How the Abuse Of TOP China's Vtuber Caused a Meltdown: The A-SOUL Scandal

[@rimaevenstar]

Hey guys, sorry there is a few issues with the video. 1 my model tracking wasn't set up properly during recording so it's looking sideways and 2. the KZbin Cute Squad list didn't import properly due to editing software issues. I apologize for these errors. I hope the video will be enjoyable nonetheless..

[@kweassa6204]

you have a cute side profile, so it's ok

[@Brainfryde]

Silly nine tailed fox, just see you verifying facts while feeding us the truth; no side eye for the cloppers or the antis 🐴🐎. Did not see the YT Cute Squad, normal or fuzzy. Maybe I have take one too many kicks to head? As for the story here, no surprises to be had. China lies about the leeks, and they are harvested with less care than fish have for air pollution. We see this in Nijisanji as well; a Japanese company in name only, being formed of the failed Chinese streaming corp executives. A-Soul was likely more of a wish the employees had for the executives to find in themselves. The only surprise here is that "Carol" lived in the end instead of disappearing for her failure of protecting the company and CCP interests. Glad you brought your intelligent light as always to this story, madame Kitsune

It is still enjoyable (aside form the subject matter and that is not enjoyable, of course). Do not worry. ^w^)/b You, the person behind the model that is narrating the video is most important. Heck: I think the slight scuff might even make it even more enjoyable. ^^

[@daniel4647]

Didn't even notice.

[@SimoneBellomonte]

Pfp (Profile Picture) Source (Link to full Image and Artists Names?) 🗿

[@Kekvomit]

Damn, 99.5% of the donation money not even going to the Vtuber is insane.

[@apple_dragon226]

that's more then what the talents get under nijisanji

[@marakevans3984]

Scientifically, note that these companies are... Exponentially... Negative. Get it? Nijisanji: 2*10^-2 A-SOUL:5*10^-3 Eh? I'll see myself out.

[@aterriblefuze9540]

Ain’t Niji lower?

[@assaulthetz]

@@apple_dragon226 2% vs 5%?

[@Daivd1111]

With Vtuber, the company has all the power, unless you are a pre-established indie, you are just a nobody, if you don't do it, others will take your job, sad, but it is how it is.

[@mythiccass3837]

While a black vtuber company is no surprise, it's interesting to see how Chinese vtuber fans approached a situation not too different to Selen Tatsuki's case. Too often people are quick to dismiss Chinese fans based on how Kiryu Coco was treated, but here we see Chinese fans concerned for the person behind the Carol persona, resisting the corporate messages obviously meant to reject criticism, & even supporting Carol's success as loyal fans post-vtuber.

[@dcscruz2970]

For me Coco whole bullying was all thanks to the Chinese branch most being CN nationalists. Perhaps in some alternate universe timeline the girls weren’t ones and things would’ve gone better. And Coco would’ve graduated a bit later and the branch would still be up

[@CJODell12]

@@dcscruz2970 Artia was the main backstabber egging on her fans to harass Coco.

[@kuronoch.1441]

Reminder that Bilibili wanted Asoul to take Hololive's market share in China when it instigated the Kiryu Coco incident.

[@lucasLSD]

@@kuronoch.1441 Bilibili is just a platform, it didn't instigate shit, they even worked with hololive this year for Kobo to make a stream there.

[@dewaeryadi7776]

this is why hololive want to return to china, their fanbase, "real fans" are huge there

[@wolfan20]

If nijisanji is an abusive place for the talents, this company was a hell hole.

[@ngruiying1311]

I thought Nisanji was shit

[@maxwellpeter5955]

Almost made nijisanji innocent....almost

[@Eniscen]

Vtuber companies are too stupid to understand that the Talents/Idols are the Lifeline of the company. The fans don't care about the company they care about the talents. And if they treat them badly the company suffers. There's zero loyalty to the company. That's why Nijisanji fell off hard, they let their talents PvP themselves.

[@EricWulfe]

its 2024, and there are still idiots. guess stupidity is truly incurable

[@sbatou87]

Not all, but many.

[@kuronoch.1441]

Reminder that this company is what Bilibili had in mind when it instigated the Kiryu Coco incident in order to remove Hololive from the competition within China.

