Haruki is a shut-in who has a hard time talking to people in real life. But online, he's an enigmatic VTuber with over 700k followers! It took five years to grow his fanbase, but he's hit a serious plateau. When he gets a chance to collab with Yuu, a brand-new femboy VTuber, he gets a huge boost in followers--and maybe a friend too?! But when they finally meet IRL, it turns out that the voice behind Yuu is actually an incredibly handsome man! Can Yuu bring out Haruki's true nature and help him be more comfortable in his own skin? Log on for this Boys' Love Vtuber romance!

Let Me See the Real You, Senpai! has story and art by Yuho Okita. Translation by Amber Tamosaitis and lettering by Toppy. Published by Seven Seas (September 2, 2025). Rated M.

Lauren Orsini
Rating:

VTubing is perhaps the horniest strain of online streaming. People already develop parasocial relationships with streamers who use their own faces; put a sweet or sexy cartoon avatar design into the mix and viewers are even more hooked. The fantasy of starting a romantic affair with your favorite streamer is far from new, but the idea of shipping two VTubers together, as seen in Let Me See the Real You, Senpai! is a novel twist on the concept. This romance between a withdrawn VTuber and his outgoing VTuber paramour is a surprisingly complex story about layers of identity, online cancellation, and the process of becoming a person you can live with.

Haruki is a gloomy shut-in who got into VTubing to become the sort of person he wishes he was. His VTuber persona Haruki Yara is a popular DJ who always talks about his exploits out partying and drinking with his “buds” and girlfriends in a surface-level way that would not fool any of his viewers (Haruki doesn't realize that, though). One day, Haruki encounters a video of Yuu, a twin-tailed femboy VTuber gushing about how watching Haruki Yara got him into VTubing in the first place. Desperate to increase his audience, Haruki begins doing collaboration streams with the ever-willing Yuu and learns that Yuu isn't at all like his VTuber persona, either. For one thing, he's a lot more extroverted and butch. Having the femboy avatar be the seme and the more classically male avatar be the uke was a fresh way to mess with the audience's expectations without falling into more well-tread hidden-identity tropes.

Both of these characters are adults in their 20s, but Haruki in particular seems very young—and not just for his petite IRL appearance. Haruki is regularly surprised when people like Yuu are unfazed by his wallflower personality, not seeming to realize that the sunny, outgoing personality of his avatar appeals to fans because they can tell he's trying so hard. I can take or leave his immaturity, but I was impressed with the cancellation subplot. Flirting with getting canceled feels very modern, especially the way the book does not shy away from the eventual fallout. There's a sweet moment when Yuu helps him fall asleep despite everything by counting cats—and it's more tender than any of the book's uncensored sex scenes. (When I say uncensored, I mean it: there's even a waterspots-adjacent kink scene at the end.) It's one thirsty book, but that's the perfect approach for a story about the thirstiest form of streaming to take.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I have to admit that Vtubers really aren't my thing; it feels like an industry built on parasocial relationships, although that may just be my bias. But the way that those forms of relationships are presented in this book, as well as the very real one being built, cuts through my preconceptions, because this story is, at its heart, about someone just trying to find a way to exist and be happy in a world they're terribly uncomfortable in.

Haruki is cripplingly anxious, primarily on the social front, and like so many people coping with that, high school really didn't help. Now twenty-eight, he's making his living as an indie Vtuber with the stated purpose of becoming someone he likes. That's heartbreaking, and the pure earnestness with which he crafts his online persona and struggles to maintain it shows just how important this is to him. It's the only way he's even moderately comfortable interacting with others, and why he's able to respond when a corporate Vtuber (i.e. one signed with an agency) asks to collaborate with him – first online, and later in real life.

To say that Yuu is Haruki's exact opposite might be understating the way Haruki feels about it. Yuu is an office worker alongside his Vtubing career, and he's comfortable moving around in the world. Haruki's disbelief that someone like Yuu would care about him is another facet of his anxiety, mixed with an unhealthy dose of self-loathing. At first, Yuu is everything Haruki wishes he could be, and that causes him to lash out, especially when embarrassed. And although Vtubing is the catalyst for the premise and plot, the real heart of the story is Haruki's emotional health and growth, which comes with seeing Yuu as a real person, not just the man behind the femboy avatar. (“Femboy” is the word used in Seven Seas' translation, which I don't love.)

This being rated M, there's obviously a sexual component to this story, and it's completely uncensored. I take umbrage at the creator appending a footnote to Haruki's statement that he and Yuu have sex; Okita states that that's untrue because it wasn't penetrative, which is a really old-fashioned and narrow definition. Things do eventually go there, but only after Haruki gives his explicit consent and is ready for it, something I do appreciate. The art is good, and the juxtaposition between Haruki and Yuu's online avatars and their real bodies works well and underlines what each of them is getting out of their Vtubing careers – and what they might want for their IRL selves. Whether or not you care about Vtubing, this is a good BL bet with a strong emotional storyline underneath the sex.

Bolts
Rating:

I will say, there's a lot in this book that hits dangerously close to home as someone who works as a Vtuber. The idea of putting on a virtual persona for the sake of living a social fantasy that you feel like you didn't get experience in your real life is something that I can relate to. There's a lot of commentary here about perception, social media, using others for the sake of building up your brand, etc. It does make me wish there were more dedicated shows that revolved around Vtubers and I'm glad that we're starting to get more stories like this. I'm also glad this isn't just a story that uses Vtubers as an excuse to show spicy sex scenes.

The overall set up with our two leads went a little bit too quickly, I think. The way that we literally get these two in a room together so they can start exploring each other felt a little bit too easy considering that online perceptions clashing with who people are in the real world is a big element of the story. So the fact that these two were able to cross that line so quickly rubbed me the wrong way. However, the book also makes it clear that these are two characters that are acting out in some form of desperation. Haruki, our lead, is desperate to rise up in the ranks and so felt like all of his actions were something he needed to do. In a lot of ways, he ended up portraying a lot of toxic traits that you would find in the industry, while Yuu came off as far more innocent to a distracting degree. I think a part of me wishes the book went into more detail about certain elements because a lot of things in the story were just handled that well.

These two are practically all over each other throughout the book and it really captures that feeling of a sexually charged couple that enjoys video games. The desires felt very real, and I think it plays into that idea of virtual people seeking real human connection. The ending of this book in particular was a roller coaster of emotions that genuinely squeezed my heart with how real it was. I know I said that the early parts of the story were a little unbelievable because of how fast things moved, but the inverse cannot be said because it's very easy to lose everything you've built seemingly overnight over just one mistake. That applies to Vtubing, but also romance. This is a solid read that I think properly combines those two elements together and shows that finding a lover or growing as a creator might not be as different as they might initially seem.