Was the NIJISANJI EN Virtual Rhapsody a Failure?

i also talk about other aspects of nijisanji here

[@rinnnnnnnnnnrin]

Bro they dont even want people talking about it, hell yeah it did

[@zayd4078]

The first rule of Virtual Rhapsody is... you don't talk about Virtual Rhapsody.

[@10MLaw]

The comment when someone said it was just starting... I've been to a concert and the hall is packed 1hr before hand, this was in SEA btw

[@Sornemus]

Yeah, but it was not packed 3h beforehand. But the musicians were already on scene - doing sound-check. Which can look like actual performance (very bad one, that is) to unexpecting eye.

[@hikariizuki1693]

I got to an event like this once, I come 3 hours early because my friend told me it would be crowded. And even then the place is already crowded. I'm bad with the crowd so that's one of the rare time I go to place like that

[@YourTypicalMental]

I recall DN mentioning that English language learning is a core part of the Philippine Education system. Meaning if they held the concert in the Philippines, nearly everyone of the fans would be fluent in the language and could appreciate NijiEN even more.

[@soranai4851]

i wouldnt say fluent... depends on the person really, in highschool and college here in the philippines there are english subject but sometimes the teachers arent even speaking english because a lot of filipino students can speak english but cant really "understand" what theyre saying... they just string words together and fill the blanks through either context clues or assumptions... in my experience anyway

[@clou09]

I'd point out this fact, there are more people in PH that know and speak in english than tagalog/filipino.

[@idkwhatswhat2382]

​@@clou09 to add that thought, Filipino/Tagalog is one of the many languages (yes languages, not dialects) in the Philippines, so usually Filipinos languages are usually their mother tongue (Bisaya, Kapampangan, Tagalog) , English, Tagalog (if not mother tongue)

[@shikiextend]

... But English fluency is higher in Singapore than in the Philippines? It's used daily by the vast majority of the populace.

[@KGO_24]

Population difference: Singapore has less people but better education but Philippines has more people.

[@litlsteps8486]

sadly even NijiJP is taking a hit now in terms of viewership and I still think Hololive wins in terms of having NEW & Unique viewers for each liver/talent vs total views. if you add the fact that our Overlord Pekora is carrying Hololive's 2024 First Quarter viewership right now, as a Nousagi that's a dub for me.

[@UnknownOps]

Feel like Pekora had the entire viewership of Mexican netizens at one point during her Dragon Balls stream.

[@esense9602]

​@@UnknownOpsassuming not all of them will become fans of Pekora. I think there's a percentage that will become a fans.

[@KABLAMMATS]

​@@UnknownOps even the cartel now is simping for pekora

[@camilo9192]

To my understanding, the nijisisters put more effort into coping that niji into that 2D karaoke

[@daisukeniwa402645]

I know a lot of people already have said this, but the whole event was just an overpriced karaoke stream.

[@Sornemus]

Musical concerts are, in a way, also "an overpriced karaoke stream".

[@KABLAMMATS]

​@@Sornemus yeah but i can go crazy with my friends or meet cute girls so...

[@ImPipkinrick]

Hololive was a stand-up energetic vibe type of concert. Niji was a sit-down lethargic vibe type of concert. The sisters self told by sharing the clips. If it wasn't empty, they would certainly be sharing videos otherwise of a full audience.

[@Sornemus]

Sludge metal concerts look very similar to this kind of vibe.

[@Paul-bs5wl]

Singapore's economics didn't help. But it's hard to feel like the energy isn't totally destroyed by the controversies and by the fact that it's a Karaoke stream that you're paying a premium price for. Also regardless of the truth, the public perception is so horrifically negative that it doesn't matter at this point.

[@UnknownOps]

Feel like Nijisanji is horrible when it comes to working on the international market, there was no market for vtubers in India, they ruined ID and KR, ID was underfunded, and in EN, they allowed bullying to get worse than expected because of that contract, majority of these things might be accepted in JP due to their culture, but JP isn't global and Nijisanji failing to understand that got their dues in the end.