[@MTVirus]

LOL and years later bilibili beg Hololive to come back, because of how unsuccessful their Vtubing in their own country.

[@ryana5435]

@@MTVirus source?

[@ryana5435]

@@MTVirus China’s vtubing on various platforms are kinda successful

[@MTVirus]

@@ryana5435 Just go google hololive bilibili, there were talks about getting hololive back to China and this is not coming from hololive itself but bilibili

[@MTVirus]

@@ryana5435 Yeah but mostly their own people watching, they want foreigner viewer, but they couldn't get as most people avoid them.

[@mustardstain]

Whoa, I came across some translated clips from this group and I've always wanted to know more about them. Thanks a lot for the video, Rima! The Chinese VTuber scene is still a mystery to many of us.

[@ryana5435]

Are there translated clips on KZbin. I mean westerners just don’t care about Chinese vtubing scenes. Looking at those prejudiced ignorant comments here

[@HyliaDina]

Nice Pfp :D

[@pierredelapotterie5996]

It's really unfortunate these black companies are all over the place, thanks for shedding a light over it!

[@sbatou87]

Around the 27 or 28 minute mark, people forget that the talents are NOT part of Yuehua Entertainment's PR team. Due to the company not being clear with its fans multiple times, and not understanding that the fans care about the treatment (physical, mental, and financial) of the talents, what did the company expect? To just take the company's statements at face value?

[@Speed001]

26:38

[@williansnobre]

That Diana reacting to the donation was precious, even if it is bittersweet to know that the fan's appreciation would only reach her as a gesture since the greedy company would take most of the donation itself.

[@Professional_Lozer]

can we get one vtuber who doesn’t get bullied…

[@2Scarhand]

...FOR 5 MINUTES?!

[@IPutFishInAWashingMachine]

Vtubers are cringe so no

[@noubu2794]

We need fans who don’t harass vtubers

[@lyravain6304]

Imagine VShoujo being one of the better agencies to work for these days. How the turns have tabled.

[@etrianpersona5693]

@@IPutFishInAWashingMachinewhy you here then?

[@Mameu_art]

this is selen but in another form no billionaire is ethical indeed

[@clou09]

Its because good billionaires doesn't get any news press. They exists just never reported for their good deeds.

[@lycoris1152]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@clou09 I think what they mean by unethical is that to get anywhere close to the wealth of being a billionaire, you or someone else, is going to have to screw over a lot of people first lol.

[@stephenjenkins7971]

​@lycoris1152 Arguably, to live as a human, you always have to do that anyway. It's not like we live in a world where resources are given to everyone by automatons.

[@mzxa9988]

Selen just got bad money management lol

[@foxielele]

wtf didnt expect to see this here. I miss carol 珈乐 so much she was my favorite, honestly heartbreaking to see what had happened to her. OMG Thank you for talking about it😭😭😭😭😭

[@rimaevenstar]

Not a lot of ppl know about this story here! Glad u enjoyed it!

[@ryana5435]

Seems like westerners finally pick up this hot news which is wildly reported in China mainland after almost 2 years. How did the person behave behind Carol after her graduation really changed how people viewed her (plus a lot of other controversies and doxxing)

[@rebeltheharem7028]

Honestly, its asia, and I expect 95% of them to be black companies. We should be lucky that covercorp is as decent as it is right now. Because if it was the average Asian "talent agency".... well, we'd have 2 nijisanji's.

[@columbien10]

Yagoo is truly the saviour of the industry

[@ashurad_fox5991]

it's just mostly eastern Asia for that, since here in south east Asia some of the countries has a bit of sweatshop condition on production industries (to keep up with the demand for cheap raw materials or goods)

[@ma.2089]

@@ashurad_fox5991 do you think the rest of Asia is somehow exempt from poor conditions? Nah.

[@ashurad_fox5991]

@@ma.2089 Poor conditions on some jobs regardless on where you are is always constant. I never once said we are exempt from it. What I'm saying is that a large amount of those black companies are usually in eastern asia (Ch, Kor, and Jp) Instead of black companies like those, here they are mostly replaced by sweatshops in SE Asia to take advantage of the lower production cost. (but one upside atleast is it's atleat 8am-5pm 5 days a week, not like the 996 shown in the vid for an average Ch working conditions)

[@ma.2089]

@@columbien10 he’s def amazing, not falling into the same hole as so many other companies. But at the same time, he’s made lots of mistakes. Luckily it’s not as bad as a majority of companies, but I have to wonder what happened in cases of certain vtubers being not allowed to say goodbye, etc.

