Takanashi Kiara opens up on Hololive fans “recognizing” her during Korea trip

Hololive EN star Takanashi Kiara has just finished her whirlwind tour of South Korea to celebrate the ANIPLUS collab. However, while touring the sights of Seoul, and the Hololive branded cafe, she was also noticed by fans ⁠— and she was thankful for their reactions.

For some VTubers, getting recognized in public is totally fine ⁠— especially if they’re comfortable showing their face. For others, it’s a total nightmare. Some only have their avatars and do not want people getting pictures of their fleshy form.

Hololive’s members often fall into the latter, and it gets complicated once fans attach their favorite VTuber to their real person. The stars try hard to keep this separate, and most fans are respectful in the wishes of their favorite content creator.

Takanashi Kiara had many such run-ins during her time in South Korea. As she explored the sights as part of a promotion with ANIPLUS, which saw the anime giant’s stores in the nation transform into a Hololive fan zone, some fans did get a look at the phoenix herself.

One Superchatter admitted as much in one of Kiara’s streams once she returned home: “Actually I saw Kiara at Gyeongbokgung Palace [in Seoul], but I pretended not to know. I didn’t want to ruin the date. I was holding a spear.”

The star was taken aback by the comment, initially thinking the chatter was just joking. “No way! You’re saying that you were one of the guards? You’re joking. You’re kidding right?”

However, she kept the conversation going, saying there were many times during the trip where she suspected fans knew who she was. She didn’t have any horror stories to share though, with the community being mostly respectful of their beloved phoenix.

“I’m not going to lie, there were some ‘recognition moments’ during my trip. Not many, but there were some,” she continued. 

“I don’t believe you but even if it was you, you were doing your job and you definitely wouldn’t have been able to just go ‘ah Takanashi Kiara, I’m your fan, please can I have your signature’. You’re supposed to guard the palace, right, so I believe that!”

This isn’t new ground for the star. She has previously spoken about it numerous times about how paranoid she is about getting noticed in public, especially while she lived in Japan.

“I’m kind of paranoid, but it makes sense to be paranoid because in Japan Hololive is very popular,” she said in February 2021. “I sometimes feel like people are mainly looking at me because maybe they think they know who I am.”

So while fans might recognize their favorite VTubers in public ⁠— or at least think they do ⁠— there’s a universal message everyone can agree with: Let them enjoy their privacy.