>>60473886It's been pretty shit. Probably the worst year for vtubing so far.
For HoloJp, At least 2022 had the Rust arc. 2023 has (ironically given the whole Year of the Rabbit thing) been Pekora's worst year. Just endless gacha shit mixed in with fighting games and whatever meme games are happening. HoloX is still everywhere and never feels quite right - except La+ for obvious reasons. Sora chan has admitted she's lost and depressed and struggles knowing what to do outside of her usual Minecraft, singing & Clubhouse 51 rotation. Most other JP's have become more isolated this year from their genmates, although Okayu's company being the highlight of Minecraft was a welcome surprise.
In Holo EN: Gura and Ame are dead. Ina is basically on autopilot (I had hoped after the amazing Dr Oopsie stream, that it was the start of her trying to put some ooomph behind her streams since she's great when she tries - but no). Council has been okay. Fauna is steady, but the whole 'friends' things creates a weird formal distance.
It was a good year for Bae though. She's a master of the 3D form.
Advent are.... okay. Shiori and Nerissa exist. Bijou is okay but fell into the slog game choice cleft pretty quickly. Fuwamoco have the best game choice I've seen since Gura herself, but it's hard to feel like you're hanging out with them, when their sister is in the room. It creates a distance with your audience.
Outside of Holo, 2023 will always be known as the year Nijisanji basically torpedoed itself and lost most of it's credibility with repeated yabs and graduations especially during the first half of the year.
