IRyS

IRyS is an English Virtual Singer associated with hololive as part of its English (EN) branch's "Project: HOPE."

Profile
IRyS, a half-demon, half-angel also known as a Nephilim, once brought hope to “The Paradise” during the ancient age. Her full name is ███████ Irys. This current era, riddled with despair and desperation, has brought upon her second awakening. She has arrived to deliver hope, with her feelings put into her lyrics and songs, and determination in her voice.

Though she tends to retain her Nephilim form, she is still quite young within her race. With emotion and “other factors,” it is possible that her form may lean to either side. When that occurs, she bears a brief change in her appearance.

She does not speak of the events that preceded her second awakening. She faces ever forward, perhaps because she is Hope Incarnate, though no one knows for sure. Or could it be...

“The future is not what helps people; the future is made with our own hands.

Salvation is hypocrisy. If people know they are to be saved, they simply will not try.

From the depths of despair: a glimmer of light, the warmth of recovery.

As long as we are with hope, we live. We stand tall.”

Personality
IRyS is a sweet, somewhat shy girl who holds positivity close to her heart, looking on the brighter side of things while encouraging others to do the same. At the same time, she often displays a more "sadistic" side with a penchant for violence and (often unintentionally) saying questionable things. The duality of her personality is often joked about by her fans as the dichotomy between her angelic and demonic sides.

Her speaking voice is high-pitched, soft and calm, akin to Yukihana Lamy's, though she can produce a more powerful and deeper tone when singing, similarly to Tokoyami Towa's vocal capability.

Background
On 30 November 2020, hololive's official Twitter account announced the start of auditions for a VSinger for hololive English; auditions were open until 29 January JST.

On 7 July 2021, a premiere countdown started on the hololive English channel titled "#CountdownWitnesser #hololiveEnglish." As the 8 hour countdown reached its end, a new video was released on the channel. This video was an animated teaser video revealing IRyS as part of "Project: HOPE", as well as becoming the first VSinger introduced to hololive English.

Her Twitter account was created in February 2021, while her YouTube channel was created on 20 May 2021. After making her first tweet on 7 July, her YouTube channel and Twitter account were restricted due to excessive activity. In the following days prior to her debut IRyS reached 200,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel.

On 11 July 2021, just hours before her debut stream, the restriction on her Twitter account was lifted. IRyS debuted with an introductory stream on her YouTube channel later the same day, where she presented a short version of her first original song and PV "Caesura of Despair." IRyS also announced that she would release her first EP 𝄆 Caesura of Despair the next day on 12 July on various streaming platforms. She also crossed the 300,000 Youtube subscribers milestone after her debut.

2021
On 12 July, she reached 400,000 subscribers on YouTube channel during her second stream.

On 18 July, one week after her debut, IRyS reached 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, surpassing Gawr Gura's record of 13 days. This record was later topped by holoJP's Gen 6th member Sakamata Chloe. IRyS is the 39th hololive member to reach this milestone. On the same day, she released her first solo cover song "Inochi" by AZKi.

On 29 July, IRyS held her first official collaboration with another hololive member, playing Just Shapes & Beats with Mori Calliope.

On 13 August, IRyS announced the opening of her channel's membership feature.

On 24 August, IRyS reached 600,000 subscribers on YouTube.

On 10 November, IRyS reached 700,000 subscribers on YouTube.

On 26 December, IRyS released a new original song "Sparks of Joy."

2022
On 12 January, IRyS released her second EP "Journey."

On 22 January, IRyS announced that she would go on "at least a one week" break from streaming due to the worsening of her throat's condition.

On 6 February, IRyS returned to her activities.

On 28 March, she reached 800,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel during a singing endurance stream.

On 11 July, IRyS released her third EP "Quarter Bravery."

On 20 July, during a stream on Mumei's channel -Council- and IRyS debuted "Beeg Smol" 3D models designed by Sana.

On 24 November, IRyS announced that she would get a new 2D model.

