Gawr Gura （⠁ω⠁）Expresion Papercraft Model by @hima1chan_

19 Oct, 2021

Who doesn't know Gawr Gura? One of the top vtubers of Hololive EN, of course, has passed on your social media timeline many times. Or maybe you've been too shrimp with him and joined the Chumbuds?

Don't know Gawr Gura? At first glance, he is a Hololive Vtuber in the form of a cute shark—even though he is thousands of years old. He has only been joining the ranks of Vtuber Hololive, in Hololive EN generation 1 to be precise with Amelia Watson, Mori Calliope, Ninomae Ina'nis, and Takanashi Kiara. Apart from that, you must already know the best quote: "a''.

It's no secret that this short quote is one of the main things that has contributed to Gawr Gura's popularity in a relatively short time. Of all Hololive members, Gawr Gura's YouTube channel is the first to reach 1 million subscribers. This achievement is fantastic: only about two months into existence, Gawr Gura's subscribers have far exceeded other Hololive EN members, even Hololive JP members who have existed for more than two years.

Of course we wonder how Gawr Gura can surpass the popularity of other hololive elders so quickly. Then, what does that have to do with the "a" word attached to Gawr Gura? Besides that, does saying "a" really push Gawr Gura to reach 1 million subscribers? This article will explore how one letter — and anything else — can make a Vtuber popular in a relatively short time.

How Gawr Gura Go Viral

How To Go Viral In General: A Mystery

How a social media account like Gawr Gura went viral on social media is still a big mystery that has not been completely solved. Scientifically, research conducted by Scholz et al. (2017) tries to explain this: content related to experiences and supports idealism and the image of readers will be disseminated more often so that it becomes viral. However, the results of this study only cover 20% of the variation in the causes of viral content.

Maybe we can consider another factor, namely the number of followers/subscribers. While the likelihood of content with a large number of followers going viral is higher than that with a few followers, this factor is not the main factor; often viral content also comes from small, foreign, and unknown accounts. Gawr Gura just went viral when his account was just created.

Oh, let's look at the context of the content he wrote, "a".

Shitposting Again, Shitposting Again

Yes, right. Shitposting again.

An entertainment media that has existed for a long time, but has only become a trend on the internet in recent years. Shitpost itself can be interpreted as two things: posts that litter the internet — hence the origin of the name "shitpost" — or posts that are very absurd, but become funny because of their absurdity. Of course the context of Gawr Gura's "a" goes into the second definition.

a
— Gawr Gura🔱holoEN (@gawrgura) September 9, 2020

a

Humans have the ability to interpret an object and place their emotions in the object, whether sad, happy, angry, or laughing, based on other identities that are considered "similar" to the object. This is the basis for the emergence of shitposts: there is something that is meaningless, but is interpreted as a joke because it is similar to other things that are considered jokes. The context of "a" Gawr Gura can be understood from this frame of mind.

Gawr Gura initially only wrote "a" on his Twitter account as a test run. However, the "a" on Gawr Gura's Twitter account was seen as an entertaining shitpost absurd joke.

Thanks to the communication chain, "a"—which already had the identity of shitpost—then spread to various wibu and Vtuber fans on social media as entertainment. The result was predictable: the talk about Gawr Gura increased which had an impact on the growth of Gawr Gura's subscribers and followers.

Just Because of "a" Only?

Shitpost "a" did help Gawr Gura's follower growth significantly, but entertainment and jokes alone were not enough. Popular entertainment will soon become saturated and unfunny within a few weeks or months of its appearance. This is what traps people like Udin Sedunia and Norman Kamaru: Their "sticky" attitude with their entertainment style from the start becomes the master's weapon and makes them fail in the long run.

Then, what did Gawr Gura do to perpetuate his popularity? Gawr Gura also showed his expertise in playing cross-genre games in his stream. He is reliable in playing Minecraft which is a sandbox game to Amnesia which is a horror genre. Not only that, he also demonstrates the ability to sing a number of songs on a number of his streams, for example the cover of the song Ride on Time which received significant praise from Chumbuds.