Welcome to another weekly round-up of some of the highlights and downfalls we have seen from the VTuber community. From numerous debuts, collaborations, and everything in between, here is this week’s round-up of VTuber updates from January 17, 2022.
FANTASIA, the much-anticipated physical concert of VTuber group NIJISANJI in Japan has been officially canceled, which was supposed to happen on January 22 to 23 at the PIA ARENA MM in Yokohama.
NIJISANJI earlier announced that only Day 2 will be canceled due to its members Kenmochi Toya, Kanae, Kagami Hayato, Yashiro Kizuku all having contracted COVID-19. The agency also told publicly that in-person sales have been canceled as well.
However, they ensured the public that mail orders will be available from the Nijisanji Official Store, and information regarding refunds and/or ticket transfers to rescheduled will be announced on their official Twitter and the official website at a later date.
The two-day event was to be held in celebration of the agency’s fourth year anniversary.
Source: NIJISANJI Twitter
Almost everyone in the VTuber community despises the presence of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in the community – and that hatred just got amplified even more.
Indie VTuber Freya Amari posted on Twitter that the Twitch channel links of some of VShojo’s talents such as Zentreya, ironmouse, and Veibae are being sold as NFTs on OpenSea, a popular online marketplace for buying and selling NFTs.
Such a case is one of the many instances of online channels of content creators being sold as NFTs without their consent. Some of these popular cases include YouTubers Caddicarus, James Stephanie Sterling, and Alanah Pearce.
While VShojo and its executives haven’t made any further statements about this issue, OpenSea told in a statement to Input Mag that it is illegal to sell NFTs on their platform that may violate the publicity rights of other people.
“We regularly enforce this in multiple ways, including delisting and banning accounts when we are notified that usage of a likeness is not authorized.
Furthermore, we have a zero-tolerance policy for NCII (non-consensual intimate imagery). NFTs using NCII or similar images (including images doctored to look like someone that they are not) are prohibited, and we move quickly to ban accounts that post this material.
We are actively expanding our efforts across customer support, trust and safety, and site integrity so we can move faster to protect and empower our community and creators.”
OpenSea’s statement in regards to the NFT controversy (via Input Mag)
MyHoloTV, the Malaysian-based VTuber agency, has warned its followers to keep on the lookout of online accounts that are impersonating their talents.
This comes after the agency discovered a group chat on the messaging platform LINE impersonating one of its talents, HORI 07. The agency goes on to say that they can verify their talent lineup through their talent page on their website.
Indie VTuber Yuuki called out on Twitter another VTuber named Yuri Narin for tracing her original emotes used on stream and creating an emote pack just like hers, only with different colors.
Many indie VTubers supported Yuuki’s tweet, adding that tracing is stealing someone’s original art and using it for their own benefit. In response, Yuri Narin earlier defended her action, stating that it was just for ‘inspiration’. As of this writing, she has deleted her Twitter account, but a screenshot of her original Twitlonger statement still exists.
Indonesian indie VTuber Hibiki Kayomi will be graduating on the 30th of January, according to the latest announcement posted on Twitter.
In a tweet by HNZ, the admin of Hibiki’s Discord server, said that the rest of the team under Hibiki Kayomi will also cease operations. Hibiki is described as a virtual singer who debuted in May 2020 and has since then released multiple song covers, ranging from K/DA to Hololive’s IRyS.
Indie VTuber Lenox has defended their fellow VTuber siblings, known collectively as the Chaian siblings, amid their illustrator Yueko’s ongoing involvement in NFTs.
In a tweet, Lenox told their followers that one can support the VTubers themselves while not associating them with their illustrator who have ventured into something the general public doesn’t feel strongly about.
In the past few weeks, Yueko, one of the well-known illustrators in the VTuber community, have recently dabbled into NFTs, where some of her original works were sold for as much as 3.664 ETH (around US$16,000).
Yueko has defended her venture into the NFT space, stating that it allows her to focus more on creating original art and giving her choice as to what artworks will she prioritize doing.
The Chaian siblings are VTubers consisting of Lenox, Yulietta, Wisteria Iroha, Skye, Sellena, and Aozora Kurumi.
Still Group, a Japan-based company, has announced that it will be launching a first-ever metaverse-centric VTuber project called “Haven-X”. According to the company, they aim to provide a completely new entertainment experience using blockchain technology such as tokens and NFTs.
