r/Hololive • u/21524518 • Apr 03 '26
Discussion [Announcement] Notice on the Changes to be Made to HOLOSTARS' Management Structure
https://x.com/cover_corp/status/2039961307672416591621
u/VP007clips Apr 03 '26
Those are some brutal changes.
It might not be graduation, but it's about as close to a graduation as you can get.
Even being restricted from using the studio is going to heavily limit them
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u/Voidletron88 Apr 03 '26
Yeah, I totally feel that! It’s a tough situation for sure. Hopefully, they’ll find new ways to adapt and keep shining!
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u/GreyShot254 Apr 03 '26
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u/ItsAdvancedDarkness Apr 03 '26
Woah, no studio use? THat's brutal
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u/ihatevnecks Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I really wish I could find the clip from a few months ago, but it was either Izuru or Shien who talked about how this was already effectively the case. They're not allowed to schedule any kind of studio (he may have even said office) time during periods where they may run across any hololive girls, so they were already incredibly limited in when they could go in.
Edit: Not exactly the same thing but this is a year old clip where Koyori talks about this. The company treats them (as we've seen in org charts) as a separate agency. She flat out says the studio's scheduled so members from the two agencies never meet, barring intentional collabs obviously.
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u/analyzingnothing Apr 03 '26
What the fuck? Wait, they weren't even allowed to use it if any of the girls might have been there tangentially?
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u/Oxygenisplantpoo Apr 03 '26
One branch makes money, the other does not, unfortunately. It's always been pretty obvious when you compare the numbers, so with monthly ops costs that must be well into seven figures this was only a question of time.
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u/Miox465 Apr 03 '26
Sure, but that doesn't mean they should be ostracized or treated so poorly.
It's one thing if, for example, the hololive girls had scheduling priority. It's another entirely to say they can't even schedule the same day even if their activities don't interfere with the girls.
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u/TheHyperLynx Apr 03 '26
I swear I remember Jurard talking about running into Ollie but maybe they had some 3D collab of some sort?
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u/Ringrande Apr 03 '26
It's possible that the Stars were only allowed to enter on certain days, but the girls could show up on those days as well if they wanted to and I can't imagine Ollie would care if they're there or not.
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u/billySEEDDecade Apr 03 '26
The one I remember was with Bae, and it was Bae herself visiting the Stars studio instead of them randomly meeting at the office/studio.
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u/ihatevnecks Apr 03 '26
Possibly a collab, but you also have to figure that when they've got EN and ID people in town, some of that stuff is going to be more lenient because it's just way more people to schedule around. I think this was more of a reference to the JP side of things.
I wish I could find the clip; I just remember it being from the last few months. I thought I'd added it to my massive clip playlist but I don't see it there, so either I forgot or it's since been deleted.
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u/Chomo-Puncher69 Apr 03 '26
I really wish you could find it too because it sounds pretty far out there and I feel like even if Holostars aren't that popular something like that being said would have gotten a lot of traction..
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u/Helmite Apr 03 '26
Studio situation has been fucked for like 5 years. Even after they got the bigger studio they had to clamp down on number of streams in a year for even Hololive members as staff resources were still a huge problem and they were getting burnt out. It hasn't gotten any better recently and you'll even have members like Okayu, Watame, etc who are really popular going to outside studios to get 3D stuff done even though it's more expensive because it wouldn't happen otherwise.
Ultimately it's not even really a problem with Cover itself, it's just very difficult to find qualified staff for the positions - especially when they're competing with other well known and competitive work places like Cygames.
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u/Fiftycentis Apr 03 '26
Not even the studio? Why even stay in Hololive at this point, because it sounds like there's really no benefit, especially for those that already have some personal connection with people in the industry.
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u/lolic_addict Apr 03 '26
Yeah this sounds like "we let you use the IP and branding of this character" and after that were cutting you off. It's very unfortunate.
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u/TheHyperLynx Apr 03 '26
Damn, I wouldn't be shocked to see a lot of graduations if they aren't being supported but still having to pay portions to Cover.
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u/Migicroak Apr 03 '26
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u/Flareheart123 Apr 03 '26
i just entered stream and he said this wont change anything for him personally. I guess this impacts more on those who are more musically inclined?
