Previously on Nightmare Expo:
The man they once knew as a friend, and a revered instructor, was nothing more than a sick and twisted monster.
And now, tonight:
[ low, eerie music ]
On occasion, there will be strange YouTube channels that come to light that are a little... off..
This, unfortunately, doesn't often happen
due to the sheer, unfathomable number of channels out there.
I haven't had one unnerve me lately as much as what we're about to discuss.
I'd advise you to buckle down because this channel is part of a larger rabbit hole that seems to go pretty deep.
The channel name, translated from Japanese, is called "wow".
They seem to post disturbing content that, surprisingly, has a considerable following.
The channel has amassed nearly 20,000 subscribers,
and on each one of their videos commenters respond with what seems like complete nonsense.
Tonight I'm joined by our friend, Elder's Vault, to dive into this strange internet oddity.
Before we proceed further, though, I'd like to take a look at some of their content.
Hello, I'm Nugumu the Virtual YouTuber.
I live in Amagasaki. I want to drink human blood. I am right behind you.
[ speaking reversed text in a young girl's voice ]
[ toothbrush scratching ]
Today, I have something I want to ask you. If you don't mind, would you lend me your eyes?
The video topics, when translated, seem to stem from Japanese.
Strangely, after consulting with one of my followers named Regular Gnoll on Twitter,
they claimed that neither they, nor their friend that speaks Japanese could make any sense of most of what they were reading
since it seems to be intermixed with Kanji that's unrecognizable in the Japanese language.
The comments and YouTube page, weirdly, seem to auto translate from Japanese when I use the Google Chrome function
although I'm hesitant to trust it.
The video topics are completely nonsensical, having titles like: "Elementary School Education",
"The number of people in metropolitan area 9", "It's a serious problem",
"huge costumes", "physical attachment" and "smile".
Diving into the comments gets even weirder.
On "Elementary school education", for example,
people are responding saying confusing things like:
One notable one that seems to be a theme in the comments through quite a few of their uploads:
the words "virtual youtuber".
Doing some searches about virtual youtubers led me to an app and a few other channels that exhibit behaviors similar to Wow.
It's a widespread movement to create channels centered around virtual characters that spew
nonsensical dialogue with the sole intent of creating a mass following with a virtual cast.
These virtual youtubers vary vastly in type, and we'll get to that shortly.
On this channel, though, commenters on the video "troubleshooting", for instance,
seem to, strangely, be responding with endearments.
Calling the main characters cute and commending the doll on their clothes... or lack thereof.
One person in particular somehow amassed 70 likes on a peculiar comment, saying this:
Regular Gnoll reached out to me once more after we discovered this.
They said, "Oh, this gets even weirder."
Gnoll then send me a Twitter tag that translates to "Nugumu".
This took me to an endless slew of tweets raving over the character and claiming that he's their favorite virtual youtuber.
Apparently, like we established before, there are numerous accounts that are similar to this
and they all seem to attract quite a fandom.
Nugumu also has a Twitter, and has amassed quite a following over there as well.
With over 7,000 active followers, there,
he seems to tweet messages that are just as cryptic as his videos.
Saying things like "flock to the meat" and "I'm melted".
He seems to post short videos that are just as... if not more disturbing, than his Youtube content.
[ distant distorted voices ]
The thing about Wow that really adds another layer of mystery for me, personally,
is just how large the following is.
Normally when working with these obscure channels, they generally have extremely low view counts.
However, Wow has amassed over twenty thousand subscribers in no time at all.
When Expo and I really started to look into this and listen to the videos,
the first thing that came to my mind was the possibility of coded messages.
Allow me to explain:
Many times, coded messages are sent through out of context words/phrases that mean nothing unless you decipher the code.
What I'm saying is, this channel could be some kind of medium to transmit information.
What that information could be, I honestly have no clue.
The seeming insanity of many of these uploads, along with just the sheer viewcount on many of them,
makes me believe that something deeper could be going on here. Ultimately, that's for you to decide.
Could this just be an art project? A whole new genre of video?
Or could more be going on here than meets the eye?
The creator in their purpose is entirely unclear.
Gnoll did mention that there's another youtuber named "poemcore" that seems to post similar content.
I went to check them out and found that they seem to be promoting some sort of, quote, "major CD release".
Going even deeper than this unraveled a slew of, like we established before,
what people call "virtual youtubers" that seemed to have started quite a huge online craze.
They can either be cute, funny, or in this case absolutely creepy.
They almost remind me of that Instagram account about Miquela and the youtuber Nana825763.
The question I have about Nugumu's fandom though, is... why?
Is the creator trying to harbor the virtual youtuber fandom or is there something deeper here?
With videos like "Smile: and "It is" on the channel, it really seems like there's something more sinister going on here.
[ continuous loud & terribly distorted static ]
[ water running ]
[ soft music ]
Other than that, it's just/only you.
With content as uncanny as this, I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around how people can find the wild channel comforting.
With that being said, the topics that Nugumu discusses are scattered,
leaving us with a strange mishmash of him accompanied by dolls and characters
that appear extremely morbid and talk to us in a highly disturbing manner.
I feel like banging my head against the table here.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I just can't make any sense of the fandom surrounding this specific channel.
If you're able to, I'd love to hear what you can dig up about this uncanny virtual youtuber movement as well.
It's completely fascinated me ever since a Reddit user named "That One Edge Lord" submitted it on my subreddit.
As we said before, eerie YouTube channels and unorthodox fandoms can surface at the most random times.
"Wow" and "poemcore", along with "Nana825763",
are channels that I definitely think have something darker underneath the surface.
With videos like "Smile" and "It is" along with the rest of their content.
I'm really not buying into the idea that this is just an innocent and carefree fandom following a likable character,
because to me, Nugumu and his friends are just not comforting in the slightest.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
To close I'd like to thank all of you for joining me in this investigation of this creepy Japanese channel.
More importantly, thank you for nearly 200,000 subscribers!
My god, did I never think that in a million years I'd have
200,000 people watching my creepy videos. Thank you all so much for the amazing ride this far!
Here's to many more.
Anyway guys go give Elder's some love. I'll see you in the next one. I love you all, and goodnight.