Welcome to this week’s VTuber news round-up. Sadly, this is our last round-up—let’s call this one an early Graduation. We aimed at writing all fifty-two weeks of this year, but sadly creative differences and other internal matters have brought us to this moment.
We apologize if we can no longer bring you more weekly updates, but rest assured the members of the VTuber Section will remain active in their support for the VTubing community—who knows, maybe you could see a new initiative from any of us.
For now, we are taking this last round-up to let you catch up with the latest happenings in the VTubing community:
VTubers at Anime Expo 2022: VShojo Next and Hololive Meet & Greet
Anime Expo 2022 at Los Angeles Convention Center is finally in full swing, and is the expo’s first outdoor event since 2019 due to pandemic restrictions. Aside from ongoing anime and manga panels, there is also a huge presence of VTubers who are present at the convention.
The biggest VTuber update (so far) at Anime Expo is VShojo’s latest venture called ‘VShojo Next’, aimed at expanding its presence from the USA to Japan. The agency also surprised the community when it announced its debut members in Japan namely Amemiya Nazuna and our favorite ‘gangster’ VTuber, Kson.
Fans were also taken aback when the real Kson also appeared during VShojo’s panel at the expo. We can’t wait for what’s next for VShojo in Japan. Kson is set to have a re-debut on July 16, alongside the new member Nazuna.
Meanwhile, Hololive debuted its “Meet & Greet” at the Anime Expo, where fans have the opportunity to check out merchandise from Hololive, as well as check out other paraphernalia from the VTuber agency giant.
The Ugly and Bad: Chargebacks and Hacks
As a content creator, whether you are a streamer or an artist, one of the things that we fear will not happen to us at any time is receiving a massive chargeback on our digital payments. This is exactly what happened to VTuber Mely, as she received a US$7,008.50 chargeback on PayPal from a viewer called “Don_Krampus69.” According to the thread, the viewer charged back months’ worth of donations from the VTuber.
Following the incident, many VTubers have offered their advice regarding chargebacks, including Doki, a VTuber who graduated in May 2021. According to her, streamers must provide a lot of evidence for PayPal to resolve the issue, including email receipts of the donations, clips of the donation alerts, among others.
Meanwhile, on other news, several TikTok accounts of Nijisanji members have been hacked through a third-party service. They were taken down by a coordinated group, and it has affected 11 accounts in total, according to Dexerto.
Other bad updates in the VTuber community include:
A ‘free VTuber model’ made by an artist going by the username of @0x4682B4 will no longer be made available for free, as many people have used the model for the wrong reasons and have caused troubles for the artist.
‘Sign’, the upcoming album from Hololive’s Tokino Sora, will have its release postponed due to production issues.
Nijisanji’s Kai Mayuzumi has announced that he will be graduating from the agency on July 24. In his announcement video, he explained that by continuing his activities half-heartedly, he felt that it would be rude to those around him.
Over at Nijisanji still, Finana Ryugu has apologized regarding her actions on banning the word ‘trap’ on her streams, and after criticism from Twitter.
Months after Uruha Rushia’s termination from Hololive, Cover Corp has cleared that the content of their termination press release has no errors to date following rumors of the nature of termination.
MyHoloTV has warned its followers of online personas personating them and their talents on Bilibili. They have cleared that they are not in any way affiliated with the streaming platform.
AtheriaPro’s Iekushi Chapipi goes on hiatus, and Clear Usui has discontinued its use of her 3D model, as it was powered by VKatsu, which ended service this June.
Interesting VTuber News: Open-Ended Questions and Advice
Quick question: how do you measure the success of a VTuber agency? This was the question Pipkin Pippa asked her followers on Twitter. On her poll, she said four choices: staff, community, talents, and funding. There’s a great response regarding talents and community, with some comparing large agencies like Hololive and Nijisanji noting that talents and community have made them big enough in the VTubing space.
Answering this based on our take, all of these factors play a great role in the success of an agency, but if we were to pick the most important of them all, it would be the talents, since they carry the image of the agency. But then, talents need to grow—and for that, they need a loyal fanbase with purchasing power, staff members that can help them along the way, and funding from external investors in case they want to expand operations.
