This is a post to defend the homework = chasing dreams point they made, especially in the context of it being answered with "I'm not against them chasing their dreams, but...", feel free to skippa if you have no interest.
I'm not saying anyone who disagrees with me just doesn't get the amount of time that goes into these things, but just in case someone actually is unaware, hopefully I can offer perspective.
The reason I'm using picrel as an example is mostly just because she's the one I spent most time with before FWMC, but there's also another relevant point I'll mention later. Ok.
So back in around early 2021, I believe, Marine would vaguely hint at her upcoming project. The most expensive thing she had ever worked on, the biggest project she's ever been a part of in her entire life. Something so massive that seeing the amount of zeroes she was being billed for was blowing her away. Possibly the biggest single talent-driven project in Hololive yet.
In August 2021, Unison came out. An original song composed by Yunomi with a fully animated MV to go with it, at a time where this wasn't nearly as widespread as it is today. It was groundbreaking at its time, and to this day it's my favorite Hololive original song. Brilliant lyrics that accurately represent her personality, trance-inducing composition, fantastic use of binaural audio for atmosphere, even though she's not really an "ASMR chuuba". An MV that may not be quite on the level of the crazier ones we see today, but still stands tall next to them by simply being very well made. Just all around excellent work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VIeV_LZXHMThe reason I bring it up, though, is the members "afterparty" (I don't remember if it was exactly an afterparty or simply the first members stream since it came out, or even the members stream that preceded it coming out, where she gave a pre-release teaser).
During it, people were naturally praising her, and saying things like "wow, no wonder it's the most expensive project yet, it really shows." She sort of laughed a little, and said something along the lines of:
>Well, it's true that if we're talking about the biggest things that are done and released, this is the most expensive one yet, but if we're talking about things already in the pipeline, being worked on, the next one is WAY more expensive. And it's been worked on for a little while now. And you know, we have to pay right away, we don't get to make money out of it first, I couldn't cover for the costs entirely myself, Cover paid for the rest and now I need to give them back the money. So thank you for all the superchats and if you're interested, please buy my merch too.This next project, already in the works and paid for before Unison even came out, would only see the light of day 8 months later, in the next year.
The point I'm getting to here is, these things take time. They can't stop to smell the flowers, they can't take it easy after big events, they're always working on the next thing, because it takes a lot of time, and time is of the essence. FUWAMOCO are running against the clock, even, you could say. They're the same age as Marine, in fact she's a couple of months older, but Marine has a headstart of several years as part of Hololive that FUWAMOCO lack. Her first album and first sololive are coming out on her sixth year. Granted, her taking her time to get there made it so her first sololive is a behemoth of an event, unprecedented, absolutely amazing stuff, but can FUWAMOCO really afford to wait until they're 37 to have their very first live? They don't have the luxury to wait. They can't afford to fuck around for a couple of years like Marine did (and EVERYONE did back then, because the company's direction wasn't solidified, I'm not criticizing her here). Can they really start their concerts at 37 with the comparatively more demanding choreographies they do, is it sustainable to take that much time on their way there? The sentiment of "there's no rush, we'll get there eventually" is nice, but is it realistic? Or do they have to be acitvely working towards that goal every single day if they want to eventually get there?
If they want to be anywhere near the kind of public person Marine is (and if you watch them surely you've seen them saying that they do a number of times), they have to GO. There's no time to waste. Which is why they were saying yesterday that finding balance now is so important. They can't afford to stop and rest, they can't afford to wait until things naturally slow down, they need to find a way to rest on the way. Which leads into the Homework Day talk. After the first 100 days, they used to have more homework days, while having less homework to do. That's one of the sacrifices they're trying to make to find slightly better balance. But the thing is that in this case I think they're mistaken in thinking anyone else sees it as a sacrifice. I'm positive everyone is ok with that. Comment too long (5000/5000)
