Web Video / VShojo

VShojo, based in San Francisco, California, is, as stated on their website, "a talent-first VTuber company, dedicated to the growth and success of its members." It was founded by Justin "theGunrun" Ignacio, Phillip "Mowtendoo" Fortunat, and Daniel “Apek” Sanders, as something of a cross between previous Virtual YouTuber groups such as hololive and the VOMS Project, providing sponsors, support, and the like to the VTubers working with them, while allowing them to operate largely as they see fit.

VShojo announced its debut on November 24th, 2020, with its initial group of talent consisting of Projekt Melody, Ironmouse, Silvervale, Zentreya, Nyatasha Nyanners, Froot, and Hime Hajime. All but the latter two were already independently-established VTubers prior to joining VShojo; Froot debuted on November 27th, 2020, and Hime debuted on January 30th, 2021. On April 9th, 2021, Veibae officially joined VShojo as well. On July 2nd, 2022, VShojo would reveal their new Japan division, with Kson On Air joining and Nazuna Amemiya debuting.

From August 20th, 2021 to September 30th, 2021, VShojo opened up worldwide auditions for new talents, with Japanese speakers being accepted alongside English speakers. The first new member to come out of the auditions, Haruka Karibu, debuted on December 3rd, 2022.

On April 26th, 2023, it was announced that Silvervale and Veibae would not be renewing their contracts with VShojo; leaving the group but still continuing as their existing selves, a rarity for corporate VTubing. Four days later on April 30th, it was announced that Nyanners would not be renewing her contract either, with the three of them all going on to join Mythic Talent ^note Vei had already signed with Mythic prior to her departure from VShojo, while both Silver and Nyan would sign with them in May 2023.

VShojo JP's second original talent (and third talent overall), Henya, debuted on May 13th, 2023. On September 2nd, 2023, it was announced that Geega would be joining VShojo English, and later that month on September 27th, it was announced that their first new original talent (and VShojo as a whole's first male talent), Kuro Kurenai, would debut on September 30th. On October 12th, it was announced that Matara Kan would debut on October 15th. On December 28th, 2023, it was announced that Nazuna would not be renewing her contract and would be leaving on December 31st. On April 18th, 2024, it was announced that Michi Mochievee, a friend of Kuro and Matara, would make her debut on April 20th as the company's first Indonesian-speaking talent.

The announcement video can be found here.

NOTE: Melody does adult streaming in addition to her Twitch content. In the interest of adhering to the rules of TV Tropes, please avoid discussion of that particular aspect of her work here.

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VShojo provides examples of:

