When in Rome, do as the Romans do

When in Japan, do as the Japanese do.

When in a vtuber agency, do as that agency’s talents and staff do.¹

Or else, there will be consequences.

You know what I’m saying here, right?

I actually had some topics that I wanted to write about, but that can wait for the next post. For the time being, I would like to write about something that’s completely unrelated to Holostars and HoloPro altogether, but generally, related to the vtuber scene altogether. It’s been about seven months since I fell into the vtubing hole and whenever there is some slow time with Holostars, I do take a bit of my time to check out on the Hololive girls and even other vtubers outside HoloPro. From time to time, I do watch the livers under Nijisanji, especially Nijisanji EN. I started watching them² ever since Altare’s collab with Alban Knox in Terrarria last year.

I know this is a late post,³ but I would like to write about it anyway even though it’s old news as of the time of writing. When I woke up this morning and checked the birdie app, my timeline blew up big time with the same RTs and QRTs with this tweet blow:

[Important Notice]
We are sorry to announce that due to the reasons explained in the attached file, we had to make the decision to terminate our contract with the NIJISANJI EN Liver Zaion LanZa, effective immediately.
Thank you for your understanding. pic.twitter.com/6MIswJsKiN

— NIJISANJI EN Official (@NIJISANJI_World) March 10, 2023

Now that I shared the tweet here, I won’t have to write in detail to what this post is about. Instead, I’ll share my own take on this whole situation.

About Zaion LanZa

I don’t really watch her or follow her, but I did come across some clips of her. I’ve also heard her name floating around when some of the Tempus boys do visit her streams from time to time. But that’s it, really. I have to say she’s quite controversial in some way, but then again, I also heard that NijiEN talents have a higher level of unhinged in comparison to the HoloPro EN talents. However, what made me have a distate against her was when I came across a clip of her making⁴ a joke⁵ during her streaming another Chilla’s Art horror game The Homecoming. Yeah, I’m not going to search for that clip again because that little bit of hers got me a little bit triggered.

To make this portion short, I do hope the person behind Zaion LanZa do take the time to reflect and learn from this experience. At first, it made me wonder what exactly made her act this way that would lead her to termination. If she couldn’t comply and abide by her company’s regulations, the least she could do is to graduate and return to the indie scene like she used to.⁶ But instead, it’s unfortunate that all the misconduct she acted upon had to lead to her very early termination.

Good luck on your future endeavors, no matter what you do. I just hope you do consider, even a little bit, of the ones affected by your actions and your termination: your (former) genmates, the artist and rigger who spent so much of their time creating “you” and then ending up wasting it at the end, even the general public whom you targeted as part of your jokes. I know you’re not going to make a public apology for your actions— you wouldn’t be able to anyway— so I’m wishing you well on your next path of life.

Just some thoughts about this…

I’m still learning about the vtubing scene, so there may be some things I may be wrong with whatever it is I’m writing here right now.

I don’t know what Zaion’s⁷ objective was. Knowing she started her streaming/vtubing stint an independent streamer, why did she decide to audition in a vtuber agency? More exposure? More support? Monetary reasons? Connections? What was her intent in auditioning for Nijisanji instead of other available vtuber agencies?⁸ Did she do some thorough research on every existing vtuber agency out there before she made her decision? And also, did she even consider that once she gets into an agency, there’s certainly going to be rules, regulations, and restrictions to follow?

About two weeks ago, I also stumbled across this clip too, even though it doesn’t really relate to her career’s demise. It didn’t age well, unfortunately.

But after watching that clip, I kind of figured out why she decided to go corporate, and specifically Nijisanji. I kinda cringed on this clip when she mentioned Hololive as if she was looking down on them. Not everyone is like you, Zaion, and most of us HoloPro fans⁹ are happy where we are now.

Do you really want to become a corporate/agency vTuber?

I come from J-Pop fandom, and after some 20-ish years of being in the fandom, I’ve gotten a gist on how the Japanese music industry works. To be more specific, how Japanese talent agencies work. Because vtubing pretty much started in Japan, many of the general regulations companies practice in J-Pop (and just Japanese entertainment industry altogether), the regulations in the (Japanese) vtubing scene works the same way. I’m not going to make any assumptions regarding race or location here, but in general, it’s only common courtesy to abide and respect the ways people do in a country you’re not very familiar with. You don’t exactly learn the pros and cons in the Japanese entertainment business just by reading/watching about them from the news or internet or even some experiences from people who tweet/write about them. Just like in any place you’ve never been before, you’ll have to experience it yourself.

