Where Pulp and Cozy Meet
So, what does adventure fiction have to do with streaming?
From the Warhammer 40,000 fad sweeping through agencies like VShojo and Phase Connect, quite a bit, really. And it’s not uncommon for bookstores like Book*Walker to sponsor Hololive talents to read the latest light novel from Japan.
So it’s not a surprise that small and independent presses like Cirsova would reach out to streamers such as Minna Vanilla to expand their reach. At a time when entire channels are devoted to AI readings of Reddit-posted flash fiction, the combination of a human voice and YouTube makes for a powerful showcase for a story.
From the image above, Minna Vanilla is not an average streamer, but a vTuber, or virtual youtuber. These streamers use cameras and face-tracking to animate an avatar on screen in a form of digital puppetry. Given this medium’s Japanese roots, the characters portrayed are often taken from the fashions and trends of anime, manga, and gaming.
The vibe, however, is different from the suspense-filled radiocasts of the pulps of yore. In her reading stream, Minna Vanilla offers readings of Jim Breyfogle’s “The Battlefield of Kerres” and Misha Burnett’s “Small World” with a cozy, fireside bedtime story feel. The reading is live, so there’s a degree of scuff present. The vtuber charm is sincerity plus a growing professionalism, not the slickness of Audible. And no Audible performance will have the author stop by in chat to talk with the audience and the performer, like Misha Burnett did while listening to Minna’s performance of his “Small World”.
Minna is planning on a second reading stream soon, after the newest volume of Cirsova is released. In the meantime, click on the image above and check out Minna Vanilla’s recording to see where pulp and cozy cross paths.