A first look at VTubing news

Hi there, and welcome to the “A Week in VT” blog, where I'll pick some large news and try to gather everything that has happened so far in a single place, as sometimes things get complicated and drag out.

First and foremost, let me emphasis a word: blog.

I’ll do my best to add links and be open to at least citing other points of view when possible, so that you can go and make your own opinion.

Yeah, this blog should have started last month

I wanted to start writing and posting here in May, but the avalanche of news and some added workload from IRL made me push this first post to later. And I guess now is the time to try to run this weekly-ish (or at least every two weeks).
Yes, I’m not promising that I’ll keep this site’s title to the word, but I’ll do my best to share my piece and do some research to post here.

On that avalanche of news, let’s discuss a few of them, now that I had the time to take a step back. This will be a big post, as I end up covering 3 large pieces.

Sinder’s “it's just business” practices

This has been a large blow in the English indie scene. It's already two months old but I think it would be nice to regroup everything here and leave a few comments.
Just note that it started on April 26th and Sinder is still gone.

For those who aren't sure what's going on, let's lay down what happened.

Nanoless speaks up

On Saturday, 26th of April, Nanoless published this tweet with a link to a Google Doc, titled “Terminating my work with Sinder.”

Terminating my work with Sinder.

introduction & notes I wanted to share my experience with Sinder and Red manipulating me, using me, and dragging me into drama, while sabotaging, slandering & spreading lies about people I thought were her closest friends. Not only do I no longer wish to work with Sinder, but I want to share w…

Google Docs

She details her experience with both Sinder and REDACTED (also simply named “Red”, Sinder's manager and boyfriend). While most of her exchanges were with Red, she checked multiple times with Sinder for confirmation, helping her case to show that she was aware of what was going on.

With Discord screenshots as proof, she details quite a few elements:

• They regularly speak ill of other creators and spread rumors, primarily to manipulate Nano, as if it were for their collective “best interest”. They also accuse Bao, another VTuber, of giving “their” video editor too much work, which in turn delays Sinder's work.
• They tried to get an exclusivity contract without any upfront compensation(?), but talked about some weird method of “if someone (from a blacklist we have) comes to ask you for a commission, refuse them, and we'll commission something similar from you instead or guarantee some model work”.
• Nanoless also notes about working on other's models: “their primary concern is that the more non Sinder models I make, the less “valuable” my existing models become” and that “after they saw I was working with Shylily, trying to once again make the idea of working with other clients seem like I am setting myself up with problematic people who will do me no good in the long run to get me to reconsider working with them.”
• For Red, “business is business” and you might sabotage other's careers for your own good, and “of course” you should focus on Sinder instead.
• Red would reach out and ask, “you didn't tell [blank] you canceled because of Sinder?”. “They know what they do is ill intended & should not get out, as it would cause issues for Sinder’s career to be painted in this light.”

More people joined in

As European were waking up to this, and in the coming hours the US too, other indies and artists started to speak up and share their experiences with Sinder and Red.

Bao the Whale, clearly mentioned in Nano's document, talks about the silence treatment she got from Nano about a new model, and about the accusation that she's “stealing” their YouTube editor, music video animator, and any artist they have worked with:

I was hurt personally and professional by Sinder and her manager

Hello, this is Bao. I will only speak to what Nanoless has decided to share with the public and the messages that directly mention me by name. I would like to kindly ask everyone to refrain from turning this into a witch hunt and remember that we are still just humans at the end of the day. Bef…

Google Docs

Silvervale, which was referred to as “Vtuber1” in the document, talks about the few uncomfortable interactions she had with her, feeling like Sinder tried to “leech” her a few times, but also how a model she planned to have with Nanoless was canceled:

I am “Vtuber1”

Introduction I shouldn’t have to say this, but me putting out this statement is not a call for or an excuse for anyone to turn this situation into a witch hunt. My intention for making a statement is strictly to give myself closure from the events of the past years and clarify how I have been pe…

Google Docs

SAC, who edits videos, also shares how Red has been twisting his word to speak ill of Bao, as if she were a bad boss when he said he would go “anonymous and inhouse” – he wanted to do so to not be labelled as only an editor, as he wants to work on his projects. Sac also mentions a lack of organization and lies that Sinder/Red would throw around:

..

