General V-Tuber thread

You're not wrong - HoloEN 1st Gen will most definitely have some fun with the 2nd Gen talents, now would they?

Edited by SmilyTrope112 on Dec 1st 2020 at 3:32:43 PM

Heh. Calli already started.

and then anya seems interested in calli....'s scythe

unrelated to holo ID 2 electric boogaloo, aqua released a new song for her birthday

Indonesia has one of the largest Japanese popcultural markets on Earth, just behind Japan itself and China. Although the distribution of who actually consumes it is kind of weird, but that's another topic.

Directly behind Indonesia are The US and France. Although if you take all of the Anglosphere together it's a larger market than Indonesia....but many Indonesians also speak English, so it's a logical step abroad. Beyond that; Indonesia and Japan historically have solid commercial relations. More stable I'd say than Japan and, oh, I don't know, the PRC. (Which is a much larger market for this sort of thing but also a much more temperamental one).

Scuttlebutt is that Cover Corp's next market expansion is going to be either Spanish or French, though I think the former is infinitely more likely. (The FR market is pretty narrow.) But rumors are rumors, so who really knows.

Incidentally I would get ready for a lot more homegrown talent to start popping up, like, worldwide, in this field. Not indies, big groups like Hololive. Some of it's already started with Virtual Shoujo launching last week.

Edited by Bep on Dec 2nd 2020 at 8:35:32 AM

Well I know who would be collabing for a hypothetical Soul Eater licensed game or maybe Valkyrie Drive I guess

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 2nd 2020 at 6:35:23 AM

(Responding to something from several pages ago)

We don't really know yet because they just launched but I would not be surprised if their business model turns out to be more "eastern" than "western" (frankly this is a gross oversimplification and what we consider Japanese talent-management practice has its roots in American stuff to begin with but anyway). People clown on Nyanners because she's a screwball and such, and some of the other people in the group (ok, mostly Melody) are even easier to not take seriously because people have funny ideas about what people who make internet videos for a living are like, but you don't survive ten damn years doing Youtube stuff, through controversies and all, without having a good head on your shoulders. I think VShoujo being managed like an idol company is part of the appeal (for the talents, that is). They're clearly going for a sense of unified, cohesive aesthetic and branding.

To what end is another question. Given what little we've seen so far on the marketing side it's pretty clear to me that the people behind Virtual Shoujo (both the talents and the management) want the whole thing to be, like, big big. Mainstream, you might say.

And that's going to be hard for them, because people have tried and failed to make J-idol-style groups work in the US in the past....but also times have changed, this is a field that did not exist even ten years ago, and really Who Knows, Like, Just In General about any of this.

I worry I'm kind of coming off as hostile by responding to two pretty short statements with these huge blocks of text. Honestly it's the opposite; I've never lived through the rise of an entire artistic field before, and I am absolutely fascinated as to where it's going to go. So I am arguably prone to overanalysis.

I have some acquaintances who work in the industry and do indie VTubing myself, and the fact of the matter is that basically everybody is still figuring this stuff out. I think it's exciting, personally.

Nijisanji has started to make their move as well. They've announced the Nijisanji EN first wave auditions yesterday, so we'll have three big Vtuber companies in the English-speaking market by the start of 2021.

It makes me wonder if we'll eventually start seeing some traditional Western companies throw their hat in this too. Over in Japan for example, there are companies like Sanrio producing a Hello Kitty Vtuber, and Square Enix creating their own Virtual Idol group.

Edited by Servbot on Dec 2nd 2020 at 8:11:19 AM

I can see Disney trying to get into the market, but that more becuase Disney is a black hole of late stage capitalism trying to suck everything in than anything.

On that note, I'm confused as to A: Why Compile Heart/Idea Factory hadn't gotten into the act yet and B: wouldn't Show By Rock make more sense for Sanrio to base Vtubers off of (even considering Hello Kitty's iconicness)?

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 2nd 2020 at 8:19:57 AM

Every time pekora said Moona in her collab

Funny man-made Korone bit.

