Widening the VTuber Rabbit Hole
Phase-Connect, based in Vancouver, Canada, is a Virtual YouTuber agency which is "founded by a couple of friends without much planning," with the stated goal to be "to connect people across the globe with lots of fun and laughter." It is led by Kevin "H2oSakana" Li.The first generation, later referred to as Origins, debuted over the course of the 19th and 20th of June 2021. In 2022, former CyberLive members Kaneko Lumi and Amaris Yuri, who had become independent after graduating on March 31st, joined the company as "Phase Invaders" on 15th April, with further Invaders joining the line-up on May 27th, 2023. The second generation, known as ALiAS, debuted over the course of 9th and 10th July, 2022, and a third generation, Euphoria, debuted on 17th December, 2023.
On January 7th, 2024, an all-Japanese generation was announced
, with the first generation debuting on the 27th of that month. A full list of talents can be found on the characters' page.
This group contains the following tropes:
- April Fools' Day: In 2024, Phase-Connect announces a shift to becoming a coffee company, with the talents advertising it.
- Bedlam House: Became kind of an inhouse meme on how H20Sakana - Phase Connect's CEO - recruit his talents by visiting Psych Wards due to the company's reputation of being populated by absolute menheras.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Like how hololive has its CEO YAGOO subject to being the butt of the joke among the talents and fans, the CEO of Phase-Connect Kevin Li, commonly known as Sakana, is given similar treatment. Such as Uruka claiming herself the owner of Phase-Connect, or how he's portrayed as a Corrupt Corporate Executive in Shiina's lore video.'
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Pretty much everybody - literally in the case of Pippa.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: In Shiina's lore video, Sakana kidnaps a bunch of the girls as part of his "not scam" to build and debut the second generation of Phase-Connect.
- Dysfunction Junction: Played for Laughs. Phase-Connect's nickname is "Sad Girl Company" with everyone being crazy, weird or yabai in one way or the other. Most apparent in Pippa, Lia, Lumi and Tenma, but downplayed for Gen 2.
- The Mentally Disturbed: Phase Connect has garnered a reputation for having an unusually large cast of mentally unhinged VTubers. Usually, most VTuber agencies and companies have at least one or two Token Evil Teammates that are usually played for laughs. In Phase Connect however? the amount of 'normal' talents can be counted on two hands.
- The Ophelia: How about an entire company of Ophelias? Well, not the entire company, but mental/emotional instability is so prevalent among Phase Connect's talents, that it's become something of a running joke.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Sakana's recruitment poster for Phase-Connect featured in Shiina's lore video has such gems like "[NOT A SCAM!]" directly below WANTED and "Not a black company"note in the speech bubble. When Shiina makes it to the corporation to apply for a job, the "totally NOT overworked manager" also repeats the latter phrase insistently with a tired look on her face.
- Wacky Startup Workplace: They have company meetings in Minecraft over Discord voice chat, wherein they discuss financials between talking about anime and talking about h-anime. For example talking infamous spoiler scenes in Code Geass and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Wrongfully Attributed: While Phase Connect is associated with the appositive phrase "Sad Girl Company", the origin of this phrase refers to Tsunderia's members, not Phase Connect's. Umiushi Urara, the then-manager of Tsunderia, alluded at how Sakana was doing good for someone who never had to deal with "sad girl stuff", unlike her who had to deal with that in a stream they did together. Somehow, this got misconstrued as Sakana's sad girl company and even Pippa brings this up to Lisa, asking her if Urara felt any guilt for starting this meme.
