Amelia Watson Ceases Activity From Hololive

[Paladin]

Welp this was certainly something to come back to you after an Internet outage.

 

[Trap Supremacy]

I... I really don't know what to say.

Ame has been a constant in my life these past four years. Of all of the streamers I've ever watched she was the first to captivate me in a way that was completely different. Her energy, her hilarious stubbornness, her ability to really cheer me up when I was feeling down. It feels like losing... well I don't know. Ame's going to still be an "affiliate", which means we may still "see" her going forward, but evidently something in her life has put her in the position where she needs to move forward with something else.

I really hope this isn't entirely the end of her streaming. I would be overjoyed if she came back as Sachi, just to check in every now and then, but since this isn't a formal graduation I dunno what to make of it. I dunno what will happen.


But regardless of the circumstances... I'll always love her. She will always be my one true oshi, even though there are still many other vtubers I'll watch. I'll NEVER forget her.

Ame love.

 

[El Rrata]

I am too much of an ESL or the Japanese annoucement explains it better than the English one?

Neither is too clear on what it means aside from "she is almost basically graduated except she may show up every once in a while for special events if she wants and is still a talent in name."

Hopefully Ame will say more in her zatsu later.

 

[Poyoyo & Jill]

I... I really don't know what to say.

Ame has been a constant in my life these past four years. Of all of the streamers I've ever watched she was the first to captivate me in a way that was completely different. Her energy, her hilarious stubbornness, her ability to really cheer me up when I was feeling down. It feels like losing... well I don't know. Ame's going to still be an "affiliate", which means we may still "see" her going forward, but evidently something in her life has put her in the position where she needs to move forward with something else.

I really hope this isn't entirely the end of her streaming. I would be overjoyed if she came back as Sachi, just to check in every now and then, but since this isn't a formal graduation I dunno what to make of it. I dunno what will happen.


But regardless of the circumstances... I'll always love her. She will always be my one true oshi, even though there are still many other vtubers I'll watch. I'll NEVER forget her.

Ame love.

Everyone has made comparisions to WWE but in the Idol Industry the term "affiliate" exists and its just what they said:
-She wont be streaming solo on her channel or getting sporadic merch releases(the ones where almost all of Holo takes part like those Yandere voice packs a while ago)
-But she can appear in big events from time to time( wich is pretty vague as it can range from HoloFes to just a collab or some HoloEN project) thats why everyone is sad since she isnt going to work with them all the time like before
BUT ALL OF THIS AS AMELIA WATSON since most of them go solo while they are "affiliate"
As the reasons and the aftermath?:
-If its for health reasons then you will rarely will see them doing anything solo (in this particular case i think its very unlikely as Ame seems very healthy)
-If its for family reasons then you also wouldnt hear much from them (But Ame already say she isnt doing this for personal reasons so its again very unlikely)
-Becoming staff( But Ame also debunked this one so its another NG)
This just leads to the only other chance that "affiliate" Idols have and thats just becoming Indie: Funny enough a lot of them created YT Channels and started streaming or released music (but this last one cant be Ame since she never was invested in the Music aspect of Hololive)
We still need to see if they allow her to use a L2D

 

[Nenélove]

This is weird is all I'm gonna say, but hey, if the character isn't dead then there's actually a chance she could unfuck herself of whatever has her in this position and resume. This kind of situation is unprecedented though.

I think it was probably a contract renegotiation but I think Ame just set a precedent for "graduated but not really" whether that is good or bad we will just have to see.

 

[White Stone]

One thing that still puzzles me is her very own Ame studio.

She talked about working on it just a few days ago, down to getting some contractor to install some stuff. That's too much effort and cost for just like 1 week worth of content, and that's assuming she will use it her final week in the first place. FYI I think she hasn't use her 3D studio at all since her last relocation.

Only possibilities I can think of:
1) she is going indie and will be using her studio for it
2) her studio will be used in those "Hololive projects" that she will be working on after ceasing activities

 

[La+ de Central Norte]

Neither is too clear on what it means aside from "she is almost basically graduated except she may show up every once in a while for special events if she wants and is still a talent in name."

Hopefully Ame will say more in her zatsu later.

This one? I have never ever seen something like this before

 

[El Rrata]

This one? I have never ever seen something like this before

That one, yes. You haven't heard of this before because it is a first for the company. Normally someone quitting means they don't come back ever. That doesn't seem to be what is happening here.



