So yeah, it's pretty much what it says on the tin, our Garlic Witch is graduating after entertaining us for seven years. The official date has been set as April 26th and (as of right now) she will not be following Ame and Chloe in becoming an affiliate.

The announcement comes after a year long hiatus for health reasons as well as remarks from Shion herself about ongoing mental and physical issues including disagreements with her family about making vtubing her career. In response to the sudden announcement as well as continued criticism about talents graduating due to disagreements with the company about its direction, Yagoo has put out an official statement acknowledging the changing nature of Hololive and trying to assure fans that they were working on new events and activities that allow talents to contribute to the company in ways that they're comfortable with.

As the countdown to Apr 26th begins, let us wish Shion well and hope she finds the future that she wants going forward.

I've seen it guessed that this is why Yagoo is doing the tea parties now, so he can talk directly to the talents unfiltered by management.

In this case however, it sounds like it's less a problem with the company and more Shion's family and her overall mental and physical health. Cover has historically been extremely permissive with extended hiatuses - Haachama was out for like eight months, Ayame has always had a schedule that's spotty at best, Gura's been in and out for over a year...Shion herself has been pretty much gone for a year now, as you said - I *had* wondered why she was so hidden in the last big holoscramble video.