The State of The VTuber World - January 22, 2024
Colors Fade Away
We’ll Come Back to This Later
It has been one year (and a day) since the now infamous announcement for NijiEN AR Live was held, it was only a week and half later that the concert was canceled, and subsequently three members of that 19 have left the company and one more is in doubt.
I know it’s an odd way of starting this post, but I feel there are better people who have written or presented a better eulogy for Pomu than I have, so I’m taking this route. Ever since the concert was canceled, there was hope that it would be rescheduled. It’s odd that I think Selen was the one who was optimistic about there being a reschedule when the cancellation announcement happened, but that is for the next section.
And in the fall of last year there were good signs of this reschedule considering all the EN members did visit Japan back then, and Ethyria did announce there was going to be some good news in 2024, and well, I didn’t hear any good news in 2024 so far. I gestured at the possibility when the momentum was building, but we’re not sure at this point.
I did mention this in the NWSU that will be out in its regular schedule but Idios has been busy since their anniversary and Youko signal has been silent, which indicates a JP 3D debut is near, and I do wonder if that was pushed ahead because of uncertainty about EN.
But let’s get to the reason why this reschedule has been on unsteady ground.
Selen vs. The Management
“I’m no one special.”
I think I have shown throughout how Selen and management have a challenge in communication. Like that statement likely meant - we don’t give special passes to someone regarding copyright and permission and such, and not ‘you are just a nobody’, but considering Selen’s mental situation, she didn’t take it this way. And similar things for everything else.
I really think good management is much more important than having good employees. I don’t know, maybe it’s my education roots, but it’s more crucial for society to think this way, and I think, and that’s true for the rest, that this is the part that I dislike most about ANYCOLOR.
But I’m just more of an optimist, especially regarding this, you know. Either the company gets better or the company goes under, and the first one is better, right? So why not hope for this, knowing the other outcome could also occur? That’s how I see the world, really.
But enough about myself, what I want to say is that what Selen is doing is quite interesting. Because Selen is kind of holding the rest of EN back in regards to 3D, if you look at it a certain way, right, because the contention is with Selen and the management.
Like the major reason people sided with Selen is that we believe Selen was not told the reason, but like if the customer service responds with a reason, it would be odd for them to not tell Selen, and I did reason why Selen could have done this with a competent management.
At this point, the best scenario for EN is that Selen is merely complying with the stay order and likely will return by the end of this week, if it’s a one-month stay. If Selen is actually acting out and refusing to stream for her own sake, then the ball is on her court. People outside might be convinced of Selen that management sucks, but is the talent convinced enough to deprive them of the 3D prep that they worked so hard during the fall? That seems unlikely.
Edit - Pomu interestingly opened all her memberships, which is really interesting, because it’s likely that membership stream contains stuff like the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was denied by upper management. I mean, this goes to the heart of the problem, which is that Nijisanji does not want to spend its time dealing with foreigners, and has since 2019.
I do wonder what the opportunity entailed, and how would the upper management reject such opportunity. Perhaps it was a conflict with the brand image or a fellow sponsor? And for the e-mail readers, consider this? Why would someone offer a corporate talent an opportunity directly? Wouldn’t they have contacted the upper management first?
Edit - There is a major assumption in the above section that is probably false, which is that Selen currently has a major resentment against the management. Current best case scenario for all sides is this - Selen is in serious mental trouble and she just got out of the hospital and while she wants to stream, management is having her take a rest. This is relatively common in the VTuber world, and I’m sure the other talents are willing to wait for their 3D release while Selen recovers. Meanwhile, Idios 3D seems to be a-go, so we’ll have that to look forward to.
The Requisite Brand New Story
If you don’t know, a few weeks ago, I talked about Mashiro Merumo, who just took an indefinite leave after leaving VTA, and apparently saying that it was ‘like a factory’. She had a recent post, and it’s… showcasing her Hololive merch. I don’t know if it portends to anything…
I expect there will be DEV_IS Gen 2 coming out in the Spring. I don’t know if I said this before, I expect that to happen, because Hololive wants to establish DEV_IS as a real concept and that requires a faster turnaround. And… it would be something if Merumo joins Hololive, considering what just happened and how blatant this hint was and her action regarding VTA…
It would be the old Moruru situation, which was the old term for reincarnation between large agencies, although it won’t be a complete one, because Merumo was only in VTA.
