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Akage Megane (Aka-gae Meg-gone-ae) (also known as NerdBooba or THEBaratusII) is an independent Babiniku VTuber. She creates narrated content on YouTube often documenting topics related to vintage computers and retro PC gaming. Akage also does livestreams which often involves playing through games (preferably classic games) and participating in multiplayer sessions.
Profile[]
Akage is a nerdy introvert who started a new life after her home planet got destroyed by a unknown hostile force with very little to no recollection of the events. In her new life she likes to geek around over the history of technology and gaming.
In September 2023, Akage's original backstory explained that she was from an unknown planet that had traditionally attended LAN parties before the internet became common place. She acquired an internet connection and later traveled to Earth to express her love for her interests. Eventually this backstory was tweaked several months later.
Appearance[]
She has red hair with a ponytail and glasses while her eyebrows were colored in black using makeup. Her eyes are in blue color with one of her eyes covered by her bangs. Her primary clothing consists of a midriff baring crop top with puffy long sleeves, leggings with the visible thong and boots.
Alternatively, Akage would trade off wearing the leggings in favor of panties, fishnet stockings and thigh-highs. She is also seen in different variations of her main outfit, from going to black to white, to dressing in cowprint.
As of August 2025, Akage would often be seen wearing a beret.
Personality[]
Akage despite being an introvert, also likes to be informative about the the topic she likes.
Akage is enthusiastic about classic FPS games like Unreal and Blood, and often enjoys playing the multiplayer whenever possible. She also has a habit of requesting people to "give 5 money 4 booba", a in-joke involving her large breasts. Akage is known for her unhinged sense of humor while having a contagious laughter. Outside of her interests in first-person shooters, Akage also enjoys 2D real-time strategy games, but often destroys her friends in multiplayer despite feeling anxious playing public lobbies due to the intimidating competitive scene. Akage also shares a soft spot for obscure indie games that predate the rising popularity of digital game storefronts and also has a liking towards top-down shooters with Alien Shooter (2003) and After The End (2004) being her childhood favorites.
Her enthusiasm towards vintage computing was due to her growing up on a Intel Pentium III 800MHz with onboard Intel graphics which led to limited to older games with some modern titles (during the mid-late 2000s) being played on consoles. Her desire for vintage computing as a hobby was inspired by watching LGR (Lazy Game Reviews) with videos covering the Compaq Presario 425 and the 3dfx Voodoo soon sparking her interest.
History[]
Background[]
Before becoming a VTuber, his YouTube channel was created on 5 December 2014, originally to upload assorted content related to Heretic before evolving to a variety of games. The channel was renamed to Baratus II during 2015 as a reference to Baratus The Fighter (from Hexen) while being inspired by names using roman numerals.
Around March 2021, THEBaratusII started experimenting with becoming a VTuber during the midst of wanting to pursue livestreaming on Twitch. The experiment of becoming a VTuber was inspired after watching various clips of Zentreya on YouTube.
Though he made his VTuber debut the next month using a Live2D model of So Dakki (from Senkaiden Houshin Engi) using screencaps to make the parts. In August 2021, Baratus would make his 3D debut under the same character using various models meant for MikuMikuDance (due to lack of proper 3D modeling knowledge) but would later be given advice towards creating an original character.
Initially planned to reduce into a PNGTuber in early 2022, Baratus eventually dropped the 'Dakki VTuber' persona quietly and took the advice by revisiting VRoid Studio to create would would become Akage. Baratus described the process of designing his original VTuber persona as "creating a dream woman in my thoughts"
Baratus completed the debut model by 7 April 2022, and debuted the model on a Twitch livestream the next day playing Terminal Velocity multiplayer. During this time, a name had not been fleshed out yet and was given the placeholder name, "Redhead With Glasses".
2022[]
In 22 May, she was given the name "Akage Megane" following some experimentation involving translations from English to Japanese (Akage meaning "Redhead" and Megane meaning "Glasses").
In June, Akage's model would go through improvements and changes that periodically lasted up until October 2023. In that same month, Akage released two game review videos (Alien Shooter and After The End) on YouTube as a test to help find a new purpose for her channel as it was originally used for assorted content.
2023[]
In January, Akage took a hiatus from streaming due to a mixture of burnout and technical difficulties regarding her internet connection and current hardware being a bit intensive with the motion tracking, while having yet to cement a proper purpose for the YouTube channel. Prior to her hiatus, she streamed a multiplayer event that took place on the final days before the game servers for Unreal Tournament (2017) would be shutdown. This ended being her last stream on Twitch primarily before the switch to YouTube in July.
