Ame-chan
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- “i see youve logged in. this is it... this is where our forever begins”
- — Ame-chan
Ame-chan is the main character of NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD, otherwise known by her online streaming persona OMGkawaiiAngel-Chan, commonly abbreviated as KAngel. She is an aspiring streamer with the goal of becoming the "#1 Internet Angel," aiming to reach 1,000,000 subscribers within 30 days. The player serves as her constant companion and guide throughout the game, guiding her through various desktop activities as they attempt to satisfy Ame's desire for internet fame.
Appearance
Ame-chan
Ame-chan is a young girl with a fair complexion. She has medium-length black hair which she styles into messy twin tails using red hair ties. She has slender black eyes, with her left eye obscured by her bang. She wears a red shirt with puffy white sleeves, a black ribbon, a golden x-shaped hair clip, a black pinafore with golden accents and buttons, and simple black half-high socks with generic black shoes. She also has painted black and red nails to match her clothing.
KAngel
As KAngel, she appears with a pastel-colored, vibrant aesthetic inspired by the likes of Sailor Moon. Her hair is platinum blonde with a purple gradient on her bangs, donning baby blue eyes that are both visible, likely with the use of color contacts. Her hair remains styled into twin tails, but is now a more eccentric blue-pink combo, with her twin tails swirling around each other in a manner similar to how DNA swirls around itself. She wears a holographic seifuku,[1] a holographic micro skirt and holographic ankle straps. Among her outfit are also a bunch of bows ranging in color, from bright blue, purple, pink and red. She also has small heart-shaped accessories of these colors, running up her left leg. Lastly, she has painted blue, yellow, pink and hot pink nails.
Personality
Ame-chan
Ame is a mentally ill young girl striving for internet fame at any cost. She will frequently ignore her mental health and resign her agency to the whims of the player's commands with only occasional resistance. She constantly seeks validation from her followers and for her parasocial desires, venting to the player in JINE if she does not receive enough followers after a certain amount of days. At the same time, however, she views her followers with contempt for their shallow desires — she especially despises their misogyny and unwarranted sexual comments. She is prone to manic episodes and will not hesitate to express this side of herself even when on stream or on her public Tweeter account. In private, she often expresses self-deprecating, pessimistic sentiments about herself and her future, believing that becoming an internet streamer is the only way in which she can guarantee herself a worthwhile future. The more stress and mental darkness Ame accumulates, the more she will express hatred toward herself, her surroundings, and potentially P-chan. If stressed out enough, Ame can even resort to self-harm. Regardless of the player's actions, there will always be some degree of unhealthy behavior expressed by Ame, displaying a fundamental lack of healthy thought patterns and coping mechanisms. In fact, P-chan is a prominent outlet for further unhealthy behavior. The manner in which she can treat P-chan with unconditional love, unhealthily attaching to them as her sole source of support — while also prone to suddenly berating them in an unwarranted manner, frequently blaming them regardless of fault, and casting doubt on their love for her, without hesitance — is a display of how toxic Ame can be in a relationship. Though aware of her mental health issues, Ame will never properly commit toward addressing them under a normal playthrough; this only ever manifests into her expressing further self-hatred. Lastly, under even the most ideal circumstances of a normal playthrough, Ame will not express satisfaction or a healthy form of happiness with where she has ended up in her streaming career and life.
On the contrary, Ame is a very sincere and emotional person. She frequently expresses vulnerability to P-chan and will tell them of her genuine appreciation for their support and accompaniment throughout the game. Though the nature of P-chan's support is toxic and uncaring, her displays of genuine gratitude and happiness show a more caring, considerate side to Ame's personality. Additionally, even through the mask of KAngel, Ame can express honest sentiments about her self-worth and ongoing struggles; she can open up about her past lack of a proper school education, admitting to her past substance abuse, and encouraging her followers to strive for a happier and healthier future, as seen in several Internet Angel streams. She will also express contentment at spending time in Go Out sessions with P-chan, happily talking about the places they've been; in some cases, she will excitedly talk about a particular interest of hers, both in private with P-chan and on stream as KAngel. Furthermore, Ame frequently enjoys joking around with P-chan and can express her sense of humor several times throughout the game, as she leaves lighthearted JINE messages and private twits from time to time.