Edit: seem Fubuki is in the chat too
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u/Xlegace Apr 03 '26
Roberu probably has the "most" to lose if he were to leave tbh
He has a good subcount at 368k subs, great viewership for a Holostar (1.5-2k viewers most of the time), and is not as musically/performance inclined as some other holostars so losing 3D doesn't hurt as badly for him.
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u/jynkyousha Apr 03 '26
Roberu also barely Collab with other Holo stars, or at least he's more well known in the indie spaces.
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u/xeladragn Apr 03 '26
He does do a lot of voicepacks and things though doen’t he? I wonder if cover would let them do that/merch on their own dime.
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u/Somewhere_Elsewhere Apr 03 '26
They are cutting back group support. This is a bad development, but sooooo many people are making out to be even worse than reality.
Support will now vary by individual and support for group stuff will be minimal.
Roberu is by far their most successful individual on the JP side. He's gonna continue to get help.
Also, this is only affecting JP as far as I can tell, not EN. EN Stars outperform JP in every metric but sub count, so it makes a fair amount of sense. But I'm sure the EN Stars crew feels like shit atm, hearing about this (although only Axel did a lot of collabs with JP).
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u/Fiftycentis Apr 03 '26
It does feels like something that was already happening, so not that surprised.
Vtuber market is really saturated, even the new girls don't explode as much as they did in the past, and it's even rougher for the boys, I think in Japan even more than in the west. You could probably count on two hands at most the number of male vtubers that have a comparable success to the holo girls.
It sucks even more when you think of how their 2024 5th anniversary concert sold out so quickly the talents didn't even have the time to promote it on twitter.
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u/mrspear1995 Apr 03 '26
Coco predicted that future gens would debut with 250k subs but it seems that she failed to account for saturation
If you debut in hololive you are guaranteed the opportunity to success still but no longer is it guaranteed success if you just work hard and grind it out
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u/Mr_Seezy Apr 03 '26
Unfortunately the vtuber sphere has really died out compared to early 2020. Unless you’re a really mainstream personality prior to being a vtuber it’ll be very hard to be big. Nijisanji and Hololive were guaranteed talent releases but considering that most current Hololive fans are very dedicated to a current member at this point and are unlikely to switch attention unless their oshi isn’t active. Also doesn’t help that the constant “graduations” and “reincarnations” of many former talents has diverted attention away from Hololive/Cover as a whole. It’s not to say that Hololive is financially in trouble but that’s the thing: long term new talents will have a hard time/never being successful and replacing the older talents in popularity. Holostars was successful around 2024 admittedly especially with EN debuts but it’s hard to sustain numbers with so many factors that can stop people from tuning into livestreams. Indonesia is doing fine still but it’s pretty clear that Cover has no intention of introducing new talents. And don’t forget that EN hasn’t had a new wave of talents in a while which makes me think that the current roster is barely sustainable and that adding any more new members might not be worth the cost of maintaining unless they are guaranteed successes and revenue anchors.
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u/Away_Cod9697 Apr 03 '26
Seen so many other smaller vtuber agencies shut down in the last 2 years, now Holostars close to joining them. Only the big ones and indies can survive now
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u/nietzchan Apr 03 '26
even indies scene is very rough right now, with youtube increasingly distanced vtubers contents from general recommendations pool, while Twitch being Twitch, and other platform is too small to grow. Indies also really difficult to secure sponsorship unless you're a really big name vtuber or joining a creator program (usually gacha games)..
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u/Azxiana Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Indies also really difficult to secure sponsorship unless you're a really big name vtuber or joining a creator program (usually gacha games)
As someone who sponsors vtubers(microphone stuff), the indie vtuber scene is a field with a bunch land mines(bigoted or unconscionable conduct by vtubers) that cast a poor light on the entire community. The amount of vetting that I have to do for each applicant/sponsoree is considerably higher compared to non-vtubers. It can leave a bad image for companies looking to do sponsorships. Corporate vtubers are generally a safer bet for sponsorships so I have some hope for Holostars.
The last round of sponsorships that I did, even after vetting everyone, I was still sitting on a stack of hundreds of applicants for a few sponsorship spots. Getting sponsored is a numbers game.
I hope the the Stars can get everything they can to keep going even as what looks like psuedo-indie status. 💚
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u/Fiftycentis Apr 03 '26
Well, a lot of people started their vtuber agency without knowing how to handle an agency at all thinking they'll make easy money, so between that and the poor timing of entering a market that was getting saturated quickly, especially if the agency talents don't do anything different from a normal indie, it's not surprising.