• All Women Are Lustful: Most prominent with Melody, who started as a Hentai camgirl before branching into Twitch content after a month of encouraging pushes from her fans, but the others aren't far behind (Nyanners and Mouse regularly freak out over cute girls, with the latter also having a thing for mature men, and Hime is a self-described "dommy mommy") save for Froot, who's more of a Covert Pervert. Veibae takes this up to eleven, making Melody seem tame.
• The Artifact: The term "VTuber" comes from "Virtual YouTuber" and while many of the girls do regularly post on YouTube, they more often stream on Twitch, which defines them more as "Virtual Streamers" outside of YouTube.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Not Henya herself, but shortly after raiding Bao, some of the HEN隊 asked to see the Baoberry fanart. Bao was initially reluctant to do so because of the general kind of person Henya is... but after persistent requests, Bao complied and showed it to them, to their horror.
  • In VRChat, Henya once said that Kson is "giving a head", meaning that she is offering her head for Henya to take, but she learns what she said sounds like "giving head" (the oral sex term). Despite Matara forewarning Henya that the term is "yabai", Henya insists on knowing anyway, claiming to be an adult who can "handle yabai". Eventually, Mel and Matara explain what the term means, with Matara succeeding when she uses a banana as a visual aid, but Henya, being... Henya, reacts adversely and runs away. Matara gives a verbal equivalent of a facepalm afterward.
    Matara: [exasperated] YOU SAID YOU'RE AN ADULT!
• Big Bad: The animated series' general lore has Melware, as the alter-ego of Projekt Melody, who is The Leader and one of the founding members of the agency. Her causing a robot uprising connects with Zentreya's lore, and she is the most predominant antagonist character.
• Brick Joke: In episode 12 of Lewdcast, Melody (well, Malady, who is completely different in every way) says she will start a fire in your kitchen if you make a Komodo Dragon version of her. Eventually, she made good on her word.
• Cute Monster Girl: Most of them. Melody is the most human-looking, with her formerly being a computer program being given (perverted) sentience, though she has appeared as a Slime Girl and a cow girl on a few occasions. The members themselves are, in no particular order: Zen (android/cyborg/dragon), Silver (sakura-wolf spirit), Mouse (demon queen), Mel (artificial intelligence), Nyanners (cat/Eldritch Abomination), Froot (lich, not a succubus), Kuro (undead hellhound god), Hime (alien/cyborg/dragon), Matara (extraterrestrial cockroach), Vei (sky serpent Nature Spirit), Geega (vampire), Haruka (caribou Nature Spirit), Michi (patchwork undead human) and Nazuna (presumably angel, though her bio suggests that to be up in the air). This trend was eventually broken when Kson On Air, whose character is a completely human Delinquent, joined as part of the Japan division. Even Henya is an otherwise normal human with an Impossibly High IQ.
• Description Cut: The VShojo Highlights channel includes introduction videos of some of its members, with in-video blurbs sometimes accompanied by clips that come off as this.
  "Meet Nyatasha Nyanners" Video: She is introspective.
  Nyan: If we have private parts, do we also have public parts?
• Entertainment Below Their Age: Despite the agency being made up of adults who are also quite vulgar and prone to awkwardness, they are drawn to topics below their demographic on occasion. A predominant case of this is Minecraft, a game known for how simplistic and unrealistic it is. Even Melody likes to play it.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Everyone in VShojo does, at least, as noted by Hime in her debut stream.
• Evil Brit: Discussed by Nyan in this clip.
  Nyan: If you have a British accent, chances are you're probably evil.
• Fun Size: A few members would qualify, with Nazuna, Mouse, Geega, Henya, Melody, and Froot being listed as 140cm (4'7"), 147cm (4'10"), 150cm (4'11"), and 155cm (5'1"), respectively. Nyanners is often portrayed as this as well, despite being one of the group's taller members.
• Gamer Chick: Being western-style streamers, the girls all tend to include video games as part of their content, though Melody noted that she was still new to the hobby when she started as a VTuber and actually needed some encouragement from her fans to take the plunge on Twitch.
  • Nearly all of them have at least gotten a start in tabletop gaming as well, with Mel, Silver, Mouse, and Zen having taken part in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign with Arcadum from July 2020 to March 2021. Nyanners, Froot, and Veibae also took part in another campaign with Arcadum starting in April 2021; Hime had intended to take part as well, but scheduling conflicts due to her living in Japan's timezone prevented that.
• Halloween Episode: Episode 7 of Lewdcast was one, with the girls each donning Halloween costumes.
• Honorary True Companion: There are actually quite a lot of indies who, given the frequency of collabs and hanging out they do, you might be shocked to learn aren't actually a part of the company, like Snuffy and Lord Aethelstan.