Ame says "it's uncharted territory so I do hope the official post can help clear some things up:", which basically is her acknowledging she is the first talent to ever get the chance to go down a path like this and if not then she is the first to accept.

 

[VTuberBobDole]

Woke up to this. Annoying they couldn't let an OG EN do their graduation announcement stream at a proper US/EN time. Even to the day, very JP-centric without waiver. They couldn't have a couple people work early/late so Ame could do her announcement stream during the evening when most of her fans would be awake? Ah well, I guess in the end it is done. Even being middle of the night US, did I see it still had over 300K CCV?

Kind of feels last minute with only a week or so left, like Aqua. But maybe it is better not to drag it out. Also, I'm sure they didn't want to put a damper on Myth 4th anniversary concert or the big ENreco collab, so she/they waited until after they were done to push this out.

Kind of surprised, but not surprised. Her and Gura (and Ina off and on) both have "semi-retired" the past couple years. I think the idol singing/concerts have kept Gura around (and being the more popular face of EN vtubers probably the money in sponsorships etc too), otherwise she probably would have left a while ago. But Ame doesn't have that tying her down in the same way as she never seemed that interested in those activities, but just did them because they were expected. Her singing did improve over the years though! Ina was also a possibility to grad before her - decide to focus on her art career like Sana - but she seems to be semi-active streaming again so maybe she found her balance and will stick around a while longer.

As for not being a full "graduation" but with Ame remaining an "affiliate", maybe that means she'll come back and do occasional things with them (concerts, big events, etc?) like everyone thought Coco might do, but never actually happened? Seems a lot of speculation about her becoming staff, but not getting quite that vibe from this either. No matter what happens, certainly her style to not do the normal thing, instead find a way to do it the AmeWay!

Going to read through the thread and probably find everything I said here has already been said, but wanted to get my thoughts out.

 

[La+ de Central Norte]

That one, yes. You haven't heard of this before because it is a first for the company. Normally someone quitting means they don't come back ever. That doesn't seem to be what is happening here.



Ame says "it's uncharted territory so I do hope the official post can help clear some things up:", which basically is her acknowledging she is the first talent to ever get the chance to go down a path like this and if not then she is the first to accept.

I am not even talking about Hololive but vtubing in general normally when a Company announces this they move them to staff but this is not the case or they dont even announce it ever and keep pretending that semi-special apparences of someone that never streams in their own channel is normal
So its just feels weird

 

[agility_]

In all honesty I've gotten used to the vagrant vagueness of vtuber dismissals/firings/quasi-terminations. But that's because I'm weird with words.

 

[Hotdogs Aplenty]

Not sure if Moona is referring to Ame or she wants more yellow fever to infect Vtuber fandom.

 

[Cubanodun]

So this is the solution they found to not nuke IPs, during one shareholder meeting people were bitching about terminated and graduated talents saying that why they just not recast the character to not lose the IP and the revenue, yagoo literally had to explain that you cant do that in this business, is heretical, i suppose this was the best solution they can muster and the cope the teamates have is that single line in the official announcement about any updates in her activities will be announced on her social media

Then you have the reactions of her genmates and all EN literally treating this as a de facto graduation outside of the months of fire, to me she is officially graduated but Cover has her around as a actual voice actor to come from time to time to voice her even when she is not going to be on concerts of events

DSP vengeance for that Zelda clip is completed

 

[White Stone]

So this is the solution they found to not nuke IPs, during one shareholder meeting people were bitching about terminated and graduated talents saying that why they just not recast the character to not lose the IP and the revenue, yagoo literally had to explain that you cant do that in this business, is heretical, i suppose this was the best solution they can muster and the cope the teamates have is that single line in the official announcement about any updates in her activities will be announced on her social media

Then you have the reactions of her genmates and all EN literally treating this as a de facto graduation outside of the months of fire, to me she is officially graduated but Cover has her around as a actual voice actor to come from time to time to voice her even when she is not going to be on concerts of events

DSP vengeance for that Zelda clip is completed

This may very well be something Ame proposed for, or at the very least in favor of.

If you refer to my last comment here, she talked about working on her own home studio, which will be solely wasted if she is only going to use it for a week. This got me into thinking that she always has plans to use it for Hololive matters even after she stopped streaming. It is possible that she did all those solely for her future indie career, but it would be weird for her to constantly talk about it and got us hyped.