This is going to be very unorganized but I’ll try and keep this brief since I don’t really think that they (Red specifically) deserve any more of my attention after hearing what they have said about me, and also how working with them was. 1st off to address this. I asked Bao to go “anonymous…

Google Docs

Spite, a VTuber that was mentioned (but redacted) from Nano's document, shares her experience of not only be compared to Sinder, but also that Sinder and her community kept saying that she was “stealing” their ideas:

My Experience With Sinder

I want to start by saying please do not send any hate to anyone involved in this, I only wish to speak about my experiences and give more clarity on those experiences First and foremost, my love and admiration goes out to Nanoless for having the courage to bring this to light. Artists are the b…

Google Docs

Rayne, previously an ASMR RP artist, side-stepped a bit but took the opportunity to mention the cheating nature of Sinder, back when Sinder was running the “Tashi.mp3” YouTube channel in 2020 (Rayne also acknowledge that he wasn't in the good either):

My Experience with Tashi/Sinder.

Hello, thank you for taking the time to read this document. The events described in it happened about 4-5 years ago, before the first Sinder debut - I understand there will doubtless be accusations of me clout chasing by revealing them, however I wanted to corroborate Nanoless’ assertion that she…

Google Docs

Sinder's responses

In plural, because it was done in two-parts. She first announces that Red “will no longer be managing or overseeing [her] vtuber activities.”

And as promised, she made a larger response the next day, with a new Google Doc:

My Apology

There’s nothing I can say to make this better, but I will try my best to properly convey my feelings, frustrations, and mistakes. I’d like to explain my point of view and apologize to each party affected. Redacted has been my co-content creator since I began making content, managing all aspects…

Google Docs

I'll try to TL;DR each paragraph/points, speaking as Sinder:

• Redacted is at fault. He's “hyper business oriented”.
• I was not aware that Red was manipulating Nano, I thought she was fine with everything. I should've been more diligent.
• I wanted to make Nano's art the face of my brand, so for my best interest, yes I wanted her to work more on me than others. It was wrong of us.
• We wanted to pressure Nano on not working with one specific creator (Silvervale), there was no list.
• Nano's the one who canceled a large portion of her commissions, not us.
• That exclusivity deal? I actually had no part in the negotiations.
• When Nano messaged me about that agreement, I got angry, thinking it was only about Silvervale.
• Nano never came to me as serious or professional as she wants to show in her document.
• I had no idea Shylily and Red had a conversation. I did say to him how I was worried that I didn't talk to her for a while, and he went digging for more info by himself.
• I do not condone how Red was using “we” and “our” while talking about Bao.
• Red and I were upset when she hired my editor, and I took it personally. I felt like my content wasn't good enough, or I wasn't paying enough for his work.
• I got angry when Sac said he wouldn't want to work with us anymore, and he would be exclusively working with Bao.
• Yeah, I said, “It's just business” [Editor's note: she then proceeds to type an essay on how making many models is “reducing the innate value of Nano's models”].
• About Silvervale, [Editor's note: she then proceeds to type a whole flashback of when she wanted to start VTubing and how she tried not to be too close to her design. But still wanted to work with her for business, as they could be paired well].
• About Spite, I guess it was all coincidences as things take time and were already in the works, and I didn't know much about her. “Spite never should’ve received the hate comments over her outfit, or any comments comparing us, or belittling her because of my existence, and I never advocated for anyone to do so, especially given my experience.”
• Also, Spite bought up an ASMR creator she redacted. Might have been NyanTales. She used a hellhound OC for one of her ASMR, and I was protective of my design and overreacted. I already apologized.
• [Editor's note: Flashback again as a GFE ASMRtist]. I was immature at that time and yeah, I cheated on my boyfriend with Rayne in these conversations. I regret doing this, and I'm lucky I was able to mend my relationship after this.
• About Peaches, yeah I have problems, and I'm sure many others in my position do too. Sorry you felt forgotten.
• To Nano: Sorry I let things go to this point.
• To Bao: I've always admired you, “I'm disgusted with myself for buying into the narrative that my friends were “competition”. I've never had such genuine friendships in my life.”
• To Sac: I don't remember why the stream got pushed back, but I wouldn't have put the blame on you. I'm thankful, and sorry for everything that's happened.
• To Cotton and Lily: Sorry you had to get dragged into this.
• To Silver: “I’m so sorry for any opportunities I’ve taken away from you. I’m sorry, Silver.”
• To Spite: “I’m sorry I had assumed things about your design that weren’t true, and I’m sorry you’ve been harassed by commenters needing to compare us. And I apologize for the way Red spoke about you to Nano. You didn’t deserve any of this, Spite. I’m sorry.” [Editor's note: I didn't summarize that one, short enough.]
• To Peaches: “I’m sorry if I made it seem like I was ignoring or ghosting you.”
• To Rayne: “I have no excuses. I’m sorry you were dragged into my drama, and I’m sorry how I made you feel after I just wanted to close the book on things.”
• I’m sorry to my Pyro Pups, mods, the vtuber community, Kaizer, dozens of artists, and I'm sorry to the rest of my friends who I've let down.
• “I love my job and I love all the friends I’ve had. Thank you for reading.”

