I’ve got a Niji-related question. Is it just me or does it seem like the talents are able to mention the word Taiwan freely without any fear from the mainland anti’s nowadays? Noticed in the past weekend Enna was able to talk about her recent fanmeet there when I’ve noticed like a year or so back some NijiEN members were seemingly careful to not mention Taiwan when they encounter situations like akasupas. Any ideas
@soap suds?
I think I have said this before but the Taiwan thing was never about the word itself. I genuinely think the chinks just use it as a casus belli whenever it benefits them and selectively choose to turn it into a drama fest without rhyme or reason.
We need some historical context for this so bear with me: It is no secret that Holo made a lot of its early fame off of the back of the chinese fanbase and chinese games like Azur Lane, it could be said that after the japanese the chinese were the first adopters of Hololive overseas. That meant there were a sizeable amount of Hololive fans that were chinese and wanted Holo to pander more to them, which it did by creating HoloCN and adopting the fan-made and fan-run Bili Holo channels and having some members stream there, where they got millions of subs and views.
Fast-forward to 2020, Holo (and vtubing as a whole) are becoming popular with western audiences. At the very start of the year Holo hires Kiryu Coco, an english-speaking, rule-breaking, boundary-pushing member whom becomes one of the most popular and sort of opens the door for more EN fans to flood into Hololive. I can't say for sure but I do think the chinese started feeling threatened by this, their strictly asian idoru agency was being commandeered by this half-breed and there were even rumors that she was the one pushing for an EN branch. Holo as a whole only became more EN friendly during 2020 and this meant that they needed to be taught a lesson, to be made to choose where their allegiances lied.
So yeah HoloEN debuts, it's a massive success and the worst future seems to be coming to pass. But then, the perfect storm of consequence comes to the chinks, Coco and Haato, the only two members who speak english, have given them a perfect way to put Holo over the coals. Obviously they completely fucked up and got themselves exiled from Hololive forever.
This may seem like a huge rrat (and it is) but it has always seemed weird to me how antis focused on Coco specifically, leaving haato as more of an aside for the most part. They even went after Fubuki for supporting Coco. It has always been my belief that the chinks didn't really care about the word, much like the unicorns of today with tempus, it was just an attempt to make Holo bow to them and to take control over the agency by throwing their weight around. Niji doesn't get punished because the chinks never had as deep a connection with Niji since it isn't idolshit and Niji has never changed its content or pivoted.
Coco personified Holo's (perceived) change so they made her their target, but I think the Taiwan drama was much more than just a word and it was fueled by much more than just patriotism.
HOLY SHIT. I can't even remember the last time Gura and Bae were in the same call. This legitimately feels odd.
Now that I think of it, has gura EVER been in the same stream as Advent?