Rather than me, a fan of vtubers, explain, I’ll have the man himself share his tips on how to start streaming and (eventually) a vtuber later on:

Based on what I know from J-Pop fandom, and adulting in general, auditioning and performing under a vtuber agency is pretty much the same as auditioning for any entertainment agency, whether you become an actor, a singer, or any kind of performer. It’s also the same as applying for a job in a company, regardless of how small or big the company may be. When you are accepted to be part of the company, this is where you as a new talent, will receive all the information about the company and all the benefits and obligations as a new member. At the same time, this is where you will receive the company’s policies and obligations that you are required to comply.

That last part is very important no matter what. You will be performing as yourself but at the same time, you will also be representing the company. Your fans and viewers will grow to love you, but there are some within that group who are also fans of the company you’re representing. It’s expected that these types of folks would have expectations the same way as the company does on you.

One of the things that I tend to do whenever I’m on a job hunting period is to do research on the work and environment culture cultivated by the companies. I would visit their official websites and their Careers section if they have one. I also check out LinkedIn and read some posts from current employees of the company I’m currently researching on, and then from all of that, determine if I would be a good fit for the company. In exchange for being hired, there’s always going to be terms. It always has been that way in any company, including becoming a vtuber under a vtubing agency.

From what I’ve learned so far, it seems that Zaion may have neglected researching Nijisanji’s company culture altogether. She may have watched current talents under Nijisanji and simply just based everything on the Niji talents’ streams. It’s common to compare work cultures between companies, but it seemed that she didn’t researched enough on other companies. From that video I shared, it seemed that she only looked into HoloPro, probably the second largest (?) vtubing agency known. What about VShojo? I heard that smaller-sized vtuber agencies such as Phase Connect, PRISM Project, and others have somewhat the same level of unhinged as those from Nijisanji, why didn’t she consider them? Just HoloPro?

In the end, nothing is for free. You apply for a grand opportunity, you have to exchange something to grasp this opportunity. You’ve got all the time to cultivate yourself and grow as a successful vtuber. Don’t think this opportunity for granted or karma will bite you really hard on your behind.

Unfortunately, Zaion made the mistake of taking her spot as a Nijisanji talent for granted. She was given an over a month suspension so she can recuperate and re-train the compliances. Her fellow mates were even tried to help her, but to no avail… all of this was her decision.

When you do become a corporate vtuber, you’ve got not only yourself to consider as you stream. You have to consider these as well:

• The company itself
• Your fellow livers
• The artist and rigger who worked so hard to “create” you
• Fanbases and communities who support the company and its talents you represent

If you can’t handle all of that, don’t ever audition for a vtuber agency. Stay indie instead.

I’m probably just rambling right now for the sake of this blog post’s length, but I’d also like to share this video from a “researcher” vtuber, Lycoris Banashi, about joining vtuber agencies.

What now…?

Honestly, I don’t like how some people react to Zaion’s termination, where people start doxxing her, defaming her to the deepest pits, like seriously, you people hating isn’t going to help. Honestly, I don’t know how the person behind Zaion is like. She may just take a break and then continue on as an indie… or something the opposite that may affect Nijisanji, her fellow livers, and even their fanbase/communities.

I’m a HoloPro fan, so it’s not like I’m going to follow this entire drama. I’m just blogging just to share my own thoughts. Only thing I can do is to move on.

That’s all. Next post will be back to the boys again.

UPDATE (6:25pm PST)

Seeing a lot of tweets again on my timeline. From the looks of it, the person behind Zaion LanZa didn’t seem to feel remorse, nor feel regret all the misconduct she caused against the company by posting on her Discord using her former persona. It seems as if she felt she was not at fault. In fact, she seemed asinine about it. Seeing all these tweets with screenshots, now I can finally conclude that she truly isn’t fit for being an agency vtuber.

Some of her supporters started bringing up other talents who made controversial mistakes that got them into trouble in the past¹⁰. However, the difference between Zaion and those in the past is that the ones in the past publicly acknowledged their mistakes and apologized to the masses. Her, on the other hand, did not. She was given two months of reflection and review the compliances, but showed no improvement at all.

Alright. Now I’m going to end this issue for real this time.