots) and cleaning his cloud. His mission was to "raise a full-grown beckoning cat" and "let it make the world thrive". His dream was to have Miya featured in Times Square.

As a bilingual speaker, Miya introduced and promoted Japanese culture to the English-speaking world, focusing on Japanese subcultures such as anime. She did gaming, singing, and free talk streams. Her specialty was live streams and short videos about Japanese culture, language, cuisine, anime/manga, tourism, and events. She had VTuber interview, event, and recommendation streams & videos, as well as VSinger recommendation streams. She also did song covers.

2018
She celebrated 10,000 subscribers on 24 August.

On 13 September, she introduced Kokon.

On 20 September, she had her first YouTube livestream.

On 1 November, she posted the video of her first collab with Ootsuta Eru, where they played Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection International.

On 18 November, her fandom name was decided. Hanjo Squad was chosen from five fan-suggested options, including HANBUDS (hanjo buddies), HANJO Dreamers, HANJO Friends, and KARAAGE ARMY.

2019
On 26 February, XR Entertainment announced LINE stickers for Miya and Eru. Miya's LINE stickers were made available in Japanese and English.

On 19 March, it was announced that she would become the 1st Aichi Tourism Virtual Supporter.

On 21 May, she announced her participation in upd8.

On 23 May, polyguru feat. MIYA KIMINO launched. polyguri is a VR rhythm game where Miya performs and players hit notes flying towards them & pose to get the highest possible score. The game also features the ability to load in custom VRM character models.

On 25 May, the short MV for her first original song, Hajimari wa kimi no oto, was released.

On 31 May, the closure of her FANBOX, Hanjo Club, was announced.

In July, Miya was a guest judge for JAPANESE DREAM =AX Audition=, a contest to find a voice talent for an English speaking role in the anime Shikizakura.

On 18 July, the full version of Hajimari wa kimi no oto and two new original songs, Love Big Bang and Japanesque, were released on digital music services.

On 22 August, Miya introduced the concept of a "World VTuber Club", UniVirtuals, for international VTubers to promote themselves to audiences inside and outside Japan. The VTubers that became part of UniVirtuals did so by responding to her on Twitter with the hashtag #UniVirtuals.

On 13 September, she was one of eight VTubers present at the Saturn Awards 2019, an American awards show for the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres, to promote Japanese virtual culture.

She also announced on 13 September that she'd be featured in War of Zodiac, an indie mobile casual real time strategy title featuring original characters and VTubers as playable units. Miya and Kokon featured the game on her channel on 20 October 2019.

2020
On 26 June, XR AMUSEMENT SASHIMA, XR Entertainment's VR amusement park opened. With it was the launch of the VR horror game AYAKASHI KITAN, featuring Miya as a support character. AYAKASHI KITAN would later be released for the Oculus Quest on 30 July 2021.

On 15 October, she was part of day one of VirtuaREAL.02 alongside Eru. https://twitter.com/usagipro777/status/1293025362457190401

She received a new casual outfit on 25 December. The design of the new outfit and hairstyle was revealed on her birthday stream.

On 28 December, Miya and Eru held an end-of-year "Secret Meeting" event, with the first half on YouTube and the second half on Zoom.

2021
On 21 June, she announced that she would be retiring at the end of September to take on new challenges. In her announcement stream, she discussed a call she had about her future aspirations and, while her leaving was amicable, expressed a desire to work in a less limiting environment.

During her birthday stream, she had many announcements. She announced her fourth original song, as well as a collab song with Ootsuta Eru. She participated in a Net Talking Festival meet and greet event on July 18, 2021. During the birthday stream, she encouraged foreign fans to participate due to it taking place through Zoom. Her second outfit merchandise also had a re-sale. Her graduation stream was planned on 26 September at noon JST, with her "Last Meeting" stream the same day in the evening. A Portrait Event and the Miya Exhibition in XRA were also announced.