Despite the company’s initial announcement, it was met with criticism from the community, especially with the involvement of NFTs and blockchain technology. In response, Haven-X took to Twitter to explain the company’s side of the integration.
We plan on incorporating technologies such as NFTs, blockchain, and the metaverse in the future. To reiterate, these technologies are still under heavy research and development in our organization.
Our plan with these technologies is to create an exciting, new, and unique form of entertainment. We believe that this will result in a revolution from the conventional fan-economy that many VTuber companies are using right now to an interactive fan economy. We envision a community-driven environment.
As previously stated, before all of this is implemented, we are still doing heavy research into NFTs and their uses.
Source: Haven-X Website
A new indie VTuber group is looking to tap into the growing community: meet Polariz☆Project.
While there is not much to say about the group at the moment, the upcoming VTuber project will be composed of six female talents, all with their own personalities. Reveals for the talents will be announced in the following days.
4V Live, a US-based virtual entertainment group has announced the debut of its newest VTuber class called “4VNus”.
The new team’s debuts streams will commence on Twitch from January 28th and 29th, starting at 8pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) / 5pm PST each day.
4VNus consist of Neiomi Cielo (Astral Wolf), Boomi Mamana (Demon), Cecilia Amberfall (Elf), and Yuna Sunaga (Lesser Dragon). Kindly take note of the “Parental Advisory: Mature Content” tag.
“4Vnus expressed their desire to open a new chapter in storytelling in the medium of virtual entertainment. It is our desire to fulfill and serve our virtual content creators so they can express themselves creatively and without restrictions.”
Chris Padilla, Vice President of Growth and Communications at 4V Inc.
Source: 4V Live Website
YashinLive, a VTuber group in the Philippines, has officially unveiled the last member of its Generation 0: Rezochi, described as The Obsidian Dagger.
She will be officially debuting on January 23, 2022 at 10am JST on Twitch. We have more details on the completion of YashinLive’s Generation 0 in this feature story.
Projekt Nova, another upcoming VTuber group, has announced that it will be debuting its talents on January 28 (PST).
Members of Hololive English -Myth- and Hololive Indonesia’s first generation are revealed to be the additional members for the anticipated “Link Your Wish” event to be held alongside the Hololive Super Expo on March 19, 2022 at the Makuhari Messe Event Hall.
As part of the announcement, Hololive also announced official merchandise customized for the event, including light sticks, tote bags, and t-shirts.
Source: Hololive Super Expo Event Site
Popular anime RPG game Princess Connect! Re: Dive has announced a partnership with NIJISANJI EN as part of its 1-year anniversary promotion.
For the whole month, NIJISANJI’s talents from the female groups LazuLight, OBSYDIA, and Ethyria will be having their own schedules to play the game, starting off with Enna Alouette and Reimu Endou on January 20, 7PM PST.
In 2020, the game partnered up with Hololive English as part of making the game more global. Some of the campaigns included an initial gameplay from Takanashi Kiara and an original song called “Ibasho (Where I Belong)” composed and performed by Mori Calliope.
Source: Princess Connect! Twitter
CodeMiko, one of the most popular VTubers on Twitch, has been signed in by US-based entertainment and esports company Envy Gaming as its content creator. Through the endeavor, CodeMiko joins real-life content creators Botez Sisters and JustAMinx to form Envy Gaming’s first-ever all-women content house.
According to Dexerto, Envy Gaming’s Chief Content Officer Andrew Peterman shared how forward-looking Miko’s work is.
“We’re inspired by what CodeMiko has built – both technically and how she connects with her community. VTubing is only going to continue to grow, and we’re thrilled to have Miko join Envy to bring us further into her world.”
Andrew Peterman, chief content officer at Envy Gaming, on CodeMiko (via Dexerto)
Two members of the Hololive EN -Council- have announced their debut single this month, namely Nanashi Mumei and Ouro Kronii.
Mumei’s original song is titled A New Start, a Celtic-based song focused on the themes of travel and exploration. The music video for the song debuted January 17, and is also available on Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes, and Deezer.
Meanwhile, Ouro Kronii’s debut single is Daydream, and while the MV teaser has been published on January 21, you can listen to the song on YouTube Music and other streaming platforms.
Once again, thank you all for reading this week’s VTuber news round-up. You can also read some of our past coverage on major VTuber updates.
Also read the past VTuber News Recaps:
January 9, 2022 · January 2, 2022
Featured Image: (from left to right) Nanashi Mumei / ©COVER CORP.; comfyLenox; Ouro Kronii / ©COVER CORP.