General Discussion for Virtual Youtubers / Vtubers / Chuubas - it's okay to be a simp for 2D, just don't thirstpost.

[Namesarehardtocomeupwith]

I'm convinced you have to have a certain amount of self-hatred to regularly play any MOBA, let alone the most mouthbreathing normie MOBA out there.

Without lol, how would rion-sama communicates with her oversea viewers?

Also, I always thought the rabbit was relatively flat but the boobs mousepad seem to be flying off the shelves

 

[Cubanodun]

I'm already dead inside from my precious Pikamee collabing with her.

Pikamee did a colab with the winning son so there is a chance

 

[Potatohead]

Also, I always thought the rabbit was relatively flat but the boobs mousepad seem to be flying off the shelves

Cover has so much fucking merch potential that they’re just not using its unreal. All this hyper-whale type stuff like hundred-dollar voice packs and super limited prints and the stuff is either a sign of their incompetency, or the classic slow-moving Jap company archtype by not upscaling manufacture. Sure, a quality mousepad is preferable to a shitty chinese copy, but there’s such an untapped market for slightly cheaper goods.

At the same time having that shit would bring Cover even -more- into the mainstream. And I really don’t want that to kill something I just got into, so its a double edged sword I guess. It also proves that Cover isn’t just treating their talents as a cashcow to be milked, which is good.

 

[negativlad]

My take on Calli is that she's a natural collaborator and booster (like the small-ish j-rap community she's thrown in with) which is why she will deign to mix it up with small-timers and normie anitubers, because she's paying her dues or whatever it is in her mind. I don't think she's an idiot for breaking out of the ivory vchuba tower, but man some discretion would be nice.

Gura doing Country Roads, at 86% speed:

Gura is no Mariya Takeuchi but at 0.8 speed she's extremely listenable.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I don't think Hololive will collab with Artemis but I'm already dead inside from my precious Pikamee collabing with her.

That’s because Artemis was a mod for Pikamee.

 

[Least Concern]

Gura is no Mariya Takeuchi but at 0.8 speed she's extremely listenable.

I think she's listenable at normal speed. I can take or leave her other streams or clips but her singing makes me want to go full simp mode.

As for Artemis, has he/she actually done anything objectionable except throwing in with Domo? Even if so, do we know that Callie explicitly knows about it and condones it? I think the panic about this being the beginning of the end for the EN branch is more than a bit premature.

 

[deadtofaunus]

As for Artemis, has he/she actually done anything objectionable except throwing in with Domo? Even if so, do we know that Callie explicitly knows about it and condones it? I think the panic about this being the beginning of the end for the EN branch is more than a bit premature.

I agree that the doomposting in this thread is way overblown at this point, but throwing in with Domo certainly makes them out to be a poor judge of character and a brand risk on top of that. Also I'm not sure it can be directly attributed to them, but the astroturfing that occured after their debut where their fans spammed links to their content in other chuubas' videos was extremely annoying and inconsiderate. I remember seeing compilations and subbed videos where the top 10-20 comments had a link to Artemis in the replies. It certainly didn't incite any interest in them from my part.

 

[Dang Woodchucks!]

As for Artemis, has he/she actually done anything objectionable except throwing in with Domo? Even if so, do we know that Callie explicitly knows about it and condones it? I think the panic about this being the beginning of the end for the EN branch is more than a bit premature.

It's not about Calli condoning it, it's about her (inadvertently as it may be) emboldening them. They already have terminal USI, now they see this as it paying off (even though it's not really), so they will get worse and double down on their bullshit.

 

[Potatohead]

As for Artemis, has he/she actually done anything objectionable except throwing in with Domo? Even if so, do we know that Callie explicitly knows about it and condones it? I think the panic about this being the beginning of the end for the EN branch is more than a bit premature.

It's not about Calli condoning it, it's about her (inadvertently as it may be) emboldening them. They already have terminal USI, now they see this as it paying off (even though it's not really), so they will get worse and double down on their bullshit.

