Definitely really interested to see where this goes, it could be pretty significant if things go right.
That said, as much as I shill for Niji, you've gotta admit that they've formed a bit of a track record of their first ventures into things being pretty fucking terrible (ex. the borderline black company status their ineptitude gave them in the beginning, the complete chaos of Roa/Meiro's situation, or the absolute joke treatment IN received, especially when they tried to sell it as EN for like a week), before they get their shit together and fix them into something actually fantastic. With that in mind, I can't help but feel concerned about how they can manage to fuck this up.
I'm not on Nijisanji's PR payroll, as much as I often feel compelled to fill the boots of, but I disagree at least somewhat.
Yumenographia, Anycolor's virtual Hostess bar, is incredibly successful and that is a venture still yet to be replicated anywhere else (for reference, these girls charge ¥4,400 for 30min and have 4-7 slots a
day). They were the first to venture into CN, ID, and KR, all of which have been successful by their measures. They were the first to normalise 3D variants of members, as well as use that tech for normal full-length streams. They are now the first attempting to legitimise the industry by offering teaching programs to as yet unknown degrees of success or failure. The Roa/Meiro incident was a shitshow but it also wasn't their 'first venture' into a scandal. IN was a disaster but it was redacted.
Having a track record of trying many different things and not all of them succeeding isn't really out of the norm, especially for an industry that only began about 4-5 years ago. Nintendo have had some absolute stinkers in the name of innovation but they're no less an industry pioneer.
That said, in regards to VTA: My only concern is if they opt to monetise the channel. If they allow these students to get SC donations that could be a slippery slope due to the fact that these students by their very nature are not meant to be around for very long and are destined to be moved on at some point.
But then that's not a con Anycolor could hope to get away with, as fans will be looking out for their voices in new waves, and if they don't appear it'd become clear that VTA would be a sham. If they don't monetise the channel, they'd only be wasting their own time and resources leading them on because there's no money being made. As such, it's hard for me to visualise a scenario where VTA crashes this side of a disgruntled rejected member writing a twitlomger.
