Songs and dongs: Raden's hololive audition story

[@dk_underbar]

Translation notes: 0:45 Aku wa seihai (悪は成敗) is something you'd expect to hear in Japanese period dramas (jidaigeki) and traditional stage arts, so that's why she follows it with the yo shout (kabuki hayashi) and the drums. 5:29 The way she says this is reminiscent of the chidlren's cartoon show Anpanman. 7:54 She says "aimai mokkori" (曖昧模っ糊り) here, which is a pun on aimai moko (曖昧模糊, "vague and ambiguous") and mokkori (モッコリ, bulges). 7:57 Here she's setting up the pun "kokan wakashuu" (股間若衆), which I translated as "a brotherhood of borderline bulges" on this line, but it's a wordplay on _Kokin Wakashuu_ (古今和歌集), a Japanese poetry anthology from the 9th century that can be translated as "Collection of Japanese Poems of Ancient and Modern Times". Raden later clarifies (not included in this clip) that both puns she made here ("Aimai mokkori" and "kokan wakashuu") are from a book she was reading before the auditions, _Brothers of the Groin: Is the Body of Men Art?_ (股間若衆　男の裸は芸術か) by Kinoshita Naoyuki about nude male outdoor statues. (The cover of the book features the statues I showed at 6:58 - these are, Kinoshita notes, the closest nude statues to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.) 9:16 She is imitating the sounds of a shamisen playing an ukebayashi (受け囃子), signaling the end of a rakugo skit.

[@rizumukun]

thank you for providing with the contexts and translations !

[@nietzchan]

Man, Raden is really cultured in traditional arts~

[@SDE1994]

Trust Raden to make her audition story into a Rakugo performance

[@Luis-wf9ws]

Holy fuck she is an irl Koji Kumeta character

[@L16htW4rr10r]

Respecc

[@jcuum]

I feel like Cover hired her for her sheer ability to make topics such as breasts and penises seem very serious and educational lmao God I love Raden, glad she was able to get in

[@Ms666slayer]

Probably the Free Talk interview is to gauche if the person can talk about any topic and maintain the interest of people, that why I believe that even by some members admitting that just talked about mundane stuff or their hobbies they passed, because most likely they mantainde the interviewer interested.

[@rektl2036]

She really reminds me of the white and black grandpire.. can’t sing but amazing zatsu

[@gladewings1192]

They also probably looking for something new and interesting her art story probably one of those just like how Ao is an ikemen type

[@fernando4959]

7:05 "let her cook" -interviewer, probably

[@grimmclawwiseman5412]

Really appreciate the EN clips for Raden-chan. I really love her but there are lack of EN subtitled clips of her, and there are no TL-san in her stream, so I just watch her streams while guessing the topic based on little JP I know. And that TL note you pin, that's a God work out there, especially the pun she prepared. It's shows her preparedness as a rakugoka. Love it so much 💚

[@jcuum]

idk if you know about the channel, there's this one named "Statsky TL" that has probably done the most Raden clips out of anyone I've seen REAL clips of her too, none of those clickbait "drinker/smoker" clips that just rile people up

[@grimmclawwiseman5412]

Thanks for the heads up! Some Raden's clips from Statsky popped up on my TL before but I don't know that they do it frequently. One EN clipper that I know regularly posts Raden clip is art class from Hololive Juufuutei Raden clip. They mainly do clips about Raden's art streams.

[@mukti5896]

I feel that whenever I watch the Indies. With the Insignificant Knowledge of JP i just gutted my way to enjoy their stream

[@Cosmicgardening]

keep listening and looking up things you don't understand and eventually you'll understand

[@ButtonHasher]

Bless her friend helping her out no questions asked.

[@Otek_Nr.3]

Serious question: Is that considered weird? When a friend of mine asks me for help, I usually help first and ask questions later or not at all, unless I think the info would improve the end results. Especially if it's something mundane, and they say that it's a secret. I mean if it's a friend, then there should be a certain level of baseline trust, right?

[@yuji5134]

@@Otek_Nr.3 I don't think it's really weird, but some people can try to pry alot when asked to teach even a little of their skills. Other then that, many people wouldn't dedicate their time for something they don't even know it's important or not. So it boils down to secrecy and time. Although I believe it's still praiseworthy even without those reasons.

[@cyberdsaiyan]

@@Otek_Nr.3 It's more that they didn't pry I think. A lot of friends get curious about why you want to do something so suddenly, and will keep asking and poking out of curiosity, and may be either grouchy or unhelpful if you tell them "I can't tell them anything". Friends that help out even if you don't tell them anything are precious ones indeed.

[@Spyduck]

In going through administrative processes - never assume the previous process is always the same. Always check requirements thoroughly in case a change happened right before your own submissions etc. In my line of work, we always have a whole bunch of assuming applicants who thought their applications are self-renewing annually. Also, Raden probably needn't worry so much. Mr DicknBalls got in himself

[@Nomimonyo]

Why the heck is this gen and Advent so prescious to me? There's just something about those two that really resonate with me lol.

[@SilverScizor753]

Man do I really like Raden, but man do I also like everyone on the COVER team that said "yeah, we're taking this one" Thanks for the subs!

