So Nijifest is over, and you guys want to know what exciting announcements there have been for NijiEN? That's right folks! It's
NOTHING. Ok I am exaggerating a little bit, there has been something, this year Nijisanji cooked and for Nijifest EN fans got: drawings on the walls from the livers, pannels and a concert in which Pomu sang one song (which to be honest was a really good song and the livers were physically there for the pannels which at least is different from what we usually get), and... figures... 3 of them 1/7 size, and the others are Palverse... And they are not even selling them, they were just announced, so if you were able to go or if you wanted more merch then I guess it has been an excellent event, otherwise I guess you can get fucked
I am just dissapointed and a little angry right now. I admit it though, I know I shouldn't feel like this because they never said they were going to announce anything at Nijifes, but still I wish there could have been
something of greater importance. I feel this whole second half of the year has just not been as good, with the graduations, the Livers disappearing for weeks to go to Japan in projects or vacations which then kinda force you to learn what cool interactions or stuff happened offstream, and then having a lot of cancelled streams when they return because of "offline work" or travel sickness, and that's not even talking if one of the livers you watch lives in Japan cause they are going to miss their streams to hang out with whomever is there for the week. I was at least expecting something,
anything to make this last half of the year worth it, maybe a teaser of the "big thing" they've been working. Instead we got more merch that's not an acylic stand, which hey, good for you if you want that, at least they are not completely abandoned like NijiID.
But it's just been... I don't know if the word "empty" is right more like "in autopilot mode", sure things exploded at the start of November for a weekend, and then there was a trickle of outfit reveals and covers in the next weeks, but those have slowed down and now everyone is back in Japan to participate in their Nijifes panel or just hang out. It's reasons like these my opinions for Reimu and Aia have increased so much lately, you can say whatever you want about their content but at least they had a consistent streaming schedule. Hell! in the period of October where every pre Iluna girl was in Japan doing god-knows-what Reimu was the only one who actually tried streaming even a little bit and I really appreciate that effort.
You guys know in my opinion what the biggest NijiEN unity moment of the year is? a moment where everyon can look and say "oh Niji looks like a really cool place"? The Oto no naru hou e cover, which was made by Pomu in the middle of the year with her own funds and by her own initiative. (Guess what, the same day I wrote this Rosemi released her 12 days of christmas cover which is good, but it was a smaller last minute project where almost everyone in NijiEN decided to jump on, I still think Pomu's cover is bigger and more representative of what I mean)
I know comparison is the thief of joy but look at Hololive: They had the Connect the World concert, the 3D showcases, a new highly anticipated gen. Look at Vshojo, they incorporated new streamers to their ranks and they have been doing projects all year long, they had the bubblegum concert or whatever the fuck it's called. Both of them had great moments through the year and then you look at Niji and it's just one step forward one step back. And just to be clear I'm not saying this from a tribalistic point of "Niji needs to be better to be number one" but rather because these companies have been doing some really cool shit while the Niji livers have nothing of that scale.
And then you take all these things into account and get a tweet like this
NIJISANJI DIDN'T COOK SHIT, THIS IS JUST THE EQUIVALENT OF BEING SERVED PREPACKAGED FOOD AFTER WAITING AT A RESTAURANT TABLE FOR 4 HOURS. It's just so infuriating because the livers keep saying "Oh I love Nijisanji", "it's great", "my manager is so nice", "I love being here" and they really seem to love it but the problem is they don't give the fans any reason to love it too, when almost every good thing that came out of NijiEN this year has been thanks to the livers and not the company.
Knowing my luck it will be like what that one user said before and they'll probably say something about the "big thing" when all the livers come back home or in the Anime Impulse convention (which has all the niji members up to Krisis), but seeing how glacial the pace has been with news it might be even longer.
But perhaps the most discouraging thing is, I feel like I am going crazy. I don't use twitter so I don't know if the "Nijisanji black company" sentiment calmed down or not in the past few weeks but everyone seems to be looking at Nijifes and going "this what we have been waiting for" and I am just here being like "this is it?". So I want to ask to anyone who watches Niji, am I the only one who feels this way? I really want to hear some opinions, because I don't know if I am going schizo or if I am justified in feeling like this.
I don't know anymore, I am just... tired
. I love the Niji talents I watch, I really do. But when the company they belong to seems incompetent at best and uncaring at worst, and the talents leave for long periods of time just to come back and say "oops it's a secret" or "surprise! I hanged out with my coworkers" with little to no warning and with no company supported big events since the Lazulight 3D debuts it becomes really frustrating to support them wholeheartedly.