[@JohnnyBensons]

The thing is, JP isn't even well managed/marketed. It's just that the talents themselves are carrying the whole company. I claim myself to be more of a Nijisanji JP fan rather than Hololive but I only actively follow like around 30 talents having watched 8 of them graduate already. I know the other talents but know nothing about their quirks nor talents. Compare it to Hololive where I may not watch everyone but I know even their inside jokes due to their collabs with other people, accomplishments, and great fans and marketing. THERE'S SO MANY TALENTED PEOPLE IN NIJISANJI. Nornis could have been marketed more, Elu, Debi, Salome, etc. have so much voice acting range, Todoroki Kyouko's artistic talents rivals Tsukino Mito and should have been marketed more for it. Yashiro, Ange, Belmond, Joe Rikiichi, has really good writing sense. And there's so much more they could have done to make Nijisanji rival Hololive's success...

[@gurugurumawaru7869]

​@@JohnnyBensons Continue that list, bro. I wanna know your personal recommendations more. I'd use that as a springboard to discover my favorites.

[@Tooyule]

ID even runaway without paying taxes and blaming it to their liver

[@burukani]

You need to see their JP concerts too. Same half ass with more pricey than other concert too. Anycolor is that rotten, squeezing profit as much as possible with less expenses.

[@treizexinclaire8258]

Imagine paying 100+ USD for an overpriced Karaoke stream when your competitor offers a full 3D experience for half the price

[@10MLaw]

The fact that it was 2D kinda killed it, like you said its overpriced karaoke

[@Sornemus]

You know, as they say... If you are a broke boy, just say so . . . Lmao, sorry, couldn't miss on this one

[@ceresbane]

Depends on what criteria of success. It happened at all and the show happened from start to finish? so the production team succeeded. At best people complained about the screen of the venue and a few visual glitches in the vein of complaining about spiderman 2 over fking PUDDLES. Did it sell? No thats a PR and marketing and logistics fail. Wrong venue and a poor understanding about the geographic location of their fans. And the logistical issue. Sphere of influence and demographics is like marketing 101. There are definitely better venues. So... I get the impression they got this venue because they got a good deal on it and the cost goes to the consumer to work it out. Basically they knew the bad PR badly hamsstrung sales. So they cut costs to minimise losses. They could have cancelled and refunded. But it was cheaper to just release a bad show *nijisanji taking notes from game development and pre order practices.

[@DracNeedsChai]

From what I glean of financials and stock..I think it's just a slow decline for the EN branch. But JP I have no clue. I just hope both the EN and JP talents eventually learn that they deserve better than what is being asked of them, 'cause that's all I can do at this point with anything Niji related.

[@Drbeattles]

JP has also been taking hits from the loss of sponsors, and now the global market being against niji i dont think niji will every do well outside of west taiwan and japan.

[@spitefuleternity]

this is super off topic but my cousin heard nousagi's voice and clocked him as filipino, and i didn't believe it until he mentioned living in the provinces ToT

[@aquaventus]

Singapore was a decent place for the show actually, im guessing the target is the chinese fans from china not anyone from local SEA. But damn, i heard that it was a basic L2D stream, i was not expecting that it was an actual prerecorded concert stream and not live. By the time VR was going to happen they would have already all recorded their 3D debuts, so they already have the 3D models ready. Might actually be cheaper to just prerecord and then send the video file to the concert.

[@rinoakirova1548]

Nousagi, regarding the comment that Nijisanji JP is still doing great and that NijiFest is huge... Reminder that NijiFest 2025 has been canceled.

[@i.s.a.t.newroman8992]

when I almost write a comment and DN explain everything that I about to write... the concert should be held in Philippines thingy

[@loudradialem5233]

7:23 I want the EN branch to fold to JP, Anycolor to leave the West, retreat to Japan and stay there. For it, the results of the JP branch doesn't matter. If the profits of the EN branch dries, that's all that matters.

[@Razer-2102]

oh. DN said the T-word. goodbye china audience

[@fadinglionhart]

You mean "goodbye West Taiwan audience"?

[@SylvesterInk]

@@fadinglionhart You mean "goodbye Occupied China audience?"

