Secret Nico Nico Douga: Meeting Arimura Yuu san and three of his junior fellows

Arimura-san is new. He is new in many respects. He is new on Nico Nico Bu, the community of Nico Nico Douga bloggers on Hatena. His popular blog, which existed before he entered Nico Noco Bu, provides a new take on anime: Faster, and more political. He is interested in anime for the Nico Nico Douga generation (most other Nico Nico Bu bloggers are more focused on the Idolmaster genre). His views on copyright are outspoken and clear, and he does not shy away from making statements that can make you unpopular: When recently a Korean singer uploaded a video on Nico Nico Douga, some Nico Chuu flamed this video. When later a Taiwanese singer did the same, the video was warmly welcomed. Arimura-san is the kind of person, who would question this publically. Such questions can take guts on the Japanese Internet.

I meet Arimura-san on a Saturday night, one week after we first have met. He brings with him three distinguished members of an anime society of a prominent Japanese university. All of us – Carpenter-san, Takashiro-san, Arimura-san, the three male students and me, take a stroll around Ikebukuro, and visit the ground floor of a shop, that displays items for female Otakus, especially ‘Boys Love’-Mangas, -Music-CDs and –Animes. Most of you will know, that the ‘Boys Love’ genre is about love stories between (mostly androgynous) boys. Famously, ‘Boys Love’ is mostly bought by girls, though it also has a following from straight boys, and one of the students outs himself as such a fan.

Many of the ‘Boys Love’-Mangas in the shop are fan-produced. You can find all sorts of levels of explicitly. Some of them are pretty hardcore, lots of detailed images of anal sex and so on, though always with a miniscule little black bar, which points more to the genitals than covering them. My fellow visitors stress that even the hardcore versions of ‘Boys Love’ are not read as pornography, but for the romantic content. The sex scenes are there to heighten the drama, not to stimulate. Sex serves the story, which is, of course, the other way round in comparable genres in the West.

Our next step is a Cosplay Café that specialises in role play: We enter a fictional school, where the waitresses in costumes pretend that they are students in a lower grade, while we are sitting underneath a large screen that plays videos of German and Italian landscapes and monuments (the Rhine valley …). I mention Cosplay and ‘Boys Love’ on this blog in more detail, because I guess that Nico Chuu bring me to such places (this was not the only time) to explain to me that Otaku culture is part of the background of the culture of the Nico Chuu. Though Nico Chuu and Otaku are not the same (Nico Chuu are in a way less radical), you will not understand Nico Nico Douga, if you do not have some knowledge about the Otaku culture. This research project cannot get deeper into this. This is also not really necessary, because Otaku, Manga, ‘Boys love’ and Cosplay cultures have been extensively researched in the recent years.

Instead, I want to talk here about some of the new things that I learned from Arimura-san. Actually I want to concentrate on one topic, because Arimura-san was the first blogger to write about it: The secret practices of illegal uploaders on Nico Nico Douga. To write “write about it” underestimates Arimura-san’s contribution: He has researched this new practice on Nico Nico Douga. To understand it, you have to know that Niwango, the company behind Nico Nico Douga, has recently decided to automatically delete most TV content, including all full anime episodes – only anime openings and fragments in ’Mad movies’ are still allowed. This is a change of policy: Before, Niwango only deleted on request. Arimura-san’s research is about the Nico Nico Douga underground that emerged after this change in policy.

When a video is deleted, Niwango often puts up instead a video of Foo-san, trying to play his flute. The videos are put up to amuse and calm the anger of the Nico Chuu. There is now a mini-series of Foo-san videos. The video above collects different ones.

So this is how it works: Anime fans still upload full anime episodes, often late at night. They label it differently, so that Niwango does not recognise them as anime episodes. Often they also insert an intro with other content, which again allows you to hide the content. However, anime fans would be able to find these episodes (I prefer not to write, how they find them exactly, but they tell me that it is possible). They search for these episodes early in the morning, before they are deleted. The next step is especially smart: As soon as they have found an anime episode, they open a window and keep it open. The video stays in the cache memory, as long as the browser window is open. As the video server and the comment server are separate systems on Nico Nico Douga, comments still get updated, if they replay the video (they only have to keep the browser window open). This way, anime aficionados can still watch anime episodes with comments.