On 15 August, Miya's Portrait Event was held on Zoom. She met with fans for five minutes each, drawing their portraits based on the impression she got from their names.

On 20 August, she was part of the "Virtual Manzai Laughing Time" (バーチャル漫才笑たいむ) event on Twitcasting, featuring other VTubers and the comedy duo AMERICA ZARIGANI.

On 25 July, Miya and Emiko Niwatori released a collab cover of Kakumei Dualism by Mizuki Nana and T.M. Revolution.

On 12 September, Miya's Online Chatting Event was held on Zoom, her final online fan meet and greet event.

On 16 September, Miya released her final original song, Tip Top*Tips. The song was written and composed by her VTuber friend Wrench.

Starting on 17 September, the Miya Exhibition in XRA started at XR Amusement Sasashima. It will run from 17 September to 26 September.

On 18 September, she announced that her graduation merch and the re-sale of her second outfit merchandise would be available on her Booth store until 30 September. Her collaboration cover of Secret Base by Zone with Hibiki Kasani from CocoTsuki Project premiered on the CocoTsuki Project channel.

On 20 September, Miya and Eru released their final collab song, Hanamuke no asa. Miya and Eru will also perform Tip Top＊Tips and and Hanamuke no asa on Day 3 of Life Like A Live!2, a virtual idol festival.

Her final regular stream was on 18 September. The stream was the last installment of her popular audience participation "dating sim" roleplay series, chosen from the fan voted "Pick Your No.1 Favorite Content" poll.

Her retirement stream on 26 September was divided into three "acts". The Act 1 stream at 11am JST focused on fan favorite activities. The Act 2 stream at noon was a concert featuring her original songs and collab songs with friends. The featured guests were Edo Lena, Sifar & Hiyamizu Nurume, Hibiki Kasane, Wrench, and Ootsuta Eru. The Act 3 stream was 1:20pm is the "grand finale". The retirement stream was also available on Bilbili.

Miya and Eru's final "Secret Meeting" event, "Secret Meeting -Kimino Miya Last Night-", was held from 6:30pm JST to 8:30pm. The event includes the "first and final" MiyaEl concert. The event was held live at Chukyo TV Plaza C and livestreamed on Z-aN, with archive availability starting on 27 September from 12:00AM Japan time.

She finished her VTuber activities and gave her final message on social media on 30 September.

A Secret Meeting "afterparty" behind-the-scenes stream, featuring Eru, Kokon, and Maui, was held on 2 October.

Kokon remained active on Twitter to provide updates on graduation merch on Booth and promoting the afterparty stream. On 31 December in an "out of character" post, he announced his decision to finish his role as Kokon, thanking fans and stating his mission was complete. He said he would continue his work as a producer, but in a different way, and "continue to bring you entertainment".

Mascots and Fans
Her fans are called the "Hanjo Squad".

Trivia

 * Her catch phrase was "Hanjo hanjo." The Japanese word hanjou (繁盛) means prosperity and is a term associated with beckoning cats. They are the origin of her design.
 * Because her English is so fluent, she was often mistaken for a native speaker and got complimented for her Japanese skills. In her first live stream, she confirmed that she is in fact Japanese. Kokon could understand what Miya said in English to some extent (though he claimed he's just "reading the atmosphere".)
 * Many of her subscribers confused her catch phrase with her name and called her "Hanjo."
 * Her favorite Japanese food is karaage (fried chicken). Her recurring birthday stream tradition was a karaage birthday cake, a huge stack of karaage with birthday candles.
 * She was born in Osu, Nagoya, Aichi prefecture. Kokon also comes from Osu.
 * Kokon claimed he's met actor Matthew Perry.
 * Miya frequently used the (ฅ'ω'ฅ) kaomoji, which resembles a cat putting their paws up.

Twitter hashtags

 * #キミノミヤ - General
 * #miyart - Fanart hashtag
 * #HANJOLIVE - Live