VShojo is no more

In my blog post titled "VShojo is bleeding talents" released a month ago, I said:

And again, with three talents, we can wonder if something is going on at VShojo. With all the departures and VShojo Japan debuting a full generation, more "corpo-like"… Or maybe people are just naturally moving on and genuinely want to grow beyond what the company can offer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Then, when Panini left last week:

But, again, VShojo is losing more staff? This is starting to freak me out.

And despite already bracing for impact, I wasn't ready for what was coming.

(I'll not be embedding tweets this time, they are far too heavy and would make the page jump too much. So I'll copy/paste text and make links instead.)

((I haven't proofread this post thoroughly and fixed most of the styling like I would like to do here, since this is long and I'm tired of working on this for two days. Sorry in advance for any typos and grammatical errors.))

Before we continue

Please consider a few things before continuing to read this post or even going online and sharing your piece:

• Not everything has been revealed.
• For the things that were, not all details were shared.
• We're all humans: inaccuracies occur, and we get emotional.
• People got manipulated and lied to. Their views might have been twisted for a long time, and they might not be aware of everything.
• It's easy to say, after the fact, "You should have noticed it" or "You should have said something", but we don't have all the context.
• People are and have been for years spreading rumors, astrosurfing, and schizo-posting. Take a step back and reevaluate what we thought of everyone.

What has happened since last week

On July 21st, 2025, Ironmouse released a video titled "Why I left VShojo".

We learn a few things from this :

• First that she's indeed leaving the company after being there since its inception.
• She entrusted VShojo with managing her finances (at least her Twitch revenue) as this allowed her to protect her anonymity.
• The company has not been paying her a "significant amount" of funds.
• Over half a million dollars that she raised during her last subathon as not been sent to the Immune Deficiency Foundation, as she wished.
• Upper management has been manipulating her, telling her that if she brings up her issues to other talents or publicly, she would put all staff and members in danger.

Following that, the exodus started with every talent announcing their departure from the company.
Kson (during a live stream, more on that later), Michi (live), Kuro, Melody, AmaLee, Hime, Haruka, Henya (live), Nagi, Hestia, Hotaru, Peke, and (a bit late) Froot (Apricot).
Most of them added that they were already in the process of doing so, but things accelerated since Ironmouse's video.

The Kson and "CEO of VShojo JP" live stream

First, I must give props to Loutlot for accepting this. He knows he can't say too much and that Kson is angry, yet he shows that he wants to be here and help.

This live stream gave everyone plenty of details about the company, as seen from the Japanese branch. A fully translated video as since been released by Yura, who has a good track record for providing translations:

• Loutlot (also known as Makino) is called by Kson. He will not speak much in English due to fear of "not using the correct words", as he doesn't want to be either misunderstood or be in legal trouble later.
• He acknowledges that, as still being the "VShojo JP CEO" at this time, he shouldn't be here. He can't say certain things, not because he is gagged or wants to shield someone in particular, but to protect as a whole the other staff and members, and because legal actions have already started.
• He was made aware of the Ironmouse situation "a few weeks ago". He believes that her revenue from the subathon [which was probably mixed in with the rest] was used for "operational costs" – paying staff, rent, supplies, servers, services, etc.
• Kson says that her last payment was in September 2024 and was for things she should have been paid for a long time ago.
• He notes that he is not involved in the operations of the main company. He only manages resources in Japan. As such, he doesn't know what "VShojo US" decides, nor does he have access to the finances of the company as a whole and can't know how much money is currently owed to everyone.
  The only finances that he can see are how much JP projects that he manages are spending and gaining, the budget given by the main branch, and funds he has within Japan.
• When Loutlot asked the main branch about why the money flow wasn't good and he probed into missing payments, he would get vague replies like "That can be paid", "It's been paid", "It's being paid", or no response at all. But he never got a "We don't have enough" nor "That money was used for something else". He doesn't want to say he's been "actively lied to", but more that upper management was willingly hiding the situation from him.
• The main company seems to have told him to help raise capital to be able to cover costs linked to the missing funds for Mouse's charity.
• He saw that VShojo JP wasn't expending a lot of money yet bringing in quite a bit of revenue, the branch was actually doing good by itself.
  He had then been working with the rest of the JP staff on making the branch a separate company for the past 2-3 months, trying mostly to get it bought out by another company. Unfortunately, this couldn't be done in such a short time.
• Loutlot says that while VShojo JP was doing well, and they could probably even pay her just by looking at the branch's revenue, he apparently can't pay her directly as this is all organized by the US company.
• In the midst of this part, Kson confirms she's quitting on that same day, even if she planned to do it on July 31st before all this.
• If VShojo closes, VShojo JP will close too, as their funds are combined. The staff will probably have to disband too.
  He does want to have the talents continue their activities and thus is working on reworking current contracts (sponsors and merch) to be transferred directly to the talents and let staff leave with them. He is taking responsibility for helping everyone on the JP side.
  While things should work out for Kson and Henya, it might be more difficult for the NOVA as a group, but they're working on it.
• When asked about "why this is happening", Loutlot believes that the company was being lax with its finances. From the JP side, staff has been asking many questions but got no answers. They didn't get any overall strategy. There were times when funds went out without quantitative tracking, something that is being labeled here as incompetence.
• Loutlot shares that he is barely being paid, he got a pay cut since the beginning of the year, and his salary is now "like less than half". He confirms that the company would put more priority into paying its staff [and we can assume their debts and events, too] than their talents.
  He then says that to pay the unpaid sums, the company needs to get in better financial shape (including by downsizing or doing pay cuts), but for things to improve you still need employees who need to get their salary... [I should add that the talents probably don't have a salary contract, their payments are their share from sponsorships and merch sales.]
• Kson asks about why they were still adding more talents, despite having trouble paying [at least] her. Loutlot says that yes, talents were added, and more were planned to come. The people in charge of doing it just did their job, as they would be told that they "can get the budget" or "payment of it can be made" – which can be assumed to have been lies.
  Those who were aware should have put a halt to it but didn't.

