Nijisanji: The Live Online Meltdown of a Billion-dollar Talent Company (Summary)

In December 2023, a top-billing, multi-million dollar internet talent completes her greatest, year-long work. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent, with many people involved – and surely those payment delays mean nothing, and her agency will process it all soon and reimburse her and all her subcontractors. 

Hours after the release of the project, her multi-billion-dollar agency vetoes it, stating it was not fully authorised. A technicality, perhaps invented on the spot. It’s been allowed before, for other talents. Not a day later, she attempts to take her own life. Shortly after recovering, she attempts a second time.

Under medical protection law, the agency cannot contact her, and the family is too distressed. In January 2024, She hires an independent lawyer to speak for her. The agency’s lawyers, receiving this legally private correspondence from a fellow lawyer, somehow interprets this stranger’s knowledge as a violation of her public non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and immediately fires her without notice, revoking all rights and deleting all assets and accounts, owned and owed.

In a stockholder statement, the agency comments with only one sentence: This is a negligible loss. In response, their stock price plummets, and several merchandise producers withdraw their products. Stakeholders question the paradox of declaring their most valuable Western asset, worthless.

Later, in February 2024, a strange, black statement is read out by several agency talents instead of management. They state that they – the talents – were given this legal correspondence to study, and interpreted it as a privacy violation. Under privacy laws, showing any legal message to anyone who is not the targeted recipient may be considered a federal crime. The company quickly states that no crime has occurred. The CEO appears shortly after, making only general comments on stock, management and mental health.

Everything appears to be on fire, and despite having no relation, even I cannot look away so easily.

This is a story about Vtubers, and the second-largest talent agency in this world, acting with what appears to be absolutely no financial and legal advice, nor respect for human life.

This is a story that exists on the internet, about performers with stage names. It exists on social media, whispered in quick NDA-dodging utterances made in hours-long shows, watched and noted by a legion of fans.

This is a story that I, quite simply, did not want to write about, or even hear. But like my report on LK-99, the severity and difficulty of tracking social media and videos, for the sake of record-keeping and catching-up for future readers, made this eventually feel like a necessity.

1. What is a Vtuber? For one who knows nothing.
2. A Rough History of Common Criticism
3. Interpretations of the Unsaid
4. Potential effects on the Vtuber Industry
5. Why I Write
6. References

What is a Vtuber? For one who knows nothing.

A “Vee Tuber” is simply a type of internet personality. Using a stage name, a cartoon character is puppeteered in real time – much like Jim Henson’s Muppets and their Actors in the 80s. To embody them fully in mind and soul, the line between Muppet or Avatar, and the Actor is strongly blurred. That concept has re-emerged in digital form, as live entertainment on YouTube. 

It’s like Elmo’s World, except that this isn’t for children. No one thinks about or even knows Kevin Clash’s name, and yet he was inseparable from Elmo’s identity, years after departure. In Vtuber culture, this link is much stronger – to lose the actor is to also lose the puppet permanently, and a replacement actor is unacceptable. 

An emphasis on stage names is also extremely strong. Stage names are things that can be trademarked, so when one leaves a company, they need to take a new stage name, and NDAs prevent them from mentioning any of their employment history or old name. Among fans, however, this is treated as an open secret.

This world has existed for half a decade, and I was one of the first ones, back when it was only a bedroom project. It has since become more organised, with talent agencies forming for better relations – it has now turned into a unique juxtaposition of anime merchandising culture, roleplay, and live shows. It’s now a multi-billion dollar industry, and Nijisanji is the second largest, worth several billion US dollars alone.

However, it is upsetting to me, I hope you understand, for me to normally delve into this subject. I, myself, aimed for the moon and did not land among the stars, and have wanted to end things many times. My connection now feels very weak, but a prevailing sense of justice seems to have possessed me, and I want to record what I have understood so far.

So, I will note that I am much like you, dear reader, being someone entirely outside the corporate space.

A Rough History of Common Criticism

Despite being the second-largest Vtuber corporation in the world,  Nijisanji’s history appears to be rife with claims of poor management skills, and extreme possessiveness, leading to even top-billing talents leaving over time.

For example, despite not being engaged in the voice acting industry, and thus there being no competition, a professional voice actor shares that across several Vtuber agencies, he was asked to end his career or sign over his voice rights before signing a contract. There was no discussion of a transfer of managers, but a request to simply end it, with no options provided. 

Something that also seems to be mentioned often is that many creative projects among many of the agency talents are constantly vetoed or denied, month after month, with no negotiation allowed. Another top-billing talent had left the year earlier, citing creative frustration and denied an extremely lucrative project. In addition, there is also an indirect implication that the company retains all physical awards that are rewarded to talents.

An oft-repeated claim I have found is that when expanding into the Western hemisphere, Nijisanji specifically does not require managers with fluent English language experience, with many job listings at minimum wage. Instead, there is a belief among fans that any available multilingual talents are asked to read out or translate documents, and attend management meetings with them.

Finally, there are also many claims of a lack of financial management and general management. For this incident alone, many of the subcontractors have come forward, saying that they have not been paid – and in some cases, repeatedly received NDAs that were not written properly, thus rendered void.

