LAST EDITED ON Mar-28-25 AT 04:09 AM (EDT)
 
:(

(Edit to the topic, because it's the 27th in America, 28th in japan)

Well, shit.

--G.
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I haven't watched the announcement, but I presume it's largely health and her non-streaming activities cutting too far into things and she just doesn't feel right staying on constant hiatus.

Here's her announcement since I neglected to post it before.

>I haven't watched the announcement, but I presume it's largely health
>and her non-streaming activities cutting too far into things and she
>just doesn't feel right staying on constant hiatus.

Nobody would blame her if she took a year off to recuperate. Ao is on indefinite hiatus and Gura's streaming schedule is "LOL," so it's not like it's unheard of for Holomems to just disappear for a bit to heal up or deal with life.

Feels bad, man. :(

People's brains can play mean tricks on them. I wouldn't be too surprised if, on top of the obvious physical issue, Mumei is suffering some cousin of Imposter Syndrome where any Holomem except her is allowed to take an extended/indefinite hiatus. She spent half the announcement apologising to us for not doing more, as if anyone could ask that of her.

>People's brains can play mean tricks on them. I wouldn't be too
>surprised if, on top of the obvious physical issue, Mumei is suffering
>some cousin of Imposter Syndrome where any Holomem except her
>is allowed to take an extended/indefinite hiatus. She spent half the
>announcement apologising to us for not doing more, as if anyone could
>ask that of her.

In the course of a short and painful chat stream just now, Bae noted that she'd talked Mumei out of leaving a couple of times over the past year, and she was clearly very upset that she hadn't managed it this time. :/

--G.
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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.

>In the course of a short and painful chat stream just now, Bae noted
>that she'd talked Mumei out of leaving a couple of times over the past
>year, and she was clearly very upset that she hadn't managed it this
>time. :/

Yeah, caught a clip of my fave chunni rat and it's hard to watch her like this. I'm not sure I even remember her being this broke up when Fauna graduated and that was only a couple months ago. It's pretty clear that the company's emphasis on close ties with your genmates has a downside that when they leave it's almost like losing a family member.

Kronii also commented and the way she was characterizing it made me think of office coworkers who've become good friends outside of work hours having to deal with one leaving to pursue work elsewhere. They'll still be good friends and still communicate outside of work hours, but not seeing them at their desk or in the lunch room every day is gonna be hard going forward.

>>In the course of a short and painful chat stream just now, Bae noted
>>that she'd talked Mumei out of leaving a couple of times over the past
>>year, and she was clearly very upset that she hadn't managed it this
>>time. :/
>
>Yeah, caught a clip of my fave chunni rat and it's hard to watch her
>like this. I'm not sure I even remember her being this broke up when
>Fauna graduated and that was only a couple months ago.

I've been thinking about this off and on for the last few days, and I think Mumei's graduation is probably a lot more traumatic for everyone involved. Where Fauna left the company, largely over a disagreement with management--what breaking-up bands always calls "creative differences"--but remains in the industry, Mumei's evidently giving up vtubing altogether, having reached the conclusion that she physically can't go on. That lands differently to me, and I expect it's even more wrenching to her close colleagues. Something like a sports teammate suffering a career-ending injury vs. one who's still playing, just in a different league.

--G.
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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-03-25 AT 08:02 PM (EDT)
 
I was saying something similar to this in youtube comments; Mumei strikes me as a lifer. She wouldn’t be leaving if there wasn’t something she feels is completely irreconcilable - her health in this case. Unlike the others (Barring Sana), I don’t think we’ll be seeing her again except for very rare cryptic-like sightings. At least, not until she’s fully healed, which I’m going to guess at being a year or two out.

They’ll still talk of course, but there won’t be the same connection, and they’ll probably drift apart...it’s just a much sadder outcome than Fauna, or Pomu, or Selen, or Nima, or Ame.

>I've been thinking about this off and on for the last few days, and I
>think Mumei's graduation is probably a lot more traumatic for everyone
>involved. Where Fauna left the company, largely over a disagreement
>with management--what breaking-up bands always calls "creative
>differences"--but remains in the industry, Mumei's evidently giving up
>vtubing altogether, having reached the conclusion that she physically
>can't go on. That lands differently to me, and I expect it's even
>more wrenching to her close colleagues. Something like a sports
>teammate suffering a career-ending injury vs. one who's still playing,
>just in a different league.

