Style combination · Pairs well

Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay × VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

On Bilibili and Niconico, viewers' bullet comments fly across the stream over the avatar. Leave the top lanes clear of the character's face and title, so the crowd's comments and the avatar share the screen without hiding it.

From the research on VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Mix them and make something Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics, their arrangement from Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay, the finish from Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Type from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics: Hand-lettering
Type as image
Colour from Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay: Fluorescent & neon
Monochrome

VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics avoids monochrome: this is where the two pull against each other.
Form from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics: Stylised figuration
Restrained accents
Composition from Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay: Layered information
Repetition & rhythm
Surface from Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay: Hard offset shadow
Flat

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

Yay!

Mochiy Pop One; VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics used Heavy, simple bold lettering for thumbnails and A custom name logo drawn for each character

Text · Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay

The bullet-comment layer of Japanese and Chinese video sites, begun on Niconico in December 2006 and taken up by AcFun and Bilibili in 2008–2009. Viewers' one-line comments fly across the playing video from right to left, or sit centred at the top or bottom, each timed to the moment it answers. By default every line is the same white, black-outlined sans at one size; commands add saturated RGB colours and sizes, and viewers set opacity and speed. At climaxes identical lines pile into a 'bullet curtain' over the picture: anonymous crowd writing laid over someone else's image.

Zen Kaku Gothic New; Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay used Arial for Latin letters and digits, then MS PGothic (ＭＳＰゴシック) for Japanese, at weight 600 and The 'gothic' and 'mincho' font commands of Niconico's later player

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay, with a counter-accent from VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics

#ffffff ground · 36%
#000000 ink · 14%
#ff0000 accent · 18%
#ffd84d accent · 14%
#00ffff accent · 10%
#5bc8f5 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #000000;
  --accent-1: #ff0000;
  --accent-2: #ffd84d;
  --accent-3: #00ffff;
  --accent-4: #5bc8f5;
  --font-display: "Mochiy Pop One", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Kaku Gothic New", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay: Danmaku is moving text that starts on its own, runs longer than five seconds and sits on top of other content, so any design that uses it needs a way to pause, hide or thin it (WCAG 2.2.2, which is why platforms build an off switch) and must keep it clear of faces and captions. Real comments are other people's words over footage someone else owns: write your own lines rather than lifting screenshots, and do not fake an audience's enthusiasm in advertising. A live comment layer can also be used to pile abuse on people, and in mainland China the China Netcasting Services Association's rules for short-video platforms of 9 January 2019 require danmaku to be reviewed before it is shown, so moderate any live use.

VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics: VTuber characters are owned designs, by agencies or by the performers who commissioned them, and early contracts often gave the character's rights to the company, so performers who left had to start again as someone new: draw an original persona rather than a look-alike of Kizuna AI, Hololive or Nijisanji characters, and credit the illustrator ('mama') and the rigger ('papa'). The performer's anonymity is part of the form, so never attach a real person's face, name or photograph to an avatar or speculate about who is 'inside'. Do not default to a sexualised cute-girl type: scholars argue that avatar idols perpetuate female stereotypes and that the virtual idol industry commercialises sexism (Lu et al., CHI 2021).

The two styles

2006–present · East Asia Danmaku Bullet-Comment Overlay The bullet-comment layer of Japanese and Chinese video sites, begun on Niconico in December 2006 and taken up by AcFun and Bilibili in 2008–2009. Viewers' one-line comments fly across the playing video from right to left, or sit centred at the top or bottom, each timed to the moment it answers. By default every line is the same white, black-outlined sans at one size; commands add saturated RGB colours and sizes, and viewers set opacity and speed. At climaxes identical lines pile into a 'bullet curtain' over the picture: anonymous crowd writing laid over someone else's image. 2016–present · East Asia, Global / networked VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics The graphic kit of virtual YouTubers, streamers who perform behind an animated anime-style character instead of their own face. An illustrator (the 'mama') designs a persona whose costume and colours tell its story and draws it in separable layers; a rigger turns it into a Live2D or 3D model that blinks, turns and lip-syncs with the performer's tracked face. On stream the half-length figure sits over game footage or a themed backdrop among chat and alert panels, framed by a name logo, overlays and thumbnails in its colours.