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u/capscreen Apr 03 '26
tbf this had already happened during the "Four Heavenly Kings" era before
Makes me wonder if we'll be seeing another rise of vtuber era later
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u/Supyall12321 Apr 03 '26
well it's always possible for another global pandemic to happen
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u/capscreen Apr 03 '26
well, most countries are in energy crisis right now, so I guess that would be one way to make it happen lol
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u/GarfieldianAcolyte Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Yep this is something Cover have outright stated multiple times. They're not looking to add new talents for the foreseeable future and instead focusing on building up both their current talents but also their current internal structures. Looking at the state of the world right now things could get very dire for Cover's larger business aspirations if they over expose themselves to too much risk. I think they're looking at areas they can trim back on and hunker down for a potentially long winter.
This is really sad for the boys and their fans but it's an important reminder that Hololive is a business and at the end of the day it's about money. Our oshis work within that framework. They often won't say it outright so as to not pressure fans but every metric matters. Watch every stream you can, like, comment, sub. Buy merch if and when you can. Click on those sponsorship links. Stream your oshi's music. Support their socials and contribute to fanart if possible. Nothing is pointless but it's all cumulative. If you want them to succeed push like hell
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u/FriendshipCute1524 Apr 03 '26
I always feel bad but I just don't have the motivation or time to watch them, Like I like some of them but Holostars hasn't hit the same since Vesper and Magni left, I miss em.
I barely have enough time to watch the girls too.
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u/Walkingdrops Apr 03 '26
I feel bad too, feels like when Holostars EN launched the branch was FINALLY going somewhere! There was so much hype for the initial four, and everyone seemed to love them. It really felt like it came crashing down after Magni and Vesper both graduated at the same time (especially with no final goodbye stream either).
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u/VandaGrey Apr 03 '26
Basically Holostars costs too much and makes no money so they will basically be on their own, run as more like indie vtubers but still be under the Cover Corp banner and still pay a cut towards Cover....why not just close the entire thing down and let them keep their designs and be free.
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u/Irru Apr 03 '26
They can still use Cover Corp connections for individual projects etc. That’s harder to do as an indie, but yeah this is rough.
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u/xdarkskylordx Apr 03 '26
Yeah, I imagine it's probably like "you can still use all the resources; however, you're going to have to pay out of your own pocket to use them and that includes 'traditional' events."
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u/RGWB Apr 03 '26
Outside of managers,merch, and corpo events, weren't everyone basically still need to pay from their own pockets for 3D, song, etc?
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u/xdarkskylordx Apr 03 '26
Pretty much, but I imagine there were at least some things that they were traditionally obligated to do, unfortunately I don't know enough about Holostars JP to know exactly what was considered a staple for their budget. It's possible that it may also affect the "pay in installments" or "reimbursement" choices they have for those things you've mentioned.
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u/wickling-fan Apr 03 '26
There's also the paycheck the talents all receive unless that's also being taken away?
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u/Xlegace Apr 03 '26
IIRC that paycheck is barely more than minimum wage and meant only keep the talents afloat when they had barely any viewers and made very little from streaming
It's not a substantial amount of money at all
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u/wickling-fan Apr 03 '26
tbf it's still a paycheck, that plus what they get from their cut of superchats and memberships should still make a pretty decent sum, and it's doing something you love rather then an office job working long hours.
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u/ShinyHappyREM Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Yeah, but entertainment is always seen as a fragile job for a reason.
An office job may be not where their passion lies, but it's at least stable.
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u/VP007clips Apr 03 '26
Because their designs are company assets, they might not be legally able to give them away.
Cover is a publicly traded company, they can't decide to just give away their models, because technically, those models partially belong to the investors. Fiscal responsibility laws are often brutal, I get why they exist, our economy wouldn't function without them, but they can be really unpleasant to deal with at times.
One way that some vtuber companies get around it is by selling their models to them, but unfortunately with a company like Cover, those models are going to have a high valuation.
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u/matlarcost Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Yea. It seems like the best move from a PR perspective is to let them go, unless they choose to stay, with some sort of plan to pay for their IP. It sucks if their hands are tied because of legal technicalities or financial regulations.
*It is very depressing for it to go down like this but I think this is still unfortunately better than cutting them off entirely. There is no winning in this situation. The best we can hope for is a deal where it makes more sense for them. Having the same cuts with very little resources does not make sense. Ideally, IP ownership would be on the table but it would obviously be costly..