> when you don't give her your yubi

Indonesia has one of the largest Japanese popcultural markets on Earth, just behind Japan itself and China. Although the distribution of who actually consumes it is kind of weird, but that's another topic.

The thing is, I could definitely understand producing Indonesian idols for the Indonesian market, but vtubers are inherently international. So Hololive basically two English branches, one of them drawing from a much smaller talent pool

Scuttlebutt is that Cover Corp's next market expansion is going to be either Spanish or French, though I think the former is infinitely more likely. (The FR market is pretty narrow.) But rumors are rumors, so who really knows.

If they're going to keep expanding, Spanish is the next logical step. 4th most spoken language, and a better market than what you get with Hindi (we all know what happened with Chinese). French has half the speakers and a weird market for Japanese stuff

Lotta companies stop at English, though

We don't really know yet because they just launched but I would not be surprised if their business model turns out to be more "eastern" than "western"

So does Vshojo have any original talent or auditions for such?

Nijisanji has started to make their move as well. They've announced the Nijisanji EN first wave auditions yesterday, so we'll have three big Vtuber companies in the English-speaking market by the start of 2021.

Bit late, aren't they? But I wonder how well it'll go; from what I've seen Nijisanji isn't nearly as popular in the west as Hololive

It makes me wonder if we'll eventually start seeing some traditional Western companies throw their hat in this too.

I wonder. Vtubing is a particular combination of niche nerd stuff and talent management that's not going to be common in the west. Like, Disney absolutely could if they wanted to, already essentially having an idol arm, but they've shown very minimal interest in the sort of things vtubers actually do

Now I'm imagining a Disney Princess inspired Vtuber playing Epic Mickey.

While I'd agree that Disney might want to get into the game (even being the first to mention the possibility), there are some advantages and drawbacks to this idea.

• First is the whole kayfabe element. The Vtubers are as much a fictional charterer than they are the streamers and idols voicing them. A dynamic that is far more "Hannah Montana" than "Miley Cyrus" to make an appropriate analogy. This might get in the way of Disney trying to profit of the stars they mint though Vtubing as it relies of them being public, but conversely it might help them if they draw form their existing talent pool (which they seem tow ant to be excellent in both singing and acting anyway), and also provides a means to recast them if they want to.
• The general tainted association. Let's face it, Disney is currently the archetypal MegaCorp of dystopic cyberpunk infamy, but still in a natal stage. Its still far enough in its development that people can see it as such. As such it is the Walmart to Hololive and Nijisangi's mom and pop stores (to say noting of the indies) the Goliath to their Davids. That kind of baggage will be a hurdle to overcome. Plus their idol arm seems aimed at a tween audience which might also be a deal breaker for people in the Vtubing fandoms for various reason (albeit likely sexist ones)
• Licensing: On the one hand they do have a ever voracious library of content and could likely get quicker access to other company's content like say, Square Enix. OTOH some of those companies might be competing with them (the aforementioned Squeenix does have their own idol group), and Getting access to the kind of content Vtubers might want to use, might prove to be either extreme difficult or easy, again boiling down to their reputation as both a cultural monopoly and on the legal front of copyright.
• All of this assumes that they would be trying to aim their Vtubing venture at the general Vtubing audience (otaku and such), which considering their other reputation might be a huge departure (even KH was made more with Disney and RPG fans in mind over the more horny side of things). It is more likely that they might aim younger towards the relativity untapped market of tweens and kids
• That said they do have a slight advantage, Of those that both are trying to field Vtubers and have existing I Ps only Sanrio seems to be in the game (even though I expected the Neptunia devs to be involved in the industry and even Konami had recently released material that could be defictionalized as such).Which si to say that current Vtubers are more original characters than derived from existing fiction with a baked in fanbase. Dinsey would both be unlikely to maintain this formality and have an expansive library of female and male charterers to base Vtubers around, with possibly respect for the source material's setting being the only limiting factor (and likely one that doesn't both them as much) which means that Disney has the option of say, making Tinkle Bell or Vanilloppe oe even Rey or Ms. Marvel a Vtuber if they are so inclined.

