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Shurelya was an early VTuber technology pioneer.
Apart from her early League of Legends content, she is perhaps best known for the Shurelily media project, a collaboration with LilyPichu from 2011-2012 which used professionally commissioned anime-style static avatars—nowadays known as a PNGTuber—to represent characters with detailed lore. In 2016 she became one of the first streamers to use FaceRig with a custom Live2D model.
The character was officially retired in 2020, although she has made rare appearances since.
Profile[]
Lily’s best friend and Pastelle Academy Student Council President. Shurelya herself leads a double life. In one hand, when at school, Shurelya shows herself as the responsible and kind Student Council President who is calm, collected and a refined lady. However this side of her immediately shifts, when not at school, into a pvp-obsessed homicidal gamer. Although she does act collected at school, often her “at home” personality leaks out and shows itself, and some of her closer classmates don’t buy this act (Like Ria).
Although acting as a strong and confident Student Council President, she also has a very insecure side in which she confides in Lily.
Personality[]
Shurelya is a chuuni who maintains a veil of respectability. She can sometimes display a "yandere" personality.
Appearance[]
Shurelya is a young woman with green eyes and long silver hair. She wears the white and blue uniform of Pastelle Academy. Her hair is decorated with a silver snowflake pin. Her eyes have been observed to turn red when angry or using her latent powers.
She is occasionally seen in one of two other other outfits: a fur-lined winter magical girl outfit with a white hat; and a warrior outfit with a suit of armor depicted in the Shurelily poster.
History[]
Background[]
Shurelya started out as a streamer on Own3D, a Twitch competitor which operated until 2013. Her YouTube channel was created on 21 December 2006, with her oldest pre-VTubing video dating to 29 May 2007. Her Twitter account was created in August 2008. Her most popular early work was the League of Legends: Zoning Tutorial, 27 November 2009, which since received over 2 million views. Her early livestreams focused on League of Legends.
As livestreaming became popular, the "meta" favored streamers who appeared on camera on stream, rather than as a disembodied voice. The commonly accepted wisdom at the time was that viewers made a better connection with the streamer if they had a visible person to connect to. This disadvantaged streamers like Shurelya, who chose not to use webcam. As a solution, she decided to appear as an anime character, using a static image capable of switching between different expressions.
The Shurelya character design was commissioned from Kriss Sison, who Shurelya previously commissioned to draw original art for her League of Legends itasha. Shurelya initially used a static avatar, something referred to nowadays as PNGTubing, but with hotkeys to display the character with different expressions. The use of anime art style and switching between pre-drawn expressions were well-established concepts in the field of visual novels. She also developed complex fantasy lore and setting elements for the character, inspired by her love of the Fate visual novel series and self-described "chuuni" nature.
On 27 October 2011, the web domain shurelily.com was registered. The Shurelily Twitch channel was registered on 8 December 2011.
While Shurelya was not the first VTuber—Ami Yamato debuted earlier in 2011, and the Super Sonico VTuber even earlier in 2010—she and LilyPichu were among the earliest known YouTubers and livestreamers to use professional anime-style 2D art and complex fictional setting detail to represent themselves on-screen as fictionalized original characters based on themselves. This approach would later become the meta in VTubing, particularly after it was adopted by hololive 1st generation in 2018.
2011[]
On 12 December, the Shurelily YouTube channel was launched.[1] On the same day, she posted the earliest known YouTube video using the Shurelya PNGTuber character, a part 1 of a League of Legends lets play. LilyPichu's avatar appeared in the same video.
On 28 December she held the earliest known Shurelily livestream, the Shurelily Live Show League of Legends Fan Day.
On 30 December she posted Shurelily Adventures episode 1, "Dream Romance."
2012[]
On 8 March she posted the Shurelily Adventures PV, announcing the series' return on 15 March.
2013[]
On 10 February, Shurelya announced that Lily had left the Shurelily project. Shurelya continued to work on a Shurelily light novel, although it was never released. Shurelya continued to stream on Twitch as an independent streamer.
2016[]
In this year, she commissioned a Live2D model, becoming one of the first VTubers to use the technology after FaceRig Live2D module was released. She purchased a copy of Live2D for her artist, who learned rigging for the project. However, the state of Live2D rigging was underperformant at the time, and the resulting model was rarely used.[2]
2020[]
On 18 June, she reached 5,000 Twitch followers.
On 7 August, she posted "Shurelily - the Final Video". This marked the official end of the Shurelily project and general retirement of the character.[3]
2021[]
On 2 September, the Shurelily YouTube channel was shut down due to copyright strikes on a second channel on the same Google account. Shurelily Adventures was subsequently considered lost media until a copy was found thanks to a fan who had downloaded them.
