Nekomata Okayu

Nekomata Okayu (猫又おかゆ) is a female Japanese Virtual YouTuber associated with hololive, debuting as part of the group "hololive Gamers" (ホロライブゲーマーズ) alongside Shirakami Fubuki, Ookami Mio and Inugami Korone.

Profile
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Personality
Okayu is typically very relaxed, free-spirited, and also somewhat of a playboy or prankster. She sometimes flirts openly with other hololive members just to see their reactions and is also known for impulsively swiping food. She never denies her wrongdoings and was handed a guilty verdict in several "Okayu Court" cases, after which she obediently served her sentence. Okayu typically likes to talk a lot and through many streams likes to talk about daily activities and old stories.

Despite her laid-back personality, Okayu can get very emotional when playing games to the point that she can break down into tears during emotional moments in the story. This happened most notably when she finished: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, where she cried on stream after beating the game for a few minutes and needed a moment to compose herself.

She greets her viewers with "Mogu! Mogu!", the Japanese sound of chewing.

Background
She was first announced on 22 March 2019 in Shirakami Fubuki's 3D model reveal. Fubuki announced that she alongside Inugami Korone would join hololive Gamers in April. This was followed up by an announcement on hololive's Twitter account on 25 March. She was officially introduced on 1 April.

Her Twitter account was opened on 24 March 2019 while her YouTube channel was created on 25 March although she first started her activity there with an introductory stream on 6 April.

2019
On 29 September, she announced on her Twitter account that she would get her 3D model.

On 4 October, she debuted her 3D model during a stream.

2020
On 1 January, she announced on Twitter that she would get her second 2D costume, a maid inspired kimono to celebrate the new year, this costume was later revealed during a stream the next day on 2 January.

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 11 June, hololive's Twitter account announced that Okayu would get a new 2D costume.

On 12 June, she debuted her third 2D costume, a sailor fuku inspired design during a stream.

On 10 September, she reached 500,000 YouTube subscribers, making her the 11th hololive member to reach that milestone.

On 27 October, she reached 600,000 YouTube subscribers.

On 5 December, she reached 700,000 YouTube subscribers, being the 13th hololive member to do so. On the same day, Shirogane Noel reached that same threshold.

2021
On 13 January, she reached 800,000 YouTube subscribers.

On 22 February, she released her first original song, "Mogu Mogu YUMMY!," during her 3D birthday stream.

On 23 February, she reached 900,000 subscribers on YouTube.

On 3 March, "Mogu Mogu YUMMY!" reached 1,000,000 views.

On 30 March, "Mogu Mogu YUMMY!" reached 2,000,000 views.

On 17 April, she reached 1,000,000 subscribers on YouTube during an endurance stream, making her the 13th member of hololive to reach this milestone and the 10th member of hololive JP to do so. She is also the third member of hololive GAMERS to reach that milestone.

On 9 July, Okayu announced on her Twitter account that she would get her fourth 2D costume.

On 14 July, Okayu debuted her fourth 2D costume along with Korone, a loungewear. The new costume featured a new hairstyle, a black buttoned sweater, a white shirt, a purple ribbon, a pair of purple glasses and a pair of slippers with Korone's symbol. Okayu described the new outfit has the spirit of uniform, nurse and boyfriend's shirt.

On 9 September, Okayu's Twitter account was verified.

On 11 September, Okayu's Live2D model was updated to the 2.0 version.

On 29 December, Okayu's 3D model gained new accessories, including pixelated sunglasses, aviator sunglasses, and a black hololive mask.

2022
On 9 January, Okayu debuted a new 3D costume, in which she revealed in the hololive ERROR stream in her channel. This outfit is the school uniform of 20XX Aogami Highschool, which is the same as Shirakami Fubuki, Natsuiro Matsuri, Aki Rosenthal, Yukihana Lamy, and Momosuzu Nene. However, Okayu's version has a black blazer over a light brown cardigan jacket on top of the base school uniform. It is later revealed that she is Nekomiya Yuka of the Winter 20XX Aogami Highschool.

On 18 July, the members of hololive GAMERS debuted a new accessory to celebrate their third anniversary, a headband with hearts on top of it. Okayu's headband is purple.