So why do they do that? Arimura-san gives three reasons. The first one is probably the most important one: For the Nico Chuu, TV without comments looks dull, empty and alone. So Nico Chuu, who are at the same time Anime-fans are in trouble. They can watch anime only on TV or DVD. The practice described above solves their problem. The second reason has to do with the Japanese TV landscape: Many popular anime are only broadcasted in local stations. The fans get their newest episode often only some days or even a week, after it is broadcasted at another station: Too late to take part in the lively Internet debates, most prominently on 2channel. So these people have to get their episodes earlier, and Nico Nico Douga is the privileged platform, though increasingly, Chinese video sharing site, which delete hardly anything, become the solution of choice. The third reason: Nico Chuu have a high emotional affiliation to Nico Nico Douga, and they just want to watch content on this particular platform. Hmm.. so they are illegally uploading content, because they love Nico Nico Douga so much. Another one of these interesting Nico Nico Douga contradictions.

I am asking Arimura-san and the three students, whether there might be a fourth reason for this: Is it protest, an expression of anger against the rights holders? The response I get is ambivalent, and fatalism seems to be the main attitude: There is nothing you can do against this in Japan. Yes, it makes them angry, but anger does not help. And it is not Niwango’s fault anyway. Then there is another element: It seems as if the additional fun that you get out of this underground practice almost equals the annoyance. When a video gets deleted, other users, who have not yet found the video before, will start to use the comment function to voice their disappointment about deletion, while the real aficionados have the video still in their browser cache, and can watch it, while they read the frustrated comments of the ones who are not in the know. Another interesting effect: These conversations almost merge into real time chat: You would find comments like “Oh, have to go to work now” on these videos, because the users enjoy them at one particular moment. This is another sign that semi-synchronous watching in smaller groups bears fun. As does the underground on Nico Nico Douga.

Nico Politics in a Cosplay Cafe: A conversation with Midouoka-san

Midouoka-san is a much debated figure on the Japanese Internet. He has gained his fame on 2channel. Though 2channel is usually a place for anonymous posting, Midouoka-san became a known figure (don’t ask me, how he did that). He says he likes to get into heated debates, and if you do so, you are bound to make not only friends. There is even a sub community on Mixi, which was originally set up to "watch" his online activities. However, after the original leader of this group quit, Midouoka-san himself took over this position. So: Midouoka-san is subversive. He is also one of the persons that have melted with their laptops. While we talk, he constantly plays videos or looks up content, especially on “Nicopedia” - the user-generated Nico Nico Douga dictionary that is only 2 weeks old, but already has thousands of entries.

I met him as a generous, helpful and nice guy, and we spend a pleasant evening in Ikebukuro. Our evening starts with a stroll around “Otome Road” in the Tokyo district Ikebukuro. Our next stop is a Cosplay Café. Waiters and waitresses in such Cosplay Cafés not only dress up in anime inspired costumes. More importantly, they talk to the Otaku-guests. Otakus are known to be shy. The waitresses and waiters make conversation about their favourite topics, listen to their obsessions, and have the background knowledge for detailed conversations, mostly about Mangas, games, characters and Anime series. There are many different styles of Cosplay Cafés: In some of them waitresses dress up in anime costumes, in others boys dress up as ‘butlers’. Since last year, Cosplay Cafés with boys in maid costumes became highly popular.

Cosplay costumes on sale on Otome road

The particular Cosplay Café that Midouoka-san brings me to, is hidden away on the fifth floor, and it has not more then 10 places to sit. Every once in a while one of the Otaku-costumers sings an anime opening song. The waitress in maid costume sometimes takes part in our conversation, as it is her job to do so. The walls are full of signatures of famous writers, drawers and other Otaku heroes. Midouoka-san explains that in this bar you often find legends of Tokyo’s Otaku world. In this environment we start to talk about the legal side of Nico Nico Douga. Midouoka-san has a background in media law, and I learn from him that the copyright holders could delete almost all content on Nico Nico Douga, if they decide to do so.

In the early days of Nico Nico Douga you could find a lot of full anime episodes, but nowadays these episodes are deleted quickly after they are uploaded. But it does not stop here. Japanese Copyright is very strict when it comes to the manipulation of copyrighted characters. This means: Not only full anime episodes, but also all re-edited content is not safe, no matter how short and how modified it is (in fact, the more modified it is, the more vulnerable). All re-edited content is constantly under the sword of possible deletion, though it is normally not deleted, as the rights holders do not ask for deletion. This becomes important information for the further research. Midouoka-san describes Nico Nico Douga as a giant experiment that pushes the limits of copyright, but it is at the same time still fully under control of the copyright holders.