The reactions to her apology

In-between the apologies, Peaches reacted to her first tweet where she announced that Redacted wasn't managing her anymore. You can read her message here, where she talks about the relationship between Sinder and Red:

Shylily typed out a large tweet, contesting the fact she didn't know anything and wasn't responsible for most of the issues. “You claim that “it's just business” well, in the business world, there has to be accountability & all you've done is try to shove it away & admit to nothing. In true narcissistic fashion you're only feeling sorry about yourself & your own consequences & your career & try to salvage it.”:

And here's a few more hand-picked reactions:

Your editor's commentary

And holy shit, that was a lot to unpack.

It took us to reach page 5 to finally find her first “sorry”, while talking about Peaches. Apologizing should be done in the first few lines.
The audacity to just throw all the blame to Redacted, and say “I'm sure many others in my position do too.” is such a hypocrite thing to do.
I don't know if NyanTales spoke up before this post, but what a way to drag her into this mess if she didn't, and not apologize again.
Making such essays about yourself, and trying to justify things, you're just making “excuses” for your behavior and not present yourself as someone who is truly sorry.

Sorry guys, but she might be unrecoverable.

And now…?

Many members of her community have moved to Spite's, funnily enough, and they call them the “rescued pups”.

Sinder still hasn't gone live since, nor tweeted since her apologies. Her public Discord server was locked for a while, but seems to have opened some channels back again.

Novel Horizons extraordinarily lifted the time-limitation for cancelling the preorders of Sinder's figure.

AraCulture cancels all Sinder merch and donates it to charity.

She appears to still be affiliated with Gamersupps.

For the rest, time will tell if/when she comes back, and if her audience will still be there for her.

Twisty Amanozako is terminated

So they’ve finally put out an announcement about Twisty’s termination after wiping everything out about her (in a fascinating Stalinist way) since June 17th… with a simple tweet on Saturday, at midnight PST.

No black text on white background image, with all the formatting and such, just a tweet. And the reason? “Instances of discriminatory speech”, which I suppose is the leaked audio where she shit-talked about some of her fans, a Brave Group talent, and NIJISANJI.
Fair, but nothing about her going on her PL? Sharing that she’s been kept silent by the company for 9 months with minimal pay as they try to, I guess, “wait for things to cool down”?

And still nothing about their supposed “investigation” with Aster Arcadia, where they both got suspended. (It's difficult to believe she just went into a hiatus, that's just a stealth suspension. But why is the victim also suspended?)
An investigation that Twisty said is mostly not happening or taken seriously.
This is getting ridiculous now as we saw leaks and people speaking up about his harassment of multiple women, including inside the company.

We know this company is dark, but this shit just continues.

It's quite worrisome to think that from the latest 5 groups in NijiEN, only one woman is left, Klara, who debuted alongside Twisty.
And to throw more random numbers that could signal how things are going: we’re one person short of having exactly one third of the whole NijiEN branch to have either graduated or been terminated.

But whatever, I guess, their stock skyrocketed this week, the NijiEN boys are doing well, and their main branch talents just shut up. There’s nothing to stop them.

