NewsDrop Digest

Weekly NewsDrop #48—August 27, 2023

Last weekend of August brings lots of activities for the VTubing scene—take a look at what has happened last week.

Teddy Cambosa, Jay Agonoy

• 6 min read

It's concert weekend for both hololive Production and VShojo, as they host their concerts on YouTube. VShojo's Candy Pop Explosion was planned long ago, while hololive's SPLASH PARTY Day 1 was out of necessity following a server overload.

  • For Z-aN, they learned their lesson hard, because alongside the first day of hololive's concert, they were also hosting a PriPara stream that same night.
Watch Hololive Summer Splash Party Free for a Limited Time on YouTube
The VTuber agency has also released the full version of said event for free on YouTube, which will be available up until September 27.
VTuber NewsDropTeddy Cambosa

As Mysta Rias' graduation stream is ongoing, we've already heard of more VTubers graduating—HOLOSTARS English's Noir Vesper and Magni Dezmond, as well as PRISM Project's Lana Shikami, have announced they will graduate by the end of the month.

HOLOSTARS English’s Magni Dezmond, Noir Vesper to Graduate August 31
Management at COVER Corp. asked for everyone’s understanding, as they will not be performing any further activities such as graduation streams.
VTuber NewsDropJay Agonoy
PRISM Project’s Lana Shikami To Graduate on August 31
According to the agency, Lana has decided that she will be unable to continue her VTubing activities for the longer run due to her health issues.
VTuber NewsDropTeddy Cambosa

Another banner story this week: VTuber agencies being transparent. Not just any type of transparency, but company-talent revenue share type of transparency.

Idol kicked off the initiative by revealing their revenue share with their talents in a commitment to make its talent contract transparent by the end of the year. Three other agencies followed suit. We've gathered the details in one quick post.

Following this, we talked to idol CEO Aviel Basin to understand why they disclosed their details ahead of their year-end goal of making talent contracts transparent.

Idol on Agency Transparency and Stability
“Understand that talents are the lifeblood of your agency. Without them, agencies hold no real power or meaning.”
VTuber NewsDropVTuber NewsDrop

Latest on NewsDrop

Here is the latest stock market update for select VTuber companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of August 25, 2023.

Meanwhile, at NewsDrop on X—we've been sharing updates from AniManGaki 2023, featuring another huge gathering of Malaysian VTubers! Our partner AGCtv was on the field and has covered all sides of the con—and we'll whip up clips from it which you can watch on Reels, Shorts and Tiktok.

In Other News

  • A discussion about VGen’s “supposed exorbitant” 5% fee has been making rounds recently in the VTubing community, with some opposing such a fee. In defense, VGen’s Muncha clarified that this fee helps maintain the site’s operations.
  • Bao is leaving Twitter for the meantime, according to a tweet posted to her account by her manager Cha.
  • Hololive is has released teasers for two new projects: another music collaboration, this time with the popular music group HoneyWorks, as well as an undertermind initiative called Hololive DEV_IS.
  • VOMS Project has confirmed the debut of its new wave of talents, set for October this year. It is worth noting that they opened auditions for it last July.
  • In more upcoming debuts, Akio AIR has teased five new incoming talents: Teyra Fenthera, Vix E. Grey, Princess Nophi, Azuri Delfi, Hoshikuzu Orion, and Chiyo Rii Kogara.
  • VShojo’s first 3D online concert Candy Pop Explosion has been announced, with original songs also announced: “Q-Pid” by Projekt Melody and Hime Hajime, “Color Blind” by Froot and Zentreya, “Umbrella” by Haruka Karibu and Henya the Genius, “Sour Taste” by Ironmouse, and “Sodalicious” by Kson and Amemiya Nazuna.
  • At the end of the concert, VShojo showed another "invite letter" teaser, implying that there could be another new member who will join the roster.
  • Ironmouse has also worked with electronic music duo Smlm and Team Liquid’s AverageJonas for their own rendition of the song “Ticking Away” by Grabbitz, VALORANT, and bbno$.
  • Mikeneko is set to go under a hiatus for the meantime. This follows after she has been suspended from attending UUUM’s Apex Festival tournament.
  • VTuber agency NITRE has announced that it is shutting down its operations by the end of September this year due to financial constraints. Several of its talents have decided to graduate completely, while some decided to continue independently.
  • Meanwhile idol/VTuber group RESO! has also announced its disbandment due to health issues by its founding member Mimi. All talents will be pursuing their other projects individually moving forward.
  • To commemorate her 1,000,000-subscriber milestone, NIJISANJI’s Tsukino Mito has released–get this–her own line of fabric softener (and yes, it’s available for pre-order).
  • W’s all the way for NIJISANJI EN’s Selen Tatsuki as her team won at Twitch Rival’s Pokemon Unite tournament, as well as at the Apex Legends tournament in Japan.
  • Another NIJISANJI win: Kanae is the one performing the opening theme song of the upcoming original racing anime Overtake. The song is titled "Tailwind", and you can listen to a snippet of it on the anime's new trailer.
  • Japanese publishing company Shogakugan has wholly acquired local creative agency Candee. The company was previously involved in the production of virtual singer YuNi (she is no longer affiliated with them).
  • Here’s a very interesting and thought-provoking story we caught wind of: Japanese VTuber Kuro Imofu has released a 40-minute documentary about her journey of leaving her VTuber activities after being monitored for suspected signs of cancer. Thankfully, no cancer was ever detected.
  • Naver Z, the parent company of the metaverse platform ZEPETO, has recently raised US$13m in funding for its new dedicated Web3 platform ZTX.
  • Check out the top female VTubers on Twitch, which include Argentinian VTuber Nimu still taking first spot and recently-debuted Opera GX’s GX Aura taking second place.
  • Idol has updated its terms of service, prohibiting anyone to use their talents’ voices for training and usage of AI voice models, without explicit written permission to the talent in question.
  • Bond EN’s Rosaria Rosengard has graduated August 22.
  • The second season of the Kizuna no Allele anime has released a new key visual featuring all 15 main characters of the series.
  • REALITY Studios has announced a new VTuber project called “Vebop Project”.

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