In our conversation we discuss, whether this situation is best analysed in the theoretical frameworks that have been developed recently to understand the relationship of copyright and immaterial and affective labour. The usual argument would go like this (in a simplified form): A brand, a character or any other cultural artefact is produced in parts by the creative labour of the professional producers, but also, just as importantly, by the affective labour of the fans. These producers (the creatives and the fans) are the true owners of the content, because they together have done the immaterial work to create it, and not the content owners. However, the labour of the fan is neither paid for, nor has he any rights. Indeed, the fan has to often pay for the possibility to provide his affective labour.

From this perspective, Nico Nico Douga has an interesting double character: On the one hand it can be seen as an instrument to extend the affective labour of the fans, who now not only watch and love, but also comment, co-create and co-develop the content – in that way Nico Nico Douga is somewhat similar to Web 2.0 application in the West, albeit more effective. On the other hand Nico Nico Douga is a subversive experiment, which undermines, stretches and questions copyright. The usual Web 2.0 platforms in the West do this to a much lesser degree. Nico Nico Douga has more of this other side not only because Japanese copyright law is tighter, but also because the forms of content are more complex. This is another reason, why Nico Nico Douga is so much more interesting.

Midouoka-san says that in a way he shares this perspective, though he normally would not think about Nico Nico Douga in this way (and I myself would also add that this is only one way of looking at Nico Nico Douga, and one that is probably a pretty Western perspective). It is important to keep in mind that Niwango, the company behind Nico Nico Douga, does not profit from Nico Nico Douga. In opposite, it is burning quite a substantial amount of money. It is more the traditional content owners themselves, who might profit from the extended affective labour of the fans. At the same time they are threatened by it. Niwango is in a peculiar position in the middle of this constellation, and it will be exciting to see the further moves of Niwango in the next year.

We also talk about the politics on Nico Nico Douga in a more direct way: Videos with open political content. Even though Nico Nico Douga is mainly a place for entertainment, there are also corners where you can find such political videos. There is hardly any political censorship, if it is not illegal under Japanese law, or mistreats images of the Tenno (a favourite pastime on the Japanese internet). Japan would not be Japan, if the question of Japanese war crimes in China would not be one of the mayor topics here. But you can also find videos of politicians and politic mavericks, the most famous one of these is Toyama Kouichi. At some point soon I have to find more about this.

While we are talking about this, we are not anymore sitting in a Cosplay café (in a Cosplay Café you pay your drinks by the hour…), but in a Western style café. It is in this atmosphere, where Midouoka-san tells me that after all this politics we should not forget that Nico Nico Douga is mostly a place to relax. He sees Nico Nico Douga as a part of a triangle of three platforms: Mixi and 2channel are the other corners of it. On 2channel you discuss and sometimes have a good fight. On Mixi you network and write about yourself. Nico Nico Douga is the place where you find relief from all that. And this is exactly his own practice. After a long session on Mixi and 2channel he goes to Nico Nico Douga and enjoy the positive, affirmative and anonymous Kuuki with the other Nico Chuu. An experience of peace, even for an Internet-samurai like Midouoka-san.

Meanwhile on the West Coast – Nico-ish platforms in the West

Oregon-based tech blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick has just posted an introduction into Nico Nico Douga on ReadWriteWeb. The article compares Nico Nico Douga favorably to Youtube Annotations, which allows uploaders to add comments to their own videos. Youtube annotations is at its beta stage. Comments can include links. Basically, it is a kind of Nico Script (which allows uploaders to add links) without Nico Nico Douga (which allows all users to comment, among many other new interactive features).

He also compares Nico Nico Douga to http://viddler.com, where all users can add comments in little popup windows directly on the videos, together with their user ID. Marshall Kirkpatrick argues that Nico Nico Douga achieves, what Viddler does not: Comments are “an integral part of the user experience” and “not intrusive”. For me it becomes even clearer, how important the absence of user IDs in the comments is: Comments with IDs disturb the viewing experience - they ad too many personalities and too little group. What remains to be found out is, whether this is a problem of the interface, or of the Western mind in general.