However… Uiha graduated at the same time, and I… If Uiha shows up in DEV_IS Gen 2, I would need to do something, because that is going to be huge news.
And speaking of new gen, I think ID4 is likely coming out this week - Amelia is on break, there was recent terrible news from Hololive, and they would like to hit the HoloX button.
I will tell you what the HoloX button is. So, I did say this last week, but one of Hololive’s ‘strengths’ has been carefully putting out good news and completely washing whatever possible bad news Hololive had. And the clearest example was regarding the 3rd Gen Concert. If you do not know, 3rd Gen had a concert in Late November of 2021 and it was not good. It was… odd and bizarre and just really shoddy work. And the relative mild response is thought to be one of the reason Rushia went mad. And less than 12 hours from the end of the concert, Cover just dropped HoloX out of nowhere and La+ debuted on that announcement day. Remember there was no JP gen for more than a year at that point, and yet that timing…
And ever since then, I noted that Hololive tends to do this. It’s a good business move, right? Breads and Circuses as people would say. But yeah, so that’s my news here.
Butterfly Protocol Update
The last Hololive termination was almost two years ago, and apparently there was another termination - this topic needs to be addressed again, and it’s a good time to update.
So, ‘inspired’ by Rushia’s termination, I wrote a series of posts regarding character rights and rights in general regarding the VTuber world. In that series, I wondered if there would be changes in how people perceive characters’ rights in the future given developments.
And… it’s hard to say, right, because with smaller EN agencies and in most small JP agencies, transfer for character is normalized - I think this catastrophe clause has become standardized, and I think Miori Celesta really got that ball rolling. But for larger agencies, other than Komori Met, there really isn’t this transfer of characters that has progressed in a way.
Both Cover and ANYCOLOR sees their holding of IP as a strength regarding characters - again, talent-based agencies has gone through more trouble, and partially it’s because it’s hard to kind wholesale merch and promo if you have to get the talent every time, although for most fan, that might be more preferable and relative major EN agencies do just that.
I mean the other big progress, I suppose, was Patra’s move away to be indie, and in the end 774’s brand image never really got tarnished, they are kind of doing better than before. So, if you open the bag, I suppose, there has not been much damage.
I think 774’s recent moves, at least for the past year or so, have been really fascinating, because many retort against this ‘creator freedom’ as we might snidely dub this focus on kind of family image of the agency, and I think 774 at the start was one of the strongest in regards to this family image, you had the same unknown designer for each of sub-groups and so on… and in the past year or so, the whole thing basically collapsed, and this should sound like 774 is going to go belly up, but in some sense 774 is doing fine after all that collapse, so is this brand image, the holding of IP really important? It’s a confounding question, to say the least.
The thing is here that right now neither Case A or Case B has established themselves as the legitimate way of seeing character rights. Some hold onto Case A, like the two big companies, but others lean towards Case B, but that’s mostly treated like flavor of the day.
Oh, I guess I can go the other way, and I wanted to talk about this, so WACTOR changed their name to 910, I think? Unsure if the top is still the same or they have been rightfully sacked - from what I remember there was a change in management, but whatever.
Right, I want to talk about this, and in my typical contrarian fashion, I want to say perhaps 910 might be our new future, because something like this happened before, with Unlimited.
If you don’t know what Unlimited is, it’s because they changed their name after they had their own fiasco to Brave Group. Now, I have been talking about how good the Brave group has been for the past year or so, and with that example, could we see the same for 910?
Again, it depends on how 910 manages to navigate this new world. We have our own Mizuki Hiu, which hasn’t changed their actor I believe, so we have her and there are others still remaining, maybe? I’m not sure. Again, let’s see if there is a second Brave happening.
Nijisanji Hate Update
People have been harassing Kotoka because she was the last non-Holo collab before Mel was terminated. That might have been truly cursed cooking. Uh, it is obvious one should not.
There is one rumor regarding Nijisanji lately that is true however. Yes, the management has banned anyone in Nijisanji from playing Palworld because of their relationship with Nintendo. In fact, mentioning the game itself is forbidden, which is a strong forbidding.
Edit - It might not actually be Nintendo, but makers of ARK. I mean, in terms of gameplay, Palworld is more of an ARK clone than a Pokemon clone. Honestly, it could be both!
