State of The VTuber World - Rest of November

No Comments, this post will be more off-the-cuff and updating.

Flow Glow, A Low Blow?

People think I'm a Hololive hater, but I think I care about Hololive more than Nijisanji.

Or at least, I see the changing of the guards and I want Hololive to manage themselves at the top better than Nijisanji did, and this news is going to be The Test to see if they have what it takes (for me).

November is a good month for Hololive.

I think HoloX's debut was one of the cleanest and most well-executed debut for Hololive that I have ever seen. They had a Debut PV, and immediately started debuting soon after. They let the talents set the goals themselves and not ditter over the excitement.

ReGloss was the opposite of that. Hololive felt they needed to prove DEV_IS's existence, when the best they could have done was to simply... show what was different.

Flow Glow gets up to a better start then. Simple Debut PV and debut in two days, with all five talents debuting in succession (first time they have done this since HoloCouncil, I believe). With a look and vibe that immediately departs from the Hololive look, I feel DEV_IS finally found a purpose.

I have great hopes for this new gen. Let's see the numbers and let's see I can finally seal my approval.

NijiFes Preview

So, what's Nijisanji's strategy here?

First, note that this probably was planned ways in advance. But considering the cancelling of Summer Jam, they could simply dialed back down their support of EN, but they seemingly doubled down.

That's because they are shifting their strategy. Instead of closing the branch because there is no western support, they are instead trying to beg the JP fans to take good care of the EN people.

In short, they are trying to avoid an ID scenario.

Tesla vs. Scrap Heap

Early in the year, I described Cover as this bloated cart that was about to explode.

I'll bring up an analogy. Remember when Tesla introduced self-driving features? It was clear after a few trials that this self-driving feature was not ready for prime time, but Tesla didn't respond to that.

Unlike Tesla, Hololive does tend to fix their problems, which is why I feel more free to write about Hololive's problems because I know Cover is likely going to solve these problems, and I think I feel confident with how they dealt with Flow Glow, as I wrote in here and in my annual post.

What about Nijisanji, you say? Well, considering the history of the company, my analogy is that Nijisanji is nothing like a bloated cart, but a scrap heap that somehow has kept running for 7 years.

Which is why the sole Hololive dominance is actually a good thing, because they could reliably receive a trickle of audience from Hololive collabs and maintain what they have. They don't need to grow, they kind of don't want to grow, because it's become a lot more risky.

One of the biggest faults in people analyzing Nijisanji is that they do not consider Nijisanji holistically. One of the biggest faults in ANYCOLOR regarding their promotion for NijiEN at the very beginning, and I think I wrote this at the time, is that they hewed too closely to the Hololive playbook and gave people the wrong impression what Nijisanji was all about.


Popular posts from this blog

State of The VTuber World - (Rest) of July 2025

Good Riddance, VShojo There is only two reasons to be an EN corpo now. Either you have some legal issue that needs protections (like KURO) or you are wading to a pursuit filled with red tape like Music (so, AmaLee). Any other promises that EN corpo has made is now false. Ironmouse should have known this when Nyatasha left. I personally think she was kind of gaslighted in that contract decision, because of VShojo was desperate to hold onto to her because she was the last real crowd-bringer left. I'm sad that being stiffed out of a huge charity was the catalyst... Well, they still have their remaining members, although who knows if the company will exist... I'm With Husband There is a reason Nimi is so goddamn hated by Hololive fans - her residual success is part of this, but I did want to write this exactly when Fauna left - but it felt too brash. But I have this now, so... Ceres Fauna left because she hated 'Hololive', not the nominal Hololive of the talents - I do thin...
Read more

State of The VTuber World - January 2025

 Fauna's Graduation and Dependency This Friday is Fauna's graduation. Um, Fauna is interesting. How I see Fauna is through her love of Northernlion. The streamer is an epitome of an archetype of the rugged individual - someone who is flexible in moral substance but strict in moral structure. Fauna exhibits similar behaviors and I like her for that sense of humor that those people have. But Saplings are a different kind of beast. I think when Fauna was first debuting, people saw Rushia. Rushia is the epitome of the person who crave dependency and in the worst way possible. It's not like you can create a somewhat stable dependency - I think Okayu is the perfect example of that. Like, Okayu is a pure dominatrix - she has an uncanny ability to control people who wants to be controlled. But she loves attention, Rushia craves attention. But Fauna is not like Rushia or Okayu - she does care about dependency at all! What we have a classic mismatch and that's going to be a probl...
Read more