Uhhh ok i gotta ask wtf is going on with NijiEN? Talents have been graduating left and right. Did management dropped their brains?
Given how ID was treated, I figured it was something like they massively underestimated what extra needs are required to care for and give fair treatments to talents who don't live in Japan, like for example, the need to have to fly them in every single time they want to do a 3D and maybe they thought those extra maintenance costs just aren't worth it when they're already making plenty from their Japanese talents, especially when outside of Luxiem, NijiEN talents hasn't been as popular as HoloEN talents.
So they just kinda thought the EN branch is a failed investment and now just doesn't give a damn who leaves and who stays, they just won't give them anywhere near the support they got in the first year.
They don't care if their oversea reputation suffers in the process as long as it doesn't hurt their domestic reputation. The average JP Niji fan or talent won't hear about them mistreating talents like Selen who doesn't even speak Japanese, but if they outright just mass fire the entire branch then that'd be too big to ignore. Not to mention they'd also lose Luxiem, which is still a viable cash cow unit.
It's your typical soulless corpo, so it certainly isn't different from how other industries like anime and Hollywood treat their workers.
Given how ID was treated, I figured it was something like they massively underestimated what extra needs are required to care for and give fair treatments to talents who don't live in Japan, like for example, the need to have to fly them in every single time they want to do a 3D and maybe they thought those extra maintenance costs just aren't worth it when they're already making plenty from their Japanese talents, especially when outside of Luxiem, NijiEN talents hasn't been as popular as HoloEN talents.
So they just kinda thought the EN branch is a failed investment and now just doesn't give a damn who leaves and who stays, they just won't give them anywhere near the support they got in the first year.
They don't care if their oversea reputation suffers in the process as long as it doesn't hurt their domestic reputation. The average JP Niji fan or talent won't hear about them mistreating talents like Selen who doesn't even speak Japanese, but if they outright just mass fire the entire branch then that'd be too big to ignore. Not to mention they'd also lose Luxiem, which is still a viable cash cow unit.
It's your typical soulless corpo, so it certainly isn't different from how other industries like anime and Hollywood treat their workers.
The entire point of the en branch was as revenue generation. Their branch is undermanaged, and when it is, it's by japanese corporate yes-men types, who place the blame of their fuck-ups on the talents. They're also massively underfunded, make barely any money for themselves. And the company is too damn cheap to pay for 3d models or cheap home studios for them. Not to even mention the preferential treatmen JP gets over EN. This is primarily why Pomu is leaving since all of her recent projects have been cancelled since JP livers wanted to use the ONLY 3D studio Riku decided to build for a company with over three hundred fucking Vtubers in it.
The entire point of the en branch was as revenue generation. Their branch is undermanaged, and when it is, it's by japanese corporate yes-men types, who place the blame of their fuck-ups on the talents. They're also massively underfunded, make barely any money for themselves. And the company is too damn cheap to pay for 3d models or cheap home studios for them. Not to even mention the preferential treatmen JP gets over EN. This is primarily why Pomu is leaving since all of her recent projects have been cancelled since JP livers wanted to use the ONLY 3D studio Riku decided to build for a company with over three hundred fucking Vtubers in it.
It's not black and white, I don't want to paint in broad strokes that all managers are bad or all Niji talents are wrong for choosing to stay. 1) There are good managers. Pomu herself loves her manager for going out of their way to buy a Metal Gear concert ticket for her, and many other talents do praise their managers. Though yes there are also some bad managers, and even the good managers can't defy their corpo overlords.
2) The talents clearly are making a good, livable wage. Yes the 2% merch share is bullshit but they have other revenue streams through donations, voice packs, sponsorships, etc. Many said they were dirt poor before joining Niji and are now able to afford expensive streaming setups, expensive vacations, etc. Mysta was able to buy a house and Pomu was able to fund a trip to Antarctica through the money they made off Niji, so to say like they're making unlivable wages is just plain false.
3) All of them probably already have 3D models, most likely for over a year since that was when the AR live was supposed to come out. Problem is more likely scheduling for studio, especially when Niji JP alone already have so many people. Have you forgotten how much trouble and time it took for HoloEN Myth to get a 3D showcase, even when COVER have less talents and a bigger studio? Even now, most of HoloEN's studio appearances are either remote, prerecorded, or just flat out done by animators because it's also just as much of a hassle for them to fly a talent in to do just one stream then fly them back home. Or they have to literally move to Japan, which also isn't something all talents are willing to do.