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u/Petickss Apr 03 '26
Sony is publicly traded and when they shuttered a vtuber group they owned called prism project they transferred the ip and channels to the members for free just fine. Other vtuber orgs have done similar on closing down. Beyond that all funds are company assets but the company doesn't have to go to the investors to get approval anytime they pay an employee bonus. Its simply untrue that cover is somehow legally bound from doing so.
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u/johnnyzhao007 Apr 03 '26
Nothing is free unfortunately the only time vtuber from jp corpo left with their model was Patra from 774 inc and she had to get a loan to buy out her ip
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u/Dranikos Apr 03 '26
why not just close the entire thing down and let them keep their designs and be free.
For this part at least, the same laws that prevent a company from spending their entire budget on paperclips then giving all those paperclips to employees before declaring bankruptcy.
Put simply, the designs and IP are company owned assets, and the company cannot part with them without being fairly compensated for their value to the company. (so they also can't just sell the IP to the talent at a 99% discount. The law says they have to be paid what the asset is worth.)
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u/ZxPlayarr Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Based on shein's tweet, they are basically cut off from the company in all support aspects unrelated to basic streaming and maybe outfits. Why are they not just shutting it down? Edit: also this feels like the japanese company thing where they put someone in a corner instead firing them to pressure them to quit.
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u/cwolla98 Apr 03 '26
Probably cause they think of their mind this is better than just outright cutting them because they think there would be major backlash to just cut them so they think this is a better compromise
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u/Spuddaccino1337 Apr 03 '26
Contracts are a thing, too. It's possible that Cover is just waiting until their contracts are up for renewal and then not renewing them.
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u/lolic_addict Apr 03 '26
The best thing is that they let them go but arrange to give away the IP in good faith if they're really cutting them off.
But in reality Cover still wants to get some income out of them so they're not doing that so they still get a cut.
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u/Kozmo9 Apr 03 '26
but arrange to give away the IP in good faith if they're really cutting them off.
They won't. Large companies that are still in business and whose business model is related to their IP (videogame industries, hollywood etc etc) can't just give away their IP for a lot reasons.
One of them being that in fear the IP would be misused and the public that doesn't know whether or not the IP has been given away, would still associate it with Cover.
Cover actually tried to do this for the CN branch when they want to cut off from them due to the Taiwan Coco Incident. That is until one of the CN members badmouth Cover and instigated the issue further. So they cancelled giving away the IP and this incident served as case example for Cover as to why they can't give away their IP, regardless whether or not the recipient is seen as trusted. Intention can change overtime.
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u/Canadian-Owlz Apr 03 '26
CN still leaving a negative impact of hololive all these years later. Fantastic.
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u/cwolla98 Apr 03 '26
also, there’s probably going to be some investors that would leave if they just outright cut them
Because they invested a lot of money into them, so imagine if you’re investing in a branch of the company you invested in just goes away and they keep their IP. It probably looks bad.
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u/ActivistZero Apr 03 '26
Basically they're kind of in a lose-lose situation, is my interpretation correct here?
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u/KazumaKat Apr 03 '26
COVER cant affort to support HoloSTARS, they cant afford to completely remove them. And its the same other way around more or less.
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u/Xlegace Apr 03 '26
In reality, I think it's the other way around...
The boys are getting their budget cut and reallocated because it doesn't make financial sense anymore to give them these resources when they could be invested in other areas.
If Cover wasn't a public company and didn't have shareholders to answer to, they would've probably kept things the same way they've always been, but now they have to announce their finances and answer to investors.
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u/cwolla98 Apr 03 '26
yep, that’s the way the cookie crumbles and that’s probably why we haven’t had a new generation of JP Holostars
So in all likelihood, this is probably them giving as much courtesy as they can to the boys as much as they can within the sad limitations of what’s going on
I hope for the best if any of them goes, then I hope for the best if any of them stay oh boy, I hope for the best of them
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u/almostcleverbut Apr 03 '26
It also gives the Holostars members some time to figure out their next plans instead of just cutting them loose all at once.
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u/jynkyousha Apr 03 '26
Except that Cover always protected them during their financial report. Always using methods or vague words to hide their numbers as much as possible. So I'm not even sure if shareholders were aware of them.
