NewsDrop Digest

Weekly NewsDrop: "Underage" Corpo VTuber Earns Slew of Reactions

This is your Weekly NewsDrop #49 for September 10, 2023. Also on this issue: hololive DEV_IS!

Jay Agonoy

• 6 min read

Hololive DEV_IS (read as "Device") has debuted this week. The newest division under the popular VTuber agency seems to be the continued evolution of what CEO Motoaki Tanigo had in mind when he was a panelist at the GLOBIS Graduate School of Management in Tokyo in 2019 alongside other executives in the same field.

The other big story this week is Taiwan-based AkioAIR, where one of its upcoming talents, Princess Nophillia Amélie De Montclair, is set to debut sometime this month.

  • By her age, the Nophi is described as a minor in most countries, so it was in the interest of transparency, as well as the talent herself, when the agency released a statement of commitment to protect the talent.
  • The agency is sticking to their guns by still accepting Nophi despite the current conditions: "[...] We have unanimously agreed that Nophi possesses remarkable abilities that render her eminently suitable for a career in the performing arts. With the full support and consent of her parents, we firmly believe that this decision is in her best interst, [...]"
  • Questions about the company hiring a minor, as well as doubts about its commitment and reputation popped up following this. As of this posting, they have released another statement which we will be summing up later on.

If there's one story we published today, it's about one of our favorite virtual singers from Japan, the rockstar vocalist Whale Taylor. He's now leading a music production company.

Whale Taylor Establishes Music Production Company, Debuts VTuber Lineup
“Infinity Goal” will be focused on blending live streaming activities and doing more music-related projects.
VTuber NewsDropTeddy Cambosa

We are already down to our last three issues before the Weekly NewsDrop hits its first-year anniversary.

  • Writing VTuber news recaps for 50 weeks and counting—on top of our previous experience writing weekly news recaps for a previous outlet—was a challenging task, but we took this with a goal to chronicle VTubing history from our POVs.
  • As we approach our 52nd edition this month, we are going to wrap up the first year of the newsletter—and perhaps VTuber NewsDrop in general. Look forward to what's going to happen in the next two weeks.

Here is the latest stock market update for select VTuber companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of September 8, 2023.

What a bloodbath: NewsDrop's VTuber Index composed of select companies involved in VTubing, are mostly under the red; with only Bushiroad and COVER posting gains last week.

VTuber News of the Week

"Princess Nophi" restricted from using Social Media

Virtual news-tubers FalseEyeD and Khyo have already covered the story on AkioAIR's Princess Nophi, but much is still to be said about this upcoming talent.

  • This morning (Japan time), the agency supplemented their statement with another post on X, clarifying that Nophi is set to receive her legal majority status next year.
  • What's going to happen with her account on X? Management commits to monitor her account for anything fishy. They commit to handle the brunt of the interactions before it reaches her, for the sake of her well-being.
  • Prior to the latest statement, there are others who are scrutinizing what Nophi posts on the social media platform—so the management took action and restricted posting on X to serve exclusively for official announcements. We understand that Nophi is cut off from social media for the time being.
  • AkioAIR management has all the right to guard itself—after all, information regarding Nophi's past is already being documented, and a petition to recast the character is already signed by more than 300 people.

Hololive DEV_IS' ReGLOSS Debuts

We've already seen the debut of hololive DEV_IS' and its first wave ReGLOSS—and Itori, one of the popular hololive fans, has summarized the debuts in one whole image. Let's describe the image in a few words:

  • Hiodoshi Ao 火威青: Manga artist has the power to seduce women.
  • Otonose Kanade 音乃瀬奏: Memelord who played "Passionate Duelist" right off the bat. Absolutely knows memes—and can speak in YAGOO (そうですね).
  • Ichijou Ririka 一条莉々華: Brian Tsui's jiggle physics powers. Also, why was she tied again? Ah yes, because of the "death game."
  • Juufuutei Raden 儒烏風亭らでん: Beer. (But in my opinion, she's gap moe—the way I imagined her versus the way she appeared on her debut DOES NOT MATCH AT ALL.)
  • Todoroki Hajime 轟はじめ: Nice lookbook! She knows her fashion.

In general, it was made clear that they are not just idols, but also comedians, further destroying YAGOO's dream.

As with any debuting hololive talent, they suffered heavy cuts in their subscriber count, so we need to check if we are still subscribed to them this week.

Unlike most of hololive's talents, they first debuted as a group with the release of their first original song "Shunkan Heartbeat," featuring their idol costumes; then they showed their individual dresses; and then they had two debut collaborations.

Not only that, hololive ladies were eagerly watching them—Tokino Sora, Sakura Miko, Hoshimachi Suisei, Minato Aqua, Shirakami Fubuki, and director A-chan are some of the hololive personalities who reacted to their debut streams.

Under one umbrella: Again, this is a new group from a different branch of hololive, under the hololive production umbrella.

Meanwhile, at Twitch...

In Other News

Graduations

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Banner Photo: Nophi on X

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