Culture
Konomi Amakami Takes First Place in Ciao VTuber Ranking 2026 for the First Time
The VTuber was second in both 2024 and 2025 and now reaches the top spot for the first time in the annual Ciao reader survey.
Konomi Amakami stands at the top of the VTuber ranking of readers of Shogakukan's magazine "Ciao" for the first time in 2026. The result appears in the October issue of the magazine as part of the "Ciao-ko ga suki na mono Ranking 2026" survey. In the two previous years, the VTuber had each time reached second place.
As KAI-YOU reports, Amakami belongs to the VTuber agency Million Production and is also active as an illustrator. She debuted in December 2022 and joined Million Production in April 2023 as a member of the so-called 0th Generation and as a creator. On YouTube, alongside gaming and talk streams, she publishes short videos about illustration and the creation process of her drawings. She also designed her own VTuber model herself.
From Two Second Places to the Top
In 2024 and 2025, Amakami took second place in the annual Ciao evaluation each time. In 2024 Usada Pekora was ahead of her, and in 2025 Houshou Marine. Both belong to Hololive; Hoshimachi Suisei reached third place in 2025. The results thus show a strong presence of VTubers in the media consumption of Ciao's young readership over several years. aninew.de has also recently covered the scene, for example the VTuber design wave around Natsuiro Matsuri.
Amakami's connection to the manga magazine goes beyond the ranking. Ciao had already previously presented her as a VTuber specializing in drawing. In the October 2025 issue she also published, for the first time, a nine-page manga short titled "Buzzre☆Kono Cafe Jikenbo!?", in which a version of herself solves other girls' problems with illustrations.
VTubers and Classic Manga Media Move Closer Together
That a VTuber has ranked high over several years in a reader survey of a major girls' manga magazine, while also producing manga content for the magazine herself, shows the growing overlap between VTuber and manga culture. Similar transitions into classic anime formats also exist: in the Netflix anime film THE RIBBON HERO, three Nijisanji VTubers were added to the cast.
On September 4, Amakami responded to the first place on X and thanked her fans. She stated that she wants to continue making content for a broad audience.