[@kweassa6204]

Perhaps this is the first measure of whether an agency succeeds or not -- do they understand the difference between an actor playing a role/VA voicing a character, and Vtubers? Come to think of it I think that's also a question that separates Vtuber fans and haters/cringers.

[@azzam6532]

Its depend on where it come from, in JP(and Asia) Vtuber usually are still count as Voice Acting, even in japan i heard that some of graduated university student(from VA School) are debut Vtuber for improve their VA skill Different from west where Vtuber almost no different with Faceless youtuber

[@kweassa6204]

@@azzam6532 That wasn't really what I was talking about. Rather, as of current pretty much every Vtuber fan in both the west and the east know that Vtubers aren't just "acting out a role" like VAs that are given scripts. The character is fictional, but at the same time an extension of themselves, the image they want to be seen as, and therefore rests at a place much more closer to the person behind the model than just actors and their roles. And that, imo, is what gets you down the rabbit hole.

[@azzam6532]

@@kweassa6204 ah, ok ok i understand what you mean, i just share what i know too Well in the end of the day everyone has their own taste and preferences Thanks for sharing

[@DarkFrozenDepths]

@@kweassa6204 To be fair, the decent fans understand that VTubers are an extension of the person playing the role. The fans that are too far gone act as if fiction and reality 100% fused together and Idol Culture in general for the East tends to be promoted as a "girlfriend/boyfriend experience" which doesn't help. Even a news reporter had to apologize for "being in a relationship" when she was treated so much as a celerity. In cases like that, I'd say some of the fans are just as bad as some of the haters, cause it's still too extreme, just in the opposite direction.

[@degenerate7647]

Ignorance is bliss, as they say. Very sad how these talented individuals essentially had the fruits of their labor stolen from them, by a company which seems to be a bit… corrupted. That they were treated as disposable property, rather than human beings with souls, needs, and consciousness. I wish Carol the best, and I’m glad that it seems she is happier, and has found some success outside of her original company. 🐴

[@Irish1996]

Wow didn't even know about her, that was very Informative, great job Rima

[@marakevans3984]

Feels like things could have been worse, but everyone agreed to end things amicably. Comparatively, the Nijisanji situation with Selen Tatsuki leaves me with a greater sense of ambiguity. Because of Selen's wishes to not name names, we don't know for sure who was responsible for what. While I dislike the ambiguity, I can appreciate the need to minimize suffering. Tracking was ok. Made it look like a real news broadcast when they pan around with the auxiliary cameras for dramatic effect.

[@598019001]

Given how much Vtuber business seemed to base their business off of Idol culture? this doesn't shock me, Idol culture is shockingly bad, so anything growing from it being horrid doesn't shock me.

[@alexmercer5965]

30:09 Folks that hate valid criticism and support corporate corruption always seem to value the illusions being sold to them rather than people, be it the talents or the fans that care about them.

[@kellywilson137]

Lol 1500USD per month? Just do fast food and stack hours instead.

[@rimaevenstar]

😂

[@segenshin1894]

well china's minimum wage in major cities is around 2.40 usd per month, which means around 700usd per month in 996 standards. so umm........ while their salary may be bigger than that, still not by that much for nation wide, hard working celebrities... if ur curious, I got the info from here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5bZgoN5aayLpq8. Tbf the video he was reacting to itself said 3.4 usd/hr, and that would make it around 980 usd per month. And keep in mind i'm no economist.

[@ryana5435]

Murican think their minimal wages apply to the rest of the world but don’t think about exchange rate and local commodity prices

[@thatoneweebguy6379]

​@@segenshin18942.40usd per month or per hour?

[@Not_Danten]

remeber purchasing power is around 3x of the same money than that of usd, eating at fancy resturant is at most 10 USD, but bruh 1500 USD is not alot comparing to the irl trash idole in China :faceplam:

[@satelliteprime]

"Leave a horse emote in the comments" Ah, so she has accepted her fate 🐴 Real talk though, excellent video. You never fail to impress with your thoroughness and research.

