>>5690353Kizuna was a trailblazer but never got big in the routine of constant live streaming, being much more of a premade show handled by a team, often literally just reading scripts etc. She's like the Myspace of vtubers, the first big breakout but as it turned out her setup was not destined to remain the meta as the big-winner formula.
I remember she'd get posted on /v/ semi-often and such and forced in when doable and I mean people generally liked her randumb humor and snarky 4th wall breaking type stuff - but this wasn't done with live audiences and not improvised so was kind of a transition point between completely pre-made/scripted things like anime and mostly improv live streamed stuff where they literally can interact with the audience like today.
Due to her being the first big name with her permanent seniority, and both inoffensive generally but also controllable inherently as a character, vs a live person who has the potential to say the wrong thing or run their mouth in a stream and demolish their reputation? She's just a better sell to corporate sponsor type stuff as there's zero risk of and she's got the recognition for brand promotions that they'd want. I guarantee for years the pitch is always "she's the world's biggest vtuber!!" going off the subcount. Soon, within a fucking week, that sales pitch dies. She'll still be around of course but now basically everyone including Japanese corpos have to come to terms with the fact she's a has-been.
On the other hand Gura is not likely to go do a bunch of Japanese sponsorship stuff for shoes or a Lawson or whatever once those people go after her for having the "world's biggest vtuber" crown, since she's a foreigner and it'd be weird for them to promote someone who doesn't actually speak Japanese and many Japanese can't understand well at all. So it's likely Ai's marketing reach will probably remain pretty strong anyway.
