Anycolor, the company behind VTuber group Nijisanji, announced on October 22 that it has reached a settlement with a person who’d carried out “extremely malicious” online harassment against its VTuber Haru Kaida. What’s interesting about the settlement is one of the conditions put forward by Anycolor – the company requested to conduct and make public a written interview with the perpetrator. The contents of the interview, laying bare the harasser’s approval-seeking psychology and subsequent remorse, have drawn a lot of attention from the Japanese public.
This case dates to 2024, when Anycolor first launched civil and criminal suits against an individual who engaged in trolling, tag spamming, and threats of physical harm directed mainly at Kaida and other Nijisanji streamers. The individual was then referred to the prosecution on suspicion of obstructing business, and later fined by the court.
As revealed in the post-settlement interview, the perpetrator was a woman in her late twenties. She admits to repeatedly spamming comments during YouTube streams by Kaida and other VTubers, impersonating Kaida by using his official artwork without permission, spreading grotesque images and videos using popular hashtags associated with Kaida, and sending threats of harm directed at Nijisanji’s in-person events.
“I one-sidedly tried to close the gap between me and my favorite streamer,” she says when prompted about her motives. “Behind this was a strong desire for approval and daily stress, which left me in a mentally unstable state. I now deeply regret it. If I had seen a psychiatrist or stopped watching the streams at that time, I would never have gotten into such a problem.”
Even though she was aware that her actions were harmful and punishable by law, the woman says “mental instability caused by the stress of everyday life” clouded her judgement. “Seeing Mr. Haru Kaida, other streamers and viewers confused and upset, I harbored despicable feelings, and I now recognize them as such. More specifically, I felt a mixture of twisted emotions: amusement, and an abnormal craving for validation from the streamers reacting to me.”
After facing legal consequences, she describes feeling “overwhelmed by panic and regret at having caused trouble for my family. Once she learned that a police report had been filed against her, she recalled being gripped by anxiety as she waited for police to turn up at her house, spending days browsing legal information websites.
Anycolor says that by publishing the interview, they hope to “raise awareness about the inner motivations and psychological states of the subject, as well as their past experiences and circumstances, which led them to engage in harassment, and the consequences of such behavior.” The move is meant to contribute towards eradicating online abuse, which the company describes as a “major social issue.”