On 31 July, Okayu debuted a new 3D costume, also revealed in the hololive ERROR stream in her channel. This outfit is the same 19XX Aogami Highschool uniform as Tokino Sora, Hoshimachi Suisei, Sakura Miko, Shirogane Noel, Shishiro Botan, and Omaru Polka. The brown "vest" on her 20XX Aogami uniform is actually a cardigan when the black blazer is removed, the cardigan can also be removed to reveal a full white uniform top akin to the summer dress code.

On 11 August, as part of the "hololive Summer 2022" event, Okayu 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 23 August, continuing the "hololive Summer 2022" event, Okayu debuted her 3D yukata. 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 30 September, Okayu held her first solo concert "Okayu First Live Poisonya Syndrome" where she debuted a new 3D costume. The costume is the same as the one that appears in her album "Poisonya Syndrome." In this costume Okayu wears a black and green beret with a purple outline, the green section is meant to represent poison given its pattern something that is repeated across the outfit, to the left the beret is decorated with a purple and green rose. She uses a stylized black, purple and green top that leaves her shoulders exposed. The top has a diagonal zipper that separates the purple and green sections, to the left it has a red heart. The left sleeve is purple while the right one is half green and half see through with purple outlines. Okayu has black shorts with a see through skirt on top of it. She wears purple high socks and dark brown high boots decorated with yellow bows.

On 22 December, Okayu debuted her 3D Santa costume. This costume also comes with reindeer accessories including its antlers and tail.

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

On 4 March, hololive's Twitter account announced that Okayu would get her fifth 2D costume.

On 6 March, Okayu debuted her fifth 2D costume inspired by the Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Okayu uses a slightly longer hairstyle compared to her original with a darker purple light on her bangs. Unlike her other appearances, Okayu's tail is striped. She can use a black beret which rest above her right ear pushing it to the side, however her ear remains in that position even if the beret is removed. Okayu wears a white blouse with a visible cleavage in a semicircular cut on the upper edge decorated with black suits. The lower edge also has a black outline that goes down to the center of the blouse. The collar is decorated with a purple ribbon. Okayu has a small light purple heart painted above her breast. She uses black suspenders that can be removed. Okayu wears black shorts. Her socks are striped black, white and purple, the right one is falling and wrinkled, while the left one is stretched. She has black shoes with purple ribbons. Okayu can also use a dark purple jacket decorated with a white scarf with suits falling to the sides.

On 26 April, Okayu received an update to her main 2D model. Her hoodie can now cover her head.

On 29 July, as part of the "hololive Summer 2023" event, during a stream on hololive's channel, Okayu debuted her second 3D swimsuit. The 2023 swimsuits are inspired in a sailor uniform. Members wear a two layered swimsuit, the first layer is blue from the straps going down diagonally to the center where each member has a mostly blue bow but one of the sides and the brooch are in one color representative of each member. The rest of the top is white. The edge has a semi circular cut. The lower piece of the first layer has two variants, one is a two layered blue skirt decorated with a white belt, a golden chain with some decorations hanging from it and a bow to the left and planks to the right. The second version is mostly the same but they wear blue shorts instead of a mini skirt. Okayu uses the shorts. The second layer of the outfit is a matching striped bikini in white and another color depending on the member.

Discography

 * ''Main page: Nekomata Okayu/Discography

Events

 * On 17 February 2021, Rakugaki Kingdom's Twitter account announced that Okayu alongside Fubuki, Shion, Marine and Korone would appear in the mobile RPG game by mid March.
 * On 19 August 2022, it was announced that the additional download "Hit Song + VTuber Pack 4" for the Nintendo Switch game "Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party!!!!" including Okayu and Nanashi Mumei's original songs would be available for download on 25 August 2022. Specifically, the patch included Okayu's two original songs "adieu, Salauds" and "Doku no Oujisama", and Mumei's first original song "A New Start".
 * On 20 September 2022, hololive's Japanese Twitter account announced that she alongside Shirakami Fubuki, Ookami Mio, Inugami Korone, Usada Pekora, Houshou Marine, Moona Hoshinova, Ayunda Risu, Watson Amelia and Gawr Gura's hats and outfits would appear on the game "Among Us" and can be obtained purchasing the hololive production Cosmicube. The Cosmicube would be available until 20 December 2022.
 * On 2 December 2022, hololive's Twitter account announced a collaboration with Tobu Zoo, featuring Nekomata Okayu, Ookami Mio, Shirakami Fubuki, Inugami Korone, Usada Pekora, and Shishiro Botan 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.