Disney as a Vtubing agency would means very interesting paradigm shifts for the industry to be frank. Especially if they do decide to recast their talents often or base their Vtubers of their Princesses and Fairies. Plus they could make them multimedia figures as well with their fiction beyond their Vtubing gigs (assuming they go the OC route).

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 2nd 2020 at 8:16:51 AM

I'm not sure vtubers aimed at tweens is viable? While vtubers do have merch, their primary revenue stream is viewer donations and subscriptions, which I feel like you'd having difficulty getting from 11-year-olds

Also it's worth remembering that vtubers are real people as much as they are characters. Trying to tie them to an existing character or even franchise tends to be bad, since their real self will inevitably come out

From my understanding, merch (which could be bought with additional tips for the Vtuber), partnerships, events, and promos are still considered as the more stable sources of income for company Vtubers, since Youtube takes a 30% cut of donations and the remaining 70% is split between the company and the Vtuber.

Plus, the buggy Youtube AI is so notorious at randomly terminating, demonetizing, banning, shadow-banning, and unsubscribing Vtubers that you really don't want Youtube to be your only source of income.

On the hypothetical Disney Vtuber, I imagine them taking the more traditional pre-recorded videos route that Sanrio uses for Hello Kitty if they go for Vtubers based on their already existing characters. That said, Disney also owns the Disney Digital Network (formerly Makers Studios) so I won't be too surprised if a livestreaming Vtuber not based on their existing franchises comes out from there should the Vtuber market prove profitable enough for Disney.

Edited by Servbot on Dec 3rd 2020 at 3:38:49 AM

Ah, the "this is profitable, oversaturate the market" stage.

Since someone mentioned Neptunia here . . .

https://www.siliconera.com/neptunia-virtual-stars-kizuna-ai-dlc-introduced-in-a-new-trailer/

Neptunia Stars, the third person action and shooter hybrid game that does feature real life Vtubers, is adding Kizuna AI as a playable character via DLC. The game will be released in the West in 2021.

1) Kizuna Ai better have a fakkyu quote. It's not a true Kizuna Ai game appearance without a fakkyu quote.

2) Oh wow, they've got a lot of Vtubers in the game. Based on the Hololive line-up, I guess development started when Hololive 3rd gen was still fairly new. I'm surprised at the lack of Nijisanji reps though.

3) I'm hoping for a Kizuna Ai and Sakura Miko Fakkyu/FAQ off

4) That 2021 NA/EU release date is some fortunate timing since it'll come in while interest in Vtubers, especially Hololive, is so high in the Anglosphere.

5) And oh look, Compile Heart does have their own Vtuber. (Although it looks like she's reduced her activity this year. I guess her rig is in the Compile Heart offices so the pandemic affected her badly?)

Edited by Servbot on Dec 3rd 2020 at 7:04:36 AM

Wait korone is gonna be in that game?

Well shit I have to buy it now

Also Ollie will debut tomorrow morning (really early I think for us in the US) and I'm sad I'll be sleeping

So, whoever was running the Bandai Namco channel was hanging out in Gura's stream whilst she was playing Taiko no Tatsujin. They actually said she could play Gurenge and it'd be fine, though she either didn't notice or still decided it wasn't worth risking it. She also apparently missed this message.◊ They said they're going to try and send her a drum controller.

Edited by RainehDaze on Dec 3rd 2020 at 4:33:24 PM

Bamco US is a shrimp

Neptunia Stars

They have Pinky Pop Hepburn but not Kaguya Luna? How odd

This is a good example of how quickly changing the vtubing landscape is, though. They must have finalized the roster in late-ish 2019, but it already looks pretty weird, even with their available choices

Noel and Choco but not Pekora or Haachama...

Okay ollie doesnt just type in all caps, she speaks in it too