In June, despite being on-hiatus as a VTuber, Akage posted a YouTube video covering the 1998 game, Unreal. This video Akage would credit as the video that eventually cemented the YouTube channel's purpose. The channel continued to grow following a wave of scripted content like the ACE Engine (for Doom II), Freedoom, Quake, the demo for Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition and a video covering Chasm: The Rift.
In July, Akage posted a video covering Bad Toys 3D (went public in the midst of a major power outage) before taking a break from making scripted content. Akage would return to livestreaming as a VTuber on YouTube and would be the primary platform as a streamer onwards.
In September, Akage was briefly featured without her ponytail but eventually went back to using the ponytail towards the end of the month. The same month, work began on Akage's backstory.
In October, Akage's design was eventually cemented with improvements involving her lipstick being made. That same month saw Akage taking another hiatus from streaming while posting two more videos towards the end of the year. The two videos were a recap of 2023 and a video covering Doom (to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary).
2024[]
In January, despite Akage expressing a hiatus from content creation posted a video covering the recently added multiplayer support for the reverse engineered Perfect Dark PC port. This would be the first time, Akage was featured in a scripted video narrating on screen. Akage also debuted a new variant with her dressed up in cowprint.
In March, Akage suffered a community guidelines strike which led to a panic. She deleted various amount of content in fears of potentially receiving another strike.
In April, Akage briefly returned to Twitch after retiring the BaratusLive branding of livestream which originally started in June 2023. However she took a two-month hiatus from streaming to focus more towards making scripted content. On 8 April, Akage posted a video, documenting how she became a VTuber to celebrate the two-year milestone since her debut.
In June, Akage began posting shorts on YouTube documenting highlights from past livestreams. At the same month, Akage created her Bluesky acccount.
On 23 July, Akage posted a collab video, covering a vintage 486DX4 computer that was shipped from the backrooms by Retro Dragon. This ended a years long search for a 486 machine as Akage stated her oldest computer she had beforehand was a Pentium 75MHz machine.
In November, Akage reached 1,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel.
On 5 December, Akage posted a video covering Heretic to celebrate her channel turning 10 and to celebrate the game turning 30 early.
2025[]
On 14 February, Akage posted a video covering Duke Nukem 3D. Akage would take an almost five month sabbatical from content creation at the end of March (with very occasional posting) due to personal issues.
On 16 May, Akage revealed that she had been diagnosed with Insomnia following a sleep study. Prior to this, her cause of sleep issues which had plagued her ability to do livestreams in a consistent schedule were up in the air and was said to be a hereditary problem. Akage also revealed that it was thought that she would've been diagnosed with sleep apnea due to loud snoring.
On 31 May, Akage posted a video briefly covering the Mini vMac emulator as an experiment regarding her workflow.
In July, Akage upgraded her microphone which led her to posting a video covering Descent on 18 July, to celebrate the retail game already turning 30. Akage would declare this video as her official return to content creation.
On 21 August, Akage posted on her Bluesky, wearing a beret to celebrate 25 years of having cake. She would debut a model variant wearing a beret.
Quotes[]
- "give 5 money 4 booba"
- "video game"
- "Thank you all for watching, stay tuned for more content, give 5 money 4 booba and as always! Peace out!"
- "Fucking keycards... I hate keycards"
Trivia[]
- The symbol shown on her crop top is a reference to a icon found in a pre-release build of Unreal dating back to November 1995.
- Akage is a big fan of So Dakki from Senkaiden Houshin Engi, the villainess. She would reference her close friend group as the Dakkicult.
- Akage's design was created using a combination of VRoid Studio and Blender.
- Akage was diagnosed with autism at an early age.
- Akage's favorite genres of music are metal, electronic, and pop (to a certain extent)
- She credits the soundtracks for Unreal and Unreal Tournament for getting into tracker module music.
- Her favorite MIDI synths are the Roland SC-55 and the Gravis Ultrasound.
- Akage has worked with level and graphics design, and was a beta tester for various projects.
- Akage dislikes invasive anti-cheats, shady industry choices and mistreatment towards game franchises that she likes. She would go on a rant about Epic's neglect towards Unreal/Unreal Tournament in favor of Fortnite.
- Akage's favorite multiplayer shooters are QuakeWorld, Blood and Unreal.
- Akage's pre-debut design had her wear a bowtie located on her crop top and lacked lipstick.
- Akage having a beret was originally tested as an experiment, but quickly grew attached to it and became part of her core design.