[@rancidiot]

I really have no idea about Chinese companies

[@nathanlong8295]

You should there's a lot of channels talking about the horrific nature of China.

[@badumba5511]

China has comunism, its bound to be corrupted in all the areas, even vtubing.

[@meatmanmagoo]

Its depressing when you see what happens behind the scenes.

[@adityanugraha8269]

If you losing focus you will hear A**hole instead of A-soul 😂😂😂

[@rimaevenstar]

Oh no…

[@Angelsattie]

If i wasnt familiar with yuehua's previous and current idol groups treatment id be more surprised. The company has a terrible track record of management and giving offical statements. They're one of the biggest entertainment companies in china especially for actors so the lack of pay is astounding. As someone whos followed another yuehua group for years (everglow) it crazy to hear of another mistreatment for another group in the same company

[@Hyenadont]

Jeezums, this sounds terrifyingly close to kurosanji. Seriously, some aspects of the video sound very much as though you can just name swap the people involved. This is nuts

[@lordzaboem]

24:30 confidentiality?! Oh for cracking ice. You are a vtuber company. You are not a doctor. You are not a lawyer. You have no clients to whom you owe confidentiality. The only non-disclosure which could possibly be involved are from the employees to the company. The company as a whole absolutely could disclose anything it wanted to disclose. This is like billing myself for one billion dollars, filing bankruptcy, and claiming that I cannot pay my bills because I have this huge billion dollar debt. Could this be some gross translation error, or does the company actually think that every person is this boneheaded? To close on a point of positivity, this was great docu-video. I knew nothing about this entire drama before now. Good job, Rima!

[@Hydrantchan]

What? The "confidentiality agreement" is referring to part of the performer's employment contract, also known as an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), it's a legal document. Keep in mind that this quote was coming from a leaked document, it's discussing a confidentiality issue because all of it is business details protected by the NDA.

[@lordzaboem]

@@Hydrantchan no, confidentiality agreements in ndas are not the same thing.

[@PatternScreamerSCP]

Glad the algo brought this up in my feed. Quality video and reporting.🏇🐴

[@rimaevenstar]

Hey thank you so much! Welcome in

[@aurasyte]

Holy moly, i didn't even recognize you at first. If you see this (unlikely but), it's nice seeing you again Rima. Seems like you're doing well on your new content and the algorithm is doing its work. Your vids pops up every now and then, and I never realized it was you until now. Keep it up, you could reach a 100k!

[@sientense]

Props to Rima for covering vtuber stories from China

[@ceresbane]

Main thought is... Does an ethical chinese talent agency even exist? Korea and China are notorious for their slavery contracts in the entertainment biz. The black company stuff that Japan has is a knock off. The scale china and korea does it can honestly just be described as industrial in how it perceives talent turn over and the value of them.

[@rocvan8190]

Great video, Rima. Thank you 🐴🐴🐴

[@darkgraytt]

Considering China, this can no longer be a surprise... Still it's very sad to see

[@fernandoluispimienta7856]

why did nobody made videos and stuff when it happened the same in the ES community when the biggest ES vtuber agency was discovered it was a black company, that abused all of the talents, treated them bad, they even talked shit about the talents and also de CEOs were groomers, they fired a vtuber (Nori) because they wanted to and she didnt talk about anything because the agency told her that if she said anything about this, they will sue her and other horrible things

[@NuclearWintr]

Are you taking about Wactor??

[@papita69xxx]

False did cover it when owozu imploded and Fuel made several videos about it. It was an awful situation that's for sure.

[@MoleculeXmolecule]

Why didn't you make one then, huh?

[@fernandoluispimienta7856]

@@NuclearWintr no, im talking about owozu, wactor is a japanese agency :p

[@rancidiot]

Tbf we have heard far more about wactor than insert Chinese company

[@Birchbomb]

🐴Rima taking us in the ride. 🐎

[@maxwellpeter5955]

This is one ride you'll never get out of

[@MICHAELTUMANGDAY]

To be honest they look normal to me.. Didn't know things are already happening behind the scenes.

[@xyzgokart]

Excellent video, it was certainly entertaining to watch!

[@TkBloch]

Suprising? Not even.

