Posted by
u/MarkSakura
An Open Letter to Cover Corporation and Hololive Production, in Regards to the Perfomance of Calliope Mori During the 3rd Holofes, Link Your Wish.
An Open Letter to Cover Corporation and Hololive Production, in Regards to the Perfomance of Calliope Mori During the 3Rd Holofes, Link Your Wish.
Hello,
For the past two years I have been a huge fan of Hololive in general and Calliope Mori in particular. Like a lot of people, I discovered them while I was in lockdown due to COVID, and they really helped me get through a rough period in my life, particularly when I was unable to visit my family for Christmas one year, for safety reasons.
It was for that reason that I decided to purchase virtual tickets for the 3rd Holofes, Link Your Wish. The tickets were expensive, and I am the opposite of rich, but this was going to be the big, long-delayed reveal of Hololive English and Hololive Indonesia’s 3D models, so I decided to splurge and treat myself. I didn’t want to miss out on anything, especially Callie’s first big performance in front of a huge crowd of Hololive fans.
The first day of Holofes came and went, and I was absolutely blown away with the top-notch, professional quality of the show, along with the talent and enthusiasm of all the performers. I went into the second day feeling even more hyped to see the rest of the show, especially Callie’s song. And, while the second day of Holofes was also mostly excellent, something about Callie’s performance of her song Red felt weirdly off to me, though I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I decided to just chalk it up to her maybe being a bit nervous and enjoy the rest of the show.
In fact, I decided a few days later to re-watch the show, and for the second day I decided to join Callie’s membership so I could view her watch-along for the VOD, and then Callie said something about her performance that made me extremely upset for her, and also made me realize the exact reason that her performance had felt so off to me.
This is what she said:
“This song actually had very little choreography. There was, like, the hook part—and then the choreographer said, ‘do whatever you want.’ And I was like, okay… for most of the song. So I tried my best.”
Now, let’s think about that statement for just a minute. Calliope Mori is an impressively multitalented individual. Rapper, singer, lyricist, artist, animator—she’s extremely capable in so many different areas. But she is not a professional dancer or choreographer.
Since she is not a professional, any sort of dance routine she could come up with would be, by definition, amateurish. Under the circumstances, it’s a miracle that her performance was as good as it was.
And this stands in absolute stark contrast to every other performance in Holofes. Anyone can look at the performances of every other Holomem (many of whom are also not professional dancers) and see that none of them were improvising any part of their dance routines. What’s more, every other aspect of Link Your Wish’s production—the venue, the live band, the motion graphics, the VJ-ing, the 3d models, and the AR technology—was at the highest, most professionally-polished quality that anyone could ask for. The dancing of Calliope Mori was the only amateurish thing in the entire show.
Another thing Calliope said in the member’s-only stream also stuck in my mind. After watching her performance, she said, in reference to her dancing, that “It’s not as bad as I thought it was.”
I cannot hear that and not infer that, prior to watching her own performance, she thought her homemade dance routine was quite bad. And, likewise, I cannot imagine that having to do the absurd and unreasonable task of improvising a dance routine for herself—one that would be at the same level as the professional routines of everyone else—didn’t cause her a great deal of strain and stress while she was performing. There is simply no way that her performance wasn’t negatively affected as a result of this.
It is completely unacceptable and inappropriate that an amateur dancer like Callie would be expected to create her own dance moves for an expensive, professional-level venue like Holofes. So, then—why did this happen?
One might assume that Callie might’ve been told to “do whatever you want” because she’s the only rapper in Hololive, and the choreographer might not have been familiar with rap. Except that Tokino Sora and Roboco-san had a duet during Holofes that had a rap section, and during that section, they had polished and professional hip-hop style choreography. So, that tells me that the JP choreographer was perfectly capable of giving Callie an appropriate, complete dance routine. They simply chose to not do that.
One thing I find quite interesting is, while Callie wasn’t the only non-Japanese person performing in Holofes, she was the only one physically present in Japan. Because of the pandemic, Japan has been closed off to foreigners since late 2021. The other members of the ID and EN branches had to have their performances streamed into the venue over the internet. This also means that those members would’ve had to get professional choreographers in their respective areas to do their choreography for them. Calliope Mori was the only non-Japanese person who was under the direct supervision of the JP choreographer.
I find it extremely suspicious and concerning that the only non-Japanese person under the JP choreographer’s direct supervision just so happens to be the only member of Hololive who didn’t receive a complete dance routine from them. But, regardless of intent, the actions of the JP choreographer were objectively discriminatory, unfair, and unprofessional.
It gets even worse the more I think about the job of dance choreographer, and the type of person who would be working as one. That person would have to be someone who has spent years and years dancing, a person who’s dedicated their life to dance. That person would know all about the difference between an amateur and a professional, and could explain that difference in much greater detail than I ever could. In fact, a dance choreographer for Hololive would have to have extensive experience in the fine art of getting amateur dancers to look as good as they possibly could. The idea that such a person would truly, honestly believe that sending an amateur dancer onto the main stage of Makuhari Messe, in front of a crowd of thousands of people live, and even more online, with instructions to “do whatever you want,” was the best way to help them have a good performance, is so absurd and unbelievable that it’s laughable.
The only way that a professional choreographer, a person with years of experience training dancers, would genuinely believe that an amateur could do a better job than them would be if that choreographer was completely incompetent. And it’s clear from the rest of Holofes that Cover’s choreographers are the opposite of incompetent—for everyone not named Calliope Mori, that is.
While I obviously don’t know the JP choreographer, and have no way of proving anything, if I were to imagine a hypothetical situation, of a choreographer trying to sabotage a performer they didn’t like by doing the most minimal job they could possibly get away with, then that hypothetical person’s actions would be identical to what the JP choreographer did to Calliope Mori.
This discriminatory, unprofessional, and unacceptable behavior wasn’t just unfair to Calliope. It was also unfair to her millions of fans, and especially unfair to those of us who paid to see her perform live. It was your responsibility, Cover, to ensure that Calliope’s performance was supported to the fullest extent of your abilities, and that is absolutely not what happened.
To be blunt, I did not just pay you ten thousand fucking yen to watch my oshi’s live 3D debut performance get sabotaged because her assigned choreographer intentionally decided to not do their fucking job.
While I do not believe that you are a discriminatory company in general, the actions of Callie’s choreographer were clearly discriminatory, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable. And, since you employed that person, you need to take responsibility for this and make it right.
- Issue a formal apology to Calliope Mori.
- Issue a formal apology to her fans, the Deadbeats.
- Appropriately discipline the person(s) responsible.
- Take the necessary steps to ensure that, in the future, every member of Hololive, regardless of race or national origin, is treated equally and fairly, and that nothing like this ever happens again.
Sincerely,
A Deadbeat