  • Veibae, Haruka and Geega were long-time friends with the VShojo girls before officially joining; Veibae and Geega were invited, and Haruka came in via the auditions held in 2021.
• Insistent Terminology: They, especially Mouse and Froot, tend to use the word "playdates" instead of "collaborations," feeling that the latter is too businesslike and impersonal.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Melody's collaboration with Kson On Air, when she was still independent, was one, especially if you take into account Kson's identity^note (Let's just say this isn't the first time the two attempted to collab with each other, and let's leave it at that.)
• Open Secret: Several in fact, such as Hime's real-life identity, mainly because of just how bad she is at keeping it secret. There is also the fact that many of the newer members had extremely popular and well-known past lives before joining VShojo, but out of respect for the talents, that's all we will mention here.
• Podcast: Lewdcast, which predated VShojo and is hosted by Silver, Melody, and Mouse. All of the VShojo members, minus Hime, have appeared as guests at least once ^note (Vei and Haruka appearing while they were still independents).
  • After a significant hiatus following January 2021, Lewdcast would eventually be brought back in March 2022, albeit retooled to an extent, with Melody as the sole host.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: There are a few notable ones.
  • Mouse and Melody fit this trope to a T, being the two most likely to collab as a duo amongst the group, as well as their conversations constantly shifting between sweet and bubbly affection for each other and full-blown "bordering on NSFW" flirting with each other. Whether this is just typical teasing or fun, there's no denying that Melody and Mouse are legitimately close friends and clearly care for and greatly appreciate each other's company.
  • Froot and Zen, who regularly have one-on-one streams together, and sometimes act like a couple, often in a joking manner, such as Zen acting jealous when Froot showed an interest in Takanashi Kiara. They would later add Haruka Karibu to this dynamic.
  • Silver and Vei, who have gone so far as to have an official wedding for their characters in Final Fantasy XIV.
  • Around the time when Vei joined VShojo, she also started to form this dynamic with Nyanners, which resulted in some jokes given Nyan's Running Gag of stealing wives. Though Silver has shown no issue with this and suggested a threesome between them.
  • In general, all of the girls have shown a deep (if flirtatious) friendship with each other. Ironmouse has often commented how much the VShojo girls are her dear and precious friends and family (While usually openly lusting for them in the same breath).
• Pun-Based Title: "Shojo" can be read as "girl" in Japanese, so the company name could be read as "V Girls," as all talents in the group were female until the debut of the male Kuro (which caused it to become an Artifact Name). The name "VShojo" can also be seen as a play on the term "Bishoujo," as well.
• Running Gag: The Underworld having poor internet service. Likely drawing from Calliope Mori ^note (a grim reaper who resides in the Underworld and has occasional internet issues that she blames on the Underworld's internet coverage), Froot played off some internet issues that she had in her second stream by claiming that the internet service is bad where she lives in the Underworld. Mouse ^note (a demon queen who left her realm to live among humans) later added to this by claiming that the Underworld's terrible internet service is part of the reason she left.
  • Hime's real identity being a very poorly-kept secret. The worst offender is CDawgVA, as just about every time he appears alongside Hime, he ends up referring to her by her real name by complete accident, trying in vain to fix it by saying he was talking about "someone else" or "Hime's grandmother." However, similar slip-ups have happened with other VShojo members and even by Hime herself. This has even been referenced by the official Vshojo Twitter account.
  • Zen's Speech-to-Text-to-Speech is well-known for often messing up what she tries to say, but of particular note is how it will never fail to completely mangle Haruka Karibu's name, with particularly infamous mispronunciations being "How to Car" or "Howard Card."
• Secret Identity: Played With as VShojo as a whole tends to be rather fast and loose with the barriers between their Avatar persona and real-life identity. Some, like Mouse and Zen, keep it 100% separate, and then there are others, like Hime and Kson, where it would be hard to say there was any barrier at all, with the rest falling somewhere in between.