[@DarkFrozenDepths]

This isn't just the case of a company being horrible. They were also out of touch of what their consumer base really wanted. Even companies that aren't as cruel or shady still seem to make the same mistake. Seriously, what is up with so many companies acting like this lately? And I mean across the board, not just games, anime, and VTubers. Can even go beyond the entertainment stuff too.

[@draconicfeline6177]

It typically happens when they start listening to investors who are also out of touch. How did they get that out of touch, I don't know.

[@twistedwashu]

🐴🐴🐴🐴 Great video Rima! Really insightful! 😄

[@snicksss]

I don't understand why it's so hard to just pay them a proper salary and not treat them like robots that never have to deal with psychological or physical issues such as lack of sleep, illness, and injuries.

[@Frzned9x]

You should cover upd8, the original vtuber company (kizuna ai), the entire saga is actually very fascinating and very ill-covered despite everyone making videos about kizuna ai all the times, they went under after overestimating themselves and tried making a HoloEarth, there were also allegations of mistreatment of #2 talent at the time, leading to basically 9 other (under 774 inc.) talents leaving the company on the same exact day as her graduation. And their ex-members went on to become industry leaders (some in Hololive, a Shibuya Hal, Tomari Mari, etc.) In a timeline where they was even a tiny bit competent, they'd be as big as hololive right now with just the talents they already had at the time.

[@squalleonkeneddyheart4191]

Their 3D performance is much better than Nijisanji's lol. And this is 2021 lol

[@ryana5435]

Do you know who is behind A-Soul? It’s Byte Dance, the company who made Douyin (TikTok). They got technology and money

[@A_Fr0ggie_]

I only recently found your content after your video on Yakirisu, and I'm thoroughly enjoying everything you've been putting out! Keep up the amazing work Rima and team! 🐴

[@rimaevenstar]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@MedusaZenovka]

🐴 Bullying hits too close home. I survived one and a half decades of bullying and hearing about others suffering is making the scars on my soul ache. I hope the actress of Carol is doing soo much better now.

[@sburban320]

Very informative and interesting. Thanks for another great documentary! 🐴

[@HeroeUrbano]

🐴 great video Rima 😁 That’s must’ve been quite the journey to put together 🫡🐴

[@angelquinones9201]

Great video Rima.

[@Shiromi_mz]

A-SOULの問題、ほんとショックだよね。才能ある人たちがそんなひどい扱いされるなんて悲しいなぁ…。やっぱりみんな彼女たちのこと大事に思ってるんだなって感じたよ。

[@Tonyten39]

Amazing video as always!! 😊 Keep up the great work 👍 🐴🐴🐴

[@DEmantothepower]

🐴🐴🐴 Thank you for the video, Rima! Incredibly informative, hope for the best for these talents!

[@TheRealJohnux]

0,5%... Kurosanjis 2% was bad already. Holy hell.

[@HeromanVII]

🐴 Very informative video. Thank you.

[@VoxAsmodeusx]

Any ample of support for this type of harsh work environment, it goes to show what type of people they are.

[@Midevi]

Unfortunate to hear what they had to go through.

[@Goldiizz]

Well Niji couldn't even have their own drama, they had to steal it from China🐴

[@dylives7667]

After The Coco Kiryu Incident, I just steered clear of CN VTuber Agencies altogether. I've yet to know one that isn't a Black Company.

[@effiebae]

🐴 love your videos, always so interesting :D

[@rimaevenstar]

Happy to hear that!

[@Pudding404]

Agencies can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that the talents are the blood and soul of the company. You could say that's why Niji fell so hard, but also why Hololive is so well-regarded.

[@Axpo25]

Gotta remember the dissolution of Hololive CN.

[@RivKyske]

*Horse Emote insert here* Enjoyed your video, thank you. I dunno how to emote, sry.

[@itsterres]

never work at a chinese company kids

[@disasterincarnate]

the vast majority of them.....dont really get a choice.

[@YuiYui-t1q]

​@@disasterincarnate sad but true

[@hunterrose5252]

Thanks!

[@rimaevenstar]

Tysm hunter rose 🌹

[@MedievalGenie]

Nothing like corporate greed to make things constantly worse instead of better, ironically hurting their own profitability in the long run. 🐎 (as per your request)

[@kero2422]

Really like your content and how much work you put in it

[@FRowli]

Im getting deja vu from a company that has sanji in it...