An ounce of is prevention worth a spoonful of cure. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Better to be safe than sorry.

Take whatever phrase you want about doomsday prep and apply it here, this is no different than the steady decline of comics, cinema, vidya, etc. You do not give an inch, for they will take a mile.

 

[Wigger Destroyer 110]

Kaoru has a rumor out there about him being fired, but nothing has come up about that and supposedly his wife has said on her personal twitter that the rumor of him cheating on her is wrong.

Holy shit what, he was married? It's pretty based that he decided to do the whole VTubing thing and still had a whole-ass relationship on the side

She is 30 years old iirc and has her own daughter but because her disease has become so severe she has no other quality of life outside of that and her streaming.

Damn, I'm gonna need source on that.

But since you most likely now how the majority of Facebook users are today, you can imagine just how much of a shithole indonesian weebs community is

If it's anything like what I've seen flip NBA mouthbreathers act like, somebody needs to call a crusade.

I'm seeing a whole lot of varying degrees of Artemis simping and maybe only one person attempting to burst their bubble in that screenshot.

If Reddit isn't jerking themselves off over a very obvious troon, then yeah it's lukewarm.

man some discretion would be nice.

I was somewhat mollified that her TTP appearance didn't shit the bed (tho a couple flags were raised, and even the hosts noticed). The real signal to send in Abbot Amalric? If she decides to go onto the Fantano podcast...

 

[PorkeyDuck]

 

[Namesarehardtocomeupwith]

Cover has so much fucking merch potential that they’re just not using its unreal. All this hyper-whale type stuff like hundred-dollar voice packs and super limited prints and the stuff is either a sign of their incompetency, or the classic slow-moving Jap company archtype by not upscaling manufacture. Sure, a quality mousepad is preferable to a shitty chinese copy, but there’s such an untapped market for slightly cheaper goods.

At the same time having that shit would bring Cover even -more- into the mainstream. And I really don’t want that to kill something I just got into, so its a double edged sword I guess. It also proves that Cover isn’t just treating their talents as a cashcow to be milked, which is good.

If you live outside of japan and when out of the way for physical goods, chances are you'd want something high quality for your troubles even if you have to pay a little extra. And there's no one aside from the hardcore fan, aka the hyper whales, who will buy the voice pack anyways. Having a dip in new market is nice but the whales are the one who bring in the big buck, same reason gacha games pander to a small subset of heavy spending players. They have cheap goods too and the hyper whales also eat it all up. The hololive chips went out of stock in seconds, with whale bought hundreds of boxes to have a chance to pull their favorite one.

Thinking that something is going to be killed when it's going mainstream is such a last decade mentality, especially since every community already had it fair share of psychos and faggots, doubly so for vtubers fans with the idol purist mentality and antis. There's nothing "normies" could potentialy bring in to degenerate it further. At this point you kinda have to go mainstream if you're a company and not doing it as a hobby. Matsuri who is a top earner straight up said that you shouldn't look at vtuber as a legit career choice unless you have corporate backing. At the end of the day it's still a business and they have to make money somehow.

 

[The One And Only SALTE]

Cover has so much fucking merch potential that they’re just not using its unreal. All this hyper-whale type stuff like hundred-dollar voice packs and super limited prints and the stuff is either a sign of their incompetency, or the classic slow-moving Jap company archtype by not upscaling manufacture. Sure, a quality mousepad is preferable to a shitty chinese copy, but there’s such an untapped market for slightly cheaper goods.

At the same time having that shit would bring Cover even -more- into the mainstream. And I really don’t want that to kill something I just got into, so its a double edged sword I guess. It also proves that Cover isn’t just treating their talents as a cashcow to be milked, which is good.

It's more or less a case of them producing merch at a rate they actually can afford to. Pretty sure YAGOO's latest post on the CN closure and how they're now much more careful about how to market their talent to a global audience and trying not to piss off any specific nations, but he also mentions one crucial thing: the EN division is operating at a loss. Whatever the hell they're doing is stupid expensive that they are still barely in the black for most of it so even merchandise production seems difficult for them to manage if they commission it.