4) Many Niji talents came from indie, where they'd even be lucky to have 50 viewers and you have to fund everything yourself. No matter what people say, Nijisanji still is the 2nd biggest brand when it comes to Vtubing, so being able to ensure 1000 viewers, some sponsorship deals, connections to work with professional musicians for songs, and even a semi-incompetent manager can still be better than having nothing at all. It might be easy to say "just jump to VShojo", but it's not that simple. Don't forget that both VShojo and Holo themselves also had instances where some talents immediately bailed the moment their contract changed.
5) "Niji JP favoritism" isn't entirely true. Many Niji JP members from 2019 also are just left to dry without sponsorship deals, promotions, or even a 3D. JP members themselves also can no longer host tournaments or concerts just to have fun with friends or for the fans like they used to in 2019-2021. The only way big events can happen now is if they got a bunch of sponsors to hop on or make it pay to view. Again the JP members are easier to work with just by the fact that they physically live in Japan. The favoritism is simply to the biggest earners, be it in JP with Kuzuha, Kanae, Mito, Salome, etc or EN with Luxiem, and that's just ugly capitalism at work.
I repeat, I'm not defending that EN's current mismanagement is horrible, but to oversimplify the issue just to say "Niji bad, everyone should just quit and go to Holo and VShojo" is also just dumb.
azurelorochi said: .I repeat, I'm not defending that EN's current mismanagement is horrible, but to oversimplify the issue just to say "Niji bad, everyone should just quit and go to Holo and VShojo" is also just dumb.
2) The talents clearly are making a good, livable wage. Yes the 2% merch share is bullshit but they have other revenue streams through donations, voice packs, sponsorships, etc.
Just to emphasize this, those in the know are aware that the "2% merch share" was likely only for a specific set of merch, currently speculated to be the jewelry released around that time (if not an exaggerated joke entirely, since where does the remaining 98% go to? also, remember who made the claim, and how he admitted to accidentally nearly committing tax fraud, prompting Ironmouse to get involved; he isn't good with money numbers), since there's always been a variable merch cut depending on the involvement of the talent. Just look at Kaede talking about what makes the most money in this clip from 2020, where she deliberately distinguishes between goods produced by the talent themselves (like voice packs and art drawn by them) and goods sold by Anycolor (anything involving other parties), and how the goods "sometimes make decent amount of income" when compared to voice packs which do pretty well in comparison. Pomu herself would affirm this when she pointed out in a stream in 2023 that merch makes less than superchats (and that's likely accounting for YouTube's cut too), unless it's voice packs.
There's less fingers in the pie for voice packs (only people involved in creation are talent, assuming no custom art, it avoids the YouTube cut, and is only distributed digitally, so no cuts for physical manufacturing and distribution), and in turn, more of a cut for the talent. So now consider what parties aside from Anycolor would be getting cuts for other kinds of merch. And now, with all this in mind, remember what azurelorochi pointed out in terms of what Niji talent was able to afford regardless of the merch cuts.
Just to emphasize this, those in the know are aware that the "2% merch share" was likely only for a specific set of merch, currently speculated to be the jewelry released around that time (if not an exaggerated joke entirely, since where does the remaining 98% go to? also, remember who made the claim, and how he admitted to accidentally nearly committing tax fraud, prompting Ironmouse to get involved; he isn't good with money numbers), since there's always been a variable merch cut depending on the involvement of the talent. Just look at Kaede talking about what makes the most money in this clip from 2020, where she deliberately distinguishes between goods produced by the talent themselves (like voice packs and art drawn by them) and goods sold by Anycolor (anything involving other parties), and how the goods "sometimes make decent amount of income" when compared to voice packs which do pretty well in comparison. Pomu herself would affirm this when she pointed out in a stream in 2023 that merch makes less than superchats (and that's likely accounting for YouTube's cut too), unless it's voice packs.
There's less fingers in the pie for voice packs (only people involved in creation are talent, assuming no custom art, it avoids the YouTube cut, and is only distributed digitally, so no cuts for physical manufacturing and distribution), and in turn, more of a cut for the talent. So now consider what parties aside from Anycolor would be getting cuts for other kinds of merch. And now, with all this in mind, remember what azurelorochi pointed out in terms of what Niji talent was able to afford regardless of the merch cuts.
Fulgor has stated that they get 100% of their voice packs profits which is why they push the sales of them so hard, but all other merch is largely taken by the company.
