Since its initial announcement last year, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) formally announces the first generation of VTubers under the “VEE” virtual talent development and management project. The first generation is composed of three new talents and two existing ones.
Otokado Ruki, Tulsi-Nightmare Madness IV, Hinahoshi Airu, Kujo Ringo and Syusetu Kohaku are revealed as the first generation members of the VEE project, as the “Dev-a” generation. Their individual profiles, Twitter accounts and debut schedules are revealed today, May 23, 2022.
Otokado Ruki is described as inferior devil student with a friendly personality. She thought that Nostradamus’ great prophecy would destroy mankind, so she came to the human world to make memories until that time comes. However, the world is all right, and she decided to stay, pretending as a human and going to school. She became a VTuber thanks to her liking of otaku culture, with a goal to know humans better.
Debut: May 27, 2022 (Friday) – 8:00pm JST
The eldest daughter of the prestigious Kujo family, she is a hybrid lady vampire-human. She governs Marc Horte, the western country of the demon world. She comes from the demon world to become the new lord of the “main human beings” who live their lives hard.
Kujo Ringo has a stellar profile as one of the popular VTubers on the SHOWROOM app, has been featured in the SIGGRAPH 2019 VTuber Showcase, and is a host of her weekly radio show.
VEE Debut: May 26, 2022 (Thursday) – 9:00pm JST
Kohaku is a fox, not a cat, who was blown into this world from a forest in a different world. As she wonders around the new world she’s in, she stumbled upon a game for no apparent reason. As she got obsesses with the game, she became a hikikomori.
She excels at Apex Legends and has coached other VTubers. She is also an overall winner at the Legion Doujou Cup VTuber Edition in 2020.
VEE Debut: May 24, 2022 (Tuesday) – 9:00pm JST
In terms of age, the demon lord Tulsi-Nightmare Madness IV is perhaps the oldest in the roster at 100,017 years old—but she insists she’s just 17. She claims that he had a nice body in the past, but having slept tens of thousands of years (as per her profile), she never grew up; and her magical powers are not enough to make her big.
She needs an overwhelming amount of magical power to make herself big, and the only way to do it is to collect them from her fans via the Makainternet (demon internet). Her dream is to build a humongous castle in Harajuku.
Debut: May 27, 2022 (Friday) – 10:00pm JST
Airu is described as an alien from a distant star who seems to like the earth. Instead of invading the earth, she dreams of becoming the main character of a story that saved the earth. She likes to play a lot.
Debut: May 27, 2022 (Friday) – 9:00pm JST
Aside from the five new members, VEE introduces Hanabi, its public relations officer in charge of sharing updates from the project:
VEE is Sony Music Entertainment Japan’s largest virtual talent development and management project in history. With the tagline “VTubers are human too,” they made it their business to discover talents and to continue nurturing them. More information is available on the VEE project website, as well their Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Sony Music Japan’s VTuber investments include Virtual Cinderella Project in cooperation with Bilibili, produced by Rino Sashihara; the VERSEⁿ project under Sony Music Labels’ NeOFRONT brand and Helixes; and the multilingual PRISM Project. Sony Music Japan also has a major investment in ANYCOLOR Inc., the management company of Nijisanji.
Photo Handouts from Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. · ©VEE