The VTuber and streaming scene is packed with creators carving out styles all their own. Even in that crowd, Uyuki Hami — better known to her audience as “Mini Boss” — stands out. She streams under the Japanese agency REPLAY LIVE.
The nickname was born while she was working behind the scenes at the agency. She has since relaunched her streaming career, moving from the mobile-first platform IRIAM to Twitch, and she still works as agency staff while streaming. That dual role — streamer on one side, management on the other — makes for an unusual career path.
We sat down with Hami, also a Generation 0 Ambassador for Alive Studio, to talk about her breakout run on IRIAM, what the platform switch revealed to her, and what she has learned from standing on both sides of the industry.
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Profile
Uyuki Hami
A Twitch streamer with the agency REPLAY LIVE.
Her motto is “having fun together” rather than “having fun alone,” and she streams a wide range of content — games, just chatting, and collaborations.
Reaching S2 rank on IRIAM alongside her viewers remains one of her proudest memories.
She treasures the smiles and memories that come out of streaming above all else, and throws herself into every broadcast with her community. A V-Liver who loves cute things and games, and whose streams come with plenty of laughter — and the occasional scream.
Second Place in Four Days, Number One Nationwide in 18: The IRIAM Breakout
— Let’s start with an introduction.
Hami
I’m Hami, currently streaming on Twitch with the agency REPLAY LIVE. Thanks for having me!
— I hear the name “Uyuki Hami” comes from the Pokemon Snom, known as “Yukihami” in Japanese.
Hami
That’s right! I’ve always loved Pokemon, and Snom is a particular favorite. I built the name so that “Yukihami” sits right in the middle, bracketed on both sides.
— Sandwiching it like that makes it feel like Snom is tucked safely inside. That’s lovely.
— On IRIAM you took second place in your very first event, four days after debut, and hit number one nationwide on day 18. That’s a striking start. Looking back now, how does it feel?
Hami
Honestly, all I feel is gratitude toward my manager. I applied and joined without really having watched much streaming at all, so my manager taught me everything from scratch and supported me the whole way. Getting to take on an event together with the viewers who found me when I’d barely started was a fantastic experience — and incredibly nerve-racking.
— So before you started on IRIAM, you weren’t really part of streaming culture?
Hami
Not at all. I never went out of my way to watch streams — maybe a few clips in short-form video, and that was about it.
— Two months after debut you reached the A tier, and you also placed in IRIAM’s station poster campaign “Ekipos” (now “Eki Pos!”), which put your poster up at Takasaki Station and Tokushima Station.
Hami
Yes. I was lucky enough to place in the event, and getting a poster up was basically my goal, so I turned it into a trip and went all the way to Tokushima to see it. Seeing it in person made me so happy I almost wanted to take the poster home with me (laughs).
— Did your viewers go to see it too?
Hami
They did — some of them told me they’d gone and taken photos, which made me really happy.
— A lot of livers end up in tears when an event wraps up. Did that ever happen to you?
Hami
No full-on sobbing, no. I’ve actually never cried on stream. If anything, it hit me harder when I went to see the poster — that’s when I got a little teary.
— Well, you are the Mini Boss. Can’t let them see you cry that easily.
— One line in your bio stuck with me: “Thank you for taking me all the way to S2.” What was your relationship like with the people who watched from the beginning?
Hami
They’re all people who have been cheering me on the entire time, so it felt less like an audience and more like teammates who grew alongside me. It’s a close-knit group, and they’re incredibly kind.
— If you could say one thing to the version of yourself who was graduating from IRIAM, what would it be?
Hami
There are still events I wish I’d entered, so I’d tell her not to be timid and to go for it. Win or lose, you grow either way — so push a little harder toward the things you actually want.
— Was there a specific event you wanted to enter?
Hami
I wanted a plushie (laughs). When I went to an in-person event there were so many on display, and I thought, I really should have entered. On weeks when I wanted to climb the rankings I kept my schedule light, so whenever a plushie event overlapped I’d be torn — “I want it, but I definitely want to rank up next week.” Looking back, I could have been a bit more selfish about it.
From Phone to PC: What Changed in the Move from IRIAM to Twitch
— Let’s talk about the platform switch. What made you decide to move to Twitch in the first place?
