Popular VTuber Amano Picamy has announced his retirement (opens in new tab), weeks after controversially planning to deliver Hogwarts Legacy.

GYARI, the founder of the company that owns Picamy's two-dimensional portrait rights (like J-Pop idols, some VTubers are strictly controlled by talent agencies (open in new tab)), said in today's stream (open in new tab) (translation by viewer) that her retirement He stated that they had discussed "for a long time" about Pom Rainpuff, another VTuber and friend of Picamy's, said he learned of her retirement plans (opens in new tab) before she went on leave in mid-January, before the release of Hogwarts Legacy.

Despite this confirmation that Picamy wanted to graduate before announcing plans to stream Hogwarts Legacy on February 6, many VTuber fans believe that the harassment she supposedly suffered prompted her decision.

Some see streaming the game as an endorsement of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's long history of transphobic statements (opens in new tab).Girlfriend Reviews and VTuber Streamers like Silvervale have reportedly been harassed for playing the game, and some, like Hasan Piker, have refused to stream it altogether to avoid criticism.

Picamy has deleted all tweets about the game, but screenshots (open in new tab) of them are still available. In the now-deleted tweet (opens in new tab), she wrote: "Playing this game does not mean I endorse anything in particular. I just want to play the game, that's all."

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It is almost impossible to ascertain the severity of the harassment Picamy suffered. Like other streamers allegedly harassed for playing the game, it is not clear if it was organized or part of a wave of reactions on social media and in chat rooms; a search of Twitter suggests fairly mild criticism (open in new tab) and disappointment with her decision Screenshots of the tweets appear, along with some violent outliers, but all have been deleted, so it's hard to know.

Last week, a popular clip appeared on Twitter explaining why VTuber Silver Veil (opens in new tab) would continue streaming Hogwarts Legacy. In it, she stated that she "doesn't condone this author's ideals" and "won't be bullied by Twitter weirdos." Currently, VTuber fans on Twitter (open in new tab) have adopted the term "Twitter freaks" to defend streamers like Silver Veil and PicMe, harassing (open in new tab) others, especially in some cases trans people (open in new tab) open in new tab) and intimidation (open in new tab) of others, especially in some cases trans people (open in new tab).

Picamie has not directly addressed the controversy since the announcement, but said she will continue streaming until her final day on March 31. If that happens, all of her two years of streaming video and VOD will be removed from her YouTube channel.