The upcoming "Monster Girls" gen

During the exodus, talents who passed the auditions and were originally set to debut this summer (but eventually pushed for tentatively November) have come forward.

PiaPi, the "slime alien idol" first posted this tweet.

[...]
I was one of the girls who passed the VShojo audition.

After four years of blood, sweat, and slime, I really believed I’d made it. That all the late nights, overtime, sacrifice meant something more. I was excited to take a huge leap with the community I built as me, the weird little slime girl you know and (hopefully) love.

But after learning what happened with Mousey’s charity funds, I couldn’t in good conscience move forward with my contract and it all came crashing down. That was the final straw.

We were promised support, stability, and financial compensation. I was so excited to join a company I believed in and that believed in me, but it became clear that many of those promises wouldn’t be kept. A lot of us are now left shouldering the costs of decisions we didn’t make.
[...]

Then Beri, cute ladybug, shared this message in a tweet.

I know some people have noticed that I've been spotty with streams lately, and the reason is actually because I was supposed to join VShojo this year. A lot has happened and, after over half a year after signing, I requested to have my contract voided.
[...]

And finally, Tori Oriane, the "soul ferryman vtuber" (and a temporary identity before her official debut), posted this video:

Here are a few handpicked parts about the timeline and processes. You should watch the whole video for all details, including all the work she did on the side.

In July of 2024, I submitted my application for VShojo for their public auditioning process. [...]

Inside of the auditioning process, most days there was only one staff member present who later became the only staff member I had contact with my entire time signed with VShojo.
Eventually, in December, I was booked for a final meeting where I would be congratulated for passing the audition process and invited to join VShojo officially. [...]

I received the talent contract, and a few weeks later, after consulting a lawyer, I signed the contract. I'm currently seven months into that contract. [...]

Initially, I was told that our onboarding process would begin a week after signing the contract. From there, production of assets would begin around March with an aimed debut timeline of summer. [...]

Skip to the last day of February after over a month of having the contract signed and still no onboarding meetings or official communication. I was told due to staff allocation and staff allocation only that the debut would now be pushed to a timeline of November 2025 to January 2026 instead of summer 2025. July would now be when we began onboarding meetings. [...]

On March 4th, I started to worry about my future. I had now been signed with VShojo for 3 months. I had no contact with any staff apart from the one. I was part of no official servers, given no updates about the company or those joining/departing from the company, and I had no contact with existing talent. [...]

Now, after being told time and time again that I didn't need to worry, that I would get to debut and that I would receive a budget, I decided to shift my efforts into building what would become my brand under VShojo, keeping staff in the loop along every step of the way. [...]

I asked staff if there were any issues with working with this artist and I was told no. So production began on the model art in June. It was then told to me that the allotted debut budget may need to be re-evaluated. I sent if the budget is timing related. I don't mind fronting the cost until it can be reimbursed down the line. I was quoted $1,000. I can just provide receipts for the work to be compensated at a later date if of course that's easier. I was never given an answer for this. [...]

I attended the June 2025 OffKai in person and here I learned a lot more than what the staff was communicating to me at this point. I kept hearing whispers of VShojo's financial concerns. This concept was unheard of to me. I was told delays were only because of staff allocation. As of the past few weeks, for the first time, I was told there was a strong possibility I would not be debuting despite the constant reassurance the past seven months due to these financial complications. [...]

I am disgusted at the course of actions that VShojo has chosen to take, and I'm choosing to retract my affiliation with the company. Although at this time, I'm not even sure I would have ever been reimbursed and have gotten to debut in the first place. I'm not only down five figures on debut related fees, but I'm also down almost a year of my time. [...]

The trio would later on discuss more about it on stream and then do a collab together. Pick your POV: PiaPi, Beri, Tori.

