Usada Pekora

About

Usada Pekora (Japanese: 兎田ぺこら)is a virtual YouTuber affiliated with HoloLive. She is known for hosting gaming streams and other videos on YouTube. Her character is an anime styled anthropomorphized rabbit, wearing a stylized bunny suit. She was designed by Yuuki Hagure.^[1]

Online History

Pekora was first revealed on July 7th, 2019 during a Hololive karaoke event along with other third-generation Hololive Virtual YouTubers, and later from Hololive via Twitter and a PR TIMES release.^[2][3] Her debut stream occurred on July 17th, 2019 and recieved over 170,000 views before its removal in early 2020. As of August 2020 she has over 550,000 YouTube subscribers, and her Twitter profile has over 326,000 followers.^[4] Many of Pekora's early streams have been hidden on YouTube, and can only be viewed through an archive. ^[5]

Reception

Pekora frequently appears in the streams of other HoloLive members and is often seen attempting to prank or harass her fellow hosts. She has earned a reputation for being mischievous and easily riled up, which earns fan reactions and often draws comparisons between Pekora and cartoon villains. She has profiles on Bilibili, ^[6] Pixiv Encyclopedia,^[7] and Moegirl Encyclopedia.^[8] Her fandom is called the "League of the Hare Alliance" (Japanese: 野うさぎ同盟).

Related Memes

Laugh Arrows/AH↓HA↑HA↑/PE↗KO↘

Laugh Arrows refers to Pekora's peculiar cadence when laughing, which fans often mock for its rapid change in pitch. This is reflected in fan YTPs and translated stream clips in which Pekora's laughter is annotated with arrows (annotated as AH↓HA↑HA↑, or sometimes HA↑HA↓HA↑HA↓), to the point where fans associate her with arrow shapes in general. Pekora is aware of her odd laugh, and will sometimes laugh using her own name (PE↗KO↘PE↗KO↘, or sometimes PEKO↗PEKO↗) for comedic effect.

Video Remixes

Due to her off-beat personality and willingness to shout in frustration during streams, clips of Pekora are often remixed into YTPs, musical covers, used in parody edits, or included in soundboards.

Minecraft Content

Pekora frequently streams Let's Plays of Minecraft, and is both highly competitive and will actively seek to harass other HoloLive members in-game, much to her fans' amusement. On June 27th, 2020 Pekora attempted a speedrun of Minecraft, in which she refused to close the stream until she had completed the game. Fans quickly noted that her attempt at a fast clear had taken over 12 hours, and resulted in multiple player deaths for Pekora.^[9]

Game of Pretend (So As A Joke) Copypasta

The Game of Pretend or So As A Joke copypasta^[10] (as referenced by Encyclopedia Dramatica) has gotten a Pekora iteration^[11] that took the HoloLive and Pekora fandom by storm. It's a NSFW exploitable text that has two best friends end up in homoerotic shenanigans after one of them playfully cosplayed as Pekora.

References to the copypasta can also be found all over YouTube, Twitter,^[12] iFunny,^[13] and Urban Dictionary. ^[14] The concept and pasta originated from the infamous 4chan image board and somehow made its way to the HoloLive fandom.

Relationship with Sakura Miko

Sakura Miko is a HoloLive member and personal friend of Pekora. They frequently stream together and produce collaboration content, often with Miko as the subject of Pekora's pranks and mischeif. Fans often point out their comedy duo dynamic and ability to get along, and they are often drawn together. Fan shipping is also popular between Pekora and Miko, and fans often imply that Pekora acts like a tsundere towards Miko, and her harassment is intended to be affectionate.

Fan Art

Search Interest

External References