I think Nintendo is going for the court case. And honestly, and this is confirmed by the CEO of the company who made Palworld, I think Palworld/Pokemon controversy is much of a controversy as Zelda and Genshin, which basically died out after a while, because, you know, Genshin.
But I think despite that Nintendo actually has a good chance winning something, since there is a reason the previous game from the company behind Palworld, Crafttopia, kind of dropped out, and that was because Craftopia used AI generation for their assets. And it could be the case that they haven't stopped doing that for Palworld. If that's the case... yeah, that would be hmm…
By the way, Hololive has been very gung-ho about Palworld, and I believe that is because Yagoo is actually close with the CEO... but that could just be a joke. Probably is a joke.
In the first appearance since... I don't know when, Muyu appeared on Riri's birthday 3D Live. It's not really, but like... for all the people who dropped out from the face of the earth, the fact that Muyu is set on becoming the next late Uiha is kind of interesting for me, personally.
Oh, not really Nijisanji hate, but since that post about Palworld also mentioned Koshien, uh, Tenkai is hosting a return of VTuber Koshien, which was the precursor to Nijisanji Koshien. Apparently the finals will be in 3D, so I guess there was a movement for 3D finals in the summer, maybe?
Edit - Looks like it’s going to be four teams with Shiina helming Nijisanji, Koyori helming Hololive, Shibuya Hal for Neo-Porte (and presumably VSpo as well), and Tenkai will helm for everyone else, basically. This also indicates spring 3D debut for Hal and maybe Reid.
Bonus - Kuromu’s First Day
VSpo academy is one of the most prestigious academies in the VTuber world, focusing on FPS such as APEX and Valorant, the academy has recently gotten a lot of popularity given the members of the academy and recently found support from a big investor.
For a couple years, most of the newcomers were transfers from other academies, because the bar for entering the academy was so high. But today, a newcomer was finally able to pass the gauntlet and able to enter this prestigious academy.
Yano Kuromu gathered all the news clipping of the announcement when she became the first person to pass the VSpo gauntlet as a newcomer after two years. The story of how she overcame her breathing problems and her poor background made her the darling of the VTuber world at the current moment. Because of her background, Kuromu wanted to be part of a group that respects her and sees her as a friend, and as everyone knows VSpo academy was known the bonds of the students of the academy, so she was excited to finally receive the famous love and attention from her wonderful senpai, which Kuromu looked up to greatly.
So, it was quite a surprise when no one showed up on her first day.
Kuromu: Uh, manager? Where is… everyone?
Her breathing got harder, and she had to use her inhaler. The head of the academy was simply known as the Manager, but unlike the bland name, he was super nice and encouraging of his students, and one of the reasons the academy became so renowned.
Manager: Oh sorry! The whole academy just went on a two week vacation to Los Santos! Well, except Lisa, she is sick for the time being.
Kuromu: Huh? That means… I’m alone for the first two weeks.
Manager: Yeah, sorry about that. I honestly didn’t think you wouldn’t survive the gauntlet, so we had a little trouble with the scheduling, but it’s okay. You can practice, right?
Kuromu nodded, and went on to examine the academy. Even though VSpo was proud to announce they were not an idol academy, they recently added a state-of-the-art recording studio and a dance studio. It’s not like this was a flagrant expense, however, as many of the member’s singles regularly went on radio play, although the DJs frequently joked how they were not an idol group and yet seems to have more songs on chart than many actual idol groups.
While Kuromu knew she was not in an idol academy, she loved singing. While she was bedridden in the hospital, all she would listen to was various K-pop bands to the point her accent shifted away from a typical Japanese accent and people would frequently accuse from being elsewhere. But she didn’t mind, now that she was a bona fide member of the VSpo academy and she was about to have the best time of her life with her new set of friends.
Throughout the two weeks, she practiced in the APEX and Valorant playground, hoping to impress her senpais while in the battlefield, waiting for her trusted mentors and friends to come back from their two week spree of killing and scheming in Los Santos. Later, she learned the spree was kind of a Jamboree, featuring people from various academies not just from the VTuber world but from the general streaming universe. While she was too new to join the server, the fact that she would eventually find herself mingling with not just her VSpo senpais but people from all acrossing the streaming universe. She didn’t even know what to do with the future exuberance of experience she was about to embark on and she felt happy.
