During Thanksgiving weekend, a controversy broke out in ENVTubing around Zentreya, one of the world’s most popular VTubers. Once a top talent at VShojo, Zen has inspired many VTubers to follow their dreams and build a name for themselves in the English-language industry. Though some have had second thoughts about the VTuber, after Zentreya’s latest Live2D model sparked a rather complicated culture war flashpoint.

On Nov. 26th, the ex-VShojo VTuber unveiled her General Zentreya outfit, featuring Zen in a commanding military uniform. Think Chainsaw Man’s Makima in charge of the new world order. Sleek black leather is key to Zen’s new look, complete with a dress uniform that rides just a touch too short. Black and white gloves give an air of elegant power, a velvet hand over an iron fist, though a dragon skull with horns and wings hangs on her white fur — a memento mori of fantastical proportions. High heel boots end red at the sole while a shiny black harness wraps around her breasts, cleavage rather exposed. Black and red are the outfit’s dominant colors, only challenged by bits of white, most noticeably the aforementioned fur draped around Zen's shoulders. To draw the look together, Zen sports an officer's cap with the very same dragon-skull-and-wings design mentioned above.

The vibe is clear: Zen is in her military dictator era, she has thrown off the old to ring in the new. Or to quote Susan Sontag, "The color is black, the material is leather, the seduction is beauty, the justification is honesty, the aim is ecstasy, the fantasy is death."

Why mention Sontag’s famous work “Fascinating Fascism,” which discusses the erotics of Nazism amid the rise of Nazi chic in sadomasochism? Take a look at Zen’s outfit, and you’ll see for yourself.

Sontag would have a field day with that fit, no? So began this Thanksgiving’s weekend controversy, which resulted in accusations that Zentreya was sporting a Nazi outfit to signal a far-right political affiliation to viewers. This allegation clearly and visibly upset Zentreya mid-stream, causing her to lambast “woke ideology.”

While Zen did later condemn Nazism, she soon appeared in the mentions of several other VTubers, arguing with them about her outfit’s aesthetics and intentions. Sadly, her behavior with these VTubers was argumentative and unprofessional, even toward those that looked up to her and supported her. I’ll refrain from linking out to these discussions to protect the VTubers that Zentreya publicly replied to, as many faced significant and extreme harassment from third parties after Zen appeared in their mentions.

The aesthetics of General Zentreya could receive an entire article, although I believe her new outfit has already been discussed thoroughly. I hosted a stream on Monday explaining Nazi chic, its emergence in BDSM, how Zen’s new outfit is a return to form from her pre-VShojo days, and the trickle down nature of Nazi chic into leather and popular culture. If you wish to learn more about the aesthetics of Nazi chic and how it influenced Zen’s look, I recommend reading Ravine Lux’s thread on the matter.

Personally, I believe that Zentreya’s outfit is not a dog whistle, nor was it ever intended to be one. General Zentreya draws directly from Zen’s early VRChat days, where she once led the Anti-Lewd Army in VRChat antics (the ALA itself receives a shout out in her model debut). In my eyes, Zen’s 2025 outfit is simply a reset. Same Zen, revamped outfit.

Additionally, I do have qualms about individuals overreacting to the outfit without reputable evidence. Allegations of Nazi dog whistling alleged against military-themed VTubers can damage their capacity to perform kayfabe, creating unfounded suspicion at best, life-ruining reputational damage at worst. I’m cautious against writing off Zentreya’s outfit just because it is in dialogue with Nazi chic. Otherwise, many manga, anime, and video game series would be deemed Nazi-endorsing for characters wearing similar outfits. Many kink, leather, and femdom aesthetics could be dismissed as politically Nazi, harming the creative expression of sex workers and adult content creators. Context is important in understanding one’s fashion decisions, and Zen’s seems more in line with a pop culture and anime tradition than a political one.

Yet much as I am sympathetic to the reason Zentreya went with the neo-ALA design, I cannot entirely dismiss her critics. Nazi chic has faded from many subcultures due to the modern rise of neo-Nazism. Zen certainly failed to comprehend the political climate in VTubing, the heightened temperature in the room around Nazi content creators over the past eight years — and her role as a de facto diplomat for the ENVTubing industry.

A role Zen may be oblivious to. Until Zen stepped away from social media on Dec. 3rd, she seemed to be actively looking for conversations about her outfit, culminating in heated and unprofessional statements made toward other VTubers. Right-wing VTuber fans quickly took her side, harassing the targets of her ire, all while right-wing VTubers came out of the woodwork to reach out to Zentreya and defend her. In one case, an actual bona fide Nazi VTuber gave Zen her support. Their goal seemed to be to hugbox Zen, recruiting her into the culture war by giving her a sympathetic ear.

That said, it’s likely these aims won’t be met. Many popular VTubers expressed support for Zen, chalking up the past week’s controversy to clout chasing. This likely dashed cold water on the siren’s call of the grift. While I was writing this article, Zen also addressed the controversy in more detail, stressing the issue "has been pushed too far” and that she does not “condone doxing or harassment.”

