Teruko Hariyama has been in love with her best friend, manga artist Sukoya Oshiga, since forever. The two of them often meet up at a cafe to chat about life, and lately Sukoya's been going on and on about her new "favorite", a tiger-themed Virtual YouTuber named Doujima Taiga. The more Sukoya raves about Taiga's streams and how much she wants to be Taiga's waifu, the more nervous and stressed out Teruko gets.
But it's not because she's jealous.
No, the truth is, Teruko is Doujima Taiga, but she's too much of an embarrassed coward to tell Sukoya the truth.
My Best Friend (Who I Love) Fell Completely in Love with My VTuber Self is a Yuri Genre Web Comic by Shou Hikawa. It is serialized on the author's Pixiv account
. Told in short (3-4 page) chapters, it follows Teruko as she juggles lunch with Sukoya and life as a streamer, while struggling with her secret and whether she should admit the truth — both that she's Doujima Taiga and that she's in love — to Sukoya.
This web comic contains examples of:
- Beehive Barrier: Used in chapter 12 as a metaphor for separating SFW fanart of Taiga from the NSFW smut.
- Busman's Holiday: Discussed in chapter 14. While she's spending time with Sukoya, Teruko finds herself taking pictures of things around her so she has material for her idle chat. Sukoya says she does the same thing, and calls it an occupational disease.
- Cute Little Fang: Like her digital counterpart, Teruko has a little fang that pops out whenever she opens her mouth wide. It furthers the similarities between her and her feline avatar.
- Expository Pronoun: Teruko uses atashi and Taiga uses ore. However, in chapter 17, she gets so worked up when her baby Mon dies she lets slip with an atashi as Taiga, and later when dining with Sukoya she blurts out an ore. For a second, she thinks her cover has been blown, but Sukoya brushes it off as Taiga's speech patterns rubbing off on Teruko.
- Gratuitous English: Invoked. Newbie streamer Draco is introduced speaking English, causing Teruko to wonder if she's a foreigner. Draco isn't; she just does it to sound exotic. When she streams for the first time, she forgets everything and is reduced to spouting, "Disu izu a pen!"
- Hypocritical Humor: Sukoya remarks that as much as she likes Taiga, she wishes she'd get enough sleep and take care of her body. Several arrows point out that Sukoya has bags under her eyes, messy hair, and rough skin — obviously from not getting enough sleep.
- Last-Second Word Swap: In the first chapter, Teruko is on the verge of spilling her secret to Sukoya, but she wimps out at the last second.Teruko: W-Well, uh, that Doujima Taiga ... i-is actually ... somebody I'd like to check out myself~! (I'm too embarrassed to tell her!)
- Memetic Mutation: Invoked in chapter 27, when Teruko is consoling a newbie streamer over her clumsy first stream.Teruko: "Here's something my mangaka friend told me. [...] 'When it comes to manga, readers sometimes get excited over things the author didn't intend. They make countless Photoshopped memes and turn what should be throwaway dialogue into famous catchphrases. But rather than raining on everyone's parade and saying "This wasn't what I intended," smiling and saying "All according to keikaku!" would make everyone happier, right? (Malicious content is a separate matter, of course.) We draw manga so that people can have fun, after all,' is what she said. It's the same with streaming. In my opinion, it's all about bringing joy to people in the end."
- Oblivious to His Own Description: Sukoya is completely oblivious to the fact that Teruko is Taiga, no matter how oddly specific their shared tastes and mutual experiences are. Even when Taiga recommends Sukoya's niche manga to all her viewers and explains it in exacting detail, Sukoya still doesn't get it.
- Oh, Crap!: In chapter 6, when Teruko forgets to turn her voice changer on and everybody hears her natural voice, she looks horrified and covered in sweat with an ominous black background.
- Secret Identity: Teruko moonlights as the VTuber Doujima Taiga, using a tiger-girl avatar and a voice changer to keep her true identity private.
- Splash of Color: The manga is totally monochromatic except for the girls' eyes, which are always colored red and blue. It immediately makes them stand out on the page.
- Tiger Versus Dragon: Taiga has to team up with a dragon-themed VTuber, Draco Kasugano. Off-camera, they have some friction since Draco is extremely high-maintenance whereas Taiga just wants to relax and have fun.
- Two-Person Love Triangle: The last page of chapter 1 has an "easy to follow" relationship chart. It goes from Teruko to Sukoya, and then from Sukoya to Taiga, both labeled "Deep affection". And then finally, there's an equals sign between Taiga and Teruko.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: In chapter 8, Teruko sneezes while streaming and her chat goes wild. She goes tsundere and berates them by asking who'd be stupid enough to enjoy something like that. Then Sukoya's $10 superchat pops up.
- Will They or Won't They?: Will Teruko ever find the courage to tell Sukoya she's the IRL identity of Doujima Taiga — and, by extension, that she's in love with her?
- Work Info Title: The title lays the premise out plainly: it's about a girl with a best friend, who she loves, but who has fallen completely in love with the girl's VTuber self.
- Yuri Genre: It's a yuri love triangle between two women and a digital tiger girl who is the alter ego of the one of the women.