Mint and Phoebe Chan also signed

Maid Mint Fantôme would start a live stream on Wednesday, July 23rd:

Here's what we learned from this:

• She shares that at first she was only working with VShojo for selling the merch of the podcast she did with Matara Kan. But they never got paid their cut for it. (Their Patreon is unaffected.)
• Mid-podcast, both went to Japan together and Mint told Matara how lonely she felt and wanted to get back into a group or company. She then got the idea of pitching the idea of an idol group to VShojo.
• She shares she actually knew Gunrun before VTubing, through idols.
• Gunrun was keen to the idea, and Mint later signed on as a member. Auditions started to get two other members that would be part of her group. She notes that Beri and Pia were not part of it, and she was mostly working with VShojo JP.

She didn't share more about those potential two other members – rightfully so – but I wouldn't be surprised if Phoebe Chan (Feebee) was one of them, as this 2.5D idol uploaded this video, along with a transcription on Twitter.

Like many others, she shares that the staff she met are great (Panini being almost always mentioned).

After the closure of PRISM Project last year, this would have been the third agency she'd be part of, but she was excited to join a "talent first" agency that would help her bring more idol content to the sphere.

She also mentions her 5-year anniversary album that VShojo promised to cover the costs, but ultimately she had to self-fund it herself.

Even now, despite the fact that I was supposed to be on the cusp of my debut, I discovered that due to poor communication and delayed payments from VShojo's side, very few of my assets that had been prepared were fully completed. Aside from a logo and a few art pieces, no stream overlays, no BGM, no art or rigging for my new model.

She's thankfully still not giving up and will continue to try to reach her dreams.

Gunrun releases a statement, VShojo is shutting down

On July 24th, 2025, at almost 10am PDT and 68 hours after Ironmouse's video, VShojo published on Twitter this picture signed by Justin "Gunrun" Ignacio.

A tweet that was quickly community-noted:

Justin claims to not know the purpose of the funds, but he personally congratulated IronMouse on the completion of her charity fundraising event and reposted Ludwig directly mentioning that half the funds would go to charity

"YOU DID IT MOUSE!!" - @theGunrun, Oct 1st (archive)
Reposting Ludwig congratulating Ironmouse and noting how she's "donating half the money raised to charity" (archive)
"Ironmouse is now the most subscribed-to channel on Twitch ever" - Polygon, Oct 1st.

With their own (previous) talents in the replies:

"Why didn't you let us know the moment you realized this situation? Why did I get the information 2weeks ago not from the company but from my home girls?? Why did you lie to the JP branch A WEEK AGO that everything was good and taken care of?????" - @ksononair

"You broke my heart, my spirit and my trust." - @ironmouse

"i had a wonderful time while I was in there.
so because of that it hurts my heart alot
my community and my friends don't deserve this

i dont expect you to do anything at this point
just please dont do this ever again to anyone" - @henyathegenius

"we trusted you.
i feel so hurt and betrayed." - @haruka_karibu

"we trusted you and you knew how hard that was for some of us to do.
our communities, people who only ever do their best to support us & care for us, do not deserve this either.

this does not get 5 big booms from me og" - @MichiMochievee

[meme picture of a cat with the caption ""OHHH" (I still don't get it)"] - @K9_KURO

"This is exactly what Copium Merch did to me, and you promised it wouldn’t happen to me again. I’m so beyond disappointed and frustrated I don’t even know what to feel anymore" - @LeeandLie (AmaLee)

"😢" - @HestiaHappiness

"🫩" - @torioriane

"i really want to believe that none of this was done out of intentional maliciousness, but what a mess.... 🥲" - @beribug_

"so is the COO gonna say anything about his involvement or is he busy googling “how do I renew my law license past the deadline”" - @NyanNyanners

"How did you not know? How could you betray the people that trusted you the most and think anyone would believe this garbage? You ruined lives. I hope the money gets repaid but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't. You're a disgrace and a disappointment." - @_Silvervale

(Veibae's quote-tweet is mentioned later in this post.)

"VShojo didn't just fail, many staff and leadership failed VShojo.

Instead of using talent money on operating costs, the company should have shut down or at least informed us, but you used us as cash cows to keep things afloat while keeping us in the dark.

You chose to keep the (expensive) sinking ship going and felt that it was fine to keep paying out to staff you were friends with instead of putting talent first. You've made it abundantly clear that you are okay with not prioritizing the debts owed to the talent who MADE this company what it is.

While saying you will take full responsibility is the correct thing to do, I also think there are many others in the company without the same positive intent as conveyed in this message. In every leadership or staff call I had, you sat back and didn't say much while you had other staff members that were clearly the ones doing the actual work be the ones to speak.

We know which leadership worked on our contracts. We know which leadership constantly sat in vc playing games with staff instead of working on time-sensitive tasks for our events and debuts. We know which staff consistently leaked information about talent. As the CEO, you are the final check, yes, but this means that all checks before you failed too." - @GeneralGEEGA

"I’ve been trying to figure out what to say.

