Overidea member Kyouka has been accused of sexually harassing and abusing his former partner, as well as deceiving fans and potential investors. The abuse allegations were made public by Bingtang, another popular Chinese VTuber, with Kyouka responding shortly after.
Kyouka was one of the most popular VTubers on Chinese streaming site Bilibili with the multi-lingual star acting as the face of Overidea.
He has had some crossovers in the English VTuber space, collaborating with NIJISANJI EN stars like Vox Akuma and getting shoutouts from Fulgur Ovid.
However, his career has been put in jeopardy after a series of allegations from former partner ‘Bingtang’, with the VTuber alleging numerous instances of abuse, sexual harassment, and more in a near 90-minute video.
The video, named “three years of me and scum”, goes through Kyouka and Bingtang’s relationship and the allegedly manipulative behavior. While the two got to know each other by being popular creators in the space, they started growing closer in 2020 and early 2021.
This included late-night calls, one in which Kyouka sent Bingtang a risque photo without consent: “One day in early 2021 I was on a bedtime phone call with you as usual, and you suddenly said ‘my balls are huge, do you want to see it?’ Then you sent me a photo of you in your underwear,” she said according to a translation.
Kyouka would apparently refuse to make their relationship public in an attempt to help foster a new audience of “girlfriend fans” who would pine over him. Bingtang didn’t want it to be a secret, and being the bigger creator of the two, also helped Kyouka with business activities like networking, setting up Chinese accounts since he is a foreigner, and also loaning him money.
However, the relationship started unraveling in the middle of 2021 after Kyouka took claim for a project the two worked on jointly, while also starting to cultivate a female fanbase and outwardly admitting he was single on stream.
This led to Bingtang being harassed by said fans for clinging onto the VTuber and trying to use him for impressions and growth.
“I thought you would admit our relationship, but you did quite the opposite,” she said. “You said you were single and reprimanding your girlfriend fans for being too sensitive and not trusting you. While you said you were single on stream, afterwards you would say ‘I love you my wife’. I felt angry.”
One of Bingtang’s friends warned her about Kyouka’s behavior, having previously been in a relationship with the Overidea VTuber.
“Deep down I still felt like something was wrong. I went to a friend who said ‘Kyouka is such a person, he will sacrifice others for his own interests. Do not be deceived by him.’”
Later on, Kyouka admitted to soliciting sex workers, which is illegal in China. He would then message Bingtang with intimate details of the meetings. However, she later backtracked on that story, saying he “made it up to piss [Bingtang] off.”
“From that day on I have a complete mental breakdown,” she said. “I couldn’t control my emotions.”
Kyouka approached a number of female VTubers who posted vulnerable messages on social media, before chatting to them “very deeply, very privately, sometimes in voice calls, sometimes by sending photos to you and revealing personal information.”
The VTuber would reportedly use this personal information to doxx the women and slander them behind closed doors.
“You saved all the screenshots of those chats, spreading them everywhere. You were very happy when I felt jealous. These screenshots included addresses, schools, workplaces, and company secrets.”
His alleged manipulation extended beyond Bingtang and his fandom, though. As NIJISANJI EN was getting popular in China, Kyouka hatched a “plan” to try and ride on their coattails. He later collaborated with some of these members.
“He started mentioning NIJISANJI EN in broadcasts intentionally or unintentionally, including watching their streams live on broadcast. This would lead to fans making clips and spreading it.
“This would get their attention and make them interested, and part of the plan was to slowly reduce the number of times he’d talk about NIJISANJI, even going to say ‘don’t mention irrelevant people’, making their fans your exclusive fans, and repeating this over and over again.”
After Bingtang was guilted into sending Kyouka more than $14,000 USD as a birthday present — which was then refunded — fan infighting in Kyouka’s space got so severe one viewer reportedly attempted suicide.
The VTuber did not make an effort to control the rumors, Bingtang said, and claimed Kyouka even encouraged her to leverage her male fans in the same way, which made her uncomfortable.
“When your popularity increased leading up to your birthday, people would see me as associated with you. They would attack me, saying I was stealing your work, writing vicious things about my family, and sending me death threats.
“I sent him a message asking him to manage his fans, and he got angry before deleting all contact with me. I cried and apologized over and over again hoping we could be reunited.”
However at the end of it all, Bingtang decided to be done with it and release this video recounting her three years with the VTuber: “These 3 years of my early 20s, the best years of my youth, were given to a scumbag. I told him ‘I am not ashamed of falling in love with you, I’m only sorry to be deceived by you.’
“He cannot sing. He cannot dance. His Chinese is not very good. He considers VTubing a very easy money-making side hustle. I feel sorry for his fans for liking such a scumbag. They’re all victims of being deceived, just like me.”
Kyouka then held a one-hour apology stream on Bilibili, which peaked at more than 35,000 viewers. But, viewers were generally not buying the streamer’s explanations, donating money to highlight chat messages attacking him. Bingtang also refuted all claims and defenses made.
Overidea’s popularity in China has also taken a significant hit as fans distance themselves from the VTuber’s actions. Numerous fan groups have since shut down, while Overidea’s Bilibili page is now marked as “controversial”. Bingtang’s account was also targeted following her expose, and the video taken down. It has since been reuploaded on YouTube.
Kyouka and Overidea’s Twitter and other social media channels are still active at the time of publishing. Other VTubers mentioned, such as those who collaborated with Kyouka, are also yet to make statements.
(Via)