The game's writer, Nyalra, has explicitly confirmed the intended message behind the portrayal of Ame's personality in NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD.
- “Maybe, Ame-chan that exists in your head will start talking on its own someday too. If so, please be a good friend to her. Please care about her, don't think she is annoying. She is a strange girl who is very lonely and does not have a good personality, but the fact that she is more sensitive and honest than anyone else is her virtue.”
- — Nyalra[2]
KAngel
KAngel is a depiction of Ame's ideal self, as echoed in her repeated sentiments of becoming the "#1 Internet Angel". Ame dons a manic pixie dream girl personality whenever she appears in public as KAngel, acting much more cheerful and bubbly, contrasting her true personality underneath. Under typical circumstances, Ame will strive to maintain a clean image of KAngel which sets aside her true shortcomings and mental health struggles. KAngel can often flirt with her otaku fans, frequently acting out a condescending, yet loving, tone of voice with her followers. She also expresses a heavy sense of pride for herself and the way that her followers give her attention and money — shamelessly repeating the sentiment that they should "care for her" and that she'll "heal them all." Furthermore, she places emphasis on the idea that she'll only ever "belong" to her followers, and lies to her followers in telling them that she is not in a committed relationship, keeping her relationship with P-chan a secret from them. All of these aforementioned factors serve to fuel the parasocial nature of Ame's streaming career. In tandem with Ame's unhealthy mental state, KAngel will often disregard her emotions or only mention them in passing, rarely setting aside the time to challenge the parasocial, toxic dynamic she maintains with her fans. Though she may publicly express a sincere desire to be respected as a person and woman, she will still ultimately prioritize appealing to her fans and maintaining her internet fame. This explains KAngel's readiness to engage in behavior that seems to contradict her true feelings, as she can sexualize herself during ASMR and Sexy streams in an attempt to pander to her lustful male viewers. Ame herself often expresses disgust toward resorting to said tactics, but often feels as though there is no other way for her to remain popular online. In a watered-down manner, Ame's true personality can show itself through KAngel; she may express sincere hope for her future, and for the future of her fans, encouraging and sympathizing with those who may be experiencing similar struggles as her. Similarly, she may occasionally let out her feelings of contempt or self-hatred, which can range from an offhand self-deprecating comment to a public breakdown that catastrophically fails to maintain the facade of KAngel.
Story
Growing up, Ame experienced a severely traumatic childhood with abusive, neglectful parents. Whenever she had attempted to get her parents' attention, they would not meet her emotional needs, instead opting to dismiss her and act uncaring towards her. Her parents would fight "nearly every day," causing her to feel frightened and unsafe within her household. It is implied that these fights had often physically escalated, as Ame recalls that her mother had once attempted to throw a knife at her father. These fights continued even after their divorce, where they began arguing over custody of Ame. These confrontations made Ame promise herself that she would get married "to someone that would make [her] happy, unlike [her] parents." Her financial situation was dire; her mother had decided that she would make Ame a prostitute in order to make ends meet. This imminent plan was what caused Ame to run away from home, just before her mother could put her plan into practice. Now homeless, Ame states she had to move from household to household, relying on her few friends to keep her safe in their houses. It is implied she never stayed at any one household for an extended period of time, and had to frequently move in and out of her different friends' homes.
Ame recounts being bullied in elementary school, with the "queen bee of [her] class" prominently targeting Ame for her looks. She would later drop out of school entirely, failing to pursue a full education. It is unclear when exactly she had stopped attending school, though it may have coincided with her running away from her parents' house.
