>>88712751My strongest argument would be Biboo and Fauna. One hasn't had the time to properly get into the idol activities treadmill, the other actively shuns it. Yet, they are the most consistently strong streamers in HoloEN CCV-wise.
Now for more feeling-only thoughts: I'd think there's less of conversion efficiency in the West at the idol content => merch sales part of the pipeline. I could even name a good reason: the West is both big geographically and very spread out. I'm in Japan, and it's exceedingly easy for nearly everyone to go to Tokyo occasion warranting. A cheap two way plane ticket from Sapporo to Tokyo is like $160 and it lands within 2 hours after taking off.
Judging from what I've seen including in the MtG and the wider CCG scene, people here are very conditioned to spend, the whole country is exceptionally consumption-coded. In addition, VTubing is far more normalized (my local diner place had a Niji collab of all things), whereas in the West it's now in the similar position to where anime used to be like 15 years ago.
>>88712710I'm a wispgoon among other things and recently started digging the other Sloppies. Limes is very enjoyable, binging her VODs right now in fact. I'm very much hoping the 2024 post-corpo phenomenon serves to strengthen and diversify the indie scene.