However, I do know that GoodSmile is making several pieces of hololive stuff: there's a 1/7 Fubuki figure and nendoroids of Fubuki, Matsuri and Aqua. I think Aqua might also be getting a regular 1/7 but I'm not sure on that. Yes, they could put out a lot of stuff to promote the talent but it comes down to whether or not they have the money to do it and make sure it's not in conjuction with anything else; merch on its own doesn't sell as well as limited run event goods. I remember the Towa hat selling out almost immediately, and that shit was 70 bucks. Granted, it also came with a voice pack (normally 20) but still, people are paying that amount plus a fuckton extra in shipping for a hat. I will say their Beyond The Stage line is stupidly expensive for what it offers but it's honestly not that bad when you consider actual concert purchases.

 

[grenskul]

EN division is operating at a loss

Bull fucking shit. He can claim whatever he wants but the expenses are tiny and they are bringing in tons of revenue .

 

[Rezza]

Cover has so much fucking merch potential that they’re just not using its unreal. All this hyper-whale type stuff like hundred-dollar voice packs and super limited prints and the stuff is either a sign of their incompetency, or the classic slow-moving Jap company archtype by not upscaling manufacture. Sure, a quality mousepad is preferable to a shitty chinese copy, but there’s such an untapped market for slightly cheaper goods.

At the same time having that shit would bring Cover even -more- into the mainstream. And I really don’t want that to kill something I just got into, so its a double edged sword I guess. It also proves that Cover isn’t just treating their talents as a cashcow to be milked, which is good.

It's pretty ironic since YAGOO previously worked on Sanrio, the same Sanrio whose main products are shit ton of merchandise

Also maybe it has something to do with the Ilustrators right or something?

My take on Calli is that she's a natural collaborator and booster (like the small-ish j-rap community she's thrown in with) which is why she will deign to mix it up with small-timers and normie anitubers, because she's paying her dues or whatever it is in her mind. I don't think she's an idiot for breaking out of the ivory vchuba tower, but man some discretion would be nice.

Your reasoning of jp's creator collaboration makes sense. Jp's creators are very networking-based, both for the weebs medium or the normies one
But still, it's not bad to take a precaution for when shit came down. But I have feeling the ENMas won't allow any trooning since in Japan itself the alphabet thing is still kind of looked down upon. But I don't know, shits could (and did) happen before

It's more or less a case of them producing merch at a rate they actually can afford to. Pretty sure YAGOO's latest post on the CN closure and how they're now much more careful about how to market their talent to a global audience and trying not to piss off any specific nations, but he also mentions one crucial thing: the EN division is operating at a loss. Whatever the hell they're doing is stupid expensive that they are still barely in the black for most of it so even merchandise production seems difficult for them to manage if they commission it.

Wait, they're still operating at a loss?

 

[Potatohead]

It's more or less a case of them producing merch at a rate they actually can afford to. Pretty sure YAGOO's latest post on the CN closure and how they're now much more careful about how to market their talent to a global audience and trying not to piss off any specific nations, but he also mentions one crucial thing: the EN division is operating at a loss. Whatever the hell they're doing is stupid expensive that they are still barely in the black for most of it so even merchandise production seems difficult for them to manage if they commission it.

I don’t think he was just referring to EN there, it was probably more about CN’s net drain. They launched CN gen 1 almost a full year ago, and gen 2 about 6 months ago. A /biz/ anon did the math and EN made 10 times what CN did in the span of a single month, I’ll see if I have the screencap

However, I do know that GoodSmile is making several pieces of hololive stuff: there's a 1/7 Fubuki figure and nendoroids of Fubuki, Matsuri and Aqua. I think Aqua might also be getting a regular 1/7 but I'm not sure on that. Yes, they could put out a lot of stuff to promote the talent but it comes down to whether or not they have the money to do it and make sure it's not in conjuction with anything else; merch on its own doesn't sell as well as limited run event goods. I remember the Towa hat selling out almost immediately, and that shit was 70 bucks. Granted, it also came with a voice pack (normally 20) but still, people are paying that amount plus a fuckton extra in shipping for a hat. I will say their Beyond The Stage line is stupidly expensive for what it offers but it's honestly not that bad when you consider actual concert purchases.