“I am sorry for the distress I caused emotionally to so many of you and the trouble this [caused] for others outside,” Zen wrote. “I have already made a statement days ago after my heated moment, that is for you to find, I can give you only so much before I have nothing left to give and I hope you see that what I have always presented to you all, all these years, was who I am.”

I understand Zen’s request, and it’s another reason why I believe her outfit does not deserve any further discussion. However, there is one missing piece of the Zentreya controversy that warrants further exploration: How this past week fits within the larger political confines of ENVTubing, and how it reflects on a very turbulent past year for the industry.

For folks begging their oshis to leave Twitter, don’t hold your breath. Most of ENVTubing’s top talent reside on Twitter, showing no inclination to leave. Artists, modelers, and riggers must therefore call Twitter their social media home base to gain work, and smaller streamers are incentivized to use Twitter to network with the rest of the industry.

Despite all of Twitter’s problems, the platform does still gives users an extremely accessible way to communicate with their ENVTubing colleagues and oshis. Directly contacting other VTubers via replies, QRTs, and DMs has started many great partnerships. Being seen by your oshi when you go viral can kick off a chain of events that ends in a collab. Or for the more parasocially inclined, liking or retweeting your favorite VTuber’s posts can be a personally meaningful activity. Twitter is important to ENVTubing because it is so easy for you or I or anyone else to contact someone like Ironmouse, Shylily, or CottontailVA (even though they might not reply).

VTubers and VTuber fans have chosen Twitter as their home, and in the process, they’ve become frogs boiling in a pot. As Elon’s website continues to devolve into political skirmishes, the ENVTubing industry has grown accustom to the platform’s knack for drama. The rise of the newstuber (and its slop sister, the dramatuber) is a reflection of that, as most VTubing controversy inevitably points back to Twitter in some shape or form. In this way, Twitter isn’t just important for industry connections or networking with your oshi. It also becomes a conduit for voyeurism. And everyone is a little guilty of taking a peek.

Unfortunately, this tendency to watch and consume drama has grown out of control, and it’s created a cancerous element in ENVTubing that threatens to further damage the industry’s health.

Parasocial relationships are core to monetized VTubing. A creator streams, and they receive love and support from an enormous group of viewers, all with their own unique one-way relationship with the streamer. Over time, parasocial adoration becomes monetary aid, with income via Super Chats, subs, bits, and Throne gifts. Careers are built this way, new models are funded this way.

Parasociality can be healthy with boundaries and limits. Mature and ethical streamers cultivate a space where viewers can be safely enamored with their oshi, all without feeling pressured to financially support the streamer — nor find themselves caught up in unrealistic expectations for romantic entanglement. Constant community curation is key, as VTubers must remove individuals who lack the maturity to understand kayfabe.

Parasociality isn’t just something that happens between a streamer and their audience. It also leaks into many ENVTubing discussion forums. People are curious about the lives and long-term ambitions of VTubers. They analyze them, study them. Speculate about them. Some create theories about what VTubers are up to behind the scenes, while others theorize about who gets along with whom. The “rrat” is a powerful tool that adds a touch of conspiratorial thinking into VTubing. It underscores how VTubing is not just about cute girls doing cute things, it is also about discussing, analyzing, and watching the cute girls, on and off the stage. Part of the fun of VTubing is treating VTubers like ARGs, entities to figure out and understand. This, too, is a kind of parasocial behavior.

We often frame parasocial behavior as a relationship based on positive asymmetrical attention from an unknown viewer to a known creator. But the opposite is also true. Parasocial behavior can be based on asymmetrical negative attention. For example, a cohort of right-wing VTubers and VTuber fans enjoy following my Twitter and Bluesky to provide commentary about my posts. Many wish to interact with me via QRTs or blocks. Some make the jump to Bluesky to comment on my posts. Publicly and privately, they get together to analyze me and create rrats about me. You could consider this my shadow fanbase. Like those that enjoy my work, these individuals are interested in watching me, interacting with me, and maybe extracting attention out of me. Though the motivations are different, it’s still a one-way relationship. The only difference is that there are no boundaries, no limits, and no comprehension of kayfabe. It is a fundamentally unhealthy parasociality.

Negative parasociality is core to the grifter class, or a group of individuals who exist to earn money and influence in a community by appealing to superficial (and often reactionary) political sentiments. Like parasites, they feed off the space for personal benefit. Negative parasociality benefits these users the same way a “Shylily fan account” might benefit a Shrimpie engaging in positive parasociality: Influence, reach, the ability to sell something, or the thrill of potentially interacting with the subject of one’s parasocial focus.

