The EN branch itself is in shambles.
Being on EN is now a debuff, just like being on ID is a debuff.
ID managed to overcome some of it recently, and some ID are now even higher than some EN's.
But undoubtedly being on EN means you have a lower potential.
That's because the whole branch is in shambles.
They have shit on their audience, they have betrayed their demographic.
And they have been neglected over and over.
HoloEN is "relevant" by EN vtuber standards simply because no one else is able to compete with them at their level.
But it's a case where their potential was 30k and now they are rotting on the 3-10k tier.
Vtuber groups need momentum, it's a very important part.
The debut is an initial burst of momentum and every new gen adds momentum. Once you have enough members their sheer weight carries that momentum too.
Hololive JP speedrun through gen 0-1-2-gamers-3 and then slowed down once it had the numbers needed for that momentum to carry, and to avoid saturation or low quality output.
NijisanjiEN did a similar thin, ACCELERATION was a big meme but they were able to build up an entire branch in much less time than Hololive and now they can chill and slow down because that branch is able to function on its own.
You can slow down release of new members over time to adapt to how things go, but if you don't release people at all that's lost time you will never recover, a loss of momentum that will never be recovered.
Once people lose a habit it's hard to get them back.
Gura had 30k stable viewers but she stopped streaming, how many of those 30k will come back if she returns? A lot for sure, but all 30k? Many will just move on and find other stuff to do.
HoloEN has had too many breaks and hiatus and with such a small branch having 1/3 of the members on hiatus, even 2/3 at some point is just too much.
Even Hololie JP can get away with it because if they have 50 members and only 10 are streaming that's still decent, but with 10 members if 6 are on a break you are left with just 4 to choose from.
Independently HoloEN members have also fucked up.
Collabing with males, their utter lack of appreciation for their fans, their negligence streaming consistently, their loss of passion and originality, those have all hurt them too.
As a whole the branch is doing awful but you can still see some members doing worse than others.
Mori and Kronii are the perfect examples of wasted fame and potential.
Meanwhile Mumei and Fauna have managed to rise up and steadily build their own momentum.
Tho to be honest HoloEN members are nowhere near as good as Hololive JP members overall, partially due to numbers. If you have 50 vs 10 of course one side will have more potentially top tier members. But still.
How to save HoloEN?
Debut one gen now, and another gen in only 6 months, raise the total roster to 20
Make sure at least 1/3 of them are hags with hard working discipline so they can keep things going and set a proper example and push the rest.
Lower their base salary. Make it so they have to sell merch and get donations to really make any decent income.
Set a private no male collab rule for any new members with an NDA about it.
Letting male collabs up the the individual member worked in Japan where most of them have common sense, respect for their fans and their job. Out of 50 you get maybe 3 who will do a collab a year, and one Matsuri.
But on EN letting them choose clearly didn't work because they had 50% of the branch throwing away the whole Hololieve: the cute girls company thing.
They also need to put a rule against the members shit talking their audience, like right in the contract under an NDA if they say some snarky passive aggressive spiteful comment towards the audience there need to be serious internal consequences to their income or workload.
Fixing HoloEN isn't easy but it can be done, there's still time.
But it has already been 2 years since Gen 2, and every day the clock is ticking.