Why did you keep dodging my messages and concerns. When I wanted to do 1 o 1’s, you kept dodging or you gave me a short corporate answer. Even when I was under immense pressure from the community for answers about the auditions and I pleaded for a statement by your PR team, you told me it wasn’t needed, you made a tiny video instead, looking like you were hurt and upset, saying sorry, instead of meeting me 1 on 1 for my concerns and I was left crying and frustrated, but like a fucking dog, I went back and happy to even get something from you cause oh man, boss actually answered me. You wanted one finally when you knew everything was crashing around you. Then debuting new talents and such even after the community kept asking about it and kept waving it off and letting me take the punches. I smiled. I fucking brushed it off and kept pushing the company cause I was hopeful for new talent and bringing new people to help. Instead I find you were hiring people without input and poaching without even the idea of truly helping them other then financial gain. We didn’t even know who you were bringing in. You and the team told us to just take it. You and some people were really ready for me to be thrown under over and over. Even when Amalee joined, I begged you to put out a statement regarding auditions before she announced her debut stream. You gave us the middle finger. Me and Amalee had to put out a statement cause your PR team was unfit for their job. I took it all. Why did we have to say anything at all, why did I have to keep taking the fucking damage over and over. You were hurting me well before this. You know you have. I’ve been pushing a company so blindly who didn’t even care for me. But I’m an idiot and I kept believing. I was so excited for this. I spent sleepless nights dealing with constant harassment. And you spent money which you didn’t even have without even warning us on god knows what, and you knew, don’t even lie, you knew that money was for charity and was supposed to be placed to the side to be untouched. Where did 11 million dollars go in less then 3 years even. What happened to all that money.
I’m just really tired from all these years of trying to push for something that kept pushing me to the wolves.
I was so stupid. But I was so excited.
I really trusted you.
We all did.
Despite everything, I don’t wish you any ill will.
I just hope you find some way to make this right." - @zentreya

And from others:

"you didn’t know how 500k suddenly got added to the bank account? you’re not aware of the huge fundraising campaigns your own talents do? even when it’s a charity event that breaks records and has the entire community talking about it?

jesus christ" - @LucyPyre_

"What’s most important is getting the money to those you owe it to. Tho at this point you’re more likely to shaft the talents/charity and Gunrun off with the money instead, sad

COO have any input btw? Surely he can put that history as a “digital media attorney” to use here right?" - @NothingButA_Fan

""We would be able to do so & cover all expenses"

Brother, you've somehow been bleeding 11 Mil while maintaining the most successful & biggest vtuber roster in Western EN History & figured that'd all just go away on its own?!

Oh- to spew bullshit so confidently 😫

What a weird way to say: "So basically, I've been sitting ducks while watching the ship sink & instead of sitting down with the talents & explaining the situation & finding ways to fix the business model, we went about hiring more & bigger talents to rake in more profits to cover our incompetence.

Oh, also I had no idea what the 500k was supposed to be for & never questioned it or checked the books, oopsie, LOL."

I feel so freaking terrible for your former talents... 💔" - @shylilytwitch

"This and the situation with copium merch is the exact reason why so many creators are afraid to put their trust in these companies. Just letting your funds deplete further and further while not being transparent and truthful with your talents while pretending all is fine is the fastest way to lose any sort of good faith with everyone in the community. It's disappointing and upsetting that your poor leadership led to VShojo failing as much as it did. None of my friends deserved this slap in the face from people they wanted to put their heart and trust into. Fuck you." - @shxtou

""I didn't know" "I didn't understand"
Convenient but despicable words." - @cipp (kasii)

"Money, managements, and investment decisions are far complex. But you took advantage of the fears of dreamers they all carry. You sacrificed the efforts of people, not cuz it was necessary, cuz it was EASIER FOR YOU. Don’t act like you’re a victim hoping for sympathy. 逃げるな。" - @unnamednow00 (U-san)

"This is exactly what Studio Cell and Copium Merch did to us. Pretending the ship wasn’t sinking and instead of being honest, took everyone down with them. The road to hell is paved with good intentions." - @baovtuber

"disappointing... the fact that your NDA made your talents not even speak about how awful yall were to them too. pathetic." - @demenishki

"You guys played with peoples dreams like it was a situationship, me included, & held us in limbo for months. I really used to believe in Vshojo which makes this all the more disappointing…" - @QuinnBenet

"It sounds like you used your talent's actual money to keep your business afloat until you could secure additional funding. Hence the operating cost. You didn't disclose that you were in the red and were hemorrhaging your talent.

I'm positive your accountant knew how the funds were being procured since the girls have mentioned that this has been happening since 2022. I do not think you were oblivious that the charity funds raised by Ironmouse was for charity.

This is absolute gross negligence and I hope justice is served." - @InfernoOmni

And finally, I'm going to share this really nice edit from Vampiia, who found what was actually said in the announcement.

$2M, leaked pitch deck, VShojo's JP director reaction

CL shared on Twitter that they were offered to buy VShojo for 2M, "just the amount that we owe to talents and loans", but turned down the proposition since the operation was so unprofitable. He had access to the 2020 and 2021 internal decks to understand the organization and its finances, plus a lighter one from January 2025.

Later on, Addison (@uwunetes) and Lea (@uvdotsh) got access to a deck dated "Jan 2025" and published screenshots of the slides (they had to censor one where IRL pictures of possible talents are present).