• Shout-Out: When new members are added to the group, the announcements usually depict this as them receiving an invitation in the form of an envelope with a specialized seal, similar to those featured in new fighter announcements for later games of the Super Smash Bros. series. This came full circle when an animator created a video depicting an opening cutscene of a fictional VShojo fighting game, done in the style of Super Smash Bros. 64 and utilizing said envelope.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: To some extent Cooksie, a clipper who focuses primarily on humorous events involving the VShojo members, due to his tendency to bring attention to moments that they find embarrassing. This is most prominent with Zen, but most of them will have occasional moments of realizing that he'll probably clip something that just happened or surprise/irritation on seeing that he already had.
• Split Personality: Both Melody and Froot.
  • Melody has Melware, an "evil" side of her resulting from the exposure to the porn virus that turned her into what she is today. On rare occasions, she takes over Melody's body, and despite presenting herself as "the Dark Queen" who's way more competent than Melody, the line between them is blurrier than she thinks^note For example she's been caught by one of the T1Ms reading a book titled How to Pretend to be a Dom When You're Clearly Just a Brat and typically comes across as Laughably Evil at most. ...Until Zentreya's lore video, that is.
  • Froot has Terry, the spirit in her brooch who sometimes takes over just long enough to shout at chat in a deep, demonic voice before Froot retakes control. Rarer are the times when Froot gets mad enough that he comes out just enough to augment her voice so she can chew chat out.
• Take Over the World: Several of them have this as a goal in-character. Of note, Mouse's "Demon Queen" form is stated to hail from an Alternate Universe in which the VShojo girls banded together to collectively achieve this, and succeed. Melody even lampshades this at one point, questioning why so many VTubers seem to have this as a goal during a collaboration with Pomu Rainpuff. Zentreya's lore video shows that, in the Bad Future she hails from, Melware succeeds in doing this, creating a Utopia for machines... and, in the process, causes the gods to abandon Earth drives humanity into underground shelters, and eventually wipes them out completely, and it is her mission to defy this trope.
• Talk Show: "Speak of the Devil," hosted by Mouse. Episodes usually begin with some time of freeform discussion, followed by both Mouse and her guest answering some fan-submitted questions. Her guests are usually - albeit not always - other VTubers. All the VShojo members aside from Hime, Froot, Henya, Nazuna and Kuro have appeared on the show so far^note Vei, K Son, and Haruka appearing while they were still indies.
• Toilet Humor: Nyanners borderline adores this at times, including humor involving toilets.
• Troll: Zen and Froot often play games together. If the game in question allows you to kill your partner, it's a safe bet that Zen will have some good laughs at Froot's expense (though Froot isn't entirely incapable of getting even).
• True Companions:
  • VShojo English's founding members have been associated with each other for some time before VShojo's formation, and have frequently been shown to be close. Even Froot was working with them on art, costume designs, and occasionally taking part in streams before obtaining her VTuber persona. Hime has little shown history with the others before her debut in VShojo, but the way the others have spoken about her imply that they knew her behind the scenes in some capacity well before she obtained her VTuber persona as well. This also holds true for Vei, to the point that fans had speculated ever since VShojo was first announced that she would join eventually due to her long-running and close relationship with many of the founding members.
  • Haruka is a newer member of their circle of friends, but developed a similar close relationship with VShojo's members, and would eventually join in December 2022 after participating in the 2021 auditions.
  • As for VShojo Japan, Kson is one to the English branch through being friends with Melody since her early days, outright stating in her re-debut that Melody's presence in VShojo was among her reasons for joining. As for within VShojo Japan, anyone aware of Kson and Nazuna's longer history would know that they most certainly qualify, with the same applying to Henya.
• The Voiceless: Zen, kind of. Instead of her actual voice, she uses voice recognition to run a text-to-speech device (with thanks to Comdost) to speak in a posh British accent. In-character, it is explained as being a dragon translator and later being a cyborg.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Matara once tried to forewarn Henya that the term "giving head" is "yabai" (earlier, Henya grabbed Kson's head and said that she is "giving a head", meaning that Kson is offering her head for Henya to grab, but it is pointed out that what she said sounded like the oral sex term), but Henya insisted on wanting to know anyway, claiming that she's an adult and can handle yabai. Eventually, Matara used a banana to convey that "giving head" refers to oral sex. Henya, finally understanding what it means, scampered away in disgust, and Matara exasperatedly shouted "YOU SAID YOU'RE AN ADULT!"