Talking about comments... Just as useful as the post itself are the comments that Marshall Kirkpatrick’s post has received. Here you can find further services: Some of them are still online (http://omnisio.com), some if them are now deceased (http://mojiti.com/), some of them are designed for collaboration of work teams http://protonotes.com/).

Nigel Pegg suggests an application that allows you to synchronise video watching in small groups, which then interact with each other. So this is not live broadcast, but user-controlled sychronisation of streamed video. The idea is still at prototype stage. It is a bit like an automated version of the shared video watching practices in the early 90ties on Japan’s Nifty (see the last post on Hikawa-san). We heard in our focus groups here in Japan, that some users combine a hand-made synchronous start of Nico videos with Skype. Users already make the effort. So the combination of user-controlled sychronisation and streamed comments (or other forms of communication) might indeed be a smart idea.

Life and death on Nico Nico Douga – a conversation with Hikawa Ryusuke san

Hikawa-san is probably the most prominent Anime critic of Japan. You can find his articles in prominent magazines, he has written several books and you can also see him often on TV. His writing is known for having a high analytical depth: He is not ‘only’ a critic, but also an anime film theorist of sorts. Another thing that makes Hikawa-san so special is, how he became prominent: In the early 90ties he started to post comments about Anime series on BBS services like Nifty. His comments were of such high quality that he became a professional Anime critic. In the early 90ties this was an unusual career path.

Hikawa-san, Japan’s most prominent anime critic, and a Nico Nico pioneer.

We meet Hikawa-san in a café near to where he lives. He is a gentle man in his late 40ties, and immediately, our conversation enters fascinating territory. Hikawa-san tells us how in the early day of the BBS Nifty, around 15 years ago, anime became soon a topic. Hikawa-san was at that time a communication engineer. Most of the users at that time were engineers, because access to computers was pretty rare, and Nifty was a difficult system to handle. Some of the anime fans on Nifty had the idea to not only chat about anime in the form of threads, but also to develop live chats, just as you can find it now on Nico Nico Douga.

This is how they would do it: Someone would suggest an anime series and episode. Everyone would then record the series from TV on VHS (in Japan, anime are only on TV in the afternoon or very late at night). On one of the following days, all fans would play this recording on their VHS-recorder at exactly the same moment. This way they synchronised viewing. Parallel to this they went on Nifty, so they could comment and share the viewing experience, just like nowadays on Nico Nico Douga.

Unlike today, users were not anonymous, but known by their online ID, so the conversation was much more polite. Normally, a group of no more than 10 participants would share this form of amusement. There was no way to block comments, so it was important to keep such circles small. Otherwise you can find striking parallels: Even 15 years ago, Kuuki was the central concept: The idea of a joint affirmative affect that develops during co-watching. The users were also already using abbreviations for laughing and applauding. Who would have thought, that Nico Nico Douga already existed in a miniscule form in the days of VHS and Nifty?

But we did not only want to interview Hikawa-san as a first hand witness of these early days. I was also curious about his ideas, why anime content is so prominent on Nico Nico Douga. Here, Hikawa-san came up with a fascinating idea. For him, anime are about life and death. Moving and engaging characters emerge out of simple still images. The still images are dead. Affect on the one hand, movement on the other, brings them to live. But even though they are now alive, one part of you still knows that they are dead: Just a collection of non-moving drawings. So there is on the one hand a movement from death to life, on the other hand the incorporation of death in life. This constellation stimulates fans to repeat this: As there is always the memory of death, they want to re-create this movement towards life. They want to create as well. Comic Market has always answered this desire of the fans, and now Nico Nico Douga has found a new answer on a new level. Smart, ey?

Nico Nico Douga might come into the game just right in time. The Japanese animation industry is in heavy decline. It was always chronically under-funded, and lots of animators live in poverty. However, in the recent years, this situation has worsened. Many Japanese animation studios are now on the brink of collapse. So Nico Nico Douga might also be another form of emergence of life: It might provide a new level of animation. Hikawa-san is sceptical, as he would not ascribe the same artistic credits to mad movies on Nico Nico Douga as he would to the great masterpieces of Japanese animation (and btw, I share this attitude). He adds that animation is made in a collective labour process, whereas mad movies are still done by single persons, as much collectivity as Nico Nico Douga offers. But at least it is a start, and we do not know yet, how the content will develop in this new environment of collective emergence. Hikawa-san watches Nico Nico Douga. That in itself is a sign of hope.

