Weekly NewsDrop #40—July 1, 2023

Happy Birthday, Grimace!—We've been greeting the celebrant for around 3 weeks already, the guy's birthday (June 12) has already passed, and anyone outside the US may want to try taking a sip even at a "terrible" cost.

Look, even VTubers are into this thing—Mari Yume, Lae-Dee and Giri got hit; and Kozii almost joined them. At least we got the recipe from Puff and even THE Lynja—not to mention that one asset for your VTube Studio.

Speaking of, it's VTube Studio's 3rd year anniversary! Steam Summer Sale offers 50% off for its products, and it has a collaboration with UwU Market for exclusive merch—you know, the stuff only VTubers know. *wink wonk*

Lastly, it's Anime Expo, SMASH and Dokomi weekend, and we're already seeing great stuff. This is aside from Production Kawaii and Hololive English's concerts. We'll get to those events in the next Event Reports (hopefully)—but for now, let's have a good look at some of the interesting stories in VTubing this week.

Latest on NewsDrop

• We released our Event Report for OffKai Expo Gen 2, complete with an interview with one of its executive staff, Mari: "Honestly, next year we want to focus on continuing what worked this year, and improving what didn't. Expansion and innovation isn't always the answer, especially since we grew so much between our Debut and Gen2."
• On the Spotlight: Yosuke Arai, founder of VTuber group VOLs, spoke to NewsDrop about its decision to enter the Philippine audience first.
• On Behind the Model: Utano Pandora—"But when I found VTubing, I was like, I did more research and I was like, ‘wait, can I do this?’ These people sing. These people dance. This is perfect for me."

Here's the latest stock market update for select VTuber companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of June 30, 2023:

Biggest VTuber News of the Week

Just before we kick things off, reminder to everyone that you can no longer access Tweets if you're not logged in to Twitter. Please take note of that.  

Graduations at Nijisanji

Nina Kosaka and four more Indonesian talents have announced their graduation, which brings concerns among fans if this is a continuing trend.

• Fox mom Nina, who is set to host her last stream at Tanabata day (July 7), will exit the agency to pursue her own growth: "[...] As exciting as this experience was, it was also overwhelmingly humbling. I began to realize there was a gap forming between what my fellow livers were delivering, what I wanted to deliver, and what you all deserved."
• Azura Cecillia, Nara Haramaung, Reza Avanluna and Hyona Eliatora will join other Nijisanji ID members who graduated this year—including Amicia Michella who is set to exit July 16. Amichon even retweeted the announcement with this comment: "[A]ctually been holding myself to say "I'm the last.... for the first batch..."

Meanwhile: Nijisanji parent Anycolor Inc. will transition from a company with a board of corporate auditors to a company with an audit committee, Gamebiz reports. (Hat tip to Neoshadow at the TVS Discord for the tag!)

• Shifting to a company with an audit committee composed of external auditors is set to improve corporate governance.
• The company aims to strengthen the supervisory function of its board of directors and enhancing its supervisory system by making the members of the audit committee—responsible for auditing the performance of its directors' duties—as voting members of the board.
• The transition is subject to approval at the company's 6th annual Shareholders Meeting set for July 28 this year. Alongside this, Anycolor also decided on candidates for directors to be proposed at the shareholders' meeting and will make partial changes to its Articles of Incorporation reflecting this change.
• While we understand that this is a major step for Anycolor, this may not be uncommon among Japanese companies.

As we look through this, here are some of the good news at the agency:

• Select talents will have 3.0 brushups coming soon.
• Nijisanji Koshien Draft Meeting has concluded, and we have a lineup of 10 teams participating in this year's spectacle.
• A Nijisanji Volleyball Tournament will happen on July 9 with participants playing Nintendo Switch Volleyball in their 3D modes.
• Uki Violeta raised $34,000 for the Human Rights Campaign after hosting a 6-hour charity stream.
• McDonald's Japan collaborates with Kanae, Fuwa Minato and Belmond Banderas.
• Nijisanji and Nijisanji EN merch is available at the Animate booth inside Anime Expo.
• Mahiro Yukishiro attended the J.League match between Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo and Cerezo Osaka.
• Nijisanji EN collaborates with New Era caps.

New Music at PRISM Project and Hololive

PRISM Project, which already completed its debut lineup for this year with the Cerulea generation, also secured a record deal for Shiki Miyoshino. The occult inugami is set to release her first digital single Hanahaki Syndrome Wednesday, July 12.

• This is the second major record label deal for an English VTuber next to Hololive English's Mori Calliope for Universal Music Japan.

On Tanabata Day (July 7), newly debuted Gen 7 member Nana Asteria is set to release her original song Call Unto You which you can save to your library in advance.

• Another Cerulean Emma Oumiya, has also released a full cover of Akuma no ko from Attack on Titan Season 4.

Meanwhile at Hololive, AZKi secures a major record label debut from Victor Entertainment, with the extended play album to be released on October 4.

