DIYUSI

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“Point to me somewhere, and I will go——to the skies, the walls, or the roads. Point with your finger.” ——OFFSide:DIYUSI, ep. 0

DIYUSI is a derivative Cookie☆ character. While she is based on the Daiyousei that appeared in the OG Cookie☆ voice drama, much of her character was developed by different members of the Cookie☆ community gradually throughout the years. She started as a minor character in the drama and remain unimportant during the early days. However a few notable works, especially the BB theatre series OFFSide:DIYUSI, made her grew to become one of the most popular characters of the subculture. Although DIYUSI tends to be a silent and independent character in derivative works today, she is originally voiced by Hinase Haruka in the voice drama.

History

In Voice Drama

In the OG Cookie☆, Daiyousei’s first appearance is at 4:43, while her first audio is at 4:46. Although she’s a voiced character, she originally only appeared in a few unimportant scenes. Thus, at first, her existence was overshadowed by the two other characters appearing the same scene, Cirno and Rumia.

Her line is an extremely chilling gag said to Meiling, “My neighbour built a boarding wall around his house. ” Yet, from the illustration, it seems like Meiling was rather the one talking. It is very likely that the artist mistook the line as Meiling’s and thus made an error in his drawing.

Early Development

For a long time, DIYUSI was considered the least noticeable character of Cookie☆. However, the post of “traffic control” materials on February 22, 2014 made her a topic, and she earned her initial recognition. Ever since, she had been establishing her name with her appearance as a background traffic guard in BB theatres. She was also developed by the illustrations of むしくい ({{{2}}}) 兄貴 (あにき) 兄貴 (aniki) —one of her earliest content creators—on Niconico Seiga.

OFFSide Boom

DIYUSI popularity boomed decisively among the artists as she starred the leading role in Ankounabe(あんこう鍋 ({{{2}}}) 兄貴 (あにき) 兄貴 (aniki) )’s BB theatre series OFFSide: DIYUSI(09/09/2017-09/22/2018). Based on the independent game OFF by Mortis Ghost, OFFSide starred DIYUSI as the protagonist. According to Ankounabe on Twitter, he chose DIYUSI as the main character mainly due to influences by the art works of Mushikui and Sasagasaka. In the series, DIYUSI appears as a "Security Guard(警備員)" who combats by realising and manipulating the functions of traffic signs. This ability had since been developed further on Seiga, and has now become her standard competence.

The boom on Seiga had went back to influence the videos in 2018, and she henceforward became one of the most popular characters of Cookie☆. It was thought that the momentum would wane with the conclusion of OFFSide, but contents featuring the character only continued growing. OFFSide inspired more derivative works, contributing to the DIYUSI boom and development of more stories with netas like NoeDiyu. Her popularity was thus consolidated permanently.

Post-OFFSide Developments

Meanwhile, while hybrid of the original appearance and secondary creations such as the comedic “Aji-style DIYUSI” materials are posted, many video makers still portrait her as a serious character. It’s hard to determine which version of DIYUSI is more established among the content creators. The development of the character CRN would follow a similar path later.

Nowadays, all newcomers on Niconico post her for their first posts. Like Udongein in the original work of the original work, she has been called a “newcomers’ entrance(新参ホイホイ ({{{2}}}) )”. As a character who appeared in the OG Cookie☆, she nevertheless has many fans who have never watched the original voice drama, or even the OFFSide series. This is also partly because of the changes and developments of Cookie☆’s ecosystem itself.

Character

Appearance

DIYUSI’s appearance is based on the Eruk-ing drawing of Daiyousei in the OG voice drama. She is often wingless, with closed eyes and pale skin. The eyes are originally supposed to represent her smiling. In a later scene drawn by Yuki Michii, the character does have wings and opened eyes. In modern artworks, DIYUSI often wears a yellow traffic vest and use equipment like traffic rods and whistles.

There are three major styles of the character’s appearance used as materials, alongside other customary ones: the OFFSide-style, New Christmas-style, and Aji-style DIYUSI. The OFFSide-style DIYUSI is used by Ankounabe in the respective BB theatre series, and remains one of her major images to this day. Her New Christmas-style image was created by マス夕一 ({{{2}}}) in 2017. Unlike her other styles, New Christmas DIYUSI has normal skin tone and open eyes. In 2018, あじ ({{{2}}}) created the Aji-style DIYUSI with more rounded face and generally more comedic behaviour. It has been used in his own theatres and widely used ever since for the character’s BB theatre appearance.

DIYUSI's OFFSide-style appearance, coloured(im6939145)
New Christmas-style DIYUSI
Aji-style DIYUSI(im8378709)

Personality

DIYUSI’s personality depends on the author and the plot of the BB theatre she is in. However, her portrayal is often influenced by that of OFFSide, appearing as a silent, rarely emotional, but also kind and diligent character. She may also sometimes be portrayed as a child, based on the body size of her common appearances.

After OFFSide, DIYUSI became an extremely popular character and appears frequently in BB theatres. Since Traffic Control DI-chan, she has been portrayed as a traffic guard. In the early works she sometimes fought by guns or her traffic rod used as a lightsaber. Since OFFSide, her main combat ability became the traffic signs she summons, which may generate actual objects or situations of their contents. She is usually a very strong character and a very active one of Battle Cookie☆.

