Weekly NewsDrop #28—April 8, 2023

We're not expecting much bigger news this week, but here we are! These are what's up this week, at a glance:

• The huge VTuber gathering UwU Market is hosting at Weebcon Texas plus a major Hololive Meet event at Anime Boston,
• Nijisanji Puyo Puyo Tetris Event happening as we write this edition, and
• Surprise from Production Kawaii's Gen 3 as they left the agency altogether. We leave it to the staff and remaining talents to explain their situation. Here's what we know.

Latest on NewsDrop

• Amatsuka Uto to suspend activities indefinitely by April 30, the second time the VTuber has done such.
• VReverie's pioneer Gen 0 VTuber, Hotaru Iora, graduates after more than a year of indefinite hiatus.
• Philippines' ONLive VTuber event—endorsed by no less than US' OffKai Expo—announces its guests: Dasu, Maddie, and KiraKiraKat.
• Hololive Meet announces its newest ambassadors for this year: Sakura Miko, Kureiji Ollie, IRyS, Regis Altare and Yukoku Roberu.

VTuber Stock Watch: Week of April 3 to 7

The week started positive for our key players, but Friday's closing left everyone in the red. Reading the 5-day chart, Anycolor lost 660 yen this week, making them this week's biggest loser.

We are monitoring 10 key players including Rentracks (MAHA5, MAHA5Japan, MAHA5Thailand), which we added last Tuesday when VRChama brought it to our attention.

VTuber News of the Week

Japan: Following the transfer of Aogiri High School's operations from Brave Group to its allied business partner ViviON, the group accepts a new member—the alien Etra, part of Eilene's family of characters. Merchandise commemorating her entry to Aogiri is now on sale.

April Fools Gone Wrong?: Lumi Kaneko lives her name as a star thief VTuber as she streamed on April Fools' Day using models of her former CyberLive colleagues.

• Ayane Hylo, Inami Yoki and Oumiya Emma "appeared" during said stream, without permission of the said VTubers.
• They all called the attention of Phase-Connect management on Twitter, to which the agency responding that this will not happen again.

Indonesia: "Who / Are / You / ? 💀," Airani Iofifteen calls out a Twitter user impersonating Aoi Nabi, who has squatted the illustrator's previous Twitter username (she's now using a private account, @nabiseedling).

• M Hidayat first brought attention to this by describing who the impostor is—he points out to a certain Mayurishia Firda Rosaline.
• An easy Twitter search plus verification through Discord's link previews led us to understand that she also had used a previous username prior to squatting Nabi's previous Twitter username, which is followed by 2,900 users not knowing that they're not following the actual illustrator.
• We have yet to see the next actions that this certain Mayurishia will take following the expose.

Thailand: Flixer App announced the voice cast for the Thai dub of Kizuna no Allele, released this week, which include:

• Award-winning Thai VTuber Aisha (Aisika Watchanaroj) as Kizuna Ai
• Ayna (Algorhythm Project / ARP) as Miracle
• Laibaht (ManyVProject) as Quan
• Reirin (Pixela) as Chris
• Elvene (Pixela) as Noelle
• Zona (Polygon Project) as Riz
• Uniwii, Dacapo (ARP) and Lawrenze (Blessing Studio) are also joining the Thai dub cast.

The series has already premiered worldwide this week.

Online: Lain Paterson is hailed the Nijisanji PuyoPuyo™Tetris® 2 Tournament Champion this weekend.

• Paterson stood out from 19 other competitors from across Nijisanji and Nijisanji EN in a live stream hosted by Selen Tatsuki and co-hosted by Hana Macchia and Ike Eveland.
• Eden-gumi's bodyguard won against Azura Cecilia in the finals with a score of 2-5 in favor of Paterson.

In Other News

• Indonesia: Harmonia's Gen 3 is coming soon.
• VSaikyo: Minase from Neo Porte joins Ha Yun's team.
• VTubers now signed to Mythic Talent: Yuniiho, Chibidokii, FalseEyeD, Rosedoodle, Squchan.
• Copyrights: Mysta Rias did so well in emulating Usher's singing voice that his live stream got suspended and he needed to set up another one. Here's him wondering...
• Depressed Nousagi, after bading farewell, can't resist and returned back to his crowd.
• BanG Dream! Girls Band Party will collaborate with Hololive Production starting April 15, celebrating the game's 5th anniversary. The content will be exclusive in English version only.
• Nijisanji is producing a new program project called Nijiban, with the program format this month hosted by Petra Gurin and Kei Nagao.
• Stream Breaks: Gaon,
• Events: Riot Music Re:Volt 2023 supported by ViviON happens on April 15 at Line Cube Shibuya. It will also be streamed on YouTube.
• VTuber Appearances: Kawa Entertainment Gen 1 Kascade, Chikafuji Lisa, Iron Vertex at Offkai Expo. Phase Connect will be at Sakura Con from April 8-9. Mysta and Finana Ryugu will participating in the upcoming HoYoFair on April 15, 10pm JST.
• Korea: Team Erai joins MCN agency Stargazer, VROZ reports.
• Also in Korea: Rising male group PLAVE clarified that cosplay photobooks of its characters cannot be sold. It alsi asks fans to wait for official merch release before fans produce and sell art.
• Whale Taylor is set to have two new VTuber colleagues.
• Walking VTuber selfie camera demonstrated by MikoVerse.

Platforms

• Kawa Entertainment and Lucid Multimedia are Throne Partner Agencies.
• Elon Musk has replaced the Twitter icon with the Shiba Inu associted with the doge meme (and Dogecoin) for a few days.
• Twitch to launch several sponsorship-based experiments, such as channel skins, sponsored gift subs, brand-subsidized sub discounts and more.
• YouTube adds ads automation as an option for live creators.
• Apparently, playing the same track over and over again in the background can also lead you to get a warning from YouTube. Now we know.

Matters on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• Tension brews up at VTubers.me as its head faces criticism against the platform's misgendering and compensation. It was also mentioned that the software used can be purchased online, something that the developer did not hide. There is more to this matter than just a few words in this bullet point.
• As Opera GX opens its audition for its brand VTuber, its application was questioned by limiting the age requirement to "someone between 20-30 years of age." It has since been removed, clarifying that "The applications are open to anyone above 18."

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