[@nietzchan]

That _"TIL fact with JFT Raden"_ must be left so much impact that they remembers her name because of it, lol

[@Feljo]

"Sing like you are having fun" has to be the best advice to captivate people while singing, i follow a lot of Vtubers that Mostly Sing for their streams and the ones that keep me listening the most are the ones you can tell are having fun, the ones that just laugh when the make a mistake and keep going, the ones that improv the instrumental with silly noises, etc., they are having fun and is contagious a lot of times that is more effective that just singing perfectly.

[@eru_barth]

I'm just happy she made it, both for her and for myself

[@yamiRic]

Interviewer just feel grateful that they now have a reason on staring at statue and painting without feeling guilty. They just learn how to enjoy art.

[@vieronna]

I mean, you can't argue she didn't leave an impact in those interviews. Crudeness aside, her nervous rambling would've highlighted a) what she is knowledgeable and subconsciously excited about (fine art), and b) her talk skills, despite the subject. Like, I can imagine her walking out the door and the interviewers just coming out of a daze going "wait, did we just listen to this girl talk about blobby dongs for 15 minutes".

[@paulandersbullecer3152]

There's one thing that Holo likes, pushing the boundaries. If they find something that could be niche or unique about you, and if you have shown that you can possibly stream well, it has a high chance to work out for you.

[@livedandletdie]

@@paulandersbullecer3152 I don't necessarily think it's boundary pushing, rather, if they can find someone who has a niche they can fill, after all, if someone such as Jyuufutei Raden, who is knowledgable in the field of Fine Arts, there's a chance of amassing a following of people who are interested in Fine Arts, because then there would be less internal competition when it comes to viewers, thus they are in need of people who can bring light to new topics and thus attract newer people as customers. View it kind of like a Maid Café in which they hire different girls to fill in different niche roles, to suit customers the best, thus attracting more customers, who'll spread their good opinions about this Café, the same applies to Hololive, the more niches they can fill, the more customers they can find.

[@samsolitaryroll]

The singing audition is make sense since ReGloss is supposed to be singing focused branch of Hololive (but not really).

[@forgame]

I don't think they are singing focus group in the 1st place. More like they make DEV'IS for everything group relate stuff and more group offcial focus from everything I've seem so far. Their work place pretty much at Holo studio too

[@samsolitaryroll]

@@forgame i got my assumption / facts wrong then

[@gladewings1192]

Theyve been releasing covers after covers after covers if thats not music focused i dont even know

[@Lopezprieto]

The other day I've heard the flute girl singing for the first time, and man... she's good good

[@forgame]

@@gladewings1192 There actually only 2 members that persuit music, Kanade and Hajime.

[@fmaaru571]

Shoes worried about singing and I have listened to her music more than anyone else in her gen 😂

[@MrNiceGuy.]

Definitely a memorable interview if nothing else for those folks. Heck, I learned something and am now intrigued for more. I’d hire her too.

[@livedandletdie]

Raden mentioning that Great Sky Duck Stream, was very foreboding... I couldn't help laughing out loud...

[@OuterRem]

Listening to JFT like this honestly makes me want to challenge myself and learn Japanese, because I know there's at least 20 puns she's making that I wish I could hear in real time instead of after the fact. Though I'm truly glad any of this has been translated at all.

[@Cosmicgardening]

Definitely learn japanese! It gets easier once you're past the first few hundred words but if you're not multilingual already you might not realize puns are a pretty high level of understanding. You can probably understand after with just a little work and some time but catching them in real time consistently is basically a mark of true fluency which can be a long road.

[@Zaki_Arx]

@@Cosmicgardening i only realized they were talking puns after they said "nantsutte!" hahahaha

[@Ice-mg5pr]

To be honest, Hololive has proven itself to be amazing at picking incredible talents out of the bunch, so I'm sure they chose Raden as soon as she opened her mouth during the free-talk session. As a regular listener in a professional setting, I'd probably find her talk amusing, weird, and a little vulgar. But, if I was an examiner for Hololive, I'd listen with a little more intent and clearly see that Raden is quick-witted, passionate about art, very well educated in art, a good speaker, and knows how to hook an audience with a ridiculous yet simple opening that branches into a more interesting and complex topic. From that one free-talk alone, I'm sure the examiners realized she fit into the company perfectly, while also bringing something completely fresh in the form of her expansive well of knowledge on the arts.

[@MakotoTheKnight]

The thing about it is that her topics weren't even crude, she was referring to art and probably encouraged them to look things up. There's a pretty well defined line between talking about breasts drawn in the Renaissance and talking about breasts, so... Good job on this one, Cover, I'm intently watching this one's growth.

[@arlynnecumberbatch1056]

does that also apply when you want to mention reproductive health without being too overtly sexual? like those stuff arent even suggestive like the word "penis" is just the scientific(?) name for that thing so

[@MakotoTheKnight]

​@@arlynnecumberbatch1056I'll frame it like this: what does someone listening to that conservation learn or gain from it? Aside from some quick study points in anatomy class, you're kinda done, right? Y'know , unless you weren't just talking about class. (It can also be funny for a passing gag, but timing and context factor heavily into that so you can't make it your main schtick) With art you can actually compare and contrast and get a different perspective from looking at how different cultures approached the same subject matter, and you get more curious about what other things they know and how much they can share. It's all about a novel experience. If one could discuss reproductive organs in a novel way, then sure. But where would the chat take things from there? That's a big factor in things too.