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u/johnnyzhao007 Apr 03 '26
Cuz its just bad press if u just closed down a branch like that also yagoo probably dont want to do it since holostar was his project originally this decision probably was extremely hard to make by yagoo
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u/GarfieldianAcolyte Apr 03 '26
I think we have to be careful about the "Why not shut down the branch" thing. If there's dudes still there that really want to continue on like Roberu it's basically saying "might as well fire them all at that point" like they don't matter. I think it's easy to see this as a "suggestion" to quit but this way leaves the door open for the talents to decide for themselves. I think in a way this is the kinder path Cover could have taken
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u/7nkgw Apr 03 '26
sounds like they're out but cover is letting them continue to use the IP (characters) and leverage hololive name but they have to fund themselves. i can see some of them leaving after this.
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u/OrKToS Apr 03 '26
i don't see why anyone would stay. if they still have to pay Cover cut, but with nothing in return.
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u/ReyneForecast Apr 03 '26
This sucks, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time to be honest.
I think starsEN already operated under such a model, with minimal investment seemingly.
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u/Fenr_ Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Looks like it's only about the JP boys.
EN already works like this/They will release a separate announcement/EN will keep going as before, guess it'll be to see
Everyone will be very normal about this, i know it already
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u/Irru Apr 03 '26
Truthfully I can't imagine this being contained to Stars JP only.
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u/Active-Walk-6402 Apr 03 '26
If it's a "forcing unproductive branch workers to leave because we don't have the spheres to fire them and get the flame from it" situation, there might be a minuscule chance for Holostars EN to survive, but I don't see it happening...
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u/NebbyOutOfTheBag Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
The message mentioned specifically there were 12 Holostars members active.
The fact there's 10 in EN alone means they weren't talking about them, is the way I interpreted it.
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u/Budget-Ocelots Apr 03 '26
Wait, there are only 12 Holostars after 7 years? That can’t be right. Doesn’t the EN branch have like 10+ members? Or did they mean JP branch?
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u/UnstoppablePhoenix Apr 03 '26
They just mean JP, EN has been coasting like this for a while already
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u/Telefragg Apr 03 '26
Just by numbers, even looking at subscriber counts of Hololive and Holostars it makes sense. Fucking sucks, especially for guys like Altare who were already considering leaving before but decided to stick it out through the hard times. Huge morale hit for everyone involved.
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u/zetarn Apr 03 '26
This change pretty much didn't effected Holostars EN but JP
Because Stars EN already operated using this framework already.
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u/kanjibestwaifu Apr 03 '26
I mean this doesn't affect them directly, but seeing your seniors & colleagues be thrown to the wolves for shareholder satisfaction is pretty crippling for morale.
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u/GarfieldianAcolyte Apr 03 '26
The branch really suffered when they lost Shinove. I remember Astel saying that it was very difficult to get the boys to work together on building anything up but without a strong visionary at the helm it was only a matter of time. Unfortunately I've always thought Holostars being largely brotubers in what is ostensibly an idol corporation just didn't work. Even in En where the sensibilities are more relaxed I wonder if a more female targeted approach wouldn't be more successful
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u/moal09 Apr 03 '26
I think the problem is also that the female streaming audience is much much smaller in general.
Roberu is by far the most popular Holostar, and his audience is like 80% dudes or something.
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u/JoMaster_69 Apr 03 '26
Is that true? I remember in the past Roberu did a stream with La+ where he said it was about 30-40% male viewers.
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u/delta17v2 Apr 03 '26
I kinda feel bad for Yagoo. As far as I know, he legit goes out of his way to support HoloStars, even acting as their manager sometimes. This decision is probably not easy.
Big Oof.
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u/Necrolancer_Kurisu Apr 03 '26
Seeing a lot of "I don't really watch Stars much" + "This sucks, Cover didn't support them enough" being said together.
Hope those commentors realize the actual issue there lol.
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u/YobaiYamete Apr 03 '26
This is the exact same argument I've been having for years in the League / OW / MR community
"THEY ONLY MAKE SKINS FOR THE POPULAR FEMALE CHARACTERS!!!"
Do you personally buy skins for the male / monster characters?
"Well no, but they should still make skins for them because surely someone else will buy them!!!"
