Based on the official theme music for Kōri and her lore. 

I always wanted to sing a lore type song. My main reason for getting into VTubing is because of the character creation and being able to portray a persona. 

Kōri’s lore is something I truly enjoy talking and writing about. It’s pretty cliche, but I added some twists to her character to keep it interesting. 

A memelord of a teen gets isekai’d into an ice princess’ body. The strange world of Zhylan.

If you don’t know what an isekai story is, it is about a character getting transported into a foreign environment. Ironically, I don’t think I’ve watched an isekai anime. I’ve never liked the harem type shows which is what isekai anime tend to be. I believe that an isekai is actually pretty sad and isolating. While I understand isekai anime sometimes dives into such topics, I wanted the loneliness of being in an alien world to be the focus of Kōri’s character. 

Kōri would never admit it aloud, but she deeply misses Earth, which is why she began VTubing in the first place. To hold onto what once was. 

The pressure of being a princess who will one day become a queen is also an aspect that adds to this isolating theme. Being a royal figure in a kingdom comes with its pains. There is plenty of pressure on her shoulders to answer her people’s needs while a war ensues outside of the kingdom walls. 

Kōri still doesn't understand the language, and for whatever reason, still tries to act like an elegant ice princess in front of the castle staff. Perhaps she fears getting ostracized from her peers, so to protect herself, she portrays what she believes an ice princess would do. 

“Intro” is obviously a good introduction to Kōri as a character and- more importantly- as an artist. The album is all over the place, each song vastly separate from each other, while also maintaining a single theme through all the songs. 

Ultimately, while some songs on Interstellar Ice are serious, “Intro” provides a tone that’s both intense and fun. The songs touch on strong emotions, but my goal is to express myself through Kōri’s character and just enjoy the grooves. 

While I hope everyone can enjoy a few songs, I also understand this album is not going to be for everyone, let alone my style. I don’t want one set genre, I don’t want a linear project. I do want a character with many layers and emotions, with ideas that can’t be simply put in a single song. 

Music is not my focus, which may seem strange to some. My focus is my character, Kōri. 

I hope my passion for Kōri-Oujo reaches you, whether it be on stream or on this album!

Loud, eccentric, cute with a little bit of spice. An EDM “kawaii” beat classic. 

To be honest, I really wanted to write a “uwu” kind of song. It’s the kind of sound you usually hear in anime and VTubing communities. Ironically-or maybe unironically- I struggled with this song the most. 

I knew I wanted the imagery of thicc thighs but I didn’t want to write a sexy lewd song either. Writing saucy lyrics isn’t something I want to do with Kōji’s…I mean…Kōri’s character. 

No, my main goal was to include this thicc thigh line but maintain an energetic song that didn’t take itself too seriously. After an event on stream where there was a debate about body types, I wanted to begin this song as one that accepted all shapes and sizes. I realized that focusing on the thicc thigh line would potentially exempt people who were slim and struggled to gain a healthy weight, something I resonated with. 

At the end of the day, I think the term “thicc” is relative to the person too. I have small hands. Thicc could be thin to others. Really this thicc thigh line is about thighs being attractive in general.

Surface level meanings aside, there’s also another serious layer to this song. 

In my opinion, the Vtubing community puts a lot of pressure on “being lewd” sometimes. I’ve heard some say that you can’t be a successful VTuber unless you are lewd. 

For example, when I was reaching out to clipping channels, I had gotten ghosted by them. Some had said they’d take a look at my clips and never got back to me. When I looked through all of their videos, almost all of their clips were sexual or out of context moments that seemed lewd. 

The fact that some people actually believe that male, female, or any gender in between-must flaunt sexual content to be successful is…disappointing to say the least. There are chatters who come onto people’s streams asking for lewd content, expecting the streamer to provide for them. 

This led me to write the “I can be any -dere that you want” lines. I feel as if chatters have pre-set expectations for streamers and want you to perform for what kind of entertainment they want. I felt like saying, hey, I can be all of these things, but this isn’t who I am. 

Some people in the community make me feel like I have to be all these things in order to be successful. I think Isekai is a cute, indirect way to talk about these problems. In the end, I hope this song encourages people to love themselves and to make content they are happy about. 

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of Isekai, watch this video. 

To summarize, Post-Debut is about my experiences after my debut month. 

When a VTuber debuts, usually their viewer numbers are super inflated. After the first few weeks, streamers will see their viewer count and overall engagement decline. It’s extremely disheartening and it’s easy to believe that they themselves are the problem.

What am I doing wrong? Where have you, all of my supporters, gone? Questions without an answer…

The first part of the song symbolizes the melancholy, distant feeling I experienced when I saw my numbers go down. I kept thinking it was my fault, that I needed to try harder or change something to bring in more people. 