2022[]
She reprised the role of Shurelya, along with LilyPichu, for a panel at OffKai Expo, which was held from 29 April to 1 May.[4][5]
Relationships[]
- She was part of Shurelily project, with LilyPichu.
Quotes[]
- "Player agency is important to a satisfying gaming experience. When players feel like their actions don't matter, the game loses its impact and players will lose motivation."
- "Magic is the power to change fate."
- "Lily, you called me a giant-breasted monster! Is that I am? A cow to be milked for your weird needs? Fine... moo... moooo..."
- "You have to chase your dreams, because they're not gonna come to you. You need to get up and go for it. ... You have to tear what you want from the cold, dead hands of fate."
Shurelily Adventures[]
Shurelily Adventures was a short web animated series which starred Shurelya and LilyPichu. It was originally intended to air as a weekly series, first on Sundays, then on Thursdays. It received five episodes and three specials. A sixth episode was previewed but never produced.
| Episode | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 | Dream Romance | 30 December 2011 |
| Shurelya is ill. Lily returns from the store with soup for her, but Shurelya is suspicious... | ||
| Episode 2 | Shu's Unnecessary Despair | 11 January 2012 |
| Lily can't convince Shurelya to leave the kotatsu. | ||
| Episode 3 | The Spider Witch Attacks! | Unknown |
| Lily cooks food, and encounters an unexpected "visitor." | ||
| Special | Mana Transfer | 3 February 2012 |
| DVD special. Shurelya needs Lily to lend her some "mana." | ||
| OP | Shurelily Adventures PV | 8 March 2012 |
| Japanese-language opening to Shurelily Adventures. Sung by LilyPichu. | ||
| Episode 4 | Dark Liliana | 15 March 2012 |
| Lily is tired of being nice, but she's not very good at being mean... | ||
| Special | Improv Yuri Drama | 11 April 2012 |
| Relationships cause conflict between the girls of Pastelle Academy. | ||
| Episode 5 | Love is Just Fluff | 26 April 2012 |
| While Lily is away for spring break, Shurelya makes do with a Lily dakimakura. | ||
| Special | Christmas Special | 25 December 2012(?) |
| (Unknown, possibly lost media.) | ||
Trivia[]
Lore[]
- Her class is Witch of Winter (冬の魔女, Fuyu no Majo).
- Her Reality Breaker is Eye of Onettia.
- She attends Pastelle Academy, where she is in the student council. She is also in the school kendo club.
- According to Shurelily Adventures episode 5, she is also an esper with the ability to use Boundary Shield, Great Melon Pan Shield, and Pastelle Requiem ~ Lily Storm.
Likes and dislikes[]
- Her hobbies are video games and cooking.
- She likes dolphins, bunnies, and tea.
- Her favorite foods are roasted duck, fried fish, and prime rib.
- She secretly likes knives, trolling, anime, and killing people in video games.
- She was a big Dragalia Lost streamer until the game servers shut down.[6]
Miscellaneous[]
- The inspiration of her name is the Reyvateil Shurelia from the JRPG Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia.
- The League of Legends items Shurelya's Reverie, Shurelya's Requiem, and Shurelya's Battlesong are named after her, not the other way around.
- Shurelya had a Live2D model produced, but it was rarely used.[7]
- She is the inspiration of LilyPichu's original piano piece Shurelya's Song.
- She used to be a regular on the MMOs.com podcast.[7]
- A Shurelya dakimakura was once produced.[4]
External links[]
Media[]
Further reading[]
- Shurelya at vTubie
References[]
- ↑ Shurelya [@Shureria]. (2011, December 13). We just launched our new Youtube Channel - Shurelily! Please don't not subscribe if you dont not dislike un-awesome. [Tweet]. Twitter.
- ↑ OffKai Expo [OffKai Expo]. (2022, December 15). Shurelily: VTubing origins OffKai Expo 2022 [Video]. YouTube.
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DjyHYlFFAM (unavailable)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 OffKai Expo [OffKai Expo]. (2022, December 15). Shurelily: VTubing origins OffKai Expo 2022 [Video]. YouTube.
- ↑ Shurelya [@Shureria]. (2022, April 27). Special Shurelily Announcement! #shurelily [Tweet]. Twitter.
- ↑ Shurelya [@Shureria]. (2019, December 11). Help. Help. Help....! [Tweet]. Twitter.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 MMOs.com [MMOs.com]. (2017, April 19). MMOs.com Podcast - Episode 100: Celebration, Ashes of Creation, & Star Citizen [Video]. YouTube.