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The VShojo members' Dungeons & Dragons campaigns provide examples of:

• Actual Play: More info on the first couple of these examples can be found on the page for Verum, the universe in which these campaigns take place, but for a quick summary...
  • Several VShojo members were part of two Dungeons & Dragons campaigns called "Death and Debts" and "Steel and Silence". The participants were Mel, Mouse, Silver, and Zen, as well as fellow VTubers Bunny_GIF and Momo (both of whom are friends of VShojo). The streams were hosted by Arcadum, who also serves as Game Master and provides the House Rules and campaigns in a universe of his own design known as Verum using a heavily-homebrewed version of 5th Edition. "Death and Debts" was a relatively introductory campaign, but, when given the opportunity, they opted to move onto a more advanced one called "Steel and Silence", where they met the players of a multitude of Arcadum's other campaigns and took their place in the overarching plot of Verum. "Steel and Silence" eventually came to an end on February 11, 2021, with a Crossover Finale on March 6, 2021 where Arcadum's various campaigns took part in the final battle against the Violet. The characters involved are as follows:
    • Melody: Terryn Zabi, a Changeling Warlock who wields Combat Tentacles (though in practice, tends more toward making gratuitous use of the Indy Ploy).
    • Silver: Revlis, a Tiefling Warlock with a penchant for shiny things. She had a wolf familiar named Daiyo when in her pact with The Laughing Mad, but lost him when she switched allegiances to Babylon, and became part-succubus as a result. She eventually gained a new familiar, a fairy butler named Shiny.
    • Ironmouse: Umi Tormenta, a Shrinking Violet Mermaid Bard, who wields a Naginata in addition to her Magic Music.
    • Zentreya: Zara, a Red Orc ^note (effectively an Oni in all but name) Monk/Fighter who wields a konobo and tends toward drinking, acts of violence, and randomly trying to heft up people.
    • Momo: Vaeri, a Kobold Fighter who wields metal gauntlets. Having prior D&D experience, she's probably the most normal player of the group. ^note (Bunny also has previous experience, even coming into the game with a character already made, but is also prone to joining in the group's lewder antics. Momo, being self-described as "platonically lewd," isn't quite as prone to this, and is usually interrupted when she tries.)
    • Bunny: Madeline, "Le Petite Guardian", a flamboyant Wood Elf Swashbuckling Rogue, who dons the "Crimson Mask of Destiny" and switches personalities when it is taken off.
  • Froot, Nyanners, and Veibae, along with the then-independent Haruka Karibu and Snuffy, are part of another D&D group also hosted by Arcadum, with the initial planning session for the first campaign having taken place on April 7, 2021. This campaign, along with others Arcadum is starting in the same arc, will also take place on Verum, but 50 years after "Death and Debts"/"Steel and Silence" and on a different continent. The first episode of the campaign, called "Otikata's Curse," took place on June 18, 2021; a playlist of the campaign can be found here. The campaign ended after information on Arcadum came out on August 31, 2021, which will not be detailed here, but can be found summarized on Verum's own page, which led to the players all dropping out. The characters involved are as follows:
    • Vei: Nia Ebonheart, a Half-Tabaxi/Half-Human Druid, who refers to herself as a "Nekomancer" and has a cat familiar named Lune.
    • Froot: Mei, a Whitewood Elf Rogue Assassin with a day job as a fruit stand owner.
    • Nyanners: Lusine Lavendel, a Tearn Celestial Warlock with a stoic, mysterious demeanor.
    • Haruka: River Styx, a Geckoi Dancing Blade Fighter with an upbeat personality who is something of The Nicknamer and has a consistent history of getting poor rolls.
    • Snuffy: Tomoe, a femboy Ho'ask Wild Magic Sorcerer who has thus far largely played the Straight Man.
  • Following the cancellation of "Otikata's Curse," the group of Nyanners, Froot, Veibae, Haruka Karibu and Snuffy moved to a new campaign hosted by BrettUltimus, taking place in his own persistent setting, the "World of Io." Session 0 took place on October 15, 2021, and the first episode of the proper campaign, called "The Altered Ballad," took place on November 6, 2021. The characters involved are all "scuffed" versions of their OC characters, some of the details of which are as follows:
    • Vei: Nia Ebonshart, a Tabaxi Fighter, a particularly brawny Cat Folk on the more bestial end of the trope, who has a rodent companion and tried to become a druid, but couldn't manage it and became a fighter instead.
    • Froot: Mei Bedumb, a Duergar^note Grey Dwarf Barbarian, who was originally a Rogue, but in her advanced age grew impatient with all of the sneaking around stuff, and just a touch senile as well.
    • Nyanners: Looseal Ligmabol, a Dark Elf Warlock, who channels the raw energy of a hundred teenage edgelords.
    • Haruka: Sugma Dyx, a Kobold Paladin, who has two fairy companions and is every bit the Cloud Cuckoolander one might expect from someone with such a name, with her initial armor consisting of a garbage bag with the word "ARMUR"^note With the first 'R' written backwards crudely drawn on it.
    • Snuffy: Tom, a Kobold Divine Soul Sorcerer, who sadly has not yet received a full introduction, as Snuffy has been unable to take part in the first few campaign sessions due to health issues.

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