On 26 November, IRyS debuted her new main 2D model. IRyS' color palette is much brighter. IRyS now has two halos: a white one and a black one both hovering above her head. Her hair is a lot less curly and each lock is much more defined, with her hair color now being a bright magenta with a red lock. IRyS retains her low helix twintails, but with less layers and they are not tied together at the tips like they used to, instead they are decorated with black ribbons. IRyS horns are smaller, which she claims it is because of how well she has behaved. Her nose is also smaller. For her clothing, IRyS wears a shoulderless white dress with black straps that shows her cleavage. The dress is decorated with a black and magenta ribbon and black four pointed stars. She retains the brooch from her previous model. The upper portion of her sleeves are dark purple with small decorations resembling her mascots Bloom & Gloom and "Project HOPE" logos. She wears a diagonal belt that is decorated with the two flowers the one on her left is the same that her previous model had above her skirt, but with light yellow near its petal's center. The inner portion of her dress' skirt is red. IRyS wears long socks with a gradient from black to magenta decorated with embedded jewels and purple shoes.

On 29 November, IRyS reached 900,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel during a singing endurance stream.

On 13 December, hololive's Twitter account announced that IRyS would be taking a break to recover from COVID-19.

On 19 December, IRyS returned to her activities.

2023
On 11 January, IRyS announced that she would get her new year costume.

On 13 January, IRyS debuted her new year costume. IRyS uses high twintails decorated with magenta starry ribbons and optionally other flower accessories. IRyS wears a kimono with white and pink sleeves that gradient to purple. The right sleeve has a black hole print representing the end on the universe, while the left sleeve has a big star representing the beginning of the universe. The obi is decorated with a classic iris flower and a pair of sparkly dark purple and white wings. The kimono has some patterns including four pointed stars and flowers in different colors. IRyS wears sandals with socks.

Discography

 * Main page: IRyS/Discography

Events

 * On 5 April 2022, hololive's Twitter account announced that IRyS and Takanashi Kiara would appear at "DoKomi 2022." The event was held from 4-5 June 2022, which was also the first time IRyS participated in an event.
 * On 26 June 2022, Anirevo's Twitter announced that Ouro Kronii and IRyS would be appearing as guests in "Anirevo Summer 2022," which was held from 29-31 July 2022.
 * On 30 June 2022, OMOCAT's Twitter account revealed the design of Project: HOPE + holoCouncil collection.
 * On 14 July 2022, Crunchyroll Expo's Twitter account announced that IRyS and other members of hololive English would be appearing in "Crunchyroll Expo 2022," which was held from 5 to 7 August 2022.

Mascot and Fans

 * Her fanbase is officially called "IRyStocrats," a portmanteau of "aristocrats" and her name, "IRyS." They are represented by "GuyRyS" a human stick figure wearing a hat drawn by IRyS.
 * Members are called "Nephamily," a portmanteau of the words "nephilim" and "family."
 * On 4 July 2022, IRyS and Tsukumo Sana designed IRyS' mascots "Bloom & Gloom" black and white cat-like creatures each with just one wing, needing each other help in order to fly.

Relationships

 * Hakos Baelz is known to be a good friend of IRyS'. As a running joke, they are constantly getting "married" and "divorced," with "BaeRyS" being their unofficial pairing name.
 * The concept that they were "married" originated from a "Minecraft" stream on 29 September 2021. The aim was to construct the portal area for the hololive English server, which would be close to the transition point where they could move to the hololive JP server and viceversa.
 * To pass the time in "Minecraft," both chose adjacent beds where they would go to sleep. In the following morning, Baelz would give IRyS a baked potato as a bento similar to the mannerisms of a Japanese housewife. IRyS would accept the "bento," jokingly commenting that it was not enough and that she expected more. This led to them role-playing an unhappily married couple, leading to the start of the running joke that they were "married" and were getting "divorced."
 * On 7 October 2021, they had a collaboration stream playing "Clubhouse 51," where IRyS won in a game of Yacht Dice. Baelz responded that they are "signing the divorce papers tonight" as a form of retaliation to the loss.
 * On 4 January 2022, during a "Minecraft" stream, both entered Pavolia Reine's room in Ouro Kronii's base (the Bunkeronii). There, they read the existing "fanfictions" written by other members. Eventually, they decided to write a "fanfiction" together, which would be titled "A Night Like Any Other." The setting of this fiction was that they were in an adjacent room to the events that were depicted in another "fanfiction" titled "Noise Complaint."
 * In the fanfiction, the fictional IRyS told Baelz that she brought the Monopoly board game, and that they would be playing it "on the bed." It ends with them "preparing their hearts for one SPICY game." This resulted in the term "Monopoly" being used by IRyS and the fanbase as a substitute for sexual activities.