[@ZeroXSEED]

@@fadinglionhart Just because they're racist doesn't mean you have to be equally racist in return.

[@cherdnad2630]

What? How is that r@cist lmao. Do you even understand what r@cist means? Taiwanese and Chinese aren't a different "r@ce" lol. West Taiwan is a jab on China because China doesn't acknowledge Taiwan as a country. The Chinese gets infuriated when you mention Taiwan so calling their country Taiwan too is funny.

[@rasbora7804]

​@@ZeroXSEED Nah, i'm equally racist to anyone

[@Nabekukka]

I've been noticing that in every stream, at least recently, you've been getting some Asmongold level "OneGuys" in the chat.

[@kaito.h4057]

What does the Oneguys even mean

[@flyingoctopus4304]

@@kaito.h4057 I'll quote Urban Dictionary for you: "One-guyed or one-manned is notably used on Twitch and refers to when a streamer with a sizable chat gives attention to a chatter by arguing with that chatter as if that chatter speaks for a large amount of chat." It's basically getting lost argueing with one commenter in the chat thinking the chatter holds a majority opinion while that's not the case.

[@insertweebnamehere1011]

@@kaito.h4057 it's like being stopped or distracted by one guy in chat from continuing on your thoughts which leads to tangents instead of finishing your line of reasoning

[@Sornemus]

"Just Talking" streams are always like that, you know. It is by-design.

[@Kappa_san-259]

:V recently concert in jp hit over $100 mark too not just because it's singapore, thats why i stop flying to japan for concert too and find another hobby

[@silvialuzmia]

my local market are way busier than that lol

[@alfianfahmi5430]

I bet if Virtual Rhapsody weren't held in Singapore, it wouldn't be overpriced asfvvk. Hell, they could've held Virtual Rhapsody in Indonesia..... had they not axed the entire ID branch 💀💀💀 And yes, the second most obvious option would be in Philippines. Holding a concert in Singapore only works for normie mainstream stars like Taylor Swift, Coldplay, etc. 💀💀💀

[@ainzer2903]

A normal seat for a half of the "concert" cost more than 100 USD and its L2D and they choose singapore of all places... if Niji are those famous K-pop bands or western bands, people might dried their wallet but they are not and their reputation not helping

[@alfianfahmi5430]

@@ainzer2903 Yeah, K-pop star like BTS is even more mainstream than most popular Vtubers we know, it's not even close 🤷‍♂️

[@FrarmerFrank]

Im guessing there was more online tickets because Sinapore

[@tripdrakony869]

if the company themself says, that no pictures are allowed and fricking copyright strucks them. You know that, they know, it was shit

[@dietospawn4881]

15:49 Bro.... Its that an f vape??? We need an intervention

[@cellgraph]

Singapore it also in Southeast asia too, but niji is pinoytuber at this point😂

[@mjalyt2874]

9:00 you keep saying this, I'm curious what are your metrics in identifying which is bigger in Japan. Because surely its not subscriber count nor watch hours nor CCV.

[@FreinHowe]

Nijisanji is more popular physically in Japan. They have more exposed advertising in popular places such as MRTs, buses and even in konbinis. I saw more Nijisanji ads than Hololive, particularly in Osaka. I only saw Holo related ads in Osaka less than 2 times while I saw Nijisanji more than 10 times. Though in terms of merch, there are more available Niji merch than Hololive. Holo merch is always out of stock in shops in Den Den Town in Osaka that I went through. Hololive is more popular in the West than in Japan. Another metric is how some Japanese streamers are unaware of Holo streamers versus Niji streamers. VCR collabs is a good indicator of that because of how many times JP streamere didn't know the Holo streamers.

[@mjalyt2874]

@@FreinHowe Thanks for the reply, I asked because DN likes to spread assumptions without presenting statistics to back it up. I'm also familiar with Niji's popularity in the JP side because I used to have an Oshi there back in 2020. With that said, I have few questions on the metric you've used. Your argument was that they are bigger because they have more advertisement, so if a company pumps out more ads that's what makes them bigger? Or maybe you're relating ads to popularity, but then wouldn't events be a more viable metric to determine the popularity? You also mentioned the VCR streamers as a metric, wouldn't that make VSPO bigger than HoloJP then? Because we know for a fact Holo doesn't collab much outside the HoloSphere and VSPO has many known JP streamers.