In that context, Bae's admission that she's talked Mumei out of graduating several times and is beating up herself for failing to do so this time hits harder. When Ame and Fauna announced their graduations, you heard things like "I understand her decision" or "I get where she's coming from, but..." Here, it's like a close friend announcing a terminal illness and wanting to spend time with friends before the end. It's easy to imagine that Bae is asking herself if there was anything she could have said, anything she could have done, in the past few months that would have avoided this outcome.

*sigh* Life just sucks sometimes.

>>I've been thinking about this off and on for the last few days, and I
>>think Mumei's graduation is probably a lot more traumatic for everyone
>>involved. Where Fauna left the company, largely over a disagreement
>>with management--what breaking-up bands always calls "creative
>>differences"--but remains in the industry, Mumei's evidently giving up
>>vtubing altogether, having reached the conclusion that she physically
>>can't go on. That lands differently to me, and I expect it's even
>>more wrenching to her close colleagues. Something like a sports
>>teammate suffering a career-ending injury vs. one who's still playing,
>>just in a different league.
>
>In that context, Bae's admission that she's talked Mumei out of
>graduating several times and is beating up herself for failing to do
>so this time hits harder. When Ame and Fauna announced their
>graduations, you heard things like "I understand her decision" or "I
>get where she's coming from, but..." Here, it's like a close friend
>announcing a terminal illness and wanting to spend time with friends
>before the end. It's easy to imagine that Bae is asking herself if
>there was anything she could have said, anything she could have done,
>in the past few months that would have avoided this outcome.
>
>*sigh* Life just sucks sometimes.

Bae and Mumei were also best friends and talked daily. If she looks more broken up about it than other graduations it's because they were legitimately closer.

>>I haven't watched the announcement, but I presume it's largely health
>>and her non-streaming activities cutting too far into things and she
>>just doesn't feel right staying on constant hiatus.
>
>Nobody would blame her if she took a year off to recuperate. Ao is on
>indefinite hiatus and Gura's streaming schedule is "LOL," so it's not
>like it's unheard of for Holomems to just disappear for a bit to heal
>up or deal with life.
>
>Feels bad, man. :(

For that matter, Ayame's schedule has been "I dunno lol" for like two and a half years.

Official account

My membership renewed for the last time today. Feels bad, man.

The canned message when I canceled was rough too. "Mumei is sad to see you go, but you can come back any time." That's my line this time, YouTube. Bite me.

The list of expired memberships at the bottom of that page is just going to keep getting slowly longer over time...

Who should get Mumei's five bucks going forward? Unfair question, I know; you don't know who else I've already joined; but even so.

--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.

>The list of expired memberships at the bottom of that page is just
>going to keep getting slowly longer over time...

For me, it was getting a gift membership to Fauna's channel given out during her graduation announcement. I really appreciated the thought, but it still stings a bit.

>Who should get Mumei's five bucks going forward? Unfair question, I
>know; you don't know who else I've already joined; but even so.

My vote is always going to be Ceci- I'm still amazed that she's got the lowest subs of the Justice girls considering how creative and funny she is. Besides, being an Otomo is great! We're made of potatoes and bombs!*

*elaboration coming at a later date
"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Given that I'm pretty sure Mumei's flesh woman studies/studied marine biology, you could donate to an ocean conservation society or take out an annual membership at a local aquarium? (The Vancouver Aquarium might have warped my sense of how much science and conservation aquariums generally do.)

*sigh*

I'm really gonna miss watching these two dorks collab together.

I'm sad that I missed Mumei's Q&A stream. I wanted to ask if the more serious double meaning to her name was deliberate.

To explain: Anyone who's listened to her most famous song knows that "mumei" means "nameless" (anonymous, insignificant, forgettable), and the first translation I ever saw for "nanashi" was "nobody" (with the same implications). Each individually reflects her in-lore history of being repeatedly forgotten by history, and there's of course the owl joke ("Who who?"). But "nobody nameless" can also be read as a statement of intent: even if a civilization is utterly erased, leaving no trace of itself, she will, on some level, remember.

Sometimes, Life Is a Little Too On the Nose dep't:

I have a calendar hanging on the inside of the door to the kitchen cabinet where the plates and stuff are kept. This is because the previous owner of the house hung the free calendar from the heating oil company in there, and I've just kept doing the same.

Because it's hidden inside the cabinet most the time, I often forget to change it until partway into the month, and this month is no exception. I just had the cabinet open and remembered I hadn't updated it yet.

Said company's calendars always feature nature photography and such-like scenic pictures from around the state, contributed by employees.

April's this year is a nice photo...

... of an owl.

--G.
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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.

Also, she's playing Minecraft with Haachama right now and it's so freaking cute, I can't even

--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.

