Weekly NewsDrop #42—July 16, 2023

Our eyes are in Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country which has around 350 active VTubers listed in the VTuber.asia database (more than 60 of which are part of agencies/groups).

Nijigen Expo at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre has already concluded, with Kson from VShojo and NIJISANJI EN hosting activities there:

• Kson's first physical event appearance in the region was attended by hundreds of fans. Carrying with her is VShojo's brand, which is also warmly graced by fans. Since she's there in person, some fans have requested to recreate her pose with interviewer Domo at Anime Expo—to which, she said: "[...] I don't know how many times I bent my knees to do that."
• NIJISANJI EN's The Beginning of NijiGenerations concert stars the Lazulight trio (of Elira, Finana and Pomu) and half of Ethyria (Millie and Enna), which by the looks of it was also attended by fans in droves. Speaking of Millie, she actually gave a sneak peek into her 3.0 brush-up during the concert.

Meanwhile, we've seen Pavolia Reine's ribs during her 3D debut stream. We had to look at the human anatomy again to confirm those are ribs, and as far as we see it, we should be correct.

Latest on NewsDrop

• hololive Production's parent company COVER Corporation released a transcript of its Financial Results for the third quarter of 2023, which reveals in detail their plans to complete the remainder of its growth strategy.
• NIJISANJI EN have graced fans with a special group cover of a Goose House classic, with Pomu Rainpuff leading the charge.
• Southeast Asian agency Project F is put on the Spotlight, sharing its story to NewsDrop: "Our role is to act as a bridge, connecting talents with the right opportunities and tools to succeed."
• Also put on the Spotlight was PRISM Project's Luto Araka: "When I announced my return, the same community was there. The VTuber community is strong. While on break many things have happened to me personally, and it became clear that mental health is important! Touching grass is good."
• We interviewed lucid Multimedia and Xander Fangsworth about the latter's decision to join the former: "To the fans who have remained by my side, I am grateful. I apologize for any confusion regarding the path I was charting, and I appreciate your patience during my hiatus."
• On the latest Behind the Model—tomboy hero VTuber Maru de Cinco: "I've always loved making people laugh. That's what I should have said first, actually. [There’s] something very enjoyable to get on stage and have like a room of people laughing or telling them a story and kind of weaving it in and out."

Here is the latest stock market update for select VTuber companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of July 14, 2023.

In Other News

• hololive on Twitter has announced that its talents Magni Dezmond and Noir Vesper will be halting their streaming activities for the meantime. The agency hasn’t elaborated on said announcement as of this writing.
• Japanese rocket engineer VTuber Clear Usui has recorded an explosion during a small rocket engine test at a JAXA facility in Noshiro, Akita prefecture. Her video has since been used by news agencies such as USA Today and All Nippon News Network, where she also told reports about said explosion.
• Following its transfer to viviON, the VTuber project Aogiri High School has debuted a new VTuber named Harusame Urame.
• Who would’ve thought that popular streamer Asmongold would blush after being acknowledged by a VTuber? Check out this official clip as he reacts to a stream by indie VTuber Kasii. After the stream happened, the VTuber has now reached 20,000 followers on Twitch. Hilariously, Kasii seems to address the popular streamer as “Asmon-Papa”, and a slew of interactions also followed, with Asmongold following Kasii on Twitter, and even reacting to her streams and clips more frequently.
• Another unlikely collaboration: here’s popular American commentary YouTube Amanda Golka of Swell Entertainment doing a review and video about being invited to Production Kawaii’s 3D VTuber concert in the USA.
• A timeline of events concerning Yorukaze Production and former talent Kurotsuki Saaya: The agency previously announced that Saaya has decided to not renew her contract with the agency, therefore graduating on August 12. However, hours after Saaya went live to discuss her announcement, the agency released an updated statement terminating Saaya’s contract immediately. According to them, there were “several acts of misconduct” made by the talent, therefore the termination.
• Idol Corp has officially opened its online store, where fans can buy their favorite merchandise of their oshis in the group.
• In the absence of EIEN Project’s Skye Shinryu due to a hiatus, its CEO Moeri will be appearing instead for the VTuber Personality lineup at Animethon.
• Check out this demonstration of the 3D VTuber app Charm, developed by programmer baffler.
• Warudo, a 3D Vtubing application from Hakuya Labs, is now on Steam.
• The Information reports that Twitter is now removing the Twitter Circles feature, as per Elon Musk.
• In more mainstream talent agencies signing VTubers, MSM Talent has nabbed popular VTuber Akuma Nihmune as its talent.
• After a video of an AI cover featuring CDawgVA and Ironmouse was released, the VShojo talent has expressed her concern on the use of AI, further saying “she hates it,” pertaining to the unauthorized use of her voice for a song cover. Following that, the original uploader of the video pinned their comment in the video, apologizing for their actions. They further stated that the video can be deleted at request from either Ironmouse or the agency.
• Sixteen NIJISANJI EN talents will be present at the ANIME Impulse event in Orange County, California on September 3 this year.
• Vox Akuma and Lucius Merryweather have released a webtoon collaboration, which they started working on a year ago. New episodes will be released every week.
• Six out of ten of the most-watched female streamers for the second quarter of 2023 are VTubers, according to the latest ranking from Streams Charts.
• Several hololive and Japanese VTubers will be present for the BUZZ RHYTHM LIVE V 2023 event, where artists such as Creepy Nuts will be present on July 29.
• hololive’s sandbox game Holoearth had partial restrictions to its stage area of the game due to an overwhelming number of access requests from players.
• QTCinderella’s Midsummer Night Concert will feature performances from several VTubers including Bao and Ironmouse.
• Philippines: KiraKiraKat and VTuber group DAY/BREAK are the opening acts for Anime and Cosplay Expo held this weekend.
• France: Ike Eveland failed to join the NIJISANJI panel at Japan Expo 2023; Vox Akuma arrived late. The agency apologized to fans.
• Airasia’s Project Kavvaii VTuber project has officially opened a new art contest dedicated to its Lunetide generation talents Airi Gwynevere and Mikazuki Mai.
• EVO 2023 on August 4 will have its own Idol Showdown tournament! Register here (the devs also note that on-site registration is not guaranteed, which tells us that it's best to sign up online).
• Stay tuned to VTuber NewsDrop as we are to explore Virtual Market 2023 Summer, which opened on VRChat last Saturday!

We are just 10 more issues away from completing a year worth of VTuber Newsletters. That itself is already an achievement for us here at NewsDrop, which continues to run through the grace and goodwill of our partners—most especially you, our readers. We are thankful for your continued support and trust.

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Banner Photo: Pavolia Reine on YouTube