AcFun.cn - The red star has arrived in Mainland China

It was only a matter of time until the idea of Nico Nico Douga would be taken up in Mainland China. Now, a website seems to do exactly this:

AcFun.cn takes up speed

You can access the website directly without becoming a member. As you can see, it is still early days. It is a very basic version of Nico Nico Douga. Interestingly enough, most videos seem to be taken from Nico Nico Douga as well. Here is one example, that blew my mind this morning (the video is not embedded, but you can just follow the link):

http://www.acfun.cn/html/zmad/20080602/1983.html

The whole video is taken from Nico Nico Douga. So let's look at its background: The melody is taken from an opening song of a popular Japanese anime. The female singer of this opening song made a promotional music video, and the images you can see are taken from this promotional video (including all the red kitsch). However, the voice is different. In the original version the voice was female (the voice by the girl you can see on the video). What we can hear here is a male voice singing the same melody with lyrics with gay content.

This voice was created on Nico Nico Douga. It's lyrics are gay, because it is mainly used for Abe dance videos. So the voice and the lyrics was created for videos, where a group of three gay avatars dance in a camp way to the same melody. Someone must have taken this voice and the new lyrics, and added it to the original video. Now the original singer sings the original melody, but with a fake male voice and gay lyrics.

This then in turns has been downloaded in China, and then uploaded again on the Chinese AcFun, the new Nico Nico Douga rip-off in Mainland China. A red star produced in Japan, combined with a pretty girl singing with a male voice gay lyrics to a pseudo-Russian melody ... This might indeed gain a whole new meaning in China. I would love to be able to read the Chinese comments on the video!

Chanting Jokes: A conversation with Anehime-san

“Lucky Star” is an anime series produced by Kyoto Animation. Some say that it was the first major anime series, which was produced deliberately for the Nico-Nico-Douga-age: Lots of dancing, for example, and its lyrics are fast, and therefore well-suited for mis-hearing them. Lucky Star is good material for the creation of Mad movies, and for sure, Lucky Star is highly popular among Nico Chuu. So it is no surprise that Anehime-san suggests for our meeting the train station of Kasukabe, one hour by train from central Tokyo.

Kasukabe train station

The train station might look like any old suburbian Japanese train station to you, but it is the station, where one scene of the intro of Lucky Star was filmed. “Filmed”??? What am I talking about?? Of course the train station was only the model for the animation. Japan is getting me!

Anehime-san posing as a character out of Lucky Star

Anehime-san is in her early 30ties and has a background in engineering. As you can see, her fashion taste is “Gothic Lolita”. I met her in one of our focus groups. I was keen to talk to her again, because she described in this discussion, how tagging can become a passion. She also has taken part in the production of a video in a particular subgenre: These videos re-enact a music video by a DJ, which was originally a CGI animation, in real life. Trademark of these videos is the funny style of walking, and a plot where one “leader” attracts many followers (I am tempted to read this as an ironic comment on kuuki, though this is probably a mis-reading).

Anehime-san is the bride in this video

In the interview we did not manage to talk neither about tagging nor about this video. Instead, we talked about uploading, which turned out to be even more interesting. Anehime-san has only recently started to upload videos (the first one on 11.4.08, to be precise). She describes in detail the processes and decisions that came with it. Before I write more about this, it might be necessary to add an explanation for Non-Nico-Chuu: Most Nico Chuu, even most deep Nico Chuu, do not upload. They watch and comment and tag. Uploaders are a minority, and an even smaller minority are actual creators (who make the videos themselves).

At the time of our interview (about 2 weeks ago), Anehime-san had uploaded two videos. The first video is a promotion music video of a band that was popular in the 80ties: Anehime-san uploaded this video, because she was annoyed that it got deleted on Nico Nico Douga. So this music video was on Nico Nico Douga before, but someone, probably the copyright holder, had asked to remove it. At the same time you could still find it on Japanese Youtube, which Anehime-san found strange. She first downloaded the video from Youtube. As a next step she started to experiment with uploading. Interestingly, she did that on Youtube, and not on Nico Nico Douga. She used Youtube as a practice ground. She uploaded one of the famous Donald videos of Nico Nico Douga on Youtube. As soon as she had found out how it works, she uploaded the TM-Network video of Youtube on Nico Nico Douga, which was the real purpose. Since then, she has done this with 6 more videos.