"If someone put you in a box, I would kill for you."

I'm watching her last livestream (tomorrow's graduation stream is prerecorded), and it's so surreal. I never thought about it consciously, but now I feel like part of me believed she'd be the one to turn out the lights just before they set off the demo charges, like JMS's cameo at the end of Babylon 5.

--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.

Right? Of all of the EN girls, or at least all of Council/Promise, Mumei felt most like the Lifer. I wish she didn’t feel like she had to leave rather than go on hiatus and recover, but, her circumstances are her circumstances.

>Right? Of all of the EN girls, or at least all of Council/Promise,
>Mumei felt most like the Lifer. I wish she didn’t feel like she had
>to leave rather than go on hiatus and recover, but, her circumstances
>are her circumstances.

I really can't agree. She's been absent/streaming the least out of the gen, especially this past year. With school finally being done, she was basically on a timer, this has been kind of expected. She's also not leaving solely due to health, it's management, as well as change in desires/personal reasons. When she quits, she said she intends to sell her camera equipment and some of her phones.

The lifer in Promise at this point is IRyS. Kronii's had one foot out the door forever and Bae revealed she has a goal list and when that list is done, she's likely done also.

She got sick a year ago, and has been dealing with the cough since then, 'management' is code for 'I don't want to explain further', and yes, I suspect being out of town for months with her pet(s) is horribly disruptive, but she loves singing, and she's outright said that while she expects she'll be back now and then *eventually*, she's going to be focusing on healing. This isn't going to be a KSon type thing where she turns around and goes "I'm back, bitches".

If you're talking about Kronii still doing things under (redacted), so has Callie, so has Kiara, Noel has never stopped doing her non-vtuber *things* (if you know you know)...

>She got sick a year ago, and has been dealing with the cough since
>then, 'management' is code for 'I don't want to explain further', and
>yes, I suspect being out of town for months with her pet(s) is
>horribly disruptive, but she loves singing, and she's outright said
>that while she expects she'll be back now and then *eventually*, she's
>going to be focusing on healing. This isn't going to be a KSon type
>thing where she turns around and goes "I'm back, bitches".
>
>If you're talking about Kronii still doing things under (redacted), so
>has Callie, so has Kiara, Noel has never stopped doing her non-vtuber
>*things* (if you know you know)...

Management is literally not code in this case, it's a valid part of it. I'm not sure what you're responding to here, anyway. She's done with streaming, period. It's not (just) health based or else she'd get better and then come back like Chloe just did. She'll go back to content creation as a hobby while doing a real job using her degree that she can talk about with normal people.

No, I'm talking about Kronii also being in the bottom of the streaming hours over the past year, dealing with channel growth problems, and so on. She DOESN'T have roommate activities, that's the one thing in the column keeping her in. She also can't do anything unlike the others because it's vtubing/pngtubing, which 99% of holomems can't do under contract.

"real job" and "normal people" are a tad bit harsh, don't you think?

--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.

>"real job" and "normal people" are a tad bit harsh, don't you think?
>
>--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.

Yeah, all right. "Traditional job" and "random people and pushy family members"?

Kronii just did a watchalong with Namie a week and a half ago, an interview with game8 about her voice acting activities in October of 2023 (with a pngtuber), and played a game with a couple of people in 2022 with her discord avatar/png. (What I could find with a quick YouTube search).

>Kronii just did a watchalong with Namie a week and a half ago, an
>interview with game8 about her voice acting activities in October of
>2023 (with a pngtuber), and played a game with a couple of people in
>2022 with her discord avatar/png. (What I could find with a quick
>YouTube search).

I...yes? She guested on Namie's channel. She's done basically fuck all for the past couple years outside of the occasional song cover. (If anything she's slowly been hanging out less with her pre-holo group.) She's my oshi, I keep track. Unfortunately her voice acting career isn't exactly taking off. =/

LAST EDITED ON May-07-25 AT 09:30 AM (EDT)
 
I don't agree with Spectrum's attempts to read the entrails of various Holomems' streaming activities, but the fact that Mumei was pursuing post-secondary education in an unrelated field rather prevented me from seeing her as a lifer. Especially compared to Bae's near-obsessive dedication to The Craft.

I mean, I'd've been down for Mumei becoming the second coming of The Octopus Lady, but I don't think HoloPro would've agreed.

EDIT: It's not the having, it's the getting: I knew about Bae's pharmacy certification, but thought she already had it before debut?

Just learned that, among others, Fauna majored in biology and minor education in physics, Jurard I believe has like three masters degrees, and...Maria Maionette I think they said? Graduated high school at fifteen and has a bachelor's?