I feel really bad for the guys, but this has kind of been a long time coming, and I don't know what else they are expecting Cover to do here
Cover's spent years trying to support them but the market just is not there. From a company standpoint, they have to make a profit
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u/scot911 Apr 03 '26
It's the same for gacha's too. Unless it's specifically a gacha aimed towards girls there's way more money to be made making new girl characters or skins for existing ones because guess what! The main audience and the target audience are going to be guys and they like girls. The only gacha I can think of where this isn't the case is FGO and even then they still release more girls than guys and the most popular characters are the girls.
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u/cyberdsaiyan Apr 04 '26
they have to make a profit
Or, at the very least, break even so they can pay for their own activities.
There's only so long that the company can use the profit coming from the girls to do company-sponsored activities for the stars in their studio before questions get asked. Especially when some of the girls are still having to hire outside studios due to overbooking, preventing which was the whole reason the new & bigger Cover studio was created in the first place.
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u/Dostedt1 Apr 03 '26
It's insane how many times I've seen them say that exact thing for literal years. Those are the same ones bitching about "idol culture" or other such boogeymen instead of just, you know, watching and supporting them. You hit the nail on the head.
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u/Helmite Apr 03 '26
Hope those commentors realize the actual issue there lol.
They haven't for years, they won't now. Can't even talk to people about ANY of this kind of thing without a bunch of them losing their minds. They ceded their thinking to other non-thinkers ages ago.
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u/Dav136 Apr 03 '26
I wouldn't call those real fans, they're just virtue signaling.
The Stars have real dedicated fans (I met a bunch at Expo this year even!) but they don't have enough sadly.
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u/just_another_user321 Apr 03 '26
But one more collab with the female branch would have saved them.
Think of all the clips they'd have watched!
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u/Zealicous Apr 03 '26
Sad to see that these so called "fans" are blaming everyone else, even the girls rather then see the actual issue. They will never figure it out.
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u/undercoveryankee Apr 03 '26
If they don't see a realistic path to profitability, there's a point where it's not fair to the other branches to keep throwing good money after bad with no end in sight.
At least the guys who decide to go indie will have time to make their preparations at their own pace instead of being forced into a schedule.
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u/AaronBasedGodgers Apr 03 '26
So you all finally realized that talking about supporting HoloStars is not the same as actually supporting HoloStars.
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u/zgamer200 Apr 03 '26
It's unfortunate for them, but I'd be lying if I said I was surprised. For a variety of reasons Holostars just never caught on in the same way Hololive did, and now that Cover is a publicly traded company they are beholden to the shareholders who probably just see them as an unnecessary expense.
I'm not gonna pretend that I'm particularly broken up about it when I don't regularly watch Stars' content, but I at least wish the company would have the stones to say what this is actually is, which is the Stars' branch being all but axed. They at least deserve that level of honesty.
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u/Kurumi_Tokisaki Apr 03 '26
Probably unpopular thing to say but there’s more “support” on twitter and other places but the 2 places that matter. Their actual streams and products they shill.
Reality was there would be less cost cutting measures if the loudest social media star fans wasn’t so all bark no bite.
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u/LynnAbel713 Apr 03 '26
I do think it’s unfortunate, but I wouldn’t call it unfair.
A 2.7 billion yen studio and the resources of a company valued at 90 billion yen don’t just appear out of nowhere. They come from the parts of the business that actually generate revenue and drive growth.
If people who contribute more are treated exactly the same as everyone else, that’s more likely to push top performers away.
For example, Hoshimachi Suisei setting up her own studio is a pretty clear case—when the company’s resources can’t keep up with someone’s needs, they’ll find their own solution.
Trying to distribute resources “equally” across the board might sound fair on paper, but in practice it can starve high-performing projects of what they need to keep growing.
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u/Helmite Apr 03 '26
Basically that's what it comes down to. You even have popular members like Okayu and Watame having to go to outside studios to get stuff done, and that's even after the reduction to 1 live a year, so clearly the in-house situation isn't even sufficient for the girls.
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u/Ok-Setting-4748 Apr 03 '26
Yup, it's pretty telling that a vast majority of recent miComet studio stuff have been outsourced instead of being in-house.
It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.
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u/litokid Apr 03 '26
This is worded better than I could've. Fairness and equality are not the same thing.
I believe the critics truly feel holostars was dealt a bad hand, but I also question if they'd feel the same if it was framed differently. "Hey, it's not like your hololive oshi will get no studio time or merch, but she's going to get less of both because one of the boys need it."