Units and Groups
Notable units and groups IRyS is part of:
 * "BaeRyS," alongside Hakos Baelz.
 * "MorIRyS," alongside Mori Calliope.
 * "CHAD" (Chaos, Hope, And Death), alongside Hakos Baelz and Mori Calliope.
 * "Star Flower," alongside Moona Hoshinova, Hoshimachi Suisei, and AZKi.
 * "IRySora," alongside Tokino Sora.
 * "K.I.R.A," alongside Ouro Kronii, Pavolia Reine and Anya Melfissa.
 * "ReiRyS," alongside Pavolia Reine.
 * "OKFAIR," alongside Kureiji Ollie, Ouro Kronii, Ceres Fauna, Anya Melfissa and Pavolia Reine.

Quotes

 * "HiRyS, it's IRyS!"
 * "Yoisho~"
 * "How's the volume?"
 * "Hope has descended and is coming for you"
 * [in Minecraft chat] "why are you RUNNING?"
 * [in Minecraft chat] "dont doubt senpairys"
 * "I am a hundred percent seiso, I would never lie!"
 * "We can play Monopoly... IN BED!"

Lore

 * IRyS is a nephilim, a half-angel, half-demon being.
 * The term "nephilim" appears in the Bible (Genesis 6:1-4; Numbers 13:32-33), where they refer to an ancient group of people sometimes interpreted as giants or fallen angels, beings who served God but were cast out for rebelling against Him. By some interpretations, the nephilim lived on Earth and intermarried with humans, but were wiped out in the Biblical flood which Noah and his descendants survived by building his ark.
 * The unofficial term for an angel-demon hybrid would be most likely "Nephalem", coming from the Diablo franchise and other medias.

Likes and dislikes

 * She likes good spaghetti with meatballs and tofu.
 * She enjoys sleeping, singing, PvP Games and sudoku.
 * Her favorite anime and manga are Evangelion, Bakuman, Death Note, Angel Beats!, Kaguya-Sama, The Promised Neverland, Gundam SEED Destiny. She also loves romance comedies and shojo manga.
 * Her goals are: releasing a full original album, hold a 3D debut live concert, singing an anime OP/ED song, make a lot of friends, make collaborations with every hololive member and bring hope to this world!
 * She dislikes celery, heights, bugs, Santa, math, ceiling fans and helicopters.
 * Despite having wings, IRyS prefers to walk because of her fear of heights.
 * IRyS claims that she dislikes Santa because, as she is a half-demon, Santa Claus never visited her, forgetting that she is also a half-angel.
 * She claims that she dislikes ceiling fans out of two reasons, first being that she considered them inefficient and obsolete due to the advent of air conditioning, and second being that she became paranoid of ceiling fans falling on top of her ever since watching Final Destination, which caused her to develop a discomfort towards spinning objects, hence her dislike towards helicopters as well.
 * In the past, she couldn't stand gore and was afraid of surgeries. Nowadays she can handle it better, but still feels uncomfortable when the gore is too extreme.
 * IRyS has a strong fondness for drinks and sodas, and will usually describe what drink she has prepared for the stream.
 * Despite this, she avoids sodas for singing streams, preferring non-carbonated drinks instead.
 * She drinks a 500ml bottle of soda almost every day.
 * Her love for sodas is so strong that she was given a "punishment" of a one-week soda ban for losing in Clubhouse Games against Hakos Baelz.
 * Her love for sodas is a running joke with the viewers, with viewers "attempting" to prevent her from drinking soda (with messages to the effect of "IRyS, No soda") whenever she mentions it.