A timeline of events

• December 4th, 2024: Last stream from Aster Arcadia. There has been no Twitter activity since the day before.
• December 5th, 2024: A handcam cooking stream with an announcement was scheduled for December 5th. It was silently pushed back to the 12th, before being set for January 30th, February 28th, …. As of writing, it's now scheduled for July 25th.
• December 6th, 2024: FalseEyeD releases a video sharing allegations against Aster Arcadia, which includes leaked Discord chats between him and Scarle Yonaguni. He shares that multiple girls talked to Luca Kanashiro and Elira Pendora about an “issue” with Aster that management would not take care of. He also reached directly to NIJISANJI talents regarding Aster having inappropriate discussions.
• December 9th, 2024: NIJISANJI releases a statement, saying that “[they] have initiated an independent, third-party investigation into these issues and will share the outcome with [their] Livers and [their] community”.
• December 12th, 2024: Twisty Amanozako announces that she is going on an indefinite hiatus.
• January 9th, 2025: Twisty returns for her birthday stream and to announce some merch, before leaving again.
• February 22nd and 23rd, 2025: Twisty and Aster are set to appear in 2D at NijiFES 2025. I do not know what happened there or if it was all pre-recorded a while ago.
• May 20th, 2025: Pictures of a new Twisty outfit leaked.
• May 22nd-23rd, 2025: A scheduled stream, set to happen before the Denauth Anniversary Relay, briefly appeared and had her new model's face zoomed in.
• May 24th, 2025: She (officially) debuted her second outfit during the group's anniversary relay stream.
• June 11th, 2025: A recording of Twisty/Delulu speaking with a friend leaked from a 3rd person, where she was being racist, sexist, transphobic, and insulting her fans, company, and a Brave Group talent. The original video has since been removed by YouTube, but re-uploads and commentaries are up.
• June 12th, 2025: On her private Twitter account, she shares an apology regarding the leaked audio.
• June 14th, 2025: On her Delulu Deliria channel, she posted the video “a sincere apology and my truth.”
• June 17th, 2025: It was found that Twisty's Twitter and all her YouTube content were made private.
• June 18th, 2025: Delulu shares her “first and last schedule” and announces that she'll rebrand her channel to ASMR/RP content (with streams being rare), all VODs will be deleted on July 1st. But she'll continue VTuber activities under a new character: “Manururu Nekoko”.
• June 21st, 2025: NIJISANJI announces that Twisty Amanozako is terminated.

Graduations, hiatuses, and debuts announcements

There’s been quite a few lately, it almost feels like sports’ transfers or TV shows ending their season. I'll go back to the last two months, like I wanted to write.

Gawr Gura is moving on

This marks a major change, especially with the status that Gura (unfortunately?) earned: being the largest VTuber on YouTube.

With her funny and snarky (sharky?) personality, she shot up in popularity and was quickly labelled as the “face of VTubing” in the west, mostly a result from her impressive subscribers count on YouTube: she was at around 4.55M before announcing her graduation, which is more than the top Japanese-speaking VTuber, Houshou Marine at 4M, and the most-popular “OG”, Kizuna AI at 3M.

As a side-note, and because we can always play with technicalities, she isn’t the most subscribed if we look at bilibili, where hanser is dominating with her 4.8M of followers. But hanser is an affiliated talent of VirtuaReal (a joint venture from bilibili x ANYOCOLOR) who has a virtual persona, but isn’t clearly operating like a traditional VTuber.

Other side-note: YouTube doesn’t show precise subscriber counts to the public anymore, so don’t take those as exact numbers, as I also round them down.

But with such a grand title and an immense audience also comes massive expectations and a lot of pressure. Gawr Gura greatly reduced the frequency of her streams, to the point that her going live was such huge news.

And on April 16, 2025, she starts a live stream with the title “important announcement - gawr gura”. During her 6-minute speech, she says:

[…] First of all, I’m really sorry for worrying you, or upsetting your with this announcement. This has been a very long time coming, but, today, I am here to announce that I will be graduating from hololive on May 1st, 2025, JST.
My reasons being disagreements with management and company direction.

Before continuing with a brief look back at her debut with the other girls, how she feels lucky to have her fans, loving singing and performing for them on stage or in her bedroom, … And that she loves being an idol and VTubing.

Thank you everyone… for letting me be your little shark.

In a following stream, she shared that she had one final project, a new music video with Casey Edwards (mostly known around here for his compositions for Devil May Cry):
“Ash Again”.

Singing in a deeper voice than we’d be used to, and with the fantastic animation work by Mazumaro (w/ Artrior and Kuro Lee), the lyrics definitively reasoned as we hear (twice) “They say the memory of me is fading.” and “Don’t tell me everyone around is waiting.”

And on April 30th, Gawr Gura of hololive English “Myth” (1st Gen) held her graduation 3D Mini Live.

Hololive now has to prove that their “change in direction”, that the recently graduated talents have all mentioned, will work out in the future.

But for the Chumbuds, stay sharp, as her love for being an idol and vtubing still didn’t fade.

But that wasn’t all for hololive

Let’s not forget them, either.

On March 6th, Shion announces that she’ll be graduating on April 26th, 2025, JST, citing differences with the agency’s direction and for her mental health.

On April 26th, Murasaki Shion of hololive 2nd generation held her special graduation 3D concert stream, which included a special appearance of Sakamata Chloe (still affiliated, but retired since January).

On March 27th, Mumei announces that she’ll be graduating on April 28th, 2025, JST, citing internal misalignment with the agency and chronic health issues.

On April 27th, Nanashi Mumei of hololive English “Promise” (prev. “Council”, 2nd Gen) held her special 3D graduation stream, produced by Kanauru.