While a “Shylily fan account” run by a mature and emotionally stable individual can encourage warmth and comradery among Shrimpies, negative parasociality is a hostile and violating behavior. Yet acknowledging the grifter-bigot phenomenon in ENVTubing, and requesting the behavior to be addressed in some shape or form, is seen as blaming the larger industry for a few bad apples in a very big tent. And so feigned ignorance becomes the main tactic to deal with negative parasociality. In this way, the negatively parasocial grifter is allowed to network with other negatively parasocial individuals within the tent. It is this creator class, the grifter, that is the true shadow force beyond the Zentreya controversy, pushing and prodding the issue further and further into culture war territory.

The grifter content creator class has an enormous presence on Twitter, motivated to secure income through Twitter’s monetization structure. Culture war issues receive the most reach, as right-wing political content is boosted algorithmically by Twitter. A nine-month study by Sky News revealed its politically neutral Twitter accounts “saw twice as much right-wing content as left-wing content,” whereas "left-wing users saw almost the same amount of left-wing and right-wing content, even though they only followed left-wing accounts.” Posts from politically neutral accounts were rarely seen, making up only 6% of content. Nearly 75% of the extremist material seen by the study’s dummy users came from "right-leaning accounts."

“Barely any of the political content shown to our X users was non-partisan,” Sky News notes.

Right-wing content is core to Twitter’s ecosystem. This introduces significant problems for ENVTubing, an industry that remains reliant on Twitter for announcement and reach. The grifting VTweeter must wade into every VTuber controversy to gain influence, relevancy, and money. They are incentivized by the platform to prolong drama and induce conflict. The grifters who accomplish this via culture war drama, they are a feature, not a bug. Data from 2023 suggests the Twitter algorithm heavily rewards individuals who encourage discussion and lengthy engagement on a topic, two goals accomplished by leaning into culture war flashpoints. As long as people choose to stay on Twitter, they will play into a system where ne’er-do-wells are rewarded for causing harm to random creators, so long as they are creating content that supports right-wing political rhetoric in the process.

Algorithmically, right-wing grifters are encouraged to exasperate all controversy that happens in the space to expand their influence and monetary rewards. They are encouraged to identify targets for negative parasocial engagement, feeding off a specific creator or topic that arouses their audience. This turns into a feast when an actual bona fide political controversy hits the space, giving grifters room to churn out right-wing talking points that will perform well algorithmically. For example, grifters may obsessively stalk VTubers who criticized Zen, or falsely claim certain VTubers called Zen a Nazi, two ways this group prolonged the Zentreya outfit controversy for influence and monetary benefit.

Zentreya’s outfit controversy was always political in nature. A small group of VTuber fans took umbrage with her outfit’s design, misreading her intentions. A cool and down-to-Earth response likely would have ended the drama within a day. Unfortunately, the moment Zen mentioned the words “woke ideology,” she pushed the issue from a mild misunderstanding to an overt political conflict. By her own hand, she forced the controversy directly into the political grifting framework that has taken over Elon’s Twitter. I highly doubt this was her intention, but to paraphrase Fallout: New Vegas: The game was rigged from the start.

As Zen panicked and responded to her fellow creators in an emotional state, her comments toward other VTubers threw further fuel onto the fire. Grifters had more material to work with. They raised the temperature in the room, targeting certain “anti-Zen” VTubers, creating a feedback loop for right-wing grifters to gain more followers, more views, and more income. This caused more people to get involved and comment on the controversy. A VTuber would weigh in with their take, only for Zen to unexpectedly respond, starting the whole loop over again. This created a runaway effect, with only one way to solve the issue: Zentreya stepping away. Which, thankfully, she did.

The grifting ecosystem is a cancer on the ENVTubing industry. It manufactures drama, controversy, toxicity, and extremist content that negatively impacts all content creators in the space. It exasperates controversy until it breaks containment, exposing VTubing’s worst political controversies to outsiders. Outsiders who run businesses working with VTubers. Outsiders who run businesses considering working with VTubers. Outsiders who organize conventions in the gaming and anime sphere. Outsiders who develop video games, report on internet culture, or wonder whether to cast VTubers as voice actors in their projects

This year alone, outsiders have seen a lot. Sinder, Kirsche, VShojo, Sinder Pt. II, the Nazi VTuber group, all in the past seven months. Increasingly, ENVTubing’s controversies are seen as reflections of the VTubing medium and industry, not the individuals involved. Yet instead of reckoning with this issue, the ENVTubing industry seems to tolerate the presence of right-wing grifters operating within the industry, without any steps to encourage an end to harassment and extremist rhetoric from this negatively parasocial group.

This, in my eyes, has initiated a spiral. Incidents like the Zentreya outfit controversy will become more common, with grifters raising the temperature in the room, further upsetting and alienating VTubers and VTuber fans looking to escape right-wing culture war toxicity. If left unaddressed, the larger independent ENVTubing industry will suffer as more choose to walk away. As will the businesses. And the money. Until maybe it’s just the grifters left. And then maybe nothing at all.

We all make our choices. And those choices, they put us on a road. Sometimes those choices seem small, but they put you on the road. You think about getting off. But eventually, you're back on it.