Alex Kiyoshi Pelz made a LinkedIn post (in Japanese) to address how he was misrepresented in the slides (as "responsible for the success of Hololive EN Gen 1") and his experience at the company.

(The following is a translation found from @uwunetes, that Yura says is well done.)

Over the past year, VShojo has faced an extremely challenging situation involving mismanagement from upper management, which only came to light just before its closure. It has now been officially announced that VShojo has ceased operations.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to finally speak publicly about my experiences at VShojo and my prior role at COVER.

This post addresses the misunderstandings and rumors stemming from a leaked pitch document, created by VShojo's US team, which has been circulating online recently. This document has led to incorrect perceptions of my role and involvement. The entertainment industry thrives on "trust," and I deeply regret not only that VShojo has lost the trust of its talents and staff but also that my name has been misrepresented in a manner inconsistent with the facts.

First, let me clarify my role at COVER Corporation. I served as an "Advisor" and in "Business Planning" at COVER, as accurately reflected on my LinkedIn profile. This can be verified by COVER's executives, EN team members, or the talents themselves. However, for some reason, VShojo's materials referred to me as the "Gen1 Director," which is factually incorrect.

This misinformation has also led to confusion with "Omega," a figure who was publically disliked by some talents at the time. In reality, my role was to address the root of that issue, and I was the one who led the effort to remove Omega.

When I joined COVER, my primary mission was to identify and resolve issues within the overseas team. Later, I collaborated with the CEO and CFO on strategic planning for IPO preparations, addressing challenges in the EN/ID teams, and establishing an international business division for global expansion. Even after the IPO, I continued to support the overseas division as an advisor.

During my three years at COVER, while working on various large-scale projects, I faced a significant decision: whether to relocate to the US for the establishment of a new branch or to choose a different path. At that time, I received an offer from VShojo that allowed me to stay in Japan, and due to personal circumstances, I chose that option. Regrettably, that decision turned out to be a significant mistake.

That said, working with VShojo's Japan team was an incredibly meaningful and proud experience. Despite being a small team, we operated with high efficiency, generated profits, and successfully launched a new VTuber group, "NOVA." Although the company no longer exists, I, along with former Japan staff, am fully committed to supporting NOVA and the Japan-based talents so they can continue their activities.

The events that affected VShojo talents, including IronMouse, came as a major shock to the Japan team as well. We were completely unaware of the internal situation until recently. Financial management was entirely controlled by the US headquarters, and neither the Japan branch president nor I were informed that payments to Japan-based talents were outstanding. We are deeply frustrated that such a decision was made despite the ability to make those payments.

I initially joined VShojo to assist with fundraising efforts, but during investment negotiations, I grew suspicious when critical financial documents were not provided by upper management. In hindsight, I now understand that this was all intentionally concealed. From early on, there were numerous concerns about the company's management, and the Japan branch president and I were exploring the possibility of operational separation, but it was already too late.

I feel profound disappointment regarding the series of events at VShojo. At the same time, I will continue to provide as much support as possible to ensure that former talents can continue their activities with peace of mind.

Thank you for reading this to the end. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Alex Kiyoshi

Vei, Silver, and Nyanners on their departures

Nyanners talked about her time at VShojo, which you can watch in this edited VOD:

One of the things we learn about this is how VShojo did not even pay her cut from a sponsored stream in which she got swatted. She continued the stream, thinking, "At least I'll be paid".

But also:

• She says she's owed enough money to buy a brand-new Mercedes Benz S-Class.
  (The most basic S 500 4MATIC Sedan currently starts at ~$118K MSRP.)
• They would lie to her when she asked for the owed money, they would reply that they didn't have her info… after sending her a payment two weeks before.
• She says she made more in a few months after leaving VShojo than she did in years with them, as they weren't paying her properly.
• She claims that the company had an expired business license at the time she left the company with Vei and Silver, which facilitated their exit.
• After leaving, upper management told to the other remaining talents (and probably went on to astrosurf online) that the three girls were "troublemakers". Nyan would be portrayed as "bitchy, manipulative, and a betrayer".
• She was told that her leaving would put other talents at risk to be harassed, and that they all depended on her. They were trying to delay her departure to minimize the damage to VShojo's reputation. [Ironmouse said the same thing.]
• They were put under an NDA that prevents them from talking to other talents and from saying anything bad about the company.
• VShojo was discouraging her from bringing a lawyer to review any contract. The lawyer provided to the talents had an expired license. "Allegedly a lawyer".
• They did think that VShojo getting new talents (thinking of Henya) meant that they were finally doing better, but apparently not.
• Also, Gunrun's IRL stream backpacks suck.

You can also watch Aethel's comments on this here, and his reaction to VShojo's response here.

Silvervale posted this tweet:

My heart goes out to all of the communities affected by this recent news. I know that it's surprising and heart-wrenching for a lot of people. There's a lot I wish I could say, but I signed a pretty aggressive NDA (they made my mom sign one too?)