On top of it all, since I did have a decent start and numbers for a new VTuber, I received a lot of hate and DMs with questionable motives. People who I thought would be my friends or support me started turning against me or showing their true colors. 

I felt extremely isolated and anxious. Sometimes I still feel that way. Sometimes it still keeps me up at night. Sometimes I wonder what will happen if I just stop doing all this VTuber business. 

The second part of Post-Debut is a (super epic) beat switch. This is when I stopped caring as much and started to grow confidence in myself to speak up. 

My rap has a lot of memes in it, but it also presents the major shift that I had personally as I decided to just HAVE FUN! I’ll cut off the people I need to, recognize their bad behaviors, and protect myself for the future. More importantly, I’ll make sure to never treat others the way they treated me. 

In this part of Post-Debut, I’m angry sure- but I’m free. 

I hope all that did me dirty are chillin’ over in their corners, but I’ll be over here. 

Finally found the groove of my content and what makes me happy. I still have my off-days, but overall, Post-Debut presents the drastic changes that I have experienced since I debuted. 

I am so grateful for it all-growing as a VTuber, entertainer, and most importantly, growing as a human being. 

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of Post-Debut, watch this video. 

I want to preface this by saying this isn’t putting hate on people who use the “lurk” command. I mainly wanted to be cute.

The general rule (which I respect on my stream as well) is “Don’t call out lurkers.” 

If you aren’t familiar with what “lurk” means on streams, it’s basically a viewer saying “Hey, I’m still here, but I’m busy with other stuff so I’m turning the stream down and I won’t be participating in the stream.” 

I thought it would be fun to name the song !lurk because streamers aren’t supposed to call them out, but this rap is about calling out the people who were praying or !lurk-ing on my downfall. 

Throughout my VTubing experience, I have received numerous hate messages. I was accustomed to that. However, I was completely blown away by the amount of fellow VTubers messaging me things that were obviously meant to trip me up and say something I shouldn’t. Or, they would send DMs that were so clearly full of envy and hate-while also trying to be my friend in hopes to collab. 

It got to the point where I had to close DMs. It helped my mental health immensely. 

Since then, these individuals have been pretty quiet. But I can tell they’re still here. Thus, they are similar to how they are !lurk command works on stream. 

As usual, Kōri’s crackhead raccoon nature really comes through with the energy and lyrics of the song. There was also that one time the Rai stole a delivery of shaved ice, maybe she’s still angry about that…

Overall, I just want people to know that these types of people exist. A lot of times, entertainers put on a mask for their audience. Afterwards, when their masks come off, they aren’t always so kind and sweet. 

Please be careful and please continue to think before you type!

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of !lurk, watch this video. 

I’ve had a lot of fellow VTubers blatantly express their hate or envy to me. Yet another negative set of interactions I have encountered includes others in the community having set expectations for me. 

There are countless examples of how viewers come onto a stream with set expectations of how they want to be entertained. Maybe those expectations are based on past experiences or the streamer’s appearance/model. Sometimes, viewers expect entertainers to act the same off screen as they are on screen. 

However, with the other streamers in this space, a similar phenomenon occurs. People will see numbers and immediately make an assumption about the entertainer. For example, some see small numbers and decide that’s an easy target. For others, they see big numbers and immediately assume the VTuber is untouchable. 

The amount of cruel jealousy that I have experienced is directly connected to the lyrics of Fairytale Arc. A lot of my fellow VTubers seemed to believe I had it all, I was so successful and never struggling. 

Similar to how Kōri as a character is living an isekai, which is what a lot of people in the anime community enjoy watching-some even wishing to get isekai’ed- but she hates it. Being in another world, in an unfamiliar body, is extremely isolating and confusing. She can’t communicate with the people that are there, misses her family…the only thing that connects her to what she longs for is a computer screen. 

While I am thankful for the “explosive” start I had in VTubing, it was really rough, because I was experiencing both overwhelming support AND hate. Many seem to disregard the amount of work and effort that goes into VTubing and streaming in general. I had many sarcastic “You’re really making it, huh? Congrats” messages. It made me frustrated to see this type of tone in people because they wouldn’t consider that I was struggling, just like them, or that I was putting every minute of the day into VTubing efforts in order to set myself up for “success”. 

I truly respect anyone who decides to start streaming or VTubing. It can be extremely overwhelming. If you are currently streaming or doing a similar activity, please don’t downplay the hard work that you do; and most importantly, don’t let others disregard your honest efforts as well.

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of Fairytale Arc, watch this video.  

