Roro-Chan

Confirmed 121,122

Part of a series on Futaba Channel (2chan). [View Related Entries]

Content Warning: Portions of this entry make mention of suicide, which some may find difficult or upsetting. If you need support or are dealing with suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's website or call 1-800-273-8255.

About

Roro-Chan, also known as Rorochan_1999 or Ruru-chan, was a 14-year-old Japanese livestreamer who committed suicide during a 2013 livestream by jumping off the 13th floor of her apartment building. Roro-Chan believed ending her own life on stream would cement her as a "legend." The story gained increased attention in Japan and the West in 2020 following the release of Shinsei Kamattechan's "Ruru's Suicide Show on a Livestream," a song and music video about the incident, sparking a fan art tribute movement for Roro-Chan. That year, the "Roro-Chan challenge" also spread online, encouraging users to livestream acting like Roro-Chan, sometimes involving self-harm on camera. The video of Roro-Chan jumping from the building also received viral spread online.

History

Rorochan_1999

It is believed that Roro-Chan was born sometime in 1999. She began streaming in 2012 under the username Rorochan_1999 on the Japanese streaming website FC2 at 13-years-old, allegedly covering her face with a mask in her streams.^[1] Roro-Chan would often play piano, sing and vlog on stream, but would also allegedly run alongside traffic with cars and stand on high-up ledges.^[2]^[3] Roro-Chan gained a following over time for this. Some of her videos have been reuploaded to YouTube, including one where she can be heard playing various songs on the piano and talking to her viewers (shown below, left) and one where she accidentally shows her face to the camera in the reflection of her phone, proceeding to panic (shown below, right). Roro-Chan was also active on Twitter^[4] at the time. Her last tweet was posted on November 23rd, 2013, and translates to "fast."

Roro-Chan's Suicide

Starting on November 17th, 2013, Roro-Chan posted messages to a thread on 2chan talking about how she plans on doing a "suicide stream" to become a legend and how she doesn't want to "spoil it." The full message was posted to the News020 blog^[5] in 2013. The full thread was translated^[6] there (click "Expand Message" below to see full text).

Expand Message

What I'm thinking in my head right now, I want to have a suicide livestream. It's going to be real and I'll do it in a way that won't be deleted by fc2 so it will be exciting. Is there going to be a thread set up on newsoku*? I'm fantasizing so many things about my suicide livestream. I was deleting so many things from lunch like my IDs And I'm writing this now. I feel like people will attack me if I write this. But if I spoil it, there will be no point in doing a suicide stream. At least that's what I think. So these things must be sudden, I always wanted to do those things.

I think it's good to do a suicide stream. Because I was a normal cute girl today too. So if I die, people will be surprised. I guess they'll think it's because of the stress of entrance exams (into high school) If I write this people will hate me afterwards I think. My listeners (fans) will probably think I'm pathetic. I don't want that So please don't hate me. If you're going to hate me I'll fall. So it's fine if you think it's because of the entrance exams. I'm grateful that I am able to give spoilers.

Someone please

I don't want to make any more new accounts. Yes. I'm sorry if I surprised you. I am now writing this. Without thinking anything. I'm anxious if anyone is actually reading this.

Really sorry I'm not dead. Sorry. Sorry. This is not clickbait, but it can't be helped if no one believes me. But you need to believe me, for real, right now, it's not that yesterday or today was a bad day!!! But sorry for writing something like this. I will probably will embarrassed if I see this later. Yes, but I'm glad I wrote this down. The story I didn't write about is something not in this world, in a parallel world. No wonder I'll be attacked. It cannot be helped. But isn't this fake, well me being here and lying is bad. I might die if you accuse me of faking this.

aaaaaaaaaa I'm doneeeeeeeee i hate thissssssss i'm scaredscaredsxardsasddscardddd

There is a video playing inside my head, that is my suicide stream.I am repeating my imagination. It is playing repeatedly.

