The saga continues, but in a members community post on YT, so I can't mention details.

Instead, I'll just say that if the thing about how we're one bad day away from becoming supervillains was really true, never mind the Joker--Kronii would be Galactus by this point.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

This related to Kronii's recent travel issues? Lord. If she didn't hate traveling before, she probably does now.

>This related to Kronii's recent travel issues? Lord. If she didn't
>hate traveling before, she probably does now.

More of a sequel than a continuation, but yeah. She's still Going Through It™.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I am sort of wondering where that manager of hers is that she is usually so fond of/protective over...

>I am sort of wondering where that manager of hers is that she is
>usually so fond of/protective over...

Alas, I think a fair bit of what's been going wrong for her lately is beyond the scope of a talent manager's powers.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Kronii finally talked about this one.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-23-26 AT 10:39 AM (EDT)
 
Edit: It occurs to me I should provide links to things

Nene had blood come from her ear the other day and went deaf in both the next day, so we're all keeping an eye on THAT; She has her first live on the 29th, for extra terror! Reddit post with translated tweets. There's been no new information since this.

Also, Polka is taking the rest of July off to see to her own health, so NePoLaBo is at half strength.

Meanwhile, Cici is out for some family issues. She recently talked about moving(?) closer to her parents, so let's hope things there resolve favorably.

>Nene had blood come from her ear the other day and went deaf in both
>the next day

Holy crap!

>Meanwhile, Cici is out for some family issues. She recently talked
>about moving(?) closer to her parents, so let's hope things there
>resolve favorably.

Yeah, she was taking time off for her brother's wedding anyway, and then... developments happened. Which her manager had to vaguepost about, naturally enough, but... yeah. :/

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>Nene had blood come from her ear the other day and went deaf in both
>>the next day

> Holy crap!

So, I've been waiting/looking for any updates to this, and it looks like she had a ban on headphones for a while, but she came back to stream HoloDori on the 27th, and of course she did her first sololive, so I guess her ears are okay enough?? That's literally the only thing she's said about it since, that she wanted to play HoloDori, but had a ban on headphones. (Well, aside from Towa asking if she was alright and getting a 'there there <3' in response).

Well, that and that she had a dentist appointment but couldn't hear the drill so it wasn't as bad. Maybe she's got a personal account somewhere, but I don't know of it and nobody seems forthcoming on more information.

Ina Forge Panda collab

Ina 1/6 Figure

>Ina 1/6 Figure

MUST

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>Ina 1/6 Figure
>
>MUST

(Note the takodachi sitting on a jar of cookies. The sculptor understood the assignment. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYce1mozNRo
tl;dw:
10th year project leading up to the tenth anni
New logo
All branches merged - ID is pissed, EN is mixed
More visual updates to mems, starting with Sora
New more powerful streaming app, with much better home 3D capabilities and tracking
holo anime - JP only kekw
New unit Asobi Mawaritai, probably JP

>All branches merged - ID is pissed, EN is mixed

Kiara, for one, is really upset, and I can't say I blame her. Not only has she put a ton of work into building up and promoting a branch identity that was just summarily erased, for them to do it less than a week before EN's sixth anniversary feels like a very deliberate slap to the face.

Beyond that, it doesn't make sense creatively to me. Handwave about "unity" all COVER wants, the language realities remain, and the minority language groups can only lose out from any attempt to homogenize the product. Speaking as a veteran of similar experiences in the dotcom era, I feel like this is just about pumping the stock value by reducing backend overhead.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

There's definitely pros and cons...many more cons for some than others.

I think I heard Callie say that Cover is working on more official subs? (I may be remembering comment section on the clip....) and if so, that's good? Because they do a LOT of Japanese language unsubtitled special events - mostly hosted (and organized?) By Fubuki that only ever get seen if somebody has decided it's worth clipping, and they never do.

>Beyond that, it doesn't make sense creatively to me. Handwave about
>"unity" all COVER wants, the language realities remain, and the
>minority language groups can only lose out from any attempt to
>homogenize the product. Speaking as a veteran of similar experiences
>in the dotcom era, I feel like this is just about pumping the stock
>value by reducing backend overhead.