After two weeks, Kuromu took extra care to present herself as she believed this would be the day that her senpai would finally greet and welcome her to the academy. When she reached the academy, she realized that it was actually Christmas and the academy would be closed for a week, which means she would have to wait another week to meet her senpais.
The week break was extended to do an accident in the Hololive academy’s year-end festivities where one of the mothers proceeded to destroy the campus due to her daughter’s risque vaudeville act, but soon the academy was reopened and Kuromu finally got ready to meet her senpais in the Valorant playground… except there was no one there.
Kuromu: Wait. Where is everyone?
The manager rushed in and consoled her while telling where her senpais went.
Manager: Oh, you see during the year-end party, your senpais decided to head towards LoL land and play a few games there and they found themselves addicted and now are forever playing that game over there. I didn’t realize no one would actually come back after that excursion. Don’t worry, I’ll call someone to show you our Minecraft fields.
Ah, Minecraft fields. Kuromu had watched VSpo senpais showing the former newcomers the place as it was a tradition to do so. In fact, she watched it many times, as if she was trying to compensate for the loneliness she was feeling at the time. It was odd to her that she was feeling lonely. She felt lonely her entire life to the point she thought the pang of friendship was dulled out, but perhaps the chance to meet friends who would respect and praise her rekindled this pang which was now ringing loudly in the absence of these new friends.
After some conversation from the manager, he announced that Sumire would be joining Kuromu in the Minecraft field in a couple of days. Kuromu camped out in the Minecraft field, where she was already familiar with the sights due to the countless rewatch of all of VSpo academy’s Minecraft streams, waiting for her dai-senpai to arrive and continue the tradition.
When the time came, Kuromu waited for Sumire to arrive, an hour passed and there were no signs of her at all. It was a full day-cycle in the field before Sumire rushed to meet the newcomer finally for the first time after a full month of Kuromu’s enrollment.
Sumire: Oh! I’m so sorry! I was caught in a particular long game of League of Legends. You know how these games can trap you for a long time.
Kuromu did not know but she nodded anyway with a smile, elated that finally she was able to spend time with her senpais who she had been waiting for a month at this point.
During their time together, Kuromu asked Sumire about LoL land and if she could join them there. Sumire explained LoL land is a daunting place and that one needs to spend about three weeks in the tutorial before heading to the bot playgrounds for further training until she is finally able to play in the normal playgrounds where her senpai was playing.
Kuromu was not daunted by the challenge. She was able to pass the VSpo gauntlet after all, and that took years of training. She spent those years of struggle just so that she was able to work with people that she admired so much while she was bedridden with bronchitis. Her continuing health problems popped up and she popped in an inhaler once more.
When Kuromu finally got herself into LoL land, she realized how oppressive the place was. No wonder her senpai got stuck for hours. All the commitments and money-grabbing tactics were in full force as she went through hundreds of legends and various types of positions.
When Kuromu finally arrived in the normal playground, she found herself not surprised that none of her senpais are playing the game anymore. She was late once more.
Hinano: Ugh, the new map sucks! Why do they have to change the map so much anyway!
Mimitaya: Yeah! I heard Valorant started a new season, wanna go there?
Hinano: Yeah, absolutely!
Kuromu finally bawled like a little baby that she was. Her memories flashed back to her past. Because of small stature, she was never able to stand out and was frequently ignored by her peers. She would get corralled into elementary school or get creeped on by people around her, like a girl about the same stature as her and wearing a cheerleader outfit that didn’t belong to any team - she knew she was friends with her senpais and she was worried she would find her. And there was this high-schooler with a black tube on his back that stared at her frequently. He was a weird person, although apparently he was well-liked by his peers.
Kurmou realized VSpo academy was not what it used to be anymore. During the two years between the hiring of a new student, although they hire transfers in the interim, the place has gotten bigger, the people have gotten busier and that would only continue to develop. She was never going to be part of the friendly vibe she admired while bedridden. They had enough people in their roster at this point and did not have a capacity in their mind to add more.
She was always going to be out of place in this community. She was used to that, but still she couldn’t stop crying as she finally went back after a grueling match that lasted for hours with her teammates only chiding her since she was a newbie. She laid down in her bed, thinking that while she was able to go outside, part of her never really left the bed at all.