All I can say is that it's been bad for a long time, and I warned everyone as much as I could. It was so much worse than you could imagine. The Vtubers make the agency, not the other way around. To take advantage of those who trusted you is vile.

Never derive your value from an agency, believe in yourself and your content, because you're worth so much more than you can imagine. 💕

And would later talk about her experience at VShojo on stream as it seems safer to do so now, pretty much echoing Nyan.

Vei sent this long post on Twitter, quoting VShojo's:

and so our NDAs are now void

why i left VSHOJO -

back in 2023, vshojo tried to bully me into one of the most predatory contracts that i have ever seen. when i tried to ask more about it, their COO got extremely hostile with me and refused to answer any of my questions and so i had to hire a lawyer in order to get some clarification.

during the talks, it became clear that vshojo would rather let me go than to take less away from me. they were ultimately wanting me to give up more than half of all my sponsor revenue and over 60% of all merch sales. all i asked from them in return, is to not take a cut of the sponsors that i was getting through Mythic, as that cut was already being taken. they said no, they want it all. and so i asked to leave after being treated like i was disposable in our talks. they basically made it seem like they were my employer, and that they're the reason for my success. that i owe them and that i should be happy to give them my money.

in order for me to leave, they demanded i sign an nda that prevented me from speaking to any of the other talent about it. i could not say why i was leaving, i could not say what the terms that i was saying no to were. i even got in trouble for advising them to hire their own attorneys. they would watch my streams, read my discord, and then threaten to sue me. if i said anything that hinted towards how i really felt about the company, i was threatened with a lawsuit.

another one of their leave terms was that they will announce both me and silver on the same day in order to minimize the damage to their company. their COO has begun to push a narrative on 4chan (yes im serious lmfao) and other social media that i am leaving because i plan to join OTK and that both me and silvervale are troublemakers, so they were "letting" us go. later i found out that nyanners wanted to leave around the same time due to also being unhappy with the contract, but was told that she couldn't because it did not fit their narrative that they were pushing internally AND externally. the amount of hate we've gotten over leaving, from fans calling us greedy bitches to people saying we're abandoning our friends and tossing aside the company because we're successful enough, shit was fucking painful. not being able to say anything sucked.

i only found out i didn't get paid for any of my sponsors after i had already signed the NDA. after 2 years, i have still not been paid back fully. to add insult to injury, they also demanded i had to pay them back 10k for some of the anniversary assets which when they sent me back months later, were half finished.

despite all of that, i've had immense faith that the company has gotten better over the past 2 years. i assumed they rewrote their contracts after losing 3 people due to them and seeing all the new talent join.

clearly this was not the case.

now for some fun facts !!

- their company lawyer has an expired law license. he literally does not practice law anymore, yet he was our point of contact for any legal help we needed.

- they actively pitted us against one another during my time there, and compared our success to others. they tried enforcing streaming schedules so that our viewcount would look better due to less overlap.

- they would ALWAYS shit talk other vtuber agencies. they literally would spend company money to get a tiny dig at them. especially hololive, it literally lived rentfree in gunruns head. they were convinced hololive was over when they signed kson and nazuna.

- our previous talent manager got ghosted for 6 months by gunrun, told not to do any work for us and then got fired for "not doing anything". during this fiasco, we weren't able to get any assistance.

- MTD got reprimanded for being creepy to us. lol. got told not to message us privately. go figure.

- i have proof from other streamers attending their IRL parties that MTD would actively shit talk me after i left the company, to paint me in the worst light imaginabe. dunno why ur acting innocent on twitter pretending u werent aware of anything, can't wait to see all the shit that comes out about you because there's LOADS but those aren't my stories to tell.

thanks for reading and thanks to those who stuck around between then and now. thank you for giving me, silver and nyan the benefit of the doubt when we needed it most. 💙

Shibuya Kaho mentions a creep

Shortly after Ironmouse's video, Kaho sent this tweet. She doesn't mention any names, but it's not difficult to at least link that to VShojo…
People are trying to find who it could have been and are pointing fingers at Alex (that was mentioned above) due to his past employer… but why would he ask for tax advice when he helped launch Cover's IPO?

This person moved from a noted VTuber company to another as a staff last year, bragging about his new income. He thrusted me a few of his new business cards to "give to my good contacts". I found the action obnoxiously rude. But maybe he was too young and friendly to know better.

Then the mf wanted to meet up for tax advice, because I'm a native in Japan and I hire an accountant. I was asked to have dinner in his area, which was quite far for me, splitting the bill. That day I got convinced I didn't like the guy.

Yet because I loved the talents he worked with, I was only secretly hoping he would lose his job one day.

Recently, I heard from another creator that he was showing photos of VTubers' real selves while revealing their personal info like marital statue. I now wanted to find a way to warn other employees.

Today I've learnt the most despicable shit the company has done to their talent. Don't know if he's involved with it, yet all my personal grudge is nothing compared to such betrayal.

Sometimes, unfortunately, managers or agencies can be the talent's worst enemy. Please always support the talent. Talent first.

Replying to a "why didn’t you speak up earlier", she adds:

Actually I just came back from US where I gathered the info that he was still with the company, and I was actually meeting up with someone who's been working with him in Japan this week.