[@danbrit9848]

thank you for doing this video

[@pcalix17]

We are witnessing a collapse of large talent agencies, similar to what is happening to the gaming industry. The audiences are "waking up" and questioning what they're consuming. They realize that they have all the power and choose not to support unethical companies. Simply look at the companies that are surviving and the companies that are collapsing and a similar pattern will emerge.

[@saltylemonz258]

I should not mock the 2% of Nijisanji from now on. That thing is a sweatshop with .5%. Im kinda speechless.

[@uzumazin5099]

Thank goodness that Carol is free, safe, and happy as of now.

[@goukenslay7555]

Not even surprising she works day to night for a meager 0.5%. They are thousands of douyin/streamers and lot of them are signed to stream everyday for barely anything. Plus labour is dirt cheap in china. Its unfortunate these girls had ro sign up with a mainland chinese company. If china didn't have to fuck up vtuber scene with coco and haachama incident, their circumstances would possibly be a different

[@kk_hsym]

OMG FINALLY SOMEONE TALK ABOUT THIS

[@sharkchaos5160]

Great video Rima and 🐴.

[@lukhw1n657]

Do you mean to tell me they are getting overworked and exploited? Who would've seen this coming especially from China.

[@lllOnSlAuGhTlll]

wow didnt know about this. thanks rima

[@nikostsigos4998]

good video but at some point the music loops in a weird way making it hard to hear

[@rimaevenstar]

Oh crap. Does it last long?

[@thecreepers5399]

Very cool documentary! 🐴

[@tessfabled4115]

Ok, wow, they were paid less per month than my fortnightly disability pension...

[@Charles_Drakkan]

Near nothing in this world is black and white and Rima's videos really makes you realize that Anyways can we touch the tail?

[@Rudolf_reindeer]

Thanks for the video!

[@itsumoknight]

🐴 I can't believe Rima's manipulating me to do this nooooooooooooo

[@sqwong3947]

2nd video to alert Rima about this guy called Falter XV that they should probably look into.

[@TachikomaKURO]

🐴This case is an entire rabbit hole by itself. That was crazy!

[@Mr-lr7wc]

🐴 Yo, this is such a cool video! I've just discovered your channel and the content is very good! Keep up the good work!

[@einarsa7196]

why every company these days now are here for short term incomes....not longevity. Isnt in a long run more profitable to cash in?

[@karere1s]

It's unsettling how quickly most of the Chinese media outlets changed their tone once Asoul put out its statement

[@Feanturo]

Tazumi taking notes.

[@deanthomas7003]

I did not see this coming.😱🙀😮🤯

[@dewaeryadi7776]

its still weird to think that since kizuna ai coined the VTuber term theres already massive history to it in less than a decade

[@fann458]

When you said YH Ent. I had no doubt this is going to be a shitshow

[@Sensei_Naritai]

This is why fans love Cover/Hololive and V-Shoujo

[@BudFriesel]

Thanks for the reminder that there is always some company out there even worse then Niji.

[@true_neutral3378]

1:53 Kani Kanizawa mentioned! (Where did she go?)

[@dylives7667]

It was very random. This indie VTuber was put right in the middle of the literal Play Asia Mascot and Bao. Whenever she may be, she must feel honored someone thought so highly of her.

[@leontrotsky7816]

The commentator on that news bulletin looks old enough to have been on the Long March.

[@yellowtortoise5756]

Thank you for the video 🐴🐴🐴

[@kisesakusaku]

A story I never herd or forgot, but I am glad the tale rose into a neatly made documentary with love. I hope the talents are doing okay! 🐴

[@chuu3u]

heard it was managed by yue hua and automatically knew exactly where this was going lmfao

[@typebetanymphgamingch5UB5CR1BE]

I thought they were doing alright just like the other vtubers. They seemed quite ok in their videos

[@Artista_Frustrado]

wow, that company really live up to Rima's pronunciation... what a bunch of A-Souls 🐴 glad that at least Carol's Actress still has supporting fans that care about her, shame that there's also a large number of Corporate defenders, sadly too many unethical companies do