Weekly NewsDrop #13—Week 49

Two weeks ago, everyone's running like crazy with the major stories we had left and right. We somehow go back to that same predicament with an unusual set of 4 top stories in this edition!

We'll be covering a recent situation in the VTuber press (yes, we are), the return of Noir Vesper and the debut of XSOLEIL, plus a major milestone for VTubing in Indonesia.

The Latest on NewsDrop

• Akuma Nihmune has debuted her 3.0 model just before her birthday—speaking of, she reflects on another year of VTubing in the latest Spotlight feature.
• Fresh off the inaugural Kawa Game Awards, Elle and Booster shares their fondness of Video Games with us. They even gave us a quick rundown of gaming news just before the KGAs!
• Munkie reviews The Chant: "This game is a great experience, everything about it is wonderful and keeps you on your toes."
• We explored why Vox Akuma has added restrictions on ARS superchats: "Vox and other VTubers have all the rights to ask their fans to discourage shortcuts to capture their idols' attention."
• Comic Fiesta is coming up next weekend—and it will have a special Hololive Meet stage!

Last week, Kson called out Japanese blog P2Y.jp for erroneously reporting about the comments she made during an ARK stream, as reported by TVS. P2Y took down the report, explaining in an apology letter that the information they got was from the TVS report.

• We compared the story P2Y posted and the segment TVS lead anchor and fellow newsman FalseEyeD did. We concluded that False did not mention any "political reason" as to why Kson cannot collaborate with Nijisanji talents. In this account, P2Y misled the fans by adding such aspect. This fact is also echoed by a Japanese Twitter user.
• FalseEyeD showed us a direct message P2Y sent to him after he released Thursday's episode, which he also shared with his audience the following day.

We leave it to the newsman to describe the matter in full detail, but long story short:

• P2Y asks him to remove the segment from Thursday's episode as it has been resolved.
• Their message also claims that FalseEyeD was considered a "gossip hoax VTuber," and that if they continue to address this issue, it could harm his reputation.

P2Y announced that its managing representative is resigning on December 31, taking responsibility for a series of problems.

• A number of management staff members have also expressed their intention to resign as well.
• By 2023, P2Y will not have an administrative representative for the time being. It considers opening recruitment for new writers, as well as naming the ones responsible for each story.

Tempus' Noir Vesper returns after a two-week suspension, and the guy sure did take his time off. His first zatsudan (Just Chatting) stream, which is currently viewed 81,000 times, talks briefly about his suspension.

• Vesper used this time off to hang out with his family during Thanksgiving, which surprises them because he already set expectations that he won't be appearing.
• Tempus' academic advisor went into a camping trip, spending two days there and touching "Level 90 grass." Following the camping trip, he talked about retail therapy, leading him to buy a boar hunting spear, which he said is something you do not throw out.
• He said the reason why he was suspended was he lost his temper. He then described the comparison between getting angry and losing your temper.

"There has never been a situation in my own life where I was just like, 'yeah the best course of action in that particular situation was to lose my temper'. You always screw up. That's never the right option [...]"

• Vesper apologizes to his Vesties who has been most affected with the suspension and commits not doing it ever again.

Six new VTubers form Nijisanji EN's newest wave, XSOLEIL. In contrast to their ILUNA senpai, XSOLEIL has an edgy vibe, but each member gets to tell their struggles before they are gathered together.

• The new wave is composed of student council members from the XSOLEIL Institute of Infinity—Treasurer Zaion LanZa, Enforcer Doppio Dropscythe, Event Coordinator Meloco Kyoran, Counselor Hex Haywire, Vice President Kotoka Torahime and President Ver Vermillion.
• The debut program was hosted by Kyo Kaneko and Aia Amare: "Coming from me and Kyo personally, we're all so proud of you. Welcome to NijiEN!"
• Other NijiEN talents are giving them the warmest of welcomes, such as Ike Eveland, Rosemi Lovelock, M̵i̵l̵k̵i̵e̵ ̵M̵i̵i̵ ̵M̵i̵l̵l̵e̵f̵e̵u̵i̵l̵l̵e̵ Millie Parfait and Enna Alouette... who got Twitter jailed while Kyo and Aia were hosting the show. Millie said Enna "cannot stop saying 'Hold it down' with a sexy voice [...]." A voice tweet was posted, and the rest was history. Enna learned eventually that the voice tweet was "too powerful" for Twitter.