Hami
IRIAM is a phone-first platform, but I’d always wanted to try YouTube and had already set up a PC, so I was looking for somewhere I could stream from either device. Plenty of people at the agency had moved to YouTube, but nobody was on Twitch — that caught my interest, so I gave it a shot. I researched everything myself from scratch, built up the knowledge, and debuted.
— So it was more about being curious about Twitch as an environment than about wanting to stream games.
Hami
Exactly. I’ve always liked games, but IRIAM is mostly just-chatting based, so I’d come to enjoy that side too. My hope was to play games while still doing a lot of talking.
— And once you actually started, gaming plus chatting didn’t quite work out?
Hami
I had this strong impression that Twitch was a games-first platform, so at first I mostly ran viewer-participation game streams — but while I was playing I couldn’t talk at all. I was stuck on that until I found out the Just Chatting category is surprisingly popular, so I switched over. A lot of my viewers were coming for the conversation anyway, so now I just hang out and talk with everyone. And that’s genuinely the most fun part.
— Going from IRIAM, where everything happens on your phone, to Twitch with a PC and OBS — what threw you first?
Hami
I jumped in knowing nothing, so the technical side was a real struggle at first. Viewers who knew their way around walked me through a lot of it. On top of that, some people signed up for Twitch specifically because they’d seen on social media that “the Mini Boss is streaming,” and explaining the cultural differences to them was surprisingly hard. That was the tricky part.
— Your streams now are full of life — a doorbell sound when someone arrives, a stamp card that works like a login bonus.
Hami
Right — I wanted a bit of playfulness, and a lively screen with plenty happening on it even during a just-chatting stream. My personal favorite is the stamp card. It gives people a reason, or maybe a little extra fun, to leave a comment. I’m not running it at the moment, but “Stream Avatars,” where a viewer’s avatar appears on screen when they comment, was also a blast.
— Were there differences in the atmosphere or culture of the audience between IRIAM and Twitch?
Hami
Twitch has a lot of viewers from other countries, so it feels genuinely global. It’s brought new encounters. When comments come in English I run them through translation or turn on auto-captions. Many of them understand at least some Japanese, so I try to speak slowly to keep the translation from mangling what I say.
— Moving from IRIAM to Twitch, what became possible — and what did you lose?
Hami
IRIAM’s real strength is its wealth of events, so not being able to join those does leave me a little wistful. But on Twitch I can stretch out without worrying about rank or hours, I can redecorate my room, and there’s so much to play with on screen — those are big pluses. I love food, so being able to share “this new product just launched” or “this was delicious” with a photo attached has been huge too.
— Twitch VODs disappear after a short window, but you don’t post many clips or highlight videos. Is that a deliberate policy of not leaving things behind?
Hami
It’s more that I want people to watch the present. My early streams are honestly a little embarrassing (laughs). Viewers save the bits they like with the clip function, and everything else vanishing after about a month feels just right. It also makes it easy to see how much I’ve been streaming lately, and it’s simpler for me to manage.
“I Want to Lose Track of Time Talking — and I Want People to Come Lose Track of Time With Me”
— Right after moving to Twitch you streamed every day for 60 days straight. Why did you decide to keep that going?
Hami
I never streamed for very long stretches on IRIAM, but I had learned how genuinely hard it is to keep showing up, even for five or ten minutes a day. I have zero staying power by nature, so starting over, I didn’t want to do it half-heartedly. My goal at first was simply to keep going without worrying about the numbers.
I get bored so easily (laughs). My interest in games comes in huge waves — if someone asks “what about that game you were playing the other day?” I’ve often cooled on it, and then a while later I want to play again. Consistency is a high bar for me.
— Were there days when you streamed for just five minutes and called it?
Hami
There were. I’d go live with “only five minutes today, lucky you if you catch it,” tell whoever showed up “today’s your lucky day,” and wrap. I still do it — though the title says five minutes and I usually end up talking for about two hours, which is arguably false advertising (laughs).
— I know the feeling. You plan on five minutes, then you’re having too much fun to stop.
Hami
That’s it exactly. It’s like I’ve opened up my own little world. In my head I’m thinking “it hasn’t been five minutes yet, let me keep talking,” while on everyone else’s end an hour has already gone by (laughs).
— On the flip side, were there days you decided to skip?
Hami
If I have plans right after a stream I can’t stop watching the clock, so on those days I skip it. Once I’m live I never want to close it down, so I pick slots with nothing scheduled afterward.
— Do you have your own standard for stream quality?
