NewsDrop Digest

Weekly NewsDrop #46—August 13, 2023

Comiket 102 Updates, Vox's charity stream, Malaysia's ACG x Agency, plus the biggest VTuber News this week.

Jay Agonoy

• 4 min read

By the time you are reading this, Comiket 102 is being held at Tokyo Big Sight. The biggest exhibition of independent comics in Japan also gathers several corporate booths, three of which we are about to mention are related to VTubers:

  • hololive Production continues its summer celebration by selling holoSummer goods, showing short videos and sporting a giant wall panel.
  • Sony Music Virtual (the trio of VERSE, VEE and PRISM Project) hosts quick meet-and-greets with some of its affiliated talents, as well as giving free water (yes, water) and fliers. VEE also revealed its new Dev-f generation, who will debut August 19.
  • Brave group's VSPO! is also selling summer-themed merchandise—and they also announced they will be opening to the English and Chinese markets. Brave really is aiming for worldwide expansion.

VShojo will host its first 3D concert Candy Pop Explosion on August 27 noontime in Japan, featuring 5 original songs.

  • Unlike other VTuber concerts, this one is available through a "Concert Access" subscription ($30) on the VShojo Highlights YouTube channel.
  • Concert access also enables subscribers to rewatch the whole concert over and over.
  • The trailer shows the performers' arrangements: Froot and Zentreya, Haruka Karibu and Henya, Projekt Melody and Hime Hajime, Kson and Amemiya Nazuna, and Ironmouse.

We are also catching up on the NIJISANJI Baseball Tournament as we find out who will be this year's champion. Petra Gurin has guides for the English audience. (Imperial Helestia High School bested out others last year.)

Latest on NewsDrop

Here is the latest stock market update for select VTuber companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of August 11, 2023:

In Other News

(Trigger Warning) Tachibana (TCBN) Music, a composer who has worked with a handful of agency and independent VTubers through music production commissions, has been exposed.

  • Zephyrianna has a 10-hour stream where she talked about how abusive and manipulative Tachibana was. Joining her are Futakuchi Mana and Ku Yonbai, who also shared their experiences on stream. We highly recommend you watch/listen to this.
  • There's proof of Tachibana disclosing information about his projects with agency VTubers to others for his personal benefit. NewsDrop understands that this evidence is removed from Twitter with respect to those whom he collaborated with.
  • Following a major collaboration that was even shown in Japan last Sunday, Tachibana closed his accounts on Twitter (X) and YouTube. Mana shared a summary "in three acts."
  • It should be noted that Tachibana composed both Zephyrianna and Mana's covers of Utsu-P's Not Photogenic in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Meanwhile, in NIJISANJI EN: Selen Tatsuki read her statement on stream, apologizing as she will not be able to organize any more tournaments involving both her EN and JP fellows.

  • An excerpt: "[...] I stated there would not be any more international events organized by me. I'll still be able to be able to participate in international events and organize other events, but it would be for [NIJISANJI] EN only. [...]"
  • NewsDrop understands that Selen announced her plans for an international Fall Guys tournament, but she unfortunately has not secured updated permissions from management.
  • The NIJISANJI EN star said that she got in trouble as the said tournament was not finalized for a new date when she thought it was: "[...] So we went back to negotiating and setting everything up again with the new date, but I was only given the option to keep it within [NIJISANJI] EN this time. I wanted an international event but sadly I couldn't make it happen. [...]"
  • Moving forward, she will still have other plans for NIJISANJI EN and its fans.

The good news with Selen is that she's on a roll, participating in one tournament after another, coaching hololive Indonesia's Kureiji Ollie and participating in Shibuya HAL's APEX Custom Match.

Also in NijiEN: Vox Akuma hosted a charity stream for almost 12 hours in support of the Entertainment Community Fund, raising $48,000. He is joined by other EN fellows—from games, to skits, eventually capping off with a watchalong.

Nanai, a video game player and commentator with Good8Squad—as well as Inugami Korone's mentor during the Crazy Raccoon series—has passed away at the age of 30 due to heart failure. His last tournament was the Idol Showdown match at EVO 2023 in the US, where he placed 7th in the rankings.

In Singapore: National Day has been celebrated this week—and as part of the celebration, the SGVTubers group revealed Chio, its official Live2D mascot and resident sprout member of its Discord community who likes durian, flowers, cute animals, bubble tea—and of course, VTubers.

In Malaysia: Under the ACG x Agency (AXA) initiative, Projek Hikayat, Hoshizora Entertainment, Project Orbit and Kultured will be hosting "Message from the Stars" at AniManGaki 2023 on the last weekend of August.

COVER Corp's latest financial report is out—Siliconera reports that channels under hololive Production in Japan gathered 48.3 million YouTube subscribers.

Careers

Our flagship newsletter Weekly NewsDrop is released every weekend. Subscribe for free to receive this in your inbox.

Subscribe Now to Receive Updates

For news tips, tweet or message @vtubernewsdrop on Twitter, email news [at] vtubernewsdrop.com or fill up the web form.

The views and opinions written on NewsDrop do not necessarily reflect those of its partners. Read our Editorial Policy for more details.

Banner Photo: @VSPO_EN on X

NewsDrop Digest