[@unownnnn]

I'm glad she got through against all odds. She's got passion and sometimes thats all you need

[@H4444-f7g]

hot dang bro. doing god work.

[@noble_wine]

Raiden is something special. What a cutie to love art.

[@easyduster]

We’re so blessed to have her

[@Yenrei]

I can't remember exactly when I started taking learning the language seriously, but thanks to Raden I've realized I can't slack on the literature and culture, either. She's intelligent and witty. There's depth to her wordplay, and whatever the media that made her this way is, I would love to immerse myself in it.

[@wbl_unlimited]

Raden is a LEGEND

[@Mezzying_Around]

Always educational to see peaks behind the curtain like this.

[@cuongquan1633]

LMAO with the clip's title pretty witty ngl.

[@arlynnecumberbatch1056]

so her talent that got her to hololive was; yapping

[@chutrung9061]

Other Hololive members trying to be seiso, meanwhile Raden-chan talked about decks and bobs in her interview

[@duongtran5094]

well, raden join hololive under the dev_is branch and we all know that dev_is or regloss is a vtuber band so it will and must have a singing audition ( a band with a member can't sing is just like a joke), it's different with the main branch which are idol branch and idol is not only focus on singing so it not really important that u can sing or not when u apply but u must learn for the future project ( Ame is the perfect example ). But of course Raden not know about this because hololive not mention about this when they hire people so Subaru information is not actually wrong, it's just not apply in the Raden case.

[@0730]

god i love Raden

[@mjc7745]

JFT! All otaku's will know art! JFT! Thank you cover!

[@toanuc2059]

audition

[@zav75]

The thing with Raden is she use super advanced japanese word and do a lot of puns, it must be hard to translate.

[@Assasin2]

Can’t believe Raden got scammed into joining Hololive, so sad!

[@prajnadeva]

I am surprised she passed the singing audition. Maybe they saw potential , and consider hiring rough diamond and polishing it real time as content. It's not really the dirty joke. But how she frame it as art history education. This is some niche knowledge, legit culture, but unheard of in vtuber world, and so it is untapped and unique

[@AndersHass]

Interesting singing wasn’t her strong suit and yet she joined with a group more focused on singing

[@Nachtflut]

I believe at least 1 one the ReGLOSS girls mentioned not knowing they'd be a different branch

[@AndersHass]

@@Nachtflut well I don't think ReGloss had a separate audition, but Cover decided to do ReGloss with the auditions they had. Possible other auditions are viewed as potential JP 7th gen.

[@WinWhite]

naruhodo

[@LuizFelipe-lk1hs]

How can it be a scam? Didn't she apply in the site? Or was she scouted?

[@viavlalala4764]

She has the rumored "For Academic Purpose" pass, the real one

[@unownnnn]

I assumed the last final interview you did meet Yagoo but that might have changed now he's much more busy...

[@angeleyes2c]

I find it curious that HL picked Raden for an idol group profiling in singing when that's her weak point.

[@jarno8608]

She's bad at signing? Wasn't that the point of ReGloss?

[@Progeusz]

Cover itself doesn't know what was the point of regloss.

[@Progeusz]

@@NavyNichts_ do you really think only 4 decent people who know how to sing applied? Why do you put crappy personality as an alternative? No, there were hundreds of applications and many of them had great personalities but only 5 people could be chosen. It's just that Cover wasn't sure what to do with Regloss and they ended up just being streamers, potentially a bit different from rest of Hololive. Raden in particular is very different from not just Hololive but also rest of Regloss - btw I consider her the best JP hire since Koyori.

[@dcresistance]

​@@ProgeuszYou're very wrong on that front, they've said multiple times that ReGLOSS is focused on overcoming challenges and improving as a group, specifically singing and dancing

[@johnbradshaw3001]

The day when Subaru was scouted, it was still very early, Hololive wasnt even going idol route so it's easy to understand why there's no singing part in the audition. Things have changed a lot since then. Even if you compare the time Gura was hired then m, its still mile different.

[@proto7030]

Mumei did mention a while back that there wasn't any singing portion to her interview either. They either skipped it for her because she had an existing portfolio or Regloss has a different concept.

[@ArchusKanzaki]

Subaru's stream was pretty recent and I think she reconfirmed it with actual Cover staffs. Regloss and Dev_IS are a different branch compared to HoloJP so might be why they have singing portions.

[@kazutoriyama5142]

Regloss is musical focused, don't forget

[@vieronna]

Yeah I was about to say: DEV_IS specifically is supposed to be group and music focused. Even if singing isn't all they look for, they would still check. And honestly, with the music content being a big part of Hololive now, it would be odder not to. Even if it's just one of the criteria.

[@karayura10]

Subaru Detective investigation stream on recruitment based on gen 5 time, gen 2 standard too outdated