Akai Haato - VTuber

Akai Haato is a VTuber from Hololive’s 1st Generation that debuted in June 2018. Although she streams games and holds karaoke streams much like other members of Hololive, Akai Haato has managed to craft a unique brand of content that has resonated with a large audience.

Akai Haato Background

Akai Haato (or Haachama) is a Japanese VTuber that is well known in the Hololive community for her sassy and sometimes attention-seeking personality, off-putting cooking habits, and mold-breaking content.

Akai Haato History

During her YouTube debut on June 2nd, 2018, Haato introduced herself as a “sassy kouhai” with a tsundere personality that also adores hearts, ribbons, and the color red. Following her debut, Haato played games like Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy and Minecraft and held chatting streams. Throughout her career, Haato has received several different outfits and design changes as well. In January 2019, she received a 3D model for her original design, which was later updated in April. On July 30th, Haato’s Live2D model would also receive a “2.0” version as well, which added better expressions and smoother animation.

Akai Haato Physical Description

Haato’s main design is of a young girl with blue eyes and long, blond hair that has heart-shaped hair ties and several red ribbons tied into it. Her blue and white dress is likewise adorned with a large red bow that is tied around the collar. Aside from her dress and ribbons, she also wears a pair of black thigh-high socks and dark brown shoes.

Her second Live2D outfit has a much more casual style and features a simple white dress that is covered by a red hooded button-up jacket with an illustration of a Haaton (a small pig character used to illustrate her fans) in the breast pocket. In this costume, Haato’s hair is also tied into a ponytail. Her most recent outfit was revealed in October 2020 takes the form of a red and black gothic lolita-style dress with a layered skirt that is adorned with small black bows. One of her eyes is also covered with an eyepatch while her hair is decorated with small black and red hearts.

Akai Haato Personality

Most of the time, Haato puts on a selfish act and is not afraid to do whatever she wants. She can become bored of something fairly quickly and sometimes acts a bit too hastily at times. Teasing and poking fun at her viewers is fairly common in her streams, but it is always in good fun. That said, during particularly emotional or serious moments, she becomes quite open to her viewers and often expresses how much she cares for them. Although she is a Japanese VTuber, Haato spent several years studying abroad in Australia. This led to her gaining some basic English skills, though Haato generally just speaks in Japanese. Due to worldwide travel restrictions, however, Haato was unable to return to Japan until December 2020.

One other important aspect of Akai Haato is “Haachama”. While it first started as a nickname for Haato, Haachama eventually evolved into a sort of evil or unrestrained alter ego of Akai Haato. For a time, Haato would go between these two personalities while streaming until the “Haato vs. Haachama” series ended in March 2021.

Associated Company

Akai Haato is one of the dozens of VTubers owned by Cover Corporation. Although the company was originally a developer for AR and VR technologies, its CEO, Motoaki Tanigo, decided to expand on the idea of characters like Kizuna Ai and Hatsune Miku to create virtual idols. This eventually resulted in the creation of Hololive Productions, an agency that produces idol VTubers. Haato herself is a member of the 1st Generation, which also includes VTubers like Yozora Mel, Shirakami Fubuki (currently a member of Hololive GAMERS), Natsuiro Matsuri, and Aki Rosenthal.

Notable Releases

In-between her regular streams and song covers, Haato also uploaded several video and stream series that are quite popular among the community. Two particularly notable examples of this include “Haachama Cooking” and videos pertaining to what fans call the “Haato vs. Haachama” arc.

Haachama Cooking

The Haachama Cooking series refers to a series of videos and streams where Haato cooks various kinds of food like pancakes, pasta, gyoza dumplings, and so on. The most notable aspect of these videos is Haato’s rather unique selection of ingredients and amateur cooking techniques. In the past, she has created strange dishes like kangaroo hot pot and candied strawberries made with burned hard candy. No matter how unappetizing the food looks to the viewer, however, Haato always mentions how tasty her cooking is.

Haato vs. Haachama

Although the nickname Haachama existed for some time, the Haachama “alter ego” was a long-running development that spanned over the course of several months in 2020 and early 2021. Eventually, Haato released a series of videos and streams that depict Haato and Haachama struggling to gain control over one another, sometimes in surprisingly unsettling or violent ways. In March 2021, Haato held a stream that ended the saga and noted that the figures Akai Haato and Haachama will coexist peacefully.