Hami
I don’t set a topic in advance, so I never know where the conversation will branch off to. But what I care about is this: I want to lose track of time talking, and I want people to come lose track of time with me.
“Who Is This Person?” — The Unlikely Origin of the Mini Boss
— Your viewers call you “Mini Boss.” How did that come about?
Hami
I was originally working behind the scenes at REPLAY LIVE. I’d appear on camera occasionally, but my job was mostly backstage — popping up briefly during collab streams, and at the time I was on hiatus from streaming myself. So to the viewers I was basically “who is this person?” Not a member, not anyone they recognized. From there a theory spread that I might secretly be the one pulling the strings, and it eventually settled into “Mini Boss.”
— You could have ended up as the “Final Boss”! Do you feel positive about the Mini Boss nickname?
Hami
True, that might have come out a lot more intimidating (laughs). Given my personality — I do get a bit high-and-mighty sometimes — Mini Boss actually fits pretty well.
— So the nickname came first, and then you relaunched as a streamer on Twitch.
Hami
That’s right. I picked up the Mini Boss name while working backstage, and started streaming on Twitch after that.
— It’s unusual to already have a nickname by your very first stream. It says a lot about the impression you left during your backstage days.
Two Faces: The Mini Boss as Streamer and as Staff
— What did moving to the management side teach you about streaming?
Hami
Being on the management side really drove home how demanding this is for streamers, and how much there is to juggle. Prepping projects, obviously, but also running the show yourself, staying healthy, making time for your viewers. It takes real effort and real ingenuity. I have enormous respect for anyone doing it solo.
— I hear you also teach newer streamers about gear and stream layouts. What have you noticed since becoming the one doing the teaching?
Hami
Teaching is genuinely difficult — I’ve thought that the whole time. There are things I can’t put into words well, so rather than “teaching,” my style is to look things up together, hunt for solutions together, try it together. With gear, I’ll have them send me a photo, look up the model number on my end, and we’ll go through the online manual side by side.
— Are you the one people at the agency turn to when something goes wrong?
Hami
I’m not a PC expert by any means, but I know enough to be useful, so yes, people lean on me a fair bit. Lately I’ve had several chances to walk people through setting up Alive Studio. When someone who debuted through our agency wanted to install it, they got in touch and we went through it together.
A favorite stream layout built with Alive Studio
— Was there a particular reason you started working on the management side?
Hami
It started right around when I graduated from IRIAM. I had a strong urge to be the one supporting someone else for a change. So when my manager brought up the job, I thought I’d like to try being on the supporting side and took it on.
— Your manager and your viewers have come up again and again in this conversation. Did that influence the decision?
Hami
It did. I’d been on the receiving end of so much support that I wanted to give some of it back to someone else. I also debuted without fully understanding what it feels like to be the one providing that support, so I wanted to see this industry from a different angle.
— Listening to all this, you strike me as someone anchored in “enjoying it together” rather than in seeking recognition.
Hami
The need for recognition keeps fading (laughs). It started with loving games, and from there I discovered how fun it is to connect with people through streaming. Since joining the agency there’s obviously a sense of “I have to deliver,” but my anchor now is that I enjoy it first, and the people watching enjoy it with me.
What’s Next, and a Message to Her Viewers
— Is there anything you’d like to take on next as Uyuki Hami?
Hami
Right now I’m just enjoying the excitement of figuring out what to do next with everyone who supports me, but if I can, I’d love to take on more in-person and online events. I want to share good times outside of streaming too.
— What kind of in-person events do you have in mind?
Hami
I’ve done collab cafes, but I’d like to get more elaborate with the collab menu. Fans’ reactions and impressions from in-person events are so rewarding, so I want to raise the quality there.
— Finally, a message for the viewers who always come to watch.
Hami
Thank you so much for always stopping by. It’s because you’re all there that I get to have fun thinking about what to do next, with the streams and with every project. There’s still so much I want to do, so I hope we can keep stacking up good times together — laughing, and occasionally getting startled. I’m counting on you going forward.
— From her breakout run on IRIAM to a fresh start on Twitch, and on to her role supporting the agency from behind the scenes. She calls herself someone who gets bored easily, yet she saw a 60-day daily streaming run all the way through — and that quiet toughness, along with a wish to pass on the support she has received, came through again and again in our conversation. “I want to lose track of time talking, and I want people to come lose track of time with me.” That’s an approach to streaming worth cheering for. Thank you for such a wonderful conversation!
