>>66170241Some anons are gonna genuinely blame Kyo but I think he's one of the few who managed to carve an identity for himself which stood out, it was just one that was annoying and meshed badly with everyone else.
A big problem with the wave was the disjointedness of it all, thanks to it being 6 FUCKING PEOPLE. When you have Ren and Maria who played into the performative aspects of vtubing completely at conflict with Kyo who wanted to be "self aware" and acted more like a fleshtuber who happens to be behind a png.
Then there was Scarle, Aster and Aia who weren't bad on their own but were awkward messes and barely reached out due to imposter syndrome/feeling beneath their senpais. (Hell, Scarle got the biggest W out of everyone because she drowns in supas and does whatever she wants, she's probably the most at-home with NijiEN.)
It didn't feel like a wave as much as a collection of individuals debuting at once, and XSoliel also had similar problems.
But I really think pushing the "NijiEN big family" shtick was the biggest problem. It was manageable at 20 members but became harder to do with 26+, and people got burned out at the idea that you had to care about everyone.
With s1 it was fun watching the intricate web of connections unfold, making you want to check out other livers because you liked how they interacted with your oshi and you felt you knew everyone. Now it's clear your oshi is closer with some members more than other and it's actually a bunch of separate friend groups who only collab with eachother all the time and don't reach out, why would they because there's so many fucking member now?