>Just learned that, among others, Fauna majored in biology and minor
>education in physics, Jurard I believe has like three masters degrees,
>and...Maria Maionette I think they said? Graduated high school at
>fifteen and has a bachelor's?

Shinri has two postgrad degrees and was licensed to practice law (presumably a Master's and a JD).

>>Just learned that, among others, Fauna majored in biology and minor
>>education in physics, Jurard I believe has like three masters degrees,
>>and...Maria Maionette I think they said? Graduated high school at
>>fifteen and has a bachelor's?
>
>Shinri has two postgrad degrees and was licensed to practice law
>(presumably a Master's and a JD).

Bae mentioned once that she is (or has been? may not be current) a licensed pharmacy technician in Australia.

--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.

LAST EDITED ON May-03-25 AT 04:06 AM (EDT)
 
So it seems that going to school in entirely unrelated fields isn't a problem for vtuber life.

Edit: come to that, isn't it Pekora who had the license to teach elementary school? ...was that Mel? Choco?

>Edit: come to that, isn't it Pekora who had the license to teach
>elementary school? ...was that Mel? Choco?

Subaru, I think.

--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.

LAST EDITED ON May-03-25 AT 10:25 AM (EDT)
 
....yeah that tracks. She’s the most ‘Adult supervision’-y one between gen 2 and.....she’s the most ‘Adult supervision’ since gen 2. Her infamous sausage king streams aside, she’s basically riding herd on an entire ass preschool.

....sometimes literally when they do those kindergarten roleplays.

>....yeah that tracks. She’s the most ‘Adult supervision’-y one
>between gen 2 and.....she’s the most ‘Adult supervision’ since
>gen 2. Her infamous sausage king streams aside, she’s basically
>riding herd on an entire ass preschool.

There's a compilation clip floating around out there of various .jp members reacting to an earthquake alert that dropped while they were streaming. Shuba instantly switches into kindergarten teacher mode and starts clearly relaying helpful advice in That Tone of Voice. It's really quite impressive.

--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.

>Edit: come to that, isn't it Pekora who had the license to teach
>elementary school? ...was that Mel? Choco?

I know indy VTuber Arielle has a master's in education.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

>>Edit: come to that, isn't it Pekora who had the license to teach
>>elementary school? ...was that Mel? Choco?
>
>I know indy VTuber Arielle has a master's in education.

Projekt Melody's studying to be an actual sex therapist. Sounds like an obvious joke, but it's not. She's very serious about sexual health and education.

--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.

>Projekt Melody's studying to be an actual sex therapist. Sounds like
>an obvious joke, but it's not. She's very serious about sexual health
>and education.

Even saying that almost feels like selling her short; going by things I remember other VShojo members saying, she's a ready source of information and good advice on a wide range of topics.

-IA.

(received information not interpretable)

>>Projekt Melody's studying to be an actual sex therapist. Sounds like
>>an obvious joke, but it's not. She's very serious about sexual health
>>and education.
>
>Even saying that almost feels like selling her short; going by things
>I remember other VShojo members saying, she's a ready source of
>information and good advice on a wide range of topics.

True. She is a curious combination of goober and oracle. I feel like she'd be that one friend who comes across as a total dingbat, and yet when you stop and think about it you realize she's the most reliable person you know.

--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.

>>>Projekt Melody's studying to be an actual sex therapist. Sounds like
>>>an obvious joke, but it's not. She's very serious about sexual health
>>>and education.
>>
>>Even saying that almost feels like selling her short; going by things
>>I remember other VShojo members saying, she's a ready source of
>>information and good advice on a wide range of topics.
>
>True. She is a curious combination of goober and oracle. I feel like
>she'd be that one friend who comes across as a total dingbat, and yet
>when you stop and think about it you realize she's the most reliable
>person you know.

It really does seem so, especially when you remember that according to Justin "Gunrun" Ignacio, nominal head of VShojo, she approached him about creating the agency (originally for adult content creators), and there's a persistant story that even though she's officially stepped down from any position at the company, she's still very involved in it as an advisor.

Admittedly, she does sometimes go total dingbat, as seen in the deeply, deeply funny incident when she was late for a Lethal DaddyCompany collab because of stream times overlapping.

"Why do you sound so sus dayo?"

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

>So it seems that going to school in entirely unrelated fields isn't a
>problem for vtuber life.
>
>Edit: come to that, isn't it Pekora who had the license to teach
>elementary school? ...was that Mel? Choco?

Pekora is licensed to teach kindergarten.

Graduation Stream