Other interesting news we have gathered include:
How can you take the essence of a chill VTuber to the next level? Meet Grandma Marigold, who takes the persona of a calm grandmother. We can’t wait to hear more from her!
It’s great to hear when talents give future applicants tips when auditioning for their agency. Take Nijisanji’s Hakase Fuyuki for instance, where she noted in a stream about tips when auditioning, including being considerate with the interviewees.
Hololive Updates: Mori Calliope on Rolling Stone Japan, HoloCure Fan Game
Mori Calliope is the face of a limited edition of Rolling Stone Japan, set for release for free at the Hololive booth at Anime Expo 2022.
HoloCure, a fan-made game, has been making rounds in the Hololive community, with many of the VTuber talents playing it on stream. It also received multiple media coverage, so much so that the developer had closed the game’s leaderboards due to the huge number of players.
Several collaborations have happened: HoloX is doing a stream together in 3D, while HoloMyth had its first full off-collab!
We’ve got several individual updates as well: Kureiji Ollie is joining the TZ Game Labs Apex tourney, and Ninomae Ina’nis got confused as to what happened to her art tag (context is, people flooded her art tag with fan art featuring her back—and yes, we’re all here for it).
Other updates include:
Holostars’ 1st Act live concert is getting a Blu-ray release.
A new Twitter account, ‘@Holopro_En,’ has been opened for other HoloEN updates.
Hakos Baelz announces brand collaboration with HYTE and iBUYPOWER for a PC case featuring an artwork of her done by Rosuuri.
Nijisanji and VShojo Updates:
Maimoto Keisuke gets interviewed by content creators Suiyou Ojisan on Niconico
Nagao Kei attempts to speak English every day until July 24, the day of his birthday.
Hololive’s Akai Haato is the newest guest on Ironmouse’s ‘Speak of the Devil’ podcast.
Other Good VTuber Updates:
Tsunderia and Phase Connect are present in the Anime Expo with a booth.
VERSEⁿ, one of Sony Music Entertainment Japan’s VTuber projects, has released a lore video detailing the past stories revolving around its characters. The video is narrated by Rin, a teenage girl played by voice actress Tomori Kusunoki.
Merch of Nijisanji’s Hyakumantenbara Salome available on Famima Print.
Official Hololive merch available at the ongoing Anime Expo
Several VTuber Nendoroid merchandise were announced by Good Smile Company during Anime Expo, namely Nijisanji’s Vox Akuma, Nendoroid Ironmouse and Nyanners, as well as Pop Up Parade Nyanners and Veibae.
Indonesian VTuber project Cilifford opens up Gen 2 auditions
KoMETA is on the hunt for artists, character designers and riggers to conceptualize upcoming Gen 2
Bilibili is looking for VTubers in Singapore and Malaysia who are interested in joining their VTuber streaming program
There you have it, our last VTuber news round-up. We started this round-up series as a way to better represent the VTuber community in media coverage. We always believe that every VTuber, big or small, has played their great part in the thriving community we know today. You guys are an inspiration to us.
But then, all things must come to an end, and we couldn’t thank enough to all of the readers and VTubers that have followed our weekly updates to give the VTubing community the spotlight it deserves.
Meanwhile, our section editor Jay, whom I have worked with throughout these round-ups, is taking a step back from his writing duties at Anime Corner and instead help the site in a different capacity. I couldn’t thank him enough for allowing me to join this site in the first place, and it has been an honor working alongside him through these times.
On behalf of the VTuber Section, this is the VTuber News Round-Up, officially signing off. Still, you are always welcome to read anime news here at Anime Corner. See you all in the next endeavors. Thank you. for reading.
Featured Image: Mori Calliope, Kson, SaysayVT Disclosure: This writer also works at Idol Corp as a communications executive.
Teddy Cambosa is a freelance writer and journalist who is currently a final year student at the Batangas State University, where he is studying Biology. He is a senior writer at marketing publication MARKETECH APAC, and also contributes to several online outlets such as PAKSA MNL, Outbreak News Today, and VTuber NewsDrop. He loves to talk about things related to marketing, advertising, branding, VTubers, astronomy and music.