Towa got bullied since debut because of her very contrasting voice, and at that point of time, Japanese internet trolls are at its peak of activity. She already had antis back then, think of her as Iroha of 2020.
Then after the yab, of course without being a revisionist here, she did lie about the whole voice thing and instead ask from the management to suspend herself and take a break. She did mention about quitting when she was back with her mom, to a point she's worried if Towa did a crime or some shit.
Both overseas and Japanese kenzoku made a welcome back message.
From that point onwards, she streamed nothing but solo apex stream, to a point even kenzoku joked about how she never collabed with anyone, and some collabs were just "pity collabs" like kusoge minigames or UNO with bunch of senpais. Gen 4 collabs were practically dead, with Luna doing her own thing, PPTRIO basically destroys any sense of gen cohesion. Towa was unironically, left alone. Whether this was a group decision, or Towa chose this path, no one knew.
Towa literally had no one to rely on for a year, except for Fubuki who did defend her publicly and keep in touch for the longest time. She had no one but her own fanbase. She's so scared to a point she can't bring herself reading any Japanese chat and terrified that any might hurt her.
Funnily enough, the two vtuber she often collabed are Sio (Come back fatass) and Nose forming Tokonokise. Things start to change when she did her 3D debut, and the legendary first Marine collab.
Cover did block her request to play for apex tourneys, like CR cup (with males), and it was received well. Not without hurdles of course, most of the negative reaction comes from the CR female fans that hated female streamers. But eventually the CR Fujos like Towa enough because of how professional she handles conversation, her attitude towards playing the game, and basically treating everyone the same. She's the perfect self insert to "be with" CR players.
So no, it was not about unicorns, anti-males, gachikois, it's about forming a trust between the vtuber and her fanbase going through so many shit they're practically immune to any kind drama whores. This close, platonic relationship between her and her fans is tightly knit, she can recall all her regulars, whenever they chat or superchat and even whished happy birthday out of the blue on twitter.
My only advice to any kind of EN streamers, by being frank (and not flip flopping your principles), being a good person yourself, treat collabs professionally and you'll be immune from any kind of shit stirring.