Relationships

Noel

Noel’s relationship with DIYUSI originated with their interactions in OFFSide, in which Noel played the role of the merchant Zachary of the original game and provided guidance and support to DIYUSI the protagonist. Ankounabe noted that Noel’s role in OFFSide was completely his arbitrary choice.

In later works, the two characters often appear together and are known as “NoeDiyu”. Their relationship could be as either mother-and-daughter, lovers, friends, manipulative, or anything based on the author’s choice. Noel is usually the senior character of the two, while DIYUSI is the more serious.

Shisou

DIYUSI’s interactions with Shissou also began in OFFSide, but most of their portrayals imitate that of the the “DiyuShiso” series(03/15/2019~). In the series, the two characters are friends who drink together and play games at bar at nights. Their relationships may or may not be romantic. Shissou usually acts as the mischievous and more extrovert partner.

Hinase

In the voice drama, DIYUSI was voiced by Hinase Haruka, the same voice actor for Alice. This leads to the two characters often being linked one way or another in derived creations. Hinase(as Hinase Alice) could be DIYUSI’s kin, or, as in Jikomujun’s theatre NoeDiyu Picnic, her other personality.

The “Hinase-within” is often portrayed as a scythe, symbol of Hinase, on the arm of DIYUSI. However, DIYUSI is often not able to control the scythe. Rather, the scythe(I.e. the Hinase within) is trying to overtake her, although she manages to resist. In the standing materials, Hinase tends to grow a scythe on her right arm, while DIYUSI has it grown on her left. There are, of course, many exceptions.

SIYUDI

A derivative character of DIYUSI. She originated in a drawing called “SIYUDI” by Rakkaon posted on Seiga (04/08/2018). She is often depicted as a black DIYUSI, who holds a red children’s umbrella instead of traffic rods, and fights with the hazard signs accompanying her.

She remained only in illustrations for a long time, but has started to appear more and more frequently in videos, often as either the rival or sister of DIYUSI. When she appears, people would often comment “きすしゆぢ ({{{2}}}) ”, a reverse of the “ぢゆしすき ({{{2}}}) ” (see below) comment.

In Videos and Arts

Since the posting of “Traffic Control DI-chan PB.ar57” on Feb. 22, 2014, DIYUSI has been appearing in the backgrounds of BB theatres as a traffic guard, often alongside CRN and RMA. With the success and popularity of OFFSide, content creators have made numerous creations of her, both serious and comedic. There are also other derivative creations, such as the derived character SIYUDI. However, as she lacks dialogues and audio materials, she rarely appears in otoMADs despite her popularity.

Since January 2015, she had been occasionally portrayed as a traffic guard, especially appearing in the artworks of Mushikui. She had many art works that were more popular and numerous than her MADs at the time. As OFFSide:DIYUSI was released as her MAD, the unique style and worldview of the series inspired many artists. In these artworks, she often stand next to Noel, and NoeDiyu was settled even earlier than it was in the series. OFFSide concluded on September 22, 2018, but her popularity barely diminished after that. She is one of the most frequent characters to be drawn.

Other Related Netas

ぢゆし (jiyushi)

A common way of spelling her name, derived from reading “DIYUSI” in Japanese directly. It’s often used as her name for the sake of convenience during searching.

"ぢゆしすき ({{{2}}}) (Love Diyusi)"

A comment that almost always appear under DIYUSI’s artworks on Seiga. The tradition dates all the way back to September 2015. The OFFSide boom had made this comment even more prominent, and contributed to the popularity of the nickname “Jiyushi”

SIYUDI (シユヂ (shiyuji) )

See above.

きゆぢ (kiyuji)

A derivative character of DIYUSI, (and perhaps SIYUDI as well, based on her name). She originated from an artwork named “Kiyuji” posted on June 10, 2020 by メロンパンナちゃん ({{{2}}}) . In contrast to DIYUSI’s green colour and SIYUDI’s black colour, Kiyuji is yellow colour themed. She also has a whistle that can tranquillise and neutralise dangerous objects and phenomena.

The character was poorly received on Seiga, as she was just a poorly drawn and designed original character with slightly different colours. Some artists attempted to post further illustrations of her, but they failed to gain her the recognition.

It seems like the character was originally drawn as a sarcastic parody of the growing number of original Cookie☆☆ characters.

すくすくぢゆし (sukusuku jiyushi)

A derivative character of DIYUSI, first appearing in the drawing “Mochi” by 鯨ビデオ ({{{2}}}) on May 12, 2019. Originally, the character was a derivative of a Zerukalo/Digimon parody. Her name was coined in the comment section on the day. On the next day, 酔い止め豆腐 ({{{2}}}) made a video of the character alone.

The neta of the character’s name is a game called “すくすく犬福 ({{{2}}}) )”. There are numerous other derivative characters being given the same format of name, including a derivative character called “Sukusuku Shirasawa”, based on the Touhou character Keine Kamishirasawa. In the case of Sukusuku DIYUSI, her origin is actually from Digimon, as mentioned above, but her form is seem as similar to Sukusuku.