At some point in the future, Ame would move out and live on her own. It was during this period of time that she began to consider a career as an internet streamer. She decided to put together an online persona, OMGkawaiiAngel, known as KAngel, and moved in with her partner known as P-chan. Enlisting the help of P-chan, Ame officially begins her career as an internet streamer on Day 1 of the game, starting her first introductory stream and excitedly telling P-chan all about her future career plans as the "#1 Internet Angel," aiming to reach 1M+ followers within 30 Days. It is at this point that she first calls them by their nickname, "P-chan," and subsequently entrusts her day-to-day activities under the control of P-chan — represented by the player.
Comment te dire adieu
Main article: Comment te dire adieuRelationships
P-chan
Main article: P-ChanP-chan is Ame's romantic partner and constant companion throughout the game. The introductory sequence of the game shows the extent to which Ame is infatuated with them, entrusting her entire daily routine to be dictated by what P-chan decides on any given day. She repeatedly emphasizes her lack of worth in comparison to them, stating that she would be useless if it weren't for their relationship. This is reflected in how Ame will only ever rebel in minor ways against P-chan, never taking away their control under most circumstances. Her attitude toward P-chan may vary on a day-by-day basis according to her current stats, but she will generally remain in love with them to an obsessive, unhealthy extent. She frequently dotes on them and fantasizes scenarios of their future together, oftentimes having to suppress the urge to go public about their relationship. On the contrary, Ame is prone to fits of lashing out at P-chan and will not hesitate to threaten self-harm or suicide if she feels as though she is not being properly loved. She may heavily insult them for her current state, regardless of the fault P-chan bears for it, and can scrutinize their responses to an unreasonable degree.
P-chan themself usually retains a dry, cold style of speech toward Ame despite their relationship, and the majority of their feelings can only be guessed by Ame's own secondhand accounts. According to Ame, they generally love her and will maintain their relationship regardless of her behavior or feelings, though they are prone to acting mean and careless at times. This is reinforced by the manner in which P-chan may, without much resistance, instruct Ame to perform toxic or damaging actions without giving any explanation for it; they may even silently or coldly dismiss her concerns about it.
Ame's Parents
Ame's parents are never mentioned by name and are not depicted visually. Regardless, Ame feels turbulent about her parents and acknowledges that they have abused her during her childhood, neglecting her emotional needs, arguing with each other in front of her, and engaging in physical confrontation in front of her. Additionally, Ame's mother attempting to force her into prostitution was what prompted Ame to run away from her home. Ame does not hesitate in speaking honestly of how traumatic how her childhood was and the several ways in which her parents had failed to properly raise her. Despite this, Ame is not completely detached from her parents. If Ame has 80+ affection by Night of Day 24, Ame will confide in P-chan, telling them that she wishes to "settle things from the past" with her parents and that she wants them to come along with her as emotional support. Though these initial messages may be interpreted as Ame preparing to engage in a confrontation with her parents, with regards to her childhood trauma, the twit Ame makes on her private Tweeter account suggests that she instead sought her parents' approval. She claims that her and P-chan are "practically married now" as a result of this visit, implying that Ame did not cut off her parents or confront them in any negative manner.
A detail of note is that Ame may feel less negative toward her mother than her father, as she mentions to P-chan that her mother was "always there for [her]," in spite of the claim that both parents were complicit in neglecting her. This may suggest that although both parents were neglectful, her mother have been less neglectful than her father, or may have had more of a physical presence even if she did not meet Ame's emotional needs. Alternatively, Ame might be downplaying the severity of her neglect in an attempt to cope with the trauma of her childhood.
Trivia
- Ame's name can mean both "candy"(飴) and "rain"(雨) in Japanese. In a JINE message, Ame confesses to P-chan about the actual meaning of her name. She says that despite prior claims of her name meaning "candy," the intentional meaning of her name was "rain," reflecting how gloomy she feels.
- Excluding her appearances as KAngel, Ame's left eye is usually never seen. The only instance of it being visible is within file008. ☆