The barriers between the virtual and real worlds continue to crumble in Japan. Talented and renowned VTuber Hoshimachi Suisei decided to step out of her recording studio to dominate the mound in an official Pacific League game, leaving a professional baseball player and the community completely stunned by the ridiculous speed of her opening pitch.

The epic event took place at the ZOZO Marine Stadium during the match between the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. As part of an ambitious advertising campaign for the ice cream brands Coolish and Soh, Suisei appeared “teleported” onto a huge screen strategically placed near the pitching area, morally supported from another screen by the unmistakable virtual idol Hatsune Miku. Encouraged by the crowd in the stands, the virtual singer executed a full pitching motion and fired a monstrous fastball that registered an impressive 105 kilometers per hour on the stadium radar, achieving a perfect and clean strike.

The funniest part of the story was the reaction of the Lotte batter, outfielder Shingo Ishikawa. Used to receiving ceremonial and merely symbolic pitches from celebrities, the sudden aggressiveness of the pitch caught him so off guard that he simply froze in the batter’s box without even attempting a swing. When the event was announced in early July on social media, the star promised to throw with all her strength to energize the stadium and dazzle her fans, proving she wasn’t joking.

With the tremendous level of production that Japanese companies are investing in blending virtual talents with real-life mass sports events, do you think Western teams will start replicating this formula by inviting their own content creators to attract new audiences to the stadiums?