FOMO is a good motivator to shell out, true. But longtime gacha players will know the pain of not being able to pull a limited time unit; Kara no kyoukai in FGO, the Neptunia, Kizuna Ai, and Hololive Azur Lane events are a prime example. It milks the whales, true. But I will reiterate: Cover is missing out on the low-quality side. Things like pencils with a plastic covering of Gura, or shirts with a logo. Simple, cheap, mass-producible things. Stuff that rakes in the cash because of low costs and relatively high returns.

Is there any data or interviews about them having consistent merch not selling as well as the FOMO stuff? If not, I’ll put it down as Cover not having the industry connections for production on a mass scale. Or losing them with the Taiwan incident.

 

[Least Concern]

Bull fucking shit. He can claim whatever he wants but the expenses are tiny and they are bringing in tons of revenue .

I'll believe that maybe they haven't yet recouped whatever initial costs they had in setting it up, but day-to-day I can't imagine how they could be spending more money than they're making. Maybe something got lost in translation (literally).

 

[Mister O.]

Thinking that something is going to be killed when it's going mainstream is such a last decade mentality, especially since every community already had it fair share of psychos and faggots, doubly so for vtubers fans with the idol purist mentality and antis. There's nothing "normies" could potentialy bring in to degenerate it further.

I wouldn't be quite so sure about that. It's not just about the fanbases, it's about the QoL of the talents themselves, as well. A handful of HoloJP members are having increasing issues with overseas EOP fans, such as Aqua getting visibly upset at the "onion" spam, and Marine deciding to kill her 'boomer' and 'horny' memes because she's a bit fed up with being perceived as one-dimensional (side note, imagine thinking of the all-rounder entertainer that is Houshou Marine as one-dimensional).

Opening floodgates to even more "normies" will exacerbate this kind of behavior, and few to none of them will be willing to take time to learn proper stream etiquette when interacting with a content creator from an entirely different culture and subgenre, we see it already every day. Not saying they're all bad, because they aren't, but the ratio of "rabid meme-of-the-week spammer/tourist" to "normal person who wants to learn and be a good-mannered fan" has got to be at least 10:1.

We'll see how it plays out though, I'm not optimistic, but I'm willing to be proven wrong, and will be happy if I am.

Wait, they're still operating at a loss?

Maybe, but he never explicitly states that. All he says is that it's still not profitable to expand the business overseas, but they're working on improving Cover's management system to spread and strengthen Japanese Vtuber culture, while also realizing it's no small task to cross international waters.

So, you could interpret it as such, but I'm more thinking that his words mean that Cover isn't ready to push out in a big way. I don't see how the current 'overseas' HoloEN crew could be in the red for long, if they still even are. Doesn't seem plausible. I'd wager he means on the whole, factoring in the now-failed CN branch and the small-time ID branch (which is finally gaining traction, yay).

 

[Potatohead]

https://warosu.org/jp/thread/S28410378#p28410624

Link about EN vs CN profits.

Calli outearned all of CN in a month, as I remembered

https://warosu.org/jp/thread/S29271232#p29274172

Link to costs, Yagoo on operating at a loss

Total overseas numbers are about 1 mil in the red due to ID and CN barely making anything, EN is profit ever since superchat was turned on. Not surprising in the least, considering the war in Calli's chat that one time literally breaking her.

 

[grenskul]

Moral of the story EN is making bank. ID and CN are loses (ID for now... maybe ... we hope). Mixing those 3 as overseas is retarded. Don't invest in shithole markets so you don't get shithole revenue it's that simple.