Given that it's a story I heard from someone else, I thought it was best to do in person.

MowtenDoo targeted for his behavior

After Ironmouse's video, "MTD" posted this tweet:

nah bro, what the ABSOLUTE FUCK??? @theGunrun

But since then, previous talents have come forward and directly mentionned his name, allegeing to him not being that clean.

Vei's post just above does note that

MTD got reprimanded for being creepy to us. lol. got told not to message us privately. go figure.

[...] can't wait to see all the shit that comes out about you because there's LOADS but those aren't my stories to tell.

And in the replies, Nyanners added:

MTD had the audacity to talk shit about you to my face at a party the year that we all left, and painted you as some kind of conniving, greedy meangirl who was in my ear and manipulated me into leaving VSJ just because you wanted me to join OTK cause "her boyfriend soda is part of that org" or for personal gain or some shit.
He got uncomfortably close and up in my face and was like "come on, I know the real reason you left, I know it was cause of vei, she talked you into it!" etc and it was infuriating. I know he's spread that same shit to other staff, talent and other industry people. Seeing one of my closest friends get dragged through the mud like this for years was awful. You did absolutely nothing wrong and had so much shit flung at you just cause they wanted to push a narrative to protect the company.
For him to act like he's completely blameless is insulting, he is a creepy motherfucker and there's a lot more obviously but a lot of it is also not my story to tell.

And from Aethel's streams, along with Ironmouse's telling him to check DMs multiple times, there are many suggestions that MowtenDoo might have been the employee who would prefer playing games rather than work, leaked info, and would try to hit on talents in DMs.

Him leaving when shit was going on doesn't mean that he was trying to distance himself from it in a supportive matter, he might be trying to run and hide away.
Who knows if he wasn't directly involved in the financial troubles too, and who knows what more damage he has done, as they are all implying that there's a big victim of his actions who hasn't spoken up yet.

Digging up old tweets, but on topic:

And a few more speak up

There's is a lot that could go here (and I'm tired of working on this post over the past two days), so I'll keep it to a few people.

Artists have come forward saying that VShojo was usually late for their payments (like StarlightDaryl), but also that some still haven't been paid (like Shirobeats).
At least Ironmouse, Michi, and Zentreya have come forward to directly cover the costs that were related to them.

Kuro shares a bit about the situation inside the company in a live stream, here's a clip to go straight to the points:

In short:

• "First year was a blast", contract was great. Second year was "disjointed", "everyone was doing their own things" and not doing collaborations with the name "VShojo" associated.
• They didn't know how dire the situation was until very recently. Talking finances with others was a taboo, so nobody would share they weren't getting paid for a while.
• Why not leave immediatly? They would have meetings, including with Gunrun, where they would share things they didn't like and would like improved, and they were told that things would improve. A company having bad sides isn't unusual, so you give it a few more chances.
• Kuro was paid for his debut merch (released in October 2023) on June 11th, 2025.
• Maiko, one of the managers, had to track all merch and payments himself in a spreadsheet since no one above him was doing it.
• Since payments were done quarterly, it was easy for talents to not notice what was missing. Kuro started to notice that only when he slowed down his streaming activities and had time to look into it.
• When he asked to be out, they told him that the leave contract would be done in a day… more than 10 days later, nothing came.

Quinn Benet (who isn't VTubing much anymore) talks about how the company poached him, but after leaving his previous company, he was just dropped. And also some of the things he knows from speaking with the talents.

Momo shared that she had a two-year contract in 2019, and yet was dropped too:

I guess I'm glad now, considering back in 2019 I spent almost two and half years spiralling about my self worth in the entertainment world and in my friendships. All because I signed a two year contract with VShojo, spent a bunch of money and time to prepare, only for them to turn around and tell me they were re-evaluating their business and that I could re apply in the fall when they were doing try outs...

I hope all VShojo talent get what they are owed, hearing all this is just heart breaking. Shame on VShojo.

Sayu Sincro//Nisity shares why she would get aggressive when VShojo would be mentionned, and how she suggested making an "ex-Nijis gen":

I know I may get crap for saying this.
But, there's no time like right now to be honest about it.

I know people would often name drop VShojo when I said I wanted a home. Especially after I had the hardest experience of my life 2.5 years ago.
And I never shared the real reason I was more aggressive towards them/shutting down that idea.

2 years ago, on the 7th of February 2023, a kind friend helped me through the insane turmoil and panic I was feeling from being locked out of the accounts I had at the time. They knew Gunrun personally and offered to connect us, because he also thought that he could help me. As desperate and determined as I was to find a solution that would help not just me but others who were still in Niji too, I jumped at this chance.

The 3 of us talked in person and I told Gunrun about everything that that one girl had experienced and seen while in Niji. Everything from the unfairness of staff, the small percentage from merch, how trapped and hopeless it felt for her to fight back or just exist there though she tried so hard.
And then, I pitched my idea.

