Like many people, Takashi has been swept up by the wave of Vtuber (“virtual YouTuber”) personalities and he’s a fan of Kizuke Yai. With virtual avatar and voice changing software available to anyone who wants to vtube, people always joke that the cute, young girl Vtubers are all actually middle-aged men but Takashi is convinced that Yai isn’t one of them.
This conviction lasts until he stumbles on his dad streaming as Yai.
Apparently being a Vtuber pays well — so well that Takashi’s dad quit his office job months ago to be a virtual idol full time, and now Takashi is in on the secret as well and will possibly never recover from the shock.
My Dad’s the Queen of All Vtubers?! has a funny premise but it’s aggressively clear from the first few pages that this is a comedy at the expense of the characters and that you should be laughing at them the entire time. If I was in Takashi’s shoes I’d also be mortified at the idea of any of my parents gallivanting online as a teenaged anime girl, but Queen of All Vtubers wants the readers to be reminded every five pages or so just how embarrassing this is for Takashi, especially with how both of his parents are drawn.
In case Takashi’s life hadn’t been turned upside down enough already, he discovers that in addition to his dad being a mega-popular Vtuber, his mom is also trying to get a Vtuber career off the ground, (correctly) thinks that Yai is a total fake, but Takashi’s mom comes off as so awkward and “unfeminine” on her own streams that the few viewers she has are constantly joking about how she’s actually an old man. There’s definitely some humor to be had with how Yai’s more orchestrated and over-the-top persona comes off as more “authentically” feminine versus how Cry Tekari (Takashi’s mom’s Vtuber persona) consistently comes off as more masculine for being the opposite of that but nah, Queen of All Vtubers isn’t interested in that. This manga just wants to remind you how awkward it is that Yai’s fake panty shots are what’s currently paying the bills.
Heck, Takashi’s dad says that his acting and persona are a part of him and how he feels much more true to himself by being a Vtuber than he ever did as an office drone, which again could bring up some interesting ideas, but nah, Queen of All Vtubers wants you to laugh at how uncomfortable Takashi gets when his dad accidentally does something “girly” in public (and a lot of the things Takashi’s dad are framed as a bit “creepy” as well, and there’s multiple instances where he’s drawn to resemble unflattering memes as well).
An entertaining comedy needs more than one joke but everything Queen of All Vtubers does is a variation on the same joke: you really have no idea who’s behind the avatar. I’d say I’m not sure how this is going to be more than one volume, since it seems like the creator Wataru Akashingo has already milked all of the ideas they had, but I would have said the same after the first chapter! If the series wasn’t so determined to make every character look the fool it would have a lot more gags at its disposal, but I think I laughed more at a section of Akashingo’s afterword more than I did at anything in the actual story!