About Amelia Watson and hololive English (as a conclusion of 2024 for me)

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is taka. How was your 2024? Me personally, I have got a lot of good experience, but on the other hand, I also have had some unhappy news, especially as a hololive fan. But, anyway, I would like to summarize this year with an article. Thus I write about Amelia Watson (Ame henceforth), because she has consisted of quite a large part of my everyday life for these two years, and has given me a lot. It should be a good timing to write about her as a conclusion of my 2024 with hololive (The cover image is the one I took at Japan Expo 2024 in Paris, one of my favorite memories with hololive this year). This is a personal article, but hopefully it introduces you to hololive.

Actually I have wanted to write about my best oshi in hololive, namely Ame. I wanted to write about her before she would leave, but I could not do it simply because I was busy. But now I decided to work on the article again and finish it because we are forced to say goodbye to too many members this year and I cannot help but think about it, and I want to organize my thoughts in a way.

But this article is basically meant to be a happy one, where I just write about why I like Ame and how I got into hololive. So, I will start with the reasons why I love her.

Her personality that I love

First and foremost, I love to see how she has carried out a lot of unique and funny streams and projects. She is really good at crystalizing ideas, and I must say that I have learned plentiful things from her. Even if it would be scuffed, it is always a good idea to start working on the things that you have come up with before starting thinking over whether it is possible or how to do it too much, even to the point that you think you should quit it. I also love her energy. She is so energetic. I love hearing her screaming. This is part of the presentation of "Ameway" and it is one of the most important legacies she has left in hololive, in my opinion.

On the contrary, she is shy when she is with many people, judging, for example, from some big collabs. I think she is sensitive in a sense and she tends to think of others around her. But it is not a negative thing. She is kind and considerate, and has kept helping her colleagues (I am reminded of her talking about her past, when she lived just to help people around her). Even though she is famous for her crazy episodes and deeds, she is thoughtful and sweet-hearted. That is another reason I love her.

With that being said, she has apparently prioritized herself in many occasions. She does just what she want to. It gives me an impression that she doesn't easily get swayed by others or her surroundings, and that she makes her way (Ameway) by herself. As a person who is subject to others' influence, I have a lot to learn also here.

How she has helped me improve my English and what it means to me

I will move on to another more practical perspective. It is about English － as an English learner, I cannot thank Ame and also other hololive English members enough for helping me skyrocketing my English skills. Now let me write about how I got to know them and started to falling down the rabbit hole of hololive.

It was one and half a year ago that I first saw Ame. Back then, I was really bad at listening and understanding English, and I was totally at a loss what to do to overcome that problem, even though I had hoped to study abroad. English is necessary for me, but I wasn't confident at all yet. And there were already a vast number of English contents available in Japan, but I was never motivated because they dealt with boring topics and they were not attractive enough. So I was almost giving up, when I came up with an idea of trying to find something related to anime or otaku culture, which I like to watch. And somehow English-speaking VTubers have come to my mind. And it was a clip of Ame that showed up in the YouTube recommendations.

I must say here that Ame has at least two great meanings for me. The one is that she has (re-)introduced me to hololive. To be totally honest, I had had a little hesitation against watching hololive because of their few negative incidents, although that feeling got smaller and smaller at that time. But once I saw Ame, she got me on the spot and she has led me to watch other members' streams, starting from EN through JP (although I'm Japanese) to ID. So hololive is now my one and only favorite VTuber branch.

The other is that I have found out that there exist such English speaking girls who have freaking cute voice. I know it sounds weird, especially to native speakers of English, but I had thought that English (and European language) speakers speak their language with lower voice than Japanese, which gives us an impression that they speak chill and cool. So it was a big discovery for me (I'm not gonna lie). To put it short and rough, I was glad to get to know English speaking anime girls with adorable voice. I could hear their English forever. Since the day I saw Ame for the first time, I haven't had a day without hearing English, because I love to hear their good voices, and also because they are simply funny.

Since then, I started to pick up English without much effort. With the help of subtitles, my English has improved so much to the point that I am living in Europe and communicate in English without problem (I'm leaving soon and I mainly speak the local language though). As I have mentioned, I wanted to study abroad long time. It is for the sake of my dream. So, it means that Ame and hololive has helped me go forward toward my dream. I'm not sure whether my English was good enough now if I hadn't met Ame. Besides, they have also taught me the best way (for ME) to learn a foreign language, which is really a breakthrough for me, who was stuck in the darkness of language learning for a long time. (I can recommend Japanese learners watching hololive for the same reason. Maybe I will write about how I used holoEN to study English in another article later, if I have energy enough.)

To sum up, Ame and the whole hololive English has so much influence on me these two years, in regards both of way of thinking and of English, and I'm approaching my dream, thanks to them. I cannot thank them too much.

Short thoughts

I mention this topic before leaving: Ame's cessation of her stream activities. I don't know what is the main reason of her leaving, but I guess she wanted be more free. She is not such a kind of person who can be limited within the frame of a company's compliance. Maybe she also wanted to change the environment she was in for as long as 4 years or she hoped for more individual activities. I'm just imagining, but it can be explanatorily adequate, considering her personality (and if it was the case I can relate to her because I have similar thoughts and personality to hers). But all that I hope is she is doing good, stays healthy and feels happy. I wish her best in the future.

With that being said, I like Myth the most among the whole hololive, I love them, so I really miss them 5 being together. I hope we see Ame again by taking advantage of being an affiliate in such a way as the newly released song "Odyssey" (I love this song). Maybe I will write about Myth in another article later. Anyways, I also thank all the members of Myth for all the time and pleasure they have given us.

Recently I've been really into Justice, especially Cece and Gigi, so-called Autofister. Cece has been obsessing with me. I love Ame-lia and Ceci-lia now (I just found the sound similarity interesting. And I understand now well why many Amesame fans are also obsessed with Autofister. I am one of them, I guess). Their vibes kinda remind me of Amesame, and they have grown bigger and bigger in me. It has already been half a year since their debut. They always give me a fun and pleasure. Even though Ame is gone, I still love hololive. On the contrary, I get more and more absorbed in them. I'm looking forward to spend time with them also next year. I hope they keep going, and stay healthy and happy at the same time.

Conclusion

This year has been an unforgettable one. Even though my oshi is no longer there, I swear that I hold everything she has given me dear. This article is written, as I have said, to organize my feeling and thoughts on her. Now I can move forward further in the coming year, 2025. Once again, I hope that a bright future awaits her and hololive English.

Thank you for your time, readers! I also hope you guys have a good hololive life and wish you a happy new year.

taka