[@cherdnad2630]

Niji used to be bigger around until 2020 - 2022. I remember some JP popularity poll of the top entertainers and Hololive got rank 14 and Niji barely made the list at 30.

[@mjalyt2874]

@@cherdnad2630 That's correct, I've read that somewhere late last year or early this year but couldn't find the source, its also part of the reason why I questioned DN's assertion.

[@Joeshinhwa123-jw4um]

​@@FreinHoweso niji is still #1 in japan but dumpster fire in foreign market. Holo is #2 in japan and #1 in foreign. Bro, i would take holo any day in a heartbeat. 😂

[@jameyknapp9299]

i completely agree with the choice in venue, I was like, WTF Singapore? You want to fail.

[@ceresbane]

Also I think I mentioned it in the chat but I use to work security in concert halls. I would both work in the stadium (life hack-why pay 70-250 per show if you can just get paid to see the show). Or scan the tickets. Nearly every single time. No one was ever early for the concert (creepy christian events). They would come in right after the first song or a third of the show in after the opening act. You'd get the majority of people coming in at about the half way point (its an issue of a huge crowd of ppl lining up at a third of the show en masse-thats 10k-20k ppl all coming in at the same time to get scanned in). Honestly people with that kind of disposable income do not have a sense of punctuality. Its in their culture to always be "fashionably" late.

[@tertene]

I think it varies depending on the country, imagine paying to see less than half of the show.

[@warlockwarlord169]

Holy Cope

[@ceresbane]

@@tertene Honestly to these people it doesn't matter if 500 is like a drop in the bucket. You see plenty of money walking through those gates and in those VIP sections. I will say the cheap seats right at the very back are the ones that fill up fastest. Which creates an issue of these poors trying to sneak into the premium seats while no one is there.

[@irfanalfian8164]

This assumes that the majority of the crowd are casual fans of Niji. Considering Vtubing is a niche side of anime and streaming, I doubt the people who bought the tickets are newcomers. Those who are longtime fans would absolutely arrive early. Whether they're local people or foreigners, if they're excited for it, they'll respect the livers by coming on time and not... y'know, let their beloved livers perform for an empty crowd.

[@khathecleric]

Disagree about Singapore the literal hub city being hard to fly to, but yeah the price is yeah kinda locked at that 100. Every year AFA somehow manages to get more and more expensive.

[@user-wp3gb3us5d]

Clearly they failed to treat their employees like people

[@loudradialem5233]

10:55 You need to back it. How is VTA successful? I don't see any results and 5ch doesn't either.

[@kweassa6204]

Is that $100 in Singapore dollars or USD?? If it's in Singapore dollars, it's about $70 USD.

[@ainzer2903]

Still overpriced for a half part of concert for the normal seat

[@loudradialem5233]

Filipinas would pay $100 for a 2D screen? Seriously?

[@Skycube100]

hey bro I'm Filipino and I'm not a Nijisister I'm a Holo Main dude c'mon XD But seriously dude keep up the good work man

[@potatoAlive_207]

Yes it is a failure and what the heck it is so expensive that cost 100 dollars, don't know either it was Singapore Dollar, USD, etc but it definitely cost like a very known artist and it is just a karaoke like with expensive. It be better to just rent a freaking theater movies that was large.

[@tripplea4317]

It true its much cheaper here

[@Thekidster12]

3:43 *huh?*

[@quackquack3202]

Bro don’t see Singapore as SEA 😢

[@ReRoute25]

It might be about pride. Niji might be seen as cheap if they rent out in PH.

[@Sornemus]

It could have been sound-check? Like on amateur concerts - they can literally soundcheck while people are gathering, right before the start. For such concert rooms (not-open-air) - number of people inside can change acoustics very much, so they essentially "need" to sound-check with at least some people in the crowd. Here it looks like they also have light check going on - it also involves full rehearsals before the actual event.

[@MoebiusX9]

yikes