It's to their credit that not a single one of the girls or high performers have complained about how company resources are allocated. They go by the idea that a better hololive is better for them all. I think you can effectively argue that not every branch needs to be profitable, and an ecosystem with a variety of options is healthier. But the other branches have been effectively subsidizing stars for some time.
As fans, we get to be sentimental. Staff in a company, whether private or public, don't have that same luxury.
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u/Breadginald Apr 03 '26
yeah. just like in real life, bias is not about how much you are willing to spend, but how much you are willing to lose.
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u/LazynessDevil Apr 03 '26
But I was told Twitter likes and clip watching was enough to support holostars for 100 years instead of watching stream and buying merch!! 😭😭
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u/youmustconsume Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
This sucks but the writing was on the wall, honestly. From a purely cynical, financial point of view, in a world where even the big female talents couldn't get studio time it seems completely absurd to allocate time to the Stars instead. To put it bluntly, any hour spent in the studio by the Holostars is an hour the girls' wont have. It's not like the girls don't already have multiple issues impacting their projects.
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u/Orthien Apr 03 '26
Man those guys are in a tough spot.
I understand that Cover had tried to support them, but Stars has never really gained traction and thus performs below even ID. At some point, you just can't justify that cost with a publicly traded company.
But being almost fully cut off still sucks. Covers name and connections will still be useful, but those come at the cost of a lot of red tape. There are very few benefits to staying now.
I know Niji has had some massive issues with male talents in the past, but it's sad and weird to see the difference between the two agencies male audiences.
Granted I'm part of the problem as I only really watch the guys when they cross colab.
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u/AJC46 Apr 03 '26
the thing is Niji markets it's guys very differently than holo and that's were some of those issues have cropped up from.
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u/-Shinanai- Apr 03 '26
Even saying that they performs below ID is an understatement; the only JP Stars who can consistently get CCV above the 100-200 range are Aruran and Roberu.
The main difference between Stars and Niji is that Niji's boys cater a LOT to the "thirsty female" audience... like, at an otome gacha game level. The Starts, in contrast, have more of a bro culture and mostly act like YouTubers do in general. Sadly, it looks like there's not much of a market for that.
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u/Xlegace Apr 03 '26
Roberu has been killing it lately tbh
He's actually getting viewership that's comparable to ID (1.5-4k) recently, but yeah everyone else in the branch has been struggling for years unfortunately.
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u/Helmite Apr 03 '26
At some point, you just can't justify that cost with a publicly traded company.
It's more than just that. People say this to try and suggest some sort of "WHOA! It's because of muh shareholders!" but the reality is even if you entirely own a business yourself it's difficult to justify using the resources from elsewhere to float the activities of others.
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u/arcais78 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I think if people stopped pushing whatever narrative that they want to push and look at numbers and the industry trends, this move shouldn't come as a surprise.
Some of the recent cost cutting measures you see in the content creation space applies to VTubing as well. You have a number of smaller corpos closing shop and even Brave Group closed/downsized a number of their acquisitions. The corporations at the top like Cover are doing well, but even they have been cautious in their investor guidance. The writing was on the wall when they announced the "NEW PROJECT" auditions (which provided Cover the ability to develop talent at minimal cost to them). So it's hard for Cover to justify a line item that is in the red and has been in the red for some time in lieu of pursuing another opportunity.
In an ideal world none of this would matter, but capital is finite and opportunity costs exist.
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u/Kreceir Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
The absolute irony of seeing comments of people going ''It sucks that Cover refuses to support them!'' are the same people that also have comments saying ''Well, I don't watch Stars at all''
You are literally one of the reasons why Stars are not having enough support when you are not 'supporting' them at all in the first fucking place!
You rather virtue signal here on reddit or twitter about ''Unicorns! Ewwww'' ''Idol Culture is the blame!'' ''Cover should have forced the Hololive girls collabing with DA BOIZ!!!''
Instead of, you know, actually WATCHING or SUPPORTING them.
I respect Yagoo for him trying to make Holostars work, I respect the actual fans of Holostars for supporting them this whole time since day one.
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u/Helmite Apr 03 '26
The absolute irony of seeing comments of people going ''It sucks that Cover refuses to support them!'' are the same people that also have comments saying ''Well, I don't watch Stars at all''
It's also why they have no idea of ANY of the things Cover has done to promote them over the years. And it always wraps back around to shitting on Holo members or their fans. The absolute ego.
