Sakura Miko - VTuber

Sakura Miko is a Japanese VTuber that is managed by Hololive and is a part of the agency’s “0th Generation”. As one of the first VTubers to come from Hololive, Sakura Miko helped forge the path of success for many of the members of Hololive that followed, making her quite an important VTuber in the history of Hololive.

Sakura Miko Background

Miko is a shrine maiden VTuber that hosts a variety of content on her channel from games of various genres to miscellaneous chatting and collaboration streams.

Sakura Miko History

Sakura Miko began as an independent VTuber working under Cover Corporation and made her original debut on August 1st, 2018. In December later that year, she would join Hololive as a main character for Hololive’s short animation series, Miko no Tsutome!. In 2019, she would continue streaming on her own YouTube channel and reach 100,000 subscribers by the end of the year. In December 2019, she would receive a new 3D model that included a newly designed outfit. Miko would later make her first appearance in a live concert with many other Hololive members in Hololive’s first major concert, “Nonstop Story”, on January 24th, 2020.

In the middle of July 2020, Miko announced that she was not feeling well and eventually had to go on an extended hiatus. This streaming hiatus lasted until October 21st, though she posted updates on her Twitter account often. On December 2nd, Miko would make her debut on Twitch, making her one of the only Hololive members to stream on the platform. Currently, Miko’s Twitch channel is only used as a backup when YouTube has issues or for when she wants to use Twitch’s watch party feature. Miko would receive a second update to her 3D model on December 23rd, 2020, which included many improvements to her model’s design and animation. As of April 2021, Miko is nearing one million subscribers on her channel and is expected to pass this milestone in the near future.

Sakura Miko Physical Description

Like several other members in the “0th Generation”, Miko streams exclusively using a 3D model, as opposed to using a Live2D model. Although her model has gone through several updates, her design has largely stayed the same. She takes the appearance of a young girl with shoulder-length pink hair with a large, circular ahoge (cowlick) and a side ponytail. Her very first outfit includes a simple red and white Japanese-style dress with a short, red pleated skirt, red thigh-high socks, and a cherry blossom hair ornament. Her updated costume shares more elements with a traditional shrine maiden’s uniform and includes things like wide red and white sleeves and a large yellow bow tied around her waist.

While Miko does not have a New Year’s outfit despite being one of the oldest members of Hololive, she does have a casual outfit that consists of a schoolgirl’s uniform with a white button-up top, a black corset, a red plaid skirt, and black thigh-high socks. The outfit also includes a cat and cherry blossom theme, which can be seen in her hair clip, corset, and socks. The outfit also has a large, baggy cream-colored jacket that can be added or removed at will. Miko’s hair is also considerably longer than her original design and is worn tied up into loose twin tails.

Sakura Miko Personality

While many might associate shrine maidens with discipline and good manners, Miko often notes how bored she gets when it comes to her shrine duties. She often tries to find ways to entertain herself, one of the most common of which is playing video games. Although she plays a variety of different games, she tends to prefer those with open-ended gameplay like Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, and ARK: Survival Evolved. She has also expressed a moderate desire to learn more about Western culture and has gained a sizable following of English-speaking fans. Miko often tries to play games with English voices and Japanese subtitles when possible, which also led her to pick up several English swear and slang words.

Associated Company

Sakura Miko is a member of Hololive Production, a VTuber agency that is owned by Cover Corporation. Today, the agency manages over fifty individual VTubers from several different parts of the world, though its largest branch is its Japanese-speaking group. Miko herself is a part of the “0th Generation”, which includes Tokino Sora, Roboco-san, Hoshimachi Suisei, and AZKi. While this group is sometimes referred to as a generation, it is much more like a collection of members that are not affiliated with a specific generation, as members in this group debuted anywhere from September 2017 to November 2018 -- well after the 1st and 2nd Generations debuted.

Notable Releases

While gaming makes up a large amount of the content on her channel, Miko has also released a variety of other videos on her channel, with some of her most popular being her songs and her unique collaboration streams.

Song Releases

While a majority of Hololive members have at least one original solo song that they have released throughout the years, Miko has three: My Name is Elite, Sakura Kaze, and Sakura-iro High Tension!. To add to this list, Miko is also further involved with Hololive original group songs like Peko-Miko Daisensou with Usada Pekora and Daily Diary with Natsuiro Matsuri, Houshou Marin (Marine), Oozora Subaru, and Shirogane Noel.

Collaboration Streams

While it is fairly common to host another VTuber on one’s channel, Miko often comes up with rather unique activities for some of her collaboration streams. Such examples include the “Hololive Mother Championship” that took place on December 20th, 2020, and a stream of an original Hololive board game that included Miko, Kiryu Coco, Amane Kanata, Ookami Mio, Nekomata Okayu, and Oozora Subaru.