Miscellaneous

 * IRyS is the fifth hololive Production member to have heterochromia after Houshou Marine, Himemori Luna, Kureiji Ollie and Yukoku Roberu. She has one purple eye and one blue.
 * IRyS can speak English and Japanese, making her bilingual.
 * She is the first member of hololive since AZKi to debut outside of a generation and is also the first one to do so outside the Japanese branch of hololive.
 * IRyS often makes puns with her name, such as "HiRyS" and "ByeRyS," to name a few. She even has member badges with "RyS" and encourages her "Nephamily" to use them more often and make even funnier word combinations.
 * IRyS is also known for combining her name and phrases starting with "S" when creating new usernames. The following has confirmed so far:
 * "IRySuperGlue" for Minecraft.
 * "irysocool" for Apex Legends, Just Shapes & Beats, Dead by Daylight, and Rust.
 * "IRySwitch" for Nintendo Switch games such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Big Brain Academy™️: Brain vs. Brain, Clubhouse 51, Ring Fit Adventure and Nintendo Switch Sports.
 * "IRYSOPRO" for Gartic Phone.
 * "IRySoSus" for Among Us, referencing "sus," a slang for being suspicious popularized by the game's fanbase.
 * "IRySoSeiso" for her character in Animal Crossing, and "ParadIRyS" for her island.
 * "HikaRyS" for her character in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, named after the Pokémon Gen 4 female protagonist Hikari (Japanese) / Dawn (English).
 * "ArceRyS" for her character in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
 * "IRySoDead" for Elden Ring.
 * "IRySoWise" for her Reddit user ID.
 * "IRyStonk" for Monopoly.
 * "IRySoWin" for Overwatch.
 * In her first mini-album, Caesura of Despair, the term "caesura" refers to the ‖ symbol, a double vertical line mark used to denote a pause in a song or poetry. In the fourth track, "Caesura of Despair (attacca ver.)", "attacca" refers to music played without a pause between movements.
 * IRyS used to have a childhood crush on Nintendo's Luigi.
 * IRyS has a habit of doing lip rolls during streams, and has been doing them since she was young. She also uses lip rolls as part of her vocal warm up routine.
 * IRyS has a medical condition of having "unstable joints," and had a habit of dislocating her shoulder when she was young. She had surgery to treat it before.
 * This is the reason why she avoids the "Overhead Arm" exercise when playing Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure, and also "holds back" on related physical activities such as bowling and throwing balls.
 * IRyS used to do skateboarding in the past.
 * She is the twenty-first hololive member to join the official Hololive Subreddit as a moderator.
 * There is a fan game named "Delivering Hope" made by David Wu, it was released on 19 July 2022 to celebrate IRyS's one year anniversary. Featuring her as the main character, the game simulates how IRyS gives hope to everyone by throwing her and seeing how far she goes.
 * IRyS has a habit of wrapping bananas in plastic bags and putting them into the fridge.
 * This was brought to light during a Jump King stream in which she was unwrapping her banana while on voice chat with Nanashi Mumei, Ceres Fauna, and Mori Calliope. The noise took the other members by surprise, and as a joke IRyS called it the "Windy Banana."

Media

 * IRyS Ch. hololive-EN - YouTube channel
 * IRyS's corporate profile on hololive.hololivepro.com
 * @irys_en - Twitter account
 * @irys_en - Marshmallow account
 * u/IRySoWise - Reddit account

Twitter hashtags

 * #IRyS - General
 * #IRyShow - Stream
 * #IRySart - Fan art

Further readings

 * IRyS - Pixiv Encyclopedia
 * IRyS - Moegirl Encyclopedia
 * IRyS - Namu Wiki