In a lot of ways, this feels like the inevitable end of the road that started awhile back when they built the big new production studio and started trying to put more emphasis on the idol-side of the business with more live and 3D events. Perhaps somebody who's more up to date on things can clue me in, but whatever happened to the talk about COVER building an EN studio so US and EU members didn't spend weeks/months of the year traveling to and from Japan? Given how many EN and ID members have already moved to Japan, I'm worried the next shoe to drop is an announcement that the remaining members have a choice: move to Japan or graduate.

> whatever happened to the talk about COVER building an EN studio so US
> and EU members didn't spend weeks/months of the year traveling to
> and from Japan?

The problem is, last I heard, they couldn't even fully staff their one big cutting edge studio because there simply aren't enough people who have the qualifications to run the hardware/software they use, professionally. That was a couple of years ago though...

>whatever happened to the talk about
>COVER building an EN studio so US and EU members didn't spend
>weeks/months of the year traveling to and from Japan?

Yeah, that just kind of quietly disappeared, didn't it? Same for the plan to build a North American merch operation. In fairness to COVER, that piece may have died a death as much from Fuckstick's foreign trade policies as anything else, but to my knowledge no one's ever said either way; they just stopped mentioning it.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

> Speaking as a veteran of similar experiences in the dotcom era, I feel like this is just about pumping the stock value by reducing backend overhead.

If you want to hold your head in your hands ever, you can track down Cover's periodic reports where they include questions from shareholders.

Those shareholders -really- do not understand the business.

>Those shareholders -really- do not understand the business.

They rarely do...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>All branches merged - ID is pissed, EN is mixed
>
>Kiara, for one, is really upset, and I can't say I blame her.
>Not only has she put a ton of work into building up and promoting a
>branch identity that was just summarily erased, for them to do it less
>than a week before EN's sixth anniversary feels like a very deliberate
>slap to the face.

... Annnd now she's gone on a sudden, zero-notice hiatus "to focus on her health," announced by her manager on her Twitter account.

Now, admittedly, Kiara does have some pretty well-documented health challenges,* and has been busier than a one-armed paperhanger for quite a while now. But the timing... and the abruptness... and the lack of notice... and the absence of any indication of an ETR...

... ohhhh no.

--G.
* her dance prowess is even more impressive when you keep in mind that she deals with chronic pain, for example
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

It certainly could be leading up to the Big G Word, but I kinda feel like it might be a middle-ground; if she's too upset to do a good job, I could see her going "screw it, might as well take an actual break" rather than trying to muddle through.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

>It certainly could be leading up to the Big G Word, but I kinda feel
>like it might be a middle-ground; if she's too upset to do a good job,
>I could see her going "screw it, might as well take an actual break"
>rather than trying to muddle through.

She posted a members' note to her YouTube community tab that was worded less ominously than the management tweet (and in her own "voice", as it were), so I'm easing down from DEFCON 2 for the moment. Can't quote it because members, but she's doing some fun stuff and plans to be back on the air next week.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Considering she just got massively snubbed after years of work, I wouldn't be surprised if she quits/graduates out of sheer spite.

Also, the fact that this 'new era of inclusiveness' for Hololive also comes with an anime that features nothing but the JP talents?

I personally got a feeling that Hololive is just trying to quietly eat the English talents and do away with the whole concept of an english side. After Gura went from 'absolute most popular' to 'sudden quit' some idiot in command probably went 'Hololive EN is dead, kill it as quietly as possible' and that sure looks like what's happening here.

> Also, the fact that this 'new era of inclusiveness' for
> Hololive also comes with an anime that features nothing but
> the JP talents?

Being fair, the anime has probably been in in the works for well over a year, longer than the merger has, and Cover almost certainly has minimal control over it because anime is created by production committees.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-10-26 AT 10:00 AM (EDT)
 
She's actually been quite open about her declining/fluctuating health, and she had (openly) planned to take a break in October to begin with.

The stress of all this couldn't have helped the bullshit she's going through (short form that I saw; she got hurt in PE many years ago, has had pain ever since, doctors were of course useless, one basically/literally/paraphrasing saying 'Are you imagining it?', eventually she got a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, which is Doctor Speak for 'You hurt but we don't know why, lol', eventually, with her chats pushing, she finally managed to get an MRI and lo and behold, it turns out that she probably got a serious back injury from that PE incident all those years ago).

Anyway, the scheduling of the break seemed quite suspect, but it's just early.