In one worst case, for one top-billing talent that has since left, there is an implication that Nijisanji never filed any of their income taxes, or did them so poorly that they now owe a six-figure US dollar sum in unpaid taxes – significantly more than their actual income.

This is really only the tip of the iceberg, but the implications seem to be terrifying.

Interpretations of the Unsaid

What makes this summary difficult compared to my previous article is that not only is much of it hearsay, but a large amount of it is probably restricted by non-disclosure agreements. Because of that, there is an inherent amount of unreliability here, as fans try to interpret what was left unsaid. If you know enough about a situation, then through the process of elimination, you can deduce the unspoken message.

It’s never possible to be 100% sure, and relying on this too hard delves into a dangerous mode of thinking. But that seems to be how the fans of the corporate Vtuber world works.

For example, under the new stage name, she is happy to receive her physical YouTube reward for the first time. Alone, no association has been made with her previous identity under NDA. For those “in the know”, they wonder about the previous reward she should already have, and find a series of oddly sterile photos of all past rewards in the agency’s history. 

There is also the question of the NDA termination. Under the laws of many countries, both medical and legal professionals are sworn to protect any private information their clients provide, and lawyer-to-lawyer correspondence, or HR correspondence, is strictly confidential.

While I’m not a lawyer, this arguably can supersede an NDA – not to mention that legal exceptions to NDAs can and do exist to prevent the suppression of workplace harassment. Whether it’s Japan’s APPI, Canada’s PIPEDA, or the United States’ HIPAA, this delves into a territory that is far outside my comfort zone.

There is also the complete lack of logic of the black message. Why was a legal correspondence shown to a talent, who is not HR or a lawyer? Why make it as public as possible? Why did it just coincidentally occur during her first return show? This is what you expect from an individual representing themselves poorly, not a billion dollar corporation.

And why, after the events of the strange black message, did so many accounts go silent? Why was it read that way? The strange tone of voice, and prior knowledge about the reader’s living situation, has terrifying implications for the personal safety of the agency talents still contractually bound.

These questions may never be answered. As I write this, this latest part occurred only a couple days ago. Speculation is rife.

Potential effects on the Vtuber Industry

Despite its current size, the idea of what exactly a Vtuber is and what they do has not really exited its own self-contained sphere very far, but at this point, several journalists, general YouTube commentators, and legal commentators are now reporting on this incident. 

The fact that this is occurring on the world’s second largest Vtuber corporation means that the knock-on effects could be extremely devastating to the level of trust of any kind of future Vtuber-focused agency, or managing group. What kind of contractual restrictions did they have? How often did talents perform tasks outside of their job duties? 

Why is there simply… no mention of the elephant in the room: The two life attempts? 

How has anything in this community ever gotten that far?

That’s part of why I can’t seem to ignore it, despite the fact that I have zero connection to the corporate space. That’s part of why no one else seems to be able to.

And after all this, with the power of time and forgetfulness, there is another question that will still linger:

How do we prevent this from happening, ever again?

Perhaps it is outside of my ability to know.

Why I Write

Because of that, being who I am and what I’ve accomplished so far, I feel a need to do the one thing that I seem to be good at, which is summarise these seemingly complicated events and prepare them for you, one who may not know anything at all.

On this site, I have a series of guides that I frame in a hopeful sense, for an aspiring creative. Many of my videos are also like that. I never wished to include a cautionary tale, or horrific story.

“Go forth, and create! Do what I cannot!” Is what I want to say.

And because of that, I hated writing this article. I do not wish for it to exist, and will say no more.

※ Most, if not all of this information would not have been possible if it weren’t for the actual dedicated fans collecting disparate notes, which is heavily used for reference. My place is mainly to create a publicly-accessible reading of the events.

---

References

(Added 2024-02-18)

The fan compilation is what this article is based on, but as time goes on, speculation makes everything more muddled. Even in this, the list contains many third-party comments. For reference, here are only the key statements from the main parties so far, in chronological order:

• Dec 25, 2023: Deleted talent account apologises for song cancellation.
• Dec 27, 2023: Deleted talent account announces hospitalisation.
• Feb 5 2024 (written generally as Jan 2024 above):
  1. All accounts and assets are abruptly deleted and the unilateral contract termination is announced, citing NDA violations and denying accusations of harassment.
  2. Talent responds shortly after on her old account, indicates normal contract closure was still under discussion.
• Feb 7 2024
  • Company stockholder statement assures the financial impact of the event is “negligible”.
• Feb 13 2024:
  1. Talent begins comeback stream.
  2. Black message is simultaneously published on the same minute. The three talents in the video report they “thoroughly” studied the messages. The talent ends the stream to contact legal counsel.
  3. Talent makes statement on privacy violation.
  4. Company social media makes statement that no violation has occured.
  5. CEO makes video statement in English, apologises for use of word “negligible”. Makes statement on improving management and mental health.
• Feb 14 2024
  • Talent makes full statement: States that company has been ignoring her requests to end contract, then terminated immediately (<2 hrs) without notice when sending a detailed complaint.