Jay's take: If you have a hard time reading the group's name, I read it as X-L-A. I hope that works.

In Indonesia: Seven (7) VTuber groups signed a memorandum of understanding with Kovee VR Theme Park to develop content by utilizing its' 3D motion capture studio.

• "The Indonesian VTuber agencies that has participated in this collaboration, Genesix, Dakara, Himawari, Mirai Dream, Livium, Nawasena and Vilitera, all have warmly welcomed the collaboration with KOVEE, and hoped this collaboration would increase the market of VTubing and creative industry in Indonesia," Kovee General Manager Daniel Kim said.
• Located at Neo Soho Mall in West Jakarta, Kovee (which stands for Korea Virtual Entertainment & Edutech) opened in 2018 and has partnerships with companies and government agencies in both South Korea and Indonesia.

In Other News...

• Yuuna was shipped an AirTag, but assures her viewers that she's ok. She also shared tips on what to do if you got shipped an AirTag.
• Also in Indonesia: Soraya member Haruki Reima postponed his re-debut. This, after his new character design sheet looked similar to Luxiem's Luca Kaneshiro.  He has since removed the sheet and have taken steps to make amends as he expresses his deepest apologies—he has since then commissioned a Soraya colleague to do his new character design.
• Hive Social returns with an update on their new, tested Beta version: "Security issues have been resolved and we have a few front end bugs left to work out, so we need just a few more days to make it perfect."
• Ironside Computers teased new PC cases featuring VShojo's Froot, Ironmouse, Nyanners, Silvervale, Kson and even Hime Hajime.
• Just before he co-hosts XSOLEIL's debut, Kyo Kaneko reviewed Pilk: "Pilk is nasty."
• Thai Pentomos presented Petra Gurin letters, a tuktuk display, and certificate of penguin adoption from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as birthday gifts.
• Ceres Fauna hosted a livestream of Crunchyroll Games' The Eminence in Shadow: Master of Garden.
• VTubeStudio v1.23.4 is now released on Windows and Mac OS, which now allow the use of Tobii Eye Tracker 4C or 5 for accurate eye and head-tracking.
• Astel Leda's fans in the Philippines have conquered the Mall of Asia globe LED display.
• BondEN warns that if they discover defamatory content and baseless speculations published online, they will take action with the help of their legal advisors.
• Yuna Sunaga wipes out her mod team; and then had her Discord server attacked, forcing her to close it.
• Reiyu Guigui opens up about her alcohol abuse and announces she's going sober.
• Aki Rosenthal went on a trip to Ibaraki with the prefecture's PR VTuber Ibara Hiyori.
• ROF-MAO collaborated with McDonald's Japan's "Music Memories" for a special program.
• Several VTubers are set to guest at MaruYa's 10th Year Anniversary in Thailand this December 18.
• Japanese VTuber Mu Alexius is set to join Panasonic Connect's Technology Research and Development Division as a long-term intern. Mu will be tackling challenges related to XR (extended reality) at the company.
• Vienna's Team Dragussy is hailed the champion for OviLeague pre-season League of Legends tournament.
• PRISM Project's audition application process has officially ended.
• Oceane Otoishi was reported to have sung 40 songs in one stream!
• A Gartic Phone collab happened between multiple VTubers such as Buffpup, Snuffy, Aicandii and Rosedoodles—and the result was expected of a classic Gartic Phone collab.
• Kizuna AI: Touch the Beat! now has official launch dates next year as reported by Gematsu: February 22 (PS5, PS VR2) and April 27 (PS4, PS VR, Nintendo Switch, PC).

Tweet of the Week

We cap off this week's edition with a tweet from Kyou, hoping that newer VTubers think of debuts as their personal projects:

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