Breaking New Records

New Records: Gamers Outreach's VTuber Summer Slam 2023 has raised more than double its previous record, with Nyaru topping the individual rankings.

• Ironmouse also broke her own subathon record as she currently has reached 173,455 subs.

Hololive Summer!

Lastly, Hololive Summer 2023 is here—here's what we found out:

• Its 2023 Summer Live spectacle, Splash Party!, is set for August 26-27.
• The poster for the upcoming live concert features Hololive, Hololive Indonesia and Hololive English talents in their new swimsuit designs.
• A new song—Seishun Archive, composed and arranged by Honeyworks—is revealed, complete with an animated music video from Studio Kai. You'll definitely love the music video and all the references it showed.

In other news, Holostars English's Noir Vesper recently revealed a 2.0 model illustrated by Pako, the same illustrator for Tsukumo Sana.

• In addition, a Peko-chan House pop-up shop was set up, teaming Usada Pekora with the iconic character. Shiori_p0n happened to see what's left of the shop after fans flocked into it.

In Other News

• Esports: Ping Difference composed of Selen Tatsuki, Ike Eveland and Nocturnal won the Apex Gold Nessie Custom. (Here are the timestamps.)
• Music: Hoshimachi Suisei performed on Nippon TV's The Music Day 2023.
• Lore: EIEN Project CEO Moeri announces the group's expansion to three generations as part of its first phase: "Although these events are already being planned upon, please note that we will take our time to produce quality content for EIEN's future."
• Lucid Multimedia signs Xander Fangsworth into their fold. Prior to this, they have closed the first round of their auditions, which received more than 1,000 applicants. Round 2 is on the way.
• Mythic Talent launched its new website, and now we can see who are the 35 VTubers who are signed to the talent management group.
• Software: Webcam Motion Capture app has reached 10,00 subscribers.
• Japan: My Dear. Production raised 120 million yen in funding from six domestic and international venture capital firms.
• Avex's Nanami Urara will have her 1st one-man live concert Parallel Show at Spotify O-West on Friday, August 4.
• Taiwan: Comame becomes an official partner of Spring Fish Studio.
• Malaysia: Hoshizora Entertainment kicks its CEO out, and a new management is already instated.
• Nijisanji and Nijisanji EN talents will be appearing at Japan Expo in Paris, France happening next week.
• You can also meet and greet OniGiri at Twitch Con Paris also next week.
• Hong Kong: Virtual Fes 2023 hosts Nijisanji's Alban Knox, Ike Eveland, Sonny Brisko and Shu Yamino alongside other HKVTubers on July 22.
• Korea: Several Korean Nijisanji livers are also set to appear at Seoul Pop Con this August alongside Seraph Dazzlegarden and Nagao Kei. Hololive Indonesia's Kureiji Ollie and Vestia Zeta will also appear.
• Rooster Teeth Expo features RWBY's Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long in their Live2D selves.
• San Japan is set to host VShojo's Projekt Melody, Zentreya and Haruka Karibu this September.
• Speaking of Zentreya, she is now teaming up with UTA, joining Ironmouse.
• Figures: Novel Horizons opens pre-orders for 1/7 scale Numi Bunny figure.
• HoloMyth is featured in an English conversation book which has an audio CD guide included.
• Clippers: Holy Shrimp has had his channel demonetized by YouTube in another hit against VTuber clippers.
• Archivists: Ragtag Archive will sunset on Monday, July 24.
• Voice Acting: Multiverse Monarch AmaLee and COQUI revealed their voice roles for Honkai Star Rail and Oshi no Ko respectively.
• Rad talks about fanbases and abuse of fans in a Twitter thread about weaponization and being weaponized.
• Talent Management: Content creator Kat who is signed to Nani Talent talks about what a talent agency is and what they do for creators.
• Synical warns against fellows who bait and switch using black text on white background to get attention as if they're "graduating," asking them to post a clip instead: "[...] Treat your communities better, they deserve better than this. You are a content creator after all so go make and share your content, because this isn't content."
• From Zach Bussey: Twitch is testing a new Smart Detection auto-mod setting, and Kick is making changes to target view count manipulation and remove some gambling exposure in their recommended system.
• VRChat: UUUM, Phase Connect and OffKai Expo are some of the brands participating in the upcoming Virtual Market Summer 2023.
• VStream is set to announce its Wave 4 streamers on July 3.
• Courses: Rui is set to teach "Transform 2D Characters into Showcase-Ready 3D VTuber Avatars" on Coloso.
• Indonesia: Mirai Dream ID rebrands to Aozora Stars.
• Tools: VTS P.O.G. AI update is now available.

We are capping off this newsletter with Abi Kadabura who is trying her best to sing Grilled Cheese Obama Sandwich, whatever that means.

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Banner Photo: Noir Vesper's 2.0 model debut / YouTube