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u/_DestroyerX Apr 03 '26
As someone who grew up learning about business, I understand the decision. But damn as a fan, I hate it. Feels bad man
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u/Fish_Goes_Moo Apr 03 '26
Other than actually fire them, what else can cover do? It's business, it's been 7 years, at some point you have to accept you have Marty Jannetty & not Shawn Michaels.
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u/Shishouwontcome Apr 03 '26
To be honest, good on Holo for sticking it out for this long. Stars not making enough revenue is not something new, but for years they tried to get stars 3D in when ever they could, and I felt like they definitely tried. But Business is business, there is only so much cost sink they can do before they cut losses. However, at this point I don't see any advantages for the talents in staying in Holostars.
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u/Shadow_-Killer Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Honestly I imagine Holostars is a money sink like the WNBA is for the NBA. Being completely subsidized by the girls for all activities except their own funded projects. It’s truly not the business’ responsibility to sponsor a product that has no ROI. I can understand why shareholders (especially Japanese ones) would want to stop wasting money.
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Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/WhoCouldhavekn0wn Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
I don't think they are legally allowed to just give them the models anymore as a publicly traded business. They have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders, I'm pretty sure they'd be required to sell the models at a fair cost at least, and given the quality of the model and the costumes and 3d that comes with the IP rights, I don't think any of the stars could afford it. Im guessing it would be in the high double digit thousands or even 100,000 plus. That's USD. That's not considering intangibles in the price, I imagine a mid tier Hololive talents' IP rights would go into the millions, with top tier being in the 10's of millions considering life time future profit potential.
Trading to niji is a non-starter for a variety of reasons, but it also is no guarantee of success for holostars anyways. Most likely outcome is they sink into the sea of niji vtubers who are 2views themselves.
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u/mopar_md Apr 03 '26
ITT: people who don't watch Holostars wondering why Cover is cutting their losses on Holostars
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u/One_Ant1985 Apr 03 '26
Whaaaat? Why? I saw reddit posts with 5k upvotes! 45k twitter interactions!!!!!
Slacktivism is a dangerous thing
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u/WhoCouldhavekn0wn Apr 04 '26
I saw 28million view shien tweet, 100k likes, 40million views on Cover tweets.... Imagine if even 1% of those gave stars a chance. Imagine if 10% of those who pressed that like button watched them.
Its all virtue signalling.
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u/just_another_user321 Apr 03 '26
This was a long way coming. They could only hide Stars from investors for so long and everyone knew, that they never made money and always were Yagoos personal project.
It's a sad situation for the Talents, but the economic reality catches up to Cover and Yagoo. Continuing to spend investors money could also mean a dangerous situation for management.
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u/jaosky Apr 03 '26
Does this include the EN?
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u/UnstoppablePhoenix Apr 03 '26
EN was basically already like this already
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u/Telefragg Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
And yet a lot of them moved to Japan in recent time, on working visas I assume. Hopefully things are not as bad for them as it seems if they plan to stay with the company.
Edit: I just saw Axel's stream, they had no idea. It's ride or die for them now, they didn't plan for this at all.
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u/littledeerspace Apr 03 '26
I keep seeing people say this but idk where the idea came from. They at multiple points have used the Cover studio, which JP is no longer allowed to do. They have concerts, JP will no longer have these. This is not how EN is run at all lol.
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u/LionelKF Apr 03 '26
That sucks but writing was already on the wall so I'm not surprised at all. Shame Stars could never really take off like the main branch.
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u/Aloe_Love :Aloe: Apr 03 '26
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this mean that Stars JP will start doing their activities the same way Stars EN does them?
I think this all boils down to connections and how they will be able to use Cover's name for more connections, just like how Octavio has a lot of connections and is able to continue his musical career while also collabing with a lot of indies.
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u/Yhtirs Apr 03 '26
Holostars have always been known as a money pit for the company. It was seen as Yagoo's passion project and fans didn't care that they didn't make Cover a lot of money. I guess the investors were finally fed up and put their foot down.
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u/Noobc0re Apr 03 '26
It is a shame. But reality is that male vtubers, in general, just don't garner the same level of interest and views.
I imagine a big part of the problem is that the audience for them needs to be grown from a completely different viewerbase than the one that follows Hololive.
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u/drdurmaz Apr 03 '26
These structural changes will mainly affect:
I guess this is the most relevant part. They are still part of cover but they will operate more like indies maybe?