When I first discovered HOLOSTARS, I was attending CRX (Crunchyroll Expo)1 with my long-time friend. We were casual anime/manga fans, but we attended the anime con2 for only one reason: to watch our favorite J-Pop boy group MADKID for the second time here on our home soil. I wrote a little bit about it in my (long-abandoned?) J-POP fan blog, Chika Wota Blog. Other than not being able to write our 2-day experience with MADKID on that blog, even though we were locals, we booked a hotel overnight for 3 days just for the easy access.
On our last day there, the only thing we did was shop around the Artist Alley, check out other booths that we haven’t discovered. While we met new people and temporarily walked around our own ways, I came across an area of booths that promoted vtubers. I saw Prism Project3, Nijisanji EN, and the biggest booth there, Hololive. As a female casual fan who stand by gender equality, I cringed at the fact that even until today that there’s barely any equality when it came to fandoms closely related to anime/manga and even video games. The vTubers displayed on the booths were all female, and while I cheer for female representation among the vTubers promoted, it still didn’t feel right for me.
If there are so many female vTubers, where are all the dudes? 男性どこいるの？
While I checked the screens displayed some of the vTubers, my question was answered when I glanced at the Hololive booth screens. I saw four male anime characters— vTubers— speaking in English… and then, my curiosity peaked. That was the first time I’ve seen the TEMPUS boys. That’s where I saw Regis Altare, Magni Dezmond, Axel Syrios, and Noir Vesper. Sure, it wasn’t a meet & greet or a Q&A panel, but that was enough for me to become curious. And because I’m always curious about a lot of things, that time was the time for me to learn something brand-new in today’s Japanese pop culture.
When my friend and I checked out of the hotel and went home, the first thing I did was to log in my laptop and search for TEMPUS online. I found the Hololive Pro website and was directed to the HOLOSTARS official website. TEMPUS was the new English-speaking unit of Hololive’s male division, HOLOSTARS, and they recently made their debut just two weeks before. I watched all of their debut videos, watched a few clips that clippers started to clip and share, and about a week later, I found some time to watch the VODs. A few days later, I sat into my first livestream with one of the boys. It was around late afternoon and it was Altare’s livestream. Right then, I officially fell into the rabbit hole.
When TEMPUS’s collab ban was lifted and began their first collab with their HOLOSTARS JP senpai on Minecraft, that was when I started to get to know "the OGs," as well as JP’s newest unit, UPROAR!!!. I learned about everyone participated slowly but surely, and I even know that there were others who I still have yet to meet. I watched some of their clips and learned about the boys’ history, their struggles, even the graduations of three members years prior. For the past ten or so months, not only did I just stick with TEMPUS, but whenever TEMPUS weren’t streaming, I check out the senpais when they’re on.
Two weeks late from TEMPUS HQ debut, but it didn’t feel late to me. I was just in time. And I also got to witness the debut of the TEMPUS VG boys too early in 2023! Looking back then and writing this post is my own commemorative post to the HOLOSTARS 4th Anniversary. Four years already? Happy 4th Year Anniversary, HOLOSTARS!!
And after this month is July— TEMPUS 1ST ANNIVESARY!! What a summer filled with the brightest stars!
This is a short post, but I just want to share how I found HOLOSTARS altogether in a nutshell. Looking back, it makes me feel prouder to be a Holostars-min… a Tempura, a Starlight, a… Starpura?
Check out the sidebar and all the sweet dates! Happy birthday to Machina X Flayon, Astel Leda, and Josuiji Shinri! Happy 4th Anniversary to Hanasaki Miyabi and Kanade Izuru too!
Yup. Summer 2023 is a Summer of Stars!!