What if that girl and several others left, and they made a gen of ex-Nijis in VShojo. Would he be willing to help them create a better future together.
To my surprise he said he liked the idea, and asked me, who else did she think would be interested in leaving with her to do this. She honestly didn't know too many of the people there that well in her short time, but she named a few who had been friends to her and she knew in private. She really wanted to help those there, and we spent the night brainstorming and talking about this.
After showing some considerable interest to my surprise, Gunrun then introduced me to one of the managers at the time so I could tell them the same story. Gunrun told me that he wanted to help and that this sounded like a plan, and simply had to wait for Niji and I to part ways. I remember having so many feelings of relief and confidence. I felt like I'd found my hope.

Of course, the one girl was terminated, doxxed, and no help was offered. Even months later, I would reach out to him again and, like we had never spoken, he gave me a surface level response.

I want to apologize to anyone who asked in the past about this, for being angrier than I would have been if this hadn't been the case. This is also where my comment of saying what I did about VShojo as a whole came from in the past. It wasn't the other people's fault. Unfortunately I really just felt trapped and abandoned all those years ago and even now, I remember how it felt.
I hope this explains why for so long, I felt like I wasn't worth "saving", I felt like I had no value, I felt like "why just me, left out?"
I know I dodged a bullet. But part of me still wished I could've suffered together with others that I wanted to be with as allies instead of being a reject.

(To protect the privacy of those involved, I will not share names of anyone. But after that, we only corresponded through an app called Signal that erases the logs of chats after a certain period of time, so I do not have any logs of this nor the contacts due to this being several phones ago.)

Camila wrote a long post about when she applied to join VShojo. She was one of the talents that were pretty far in the 2022 auditions but were entirely dropped/ghosted, mentioning again the story of how some people were offered hush money.
She also released a cover of Billie Eilish's "Your Power", with some lyrics changed to fit the situation.

i want to start by saying that the severity of my experience isnt the same as what others went through with Gunrun. just wanted to share this tidbit because it affected a lot of my friends, including me.

in 2022, i applied for vshojo.
i applied under my "past life".

vshojo, at the time, prefaced that they were looking specifically for smaller streamers. i thought i'd give it a chance because i was very small at the time.

i auditioned. i passed.

i received an email saying that i would be moving to the next stage. as well as some of my friends.
i and others were so excited to have even passed the initial round. that alone was something to be proud of.

we filled out the next part. this mainly contained more.. technical questions. what's your schedule like? are you good with handling technical difficulties? what kind of streaming equipment do you own? etc.

submitted that, and.. well.. got another email back.
i made it to round three. i was so so so happy. i know i wasnt fully accepted yet. but it was still a nice feeling.

so, i waited. i waited a few days for the next step. a few days turned into weeks. a few weeks turned into a few months. nothing. i would frantically check my email almost every. single. day. waiting for something.

eventually, i let it go. they moved on without a word. i was sad, sure, but more confused by the sudden disappearance.

a year later, i started growing as a streamer. i met so many other vtubers and learned a lot by being around them. one day i was chatting with a bigger vtuber and and eventually, the topic of VShojo came up.
they told me they auditioned the same time i did.

she made it to the final round, but they rejected her and the finalists last minute to hire someone they already knew. and these vtubers were GIVEN HUSH MONEY not to tell anyone about it.

the girls were devastated. just like the rest of us who got dropped without warning.

so uh, yeah. thank you wasting everyone's time ig.

oh! one more thing before i forget

you have no idea how many times your talents called me in tears, suffering due to your neglect and the way you constantly mistreated them. they werent getting payed, they werent getting responses from you for over six months, and other heart shattering moments i cant share yet.

is this the treatment you give to those who contributed to your success? no one as sweet and hardworking as them should’ve been treated like that and stolen from.

and with that being said, i dedicate this to you.

Closing notes

I like to say that I don't really care about the corpos. I'm just thankful that they help the talents that I actually watch.
And I won't deny that they are the reason why we might even know about certain VTubers, they do help put them in the spotlight. I would have never gone back to watching Ironmouse (as I did stumble across her streams early on) if not for the fact that she was part of a group alongside Nyanners, that I only knew at that time as a YouTube and 4chan gremlin.

Because the company didn't appear to be too much hands-on, because the talents were saying how they did have a lot of freedom (at least compared to other corpos), and we kept seeing the girls grow and entertain us, I trusted VShojo.

Even as just a watcher, I would say good things about Gunrun, who wouldn't mind having his face printed and used for memes by his own talents, who would appear physically to represent the company and talents at events, including at a walk for the IDF, and even accompany them during IRL streams.

But oh boy this wake-up call did hurt. Guess that the only company that I didn't see as a faceless cold corpse who only thinks of business ended up being one, too.

I'm happy that my last order from them, some Henya debut merch, finally arrived a few month ago. But I can't believe that she might not get a single cent from it. And to think that many of the pending orders are probably lost forever for anyone else.

And finally, it's not too late to support the Immune Deficiency Foundation.
Ironmouse's Tiltify is still going: https://tiltify.com/@ironmouse/ironmouse

See you next week.