My first song! The main reason why I included LOL in the album is because it marked a huge beginning for my VTubing career: Music. 

I love that you can hear how BAD (lol) the quality of LOL is. I mean, it’s not the worst for sure, but you can really hear the improvement from my first song to my current album. 

So far, I feel like that’s what really my VTubing experience has been. Improvement. Constantly pushing and dreaming of more, trying to find ways to do that, but also remembering where I started. You could say that “I just leveled up”. 

LOL as a song is super fun and filled with memes, a great way to make Kōri’s crackhead raccoon personality shine. 

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of LOL, watch this video. 

Arguably the most personal song on the album. 

For those who don’t know, the first Confessions in the Snow was my attempt at a cute anime-esk love song.  

Blatantly said, I don’t like it. Aside from the overall bad production quality of the song, it also represents a time in my VTubing career where I hated myself and what I was doing. Confessions in the Snow was meant to appeal to the VTubing community specifically, with the anime opening type beat and light Japanese lyrics. 

What Confessions in the Snow pt. II reveals is how the first Confessions correlates to the idea of trying to change personality or content to appeal to an audience. 

The first Confessions symbolizes my attempt at switching content to better fit what I believed viewers would want. This was a time that I’m grateful for, but definitely never want to go back to again. It was awful for my mental health-trying to be something I’m not- and it didn’t feel like something I was proud of. 

Confessions in the Snow pt. II is indeed a confession. The first Confession wasn’t me. This second Confession? This is me. 

This is me in my rawest form, extremely emotional and doubtful of myself. Getting scared to stream, to create content, but ultimately I am always trying to grow.

This song is really for the people who have consistently supported me and continue to follow this wild ride that is Kōri-Oujo.

Thank you. I’ll keep working hard! 

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of Confessions in the Snow pt. 2, watch this video. 

Surprisingly, I thought this song was awful when I first started writing it. It’s not the usual type of song I go for. There were a lot of strange spots in the song where I wasn’t sure how to fill them. 

As I was working with the beat, I felt emotions like rage, desire, and just an overall “insane” feel. The music was telling me to scream, to go back and forth between singing and melodic rap, and ultimately to tell a terrifying story of a rising queen. 

Queens are usually associated with elegance, beauty, and maybe a little bit of sass. 

But I wanted to describe an aspect of royalty that isn’t usually talked about. The more evil, corrupt side where hopes become obsession. 

To do everything for her people. To bring victory to her kingdom. To represent all that reside in her land. 

It’s a lot of pressure that’s on her shoulders. Something that is changing her from the inside out, the power of the crown consuming her. 

The theme of this song also relates to my experience VTubing. As I mentioned in previous songs, there can be plenty of pressure to entertain all who come to the stream. I constantly felt the need to change my personality and content to better fit a bigger audience, to the point where I was losing a part of myself. 

Going back and forth between trying to please the new and old viewers, trying to defend my current content, trying to confront the haters…it’s very easy to go insane in the dungeons of VTubing. 

Which is exactly what happens to the queen in Throne. 

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of Throne, watch this video. 

The castle stands alone. Far from the bustling streets of the city, where the town square eagerly prepares for a new festival. 

The princess wants to join, but she does not belong there. 

In fact, her soul doesn’t belong in this body, in this world called Zhylan. 

Frozen shards of glass grow along the windowsills as a gray sky looms over the castle. Snowflakes perform a ballet of melancholy through the open courtyard. 

Kōri-Oujo, the ice princess, dares to look out of the balcony. She hears a distant cheer and jolly chant of festival songs, watching her people bring out food, stages to perform on, and their families. 

Slowly the dark clouds part, a rare occurrence in this region of Zhylan. The warm sunlight flows into the town square, lighting up the city below. 

The princess watches coldly, in her gloomy castle, knowing that light would always be out of her reach. 

With the lore out of the way, I wanted to mention that I wrote this song during possibly the worst period of time in my VTubing career so far. I felt extremely isolated and anxious. I was a foreigner in my own world. I related this with Kōri’s isekai situation in Zhylan and created this beautiful song. 

I didn’t realize how much Kōri and I share. I mean, I know she’s a character I created, but I love being able to expand on her persona. Interstellar Ice is a collection of my experiences through the lens of Kōri’s character. I loved having this new way to express myself and I sincerely thank my community for supporting me on this journey. I hope my stories told through these songs shed some light on the person behind Kōri-Oujo. 

More importantly, I hope others who have been in similar situations know they are not alone. Please continue to chase your dreams, set yourself up for success, and be true to yourself. 

To get the full line-by-line breakdown of Castle, watch this video. 

Thank you for listening to Interstellar Ice!