It is playing repeatedly. But, I won't be able to do that if I spoil it here. Because I think it won't be pretty. First, I will do a face reveal. Then, I will wear my uniform. I won't have my socks on. Because I think that will be pretty. And if it goes over 1000 people (prob viewers), I will escape my house from the balcony. And […] I will keep walking. I will climb the stairs. Up to 14th no 18th floor, keep on walking and there is a landing of the stairs. There is no fence around the landing. I saw this and thought about this before. And I realized that. And the ground is made of concrete so if I hit my head it will hurt and it will be pathetic.

aaaaaaaa this is disgustinggg im disgursting sory

But I'll write. I will overcome this disgust and write without thinking. I can't think. And then I'll stick my feet out

I'll write everything out because I'm still a bit scared. I have my feet stuck out. And today I realized, "Hey, I can just fall from there!" and I will be a legend. Then everyone will pay attention to me. There will be a thread set up on newsoku. I thought this is a very great idea. So if I do this today, I won't be scared of falling

I know it's disgusting. I'm sorry please forgive me. And there will be blood everywhere and everyone will see me I think. Then strangers will see me. I was only thinking about that recently. What happens when I have become a legend after I die. Unstoppable, that's the same as when I first started Twitcasting. This morning, since today I'll get back my access to Twitcasting, so I strongly remember that. So, I will be gone after deleting everything. Then everyone will be surprised. This is disgusting this is gross i'm sorry i hate this other people are suffering too, I feel sorry for other people, but I won't think about that right now. I needed a lot of courage just to decide to write this. Ok. And. I deleted everything.

And then I felt lonely. So next I wondered when I was going to do for my next stream. So I thought, when I pass my entrance exam. I thought everyone would be surprised if I suddenly came back and was accepted into high school. Next I thought, when I have the May blues*. Next May. If I suddenly start a suicide stream, I'll definitely be a legend!!! So I kept on thinking and I couldn't stop myself. Let's do it today!!! Let's do it today!!!! But I'm still scared. I'm brainwashed so suicide is […] So I hesitated. That's why I'm writing here. It's great. Thank goodness. I was scared. It was scary. If I spoil it all out here, it will be ok.

It won't matter if no one's reading. My stomach hurts. I'm scared to die. I'm scardde!! Aaaaaaa is anyone reading?

Since I spoiled it, I won't do this method. Oh, one last thing, I will put my iPhone on the rails. And I will fall, making sure to be on the camera, making sure it will be gruesome. And I will become a legend………

I'm sorry.

Ok, that's it. ^_ I won't do it this way. Will I? No. Thank you. So nothing to be afraid of anymore. Thanks

On November 24th, 2013, Roro-Chan jumped off the balcony of her 13th-floor apartment building during a livestream. In the video, Roro-Chan can be seen making her way to the outside of the building and pushing a box up to the ledge. Heavy breathing and muttering are heard. Roro-Chan proceeds to get on the box, showing her pink pants and the view from the edge of the building, and jumps. The camera shows the sky and an array of streetlights and a thud is heard as she makes an impact. The video has been reuploaded to YouTube^[7] and has also been posted as a GIF to Imgur.^[8] Allegedly, many chatters encouraged her suicide while others asked her to become a legend another way. Allegedly, Roro-Chan was being bullied, which may have been a factor in her suicide, although an exact reason is not known.^[9] A news report from Japan announcing her death was also uploaded to YouTube.^[13]

Aftermath

On January 8th, 2020, Japanese band Shinsei Kamattechan released a song titled "Ruru's Suicide Show on a Livestream" featuring lyrics about Roro-Chan's suicide and her thought process leading up to it. The music video, done in an anime style, shows a character representing Roro-Chan with an eyepatch that doubles as a camera, or a phone bound to her head (likely representing her livestreaming) wandering the streets of Japan. The video ends with Roro-Chan jumping off a building before cutting to a shot of nooses then a field of flowers, representing Roro-Chan in the afterlife. The music video gained over 29.7 million views on YouTube^[10] in two years (screenshot shown below, video age-restricted).

The music video helped spread the story of Roro-Chan. That year, a number of YouTubers made videos analyzing the case and looking through archived posts and footage to give further context to her suicide. These include translating tweets, examining archived videos and speculating on why she may have committed suicide Some of the most notable of these are a February 2020 upload to YouTube^[11] by Banner, gaining over 547,000 views in 11 months, and a May upload to YouTube^[12] by ScareTheater, gaining over 1.9 million views in eight months (both age-restricted.)

Fan Art

Following the release of the music video, people began creating fan art based on the Roro-Chan character featured in the video, often as a tribute to the streamer. Many pieces of fan art have been uploaded to sites including Newgrounds,^[14] Zerochan^[15] and Deviant Art^[16] following the video's release (examples shown below).

Roro-Chan Challenge

In mid-2020, reports of Japanese teens taking part in the "Roro-Chan challenge," which allegedly involves livestreaming themselves doing the things Roro-Chan did before her death, including smoking, self-harming and sometimes killing themselves, began to spread online.^[17] No videos have surfaced of anyone dying from or completing the challenge, and terms related to the trend are banned on TikTok.