Fans

 * Her fanbase is officially called "Onigiryaa" (おにぎりゃー) in Japanese and "Onigiris" in English. The mascot representing Onigiryaa appears to be a prisoner with its head being a rice ball.
 * At the start of her stream fan would say "​待機🍙" (standby) The riceball was later replace with a white cat (勝ち猫 winning cat.) Emoji for members.
 * At the end of her stream fan would say "ゴチゴチ!" (gochi gochi!) as in Gochisousama from thank you for the meal. Which also largely replace by member only emoji.

Trivia

 * "Okayu" translates to "rice porridge," a common dish in Japan; It is also known simply as "kayu."
 * Okayu's last name "Nekomata" is the name of a type of cat yaoguai/yōkai that appears in both Chinese and Japanese folklore.
 * Okayu accidently revealed that she grew up in Aomori when she started talking about a childhood favorite dish her grandma use to make, Tamago-Miso on rice which is a regional dish of the prefecture. True to her carefree nature, she didn't try to hide it when the cat was out of the bag as she kept talking for minutes on end about it.
 * Okayu uses rather masculine personal pronoun "boku," this trait is shared with Roboco-san and Amane Kanata.
 * Okayu is very close to Korone, having been good friends with Korone before joining hololive.
 * Okayu owns a cat; a small female American Shorthair named Temari (the name coming from the Temari Balls of traditional Japanese handcraft culture). The novel oddity of a cat-girl owning a pet cat is not lost on Okayu's fans.
 * Many fans refer to Okayu as a "harem protagonist" as she gets along with many members.
 * Okayu has demonstrated on stream that she is able to move her cat-ears at will. In several episodes of holo no graffiti they're also seen to sometimes wiggle involuntarily.
 * In one of her streams with Korone, it is revealed that the ears are tied to her eyebrow movement; this can technically work with other VTubers of the same type of animal-ear model, as Korone in the same stream has also managed to do so with her own eyebrow movement. Though model-movements may vary from model to model as shown with others.
 * She claims that if one were to touch and pull on her tail, it would pop off, initiating a self destruct sequence inside her. It's unknown if this is a joke or serious.
 * She is a big fan of Dragon Ball and her favorite character is Broly. During a stream, she mentioned that she watched the new Broly movie from Dragon Ball Super numerous times and really loved his character.
 * Her three most favorite characters are Broly, Bardock and Raditz.
 * Sometimes her grandmother can be heard snoring in the background during her streams.
 * When her grandmother's health deteriorated she spent some time living with Korone and her family.
 * One of her fondest memories with Korone is when she treated Okayu like a little sister.
 * She shares the same illustrator with Shiina Yuika from NIJISANJI and Itoi Toi from Neo-Porte.
 * On 7 January 2022, Okayu won the 3rd hololive Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tournament with 69 points.

Media

 * Okayu Ch. 猫又おかゆ - YouTube channel
 * Nekomata Okayu's corporate profile on hololive.hololivepro.com
 * @nekomataokayu - Twitter account
 * 猫又小粥Official - bilibili channel
 * @nekomataokayu - Marshmallow account

Twitter hashtags

 * #猫又おかゆ - General
 * #生おかゆ - Stream talk
 * #おにぎりゃー - Fans
 * #絵かゆ - Fan art
 * #エロおにぎり - Fan art (NSFW)
 * #おに切り - Video clips
 * #みんなのおかゆ - MMD

Further readings

 * 猫又おかゆ - Nicovideo Encylopedia
 * 猫又おかゆ - Pixiv Encyclopedia
 * 猫又おかゆ - Japanese Wikipedia
 * 猫又おかゆ - unofficial hololive Seesaawiki
 * 猫又小粥 - Moegirl Encyclopedia
 * 네코마타 오카유 - Namu Wiki
 * Nekomata Okayu - Hololive Fan Wiki