 

[Hotdogs Aplenty]

So this is the solution they found to not nuke IPs, during one shareholder meeting people were bitching about terminated and graduated talents saying that why they just not recast the character to not lose the IP and the revenue, yagoo literally had to explain that you cant do that in this business, is heretical, i suppose this was the best solution they can muster and the cope the teamates have is that single line in the official announcement about any updates in her activities will be announced on her social media

Then you have the reactions of her genmates and all EN literally treating this as a de facto graduation outside of the months of fire, to me she is officially graduated but Cover has her around as a actual voice actor to come from time to time to voice her even when she is not going to be on concerts of events

DSP vengeance for that Zelda clip is completed

Makes sense as Mori said she has a music video coming out with what sounds like the image of Ame in it, and she said she should still be able to release it after Sept 30th(if not before). No Cup of Coffee for Mori.

 

[El Rrata]

Wawa going live. Gonna talk about it a bit before her stream.

Not sure if Moona is referring to Ame or she wants more yellow fever to infect Vtuber fandom.

 

[PleaseCheckYourReceipts]

I am too much of an ESL or the Japanese annoucement explains it better than the English one?

Neither is too clear on what it means aside from "she is almost basically graduated except she may show up every once in a while for special events if she wants and is still a talent in name."

Hopefully Ame will say more in her zatsu later.

One thing that still puzzles me is her very own Ame studio.

She talked about working on it just a few days ago, down to getting some contractor to install some stuff. That's too much effort and cost for just like 1 week worth of content, and that's assuming she will use it her final week in the first place. FYI I think she hasn't use her 3D studio at all since her last relocation.

Only possibilities I can think of:
1) she is going indie and will be using her studio for it
2) her studio will be used in those "Hololive projects" that she will be working on after ceasing activities

I am not even talking about Hololive but vtubing in general normally when a Company announces this they move them to staff but this is not the case or they dont even announce it ever and keep pretending that semi-special apparences of someone that never streams in their own channel is normal
So its just feels weird

Ame is technically doing something new in Vtubing, especially Japanese Vtubing. So, no one really knows what it all means yet. However, this isn't new in other industries. Regulars leave TV shows and come back for 1-2 episodes quite often. The Professional Wrestling Industry does this constantly. The fact it took this long for it to happen with a big Vtuber is a little sad.

Ame is retired from Streaming as Ame. She will pop back up occasionally & in a bunch of future projects that were already in the works. But she is free to do other things without any direct job requirements. She likely has a version of the Sustained Contract that members like Coco and Aqua has, as there is still YT revenue from their channels and really complicated revenue around their Music.

So, yes, it's confusing to both English and Japanese speakers right now because no one knows exactly how this'll play out.

So this is the solution they found to not nuke IPs, during one shareholder meeting people were bitching about terminated and graduated talents saying that why they just not recast the character to not lose the IP and the revenue, yagoo literally had to explain that you cant do that in this business, is heretical, i suppose this was the best solution they can muster and the cope the teamates have is that single line in the official announcement about any updates in her activities will be announced on her social media

Then you have the reactions of her genmates and all EN literally treating this as a de facto graduation outside of the months of fire, to me she is officially graduated but Cover has her around as a actual voice actor to come from time to time to voice her even when she is not going to be on concerts of events

DSP vengeance for that Zelda clip is completed

I doubt the investor call had anything to do with this. Yagoo has had to give that same statement to a bunch of people over the last 7 years. But it's a de factor graduation. Functionally, it's a retirement from activities and she'll no longer be a direct streamer contracted employee of Cover. However, there's sustained contracts around residuals, long term channel revenue and music rights. In some ways, the retirement contract might actually be more simple to manage than the graduation one.

---

I get the distinct feeling Ame might just go deeper into the VR space. Maybe she crops up as a VR Tech Tuber and we somehow end up in the weirdest LTT collab video we've had in a while.

 

[JellyKusa]

Listening to Kiara is making me cry again
Fuck this gay earth

 

[Kazuma]

Kiara is crying

 

[Renmai]

Orange Woman barely holding it together, it really does sound like a regular graduation. Sounds like she's not expecting Ame to be around much at all.

"Really depends on Cover and Ame if they want to open the door again."