Nico Nico Douga allows the uploaders to place some additional comments in a privileged box above the video. This means: This special uploader comments appear in a separate box, which is situated just above the video, and not, like the normal comments, on top of the video (in the embedded videos on this blog you can not see this box for additional uploader comments. You would have to go to the Nico Nico Douga portal to see this). We talked through her own uploader comments in this box. Each of her remarks have complicated coded meanings. At this place I want to only mention her third comment: “Darenidatte ‘keshitai kako’ttemonoga arunodesuyo”, which might be translated as“Everyone has a past, which one wants to be deleted”. For Anehime-san, this was a hidden message to the singer on this video, who, she guessed, might have asked Nico Nico Douga to delete the video, because he might be to vain to accept this video of him in a past fashion style. At the same time this comment is also a hidden joke about late 80ies and early 90ties fashion and dance styles in general, as well as former music taste of her generation.

"The prince of baggy green shirt"

After she uploaded the video, she started to write first comments on it. She did so to set the first corner stones of the kuuki. At the same time she wrote on her Mixi-blog about the fact that had uploaded the video. By now, the video has gained more then 400 comments, which is a good result for a first-time uploader. Ever since she has uploaded the video, she checks this video about twice a day. She appreciates new comments, and checks how the kuuki develops. She is especially pleased that there is a small but noticeable Danmaku developing on “her” video. This Danmaku you can find on minute 4.02 in the video. Users started to comment the green shirt of the singer with “Midori no darudaru ouji”, which could be translated as “Prince of baggy green shirt” (and in fact, you can see an English comment on this video – this was, as you can guess, me, who tried to catch the kuuki and at the same time send a hidden message to Anehime-san. Anehime-san got this message, and comments on this on her uploader box).

The comment “prince of baggy green shirt” relates to “Tennis no ouji sama“ (=”Prince of tennis”) - a popular Manga that was made into a musical, and became popular material for re-edited mad videos on Nico Nico Douga. This is a typical Nico joke. You change one comment slightly into another one, and the resulting multiple meanings and references constitute the joke. The joke itself becomes really funny, when many people make it at the same time. And this is exactly what happens here: A joke-Danmaku is a Danmaku where everyone writes the same joke to make it funnier. It is a bit like laughing together, though more elaborated: Almost as if you chant jokes as a group.

But back to uploading: For me it was important to learn that uploaders often care about the videos they upload. They feel responsible for them and re-watch them regularly. They are in a way a hub in the otherwise totally open communication structure, and they use their uploader box for this. This confirms the hypothesis of Kishino-san that Nico Nico Douga actually takes up the communication structure of the Comic Market (and not so much of 2 channel, as it is often said) – see the older post about this. On top of this, Anehime also has taken a comment and used it as a tag. This is another one of these really important findings in this research: Tags are sometimes born as comments. When they become popular, users or uploaders transfer them into tags. As tags they can spread to other videos and thus generate a new sub-genre. Both tags and comments spread over the videos. This constellation is one important breeding ground for tags.

A final headlight of this interview: Anehime-san used to talk about Nico videos at her former workplace. Most of her colleagues were engineers like herself, thus most of them were Nico Chuu. Many of them had different tastes on Nico Nico Douga: Some of them would be into game videos, other in more erotic content. However, one thing unified them all: They all first checked the daily ranking, This way they would always have some videos in common, which they could discuss on the next day at work. An on-demand video site that has a broadcast video presence: See the post on Koizuka-san on how this is archieved from the programmer perspective.

Nico Nico Douga on US Wired, and live "on air"

It is a good feeling to be as an Academic research project up speed with Wired (US edition) ...

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-06/mf_hiroyuki?currentPage=1

The article focuses in large parts on Hiroyuki, and gives a useful introduction into 2channel as well as Nico Nico Douga in English. However, I am not sure about the Wired-ish idea to call Nico Nico Douga "the beginning of the Japan's web 2.0 boom" - I tend to agree with the Nico Chuu, who see themselves far beyond this.

While I am writing this, there is a (rare) live broadcast on Nico Nico Douga - Hiroyuki, Koizuka-san, Sugimoto-san and some other key figures of Nico Nico Douga are reflecting on Nico Nico Douga "live on air", and make lots of jokes, while users comment on the screen, and ask them to do the "Ran Ran Ruu". Feels like Nico Nico Douga on speed.