Three graduations for NIJISANJI EN

Aside from the termination that we talked about before, we had some announcements that were quite surprising and two of them didn’t give much time to react.

On April 19th, Fulgur Ovid of NIJISANJI EN “Noctyx” (5th Gen) announces that he will graduate on May 5th, 2025, JST. While his Twitter is locked, you can still watch his content on YouTube.

I’m not going to tip-toe with that: You can find him as he resumes some activities with his previous identity: Féileacán Cú.

On April 30th, NIJISANJI announces that Ike Eveland of NIJISANJI EN “Luxiem” (4th Gen) will be graduating on April 30th, 2025, JST. Yes, that was immediate. All social media accounts and all of his YouTube content were set to private.

After debuting a new Gyaru outfit on May 19th (announcement and her pics), it was announced on May 22nd that Kotoka Torahime of NIJISANJI EN “XSOLEIL” (7th Gen) would be graduating on May 28th, 2025, JST. Everything but her song covers on YouTube will be set to private, as per her request.

More graduations from corpos

I’m obviously missing quite a lot, especially in the ID/JP side, but I’m also not going to mention those that I’ve never heard of before.

• Andi Adinata (MAHA5) — May 5th, 2025. (Tweet)
• Coyote (Kemono Friends V Project) — May 29th, 2025, JST. (Tweet)
  Quick mention for the farewell party which had Mint Fantôme as a guest, alongside Hululu and Dire Wolf (also from KemoV).
• Kanaia Asa (JKT48v) — May 31st, 2025, WIB. (Announcement)
  As shared by management, she’ll continue independently as Solace Amerta and with a new channel named SOREIL.
• Adora Fortune (VOLS) — April 12th, 2025, JST. (Tweet)
• Penelope Wiseman (V&U) — June 24th, 2025. (Tweet and date change)
• Coni Confetti, Kai Saikota, and Nikki Rei (idol/ChromaSHIFT) — by June 30th, 2025. (Tweet)
  Nikki will continue as an indie. Coni is already plenty active on her previous account, Kai too apparently.

But hey, here's something that isn't a graduation:

• Kanna Yanagi (prev. PixelLink 2nd Gen) is joining Glitch Stars and will debut a new model on 7/12. Like the “Dreamers” group who debuted in February, she's keeping her IP. (Tweet)
  This news leaked due to her name appearing as a guest of the Glitch Stars panel at OffKai.

Oh, and allow me to deliberately ignore bondliveEN, this thing looks like a mess.

And on the indie side

There was an alarming amount of “graduations” or “indefinite hiatuses” announcements in the indie sphere happening in a short span of time, which always sparks speculations that they might have signed with a company. Something that is hinted with words like “I will be gradating as [name]”.

Here’s a short list of notable and recent announcements:

• Lua Asuka (prev. Production Kawaii) — Grad: May 30th, 2025. (Tweet)
• kyOresu — Hiatus: June 11th, 2025. (Discord screenshot)
• Hunii — Grad/Hiatus: June 16th, 2025. (Tweet)
• Streiss Streusel — Grad/Hiatus: June 27th, 2025. (Tweet)
• Lady Corvina Hadria — Grad: June 27th, 2025. (Tweet)
• Sara Nagare (prev. Prism Project) — Hiatus: July 6th, 2025. (Tweet)
• Nyana Banyana (prev. FlaVR) — Grad: July 19th, 2025. (Tweet)
• Tanya (Kitanya) — Grad: July 19th, 2025. (Tweet)

I would also like to note that YUY IX is prolonging her hiatus until “late July”, as she’s still recovering from a tumor in her throat.

Featured chuuba of the week

Let’s try something! I’m sure those who already follow certain groups of indies or small corpos will already know the names I'll pick, I’m not digging for a special unknown gem, but maybe I can help some people discover someone they may like.

Now, may I interest you in a buggy friend?

Her name's Vesper. She might look cute as she plays her horror games, but don't bring your hands too close to her, she does crazy things with her mouth.

You can find her streaming on Twitch at /vesper, and follow her on Twitter at @buggyvesper.

Closing note

As I see those graduated corpo talents who are still around, I can’t help but think of this song:

Go down to the ocean
The crystal tide is raising
The water's gotten higher
As the shore washes out

Keep your eyes wide open
Even when the sun is blazing
The moon controls the tide
It can cause you to drown

Everything stays
Right where you left it
Everything stays
But it still changes

Ever so slightly
Daily and nightly
In little ways
When everything stays

Edit: