There have been some really interesting topics in the last few pages, so I have decided to come out of lurking and, I don't know, write into the void I guess
I am honestly curious: what does IronMouse do to make her a great content creator?
I get it from her indie days, her karaokes are soul, but the "I'm dying" should get anyone tired of it eventually, as it got me. Everytime I open her stream she's either talking about herself, reacting to stupid shit or talking with her boy-toy CDawg, and I tune out immediately because of it. Can someone explain in a very objective manner why she gets that much clout? Preferably from someone who regularly checks her out.
I tried to look into essays on the web but they all feel written by dramafags and I can't get to the bottom of it.
Honestly as soon as I saw that she won the award I asked myself the same thing. I don't watch her, but from what I know and seen about her it's just as you say: react content, collabs or talking, nothing amazing in the day-to-day stuff. From the answers and recapitulating what they say it seems to be because of her willingness to collab outside of the normal Vtuber circles, her personal story, her donothon, being one of the leading members of Vshojo and just a bunch of circumstances that allowed her to win the award.
I... don't fully understand what you're talking about, but Matara has gone on record saying that not everything that's happened is Hollywood's (her stand-in for Niji) fault and she's tired of seeing it spun that way. Kuro is a bit iffy because he has lied before about a lot of things, but also I'm not going to deny things he's said before, such as feeling confined while in Niji. We know that content he wanted to do for Luxiem's first anniversary was blocked and he has a right to be mad about that. Though, I'm glad it got blocked because all he wanted to do was react to Reddit memes which is... well it's definitely a choice seeing as how the Niji Reddit is dead.
Millie's rant on this was very reactionary and probably not the best, but I think her heart was in the right place. It's like you said, all they can do is tell people that their information is wrong and to rest easy that they're all doing well. The problem comes from people not trusting her words and saying that Niji has manipulated her into saying these things, which is where I think her frustration stems from. I personally don't think they should address things like this as much as she has, but what's done is done in that regard.
Man I
really wish I could watch Matara, not only because her content seems to be the type I liked watching before she joined Vshojo but I am really interested into hearing about her time in "Hollywood", even if it's not complete information or told in an indirect way. However because I can't get used to Twitch, the fact that now she has unleashed her endurance streamer side and streams for long hours and having to wait until VODs are uploaded to youtube means I can't follow her as I used to, and the only things I hear about her time there are clips that are focused more on the drama baiting.
This kinda allows me to segway into the other subject I wanted to talk about which is Millie's rant. Someone already gave some slight context about why Millie talked about that but I think telling more context gives a better picture. By the time Millie talked about Niji her stream was already pretty crazy: she broke down in tears at the start because of a personal matter, privated the stream, started another one, played the game until she got motion sickness, left for a bit to puke and then stopped the game so she could recover, which lead to her talking about Nijisanji later. Plus she said on her stream she was on her period. She really wasn't in the best conditions
Hopping on the "Niji not that bad guys I swear????" bandwagon, as much as I wish Millie could thicken up her skin (seeing as she's the one who hosted the anon chat stream), you can absolutely see and understand her and Luca's frustration in being known as the black company Vtubers. Things like "black company" or "Riku yacht" feel like they obfuscate legitimate concerns and criticism to have towards the company.
Do they dox anyone who leaves? No. Do they hire minors before going "hey guys this person is a minor, PLEASE don't make porn of them that would be REALLY bad oh no"? Absolutely not. Are they still probably one of the best options if you're looking for a corpo? Yeah, especially if you're a male Vtuber.
Do they lack transparency? Yeah. Do a lot of their choices feel questionable, aimed at appealing to shareholders, and focused on short-term? Definitely. Does Riku currently give off the impression of a spineless coward hiding in his office to occasionally give his shareholders the safest bullshit answers imaginable? A hundred percent.
Niji's just in the negative spotlight right now due to a mix of these issues and consistent drama. They're pretty much in the situation Hololive found itself in in the past, constantly being in issues and being considered the strict no-fun idol company in comparison to Niji letting people like Noraneko or Mito do whatever they want. Whether they can get out of it over time remains to be seen.
As far as listening to Matara and Kuro over Millie, as some people have already stated, do keep in mind that they also have reason to prop up why Vshojo is a hundred percent a super good squeaky clean perfect company. Are we forgetting Kson's talent freedom meme? Kuro-wise, I also wouldn't exactly trust someone who tried to cook the books and couldn't even do that right. It's pretty much a matter of he said she said at that point.
Honestly this comment perfectly encapsulates my opinion about Niji. I do understand Millie and agree with her, as others have said just screaming "black company" at Niji just takes away from the conversation the fair points of criticism there is, and also I imagine reading how the company that gives you opportunities is a shithole even though you and your coworkers are doing their best must be mentally draining. But 2023 hasn't been the best year for Niji and even though there have been some good announcements in the last month I don't think it has been enough yet to change completely the image Niji has been giving this entire year. I really hope they do though
Before I go back into lurking I do want to make a question. Has Matara talked about her time in Niji in anyway that hasn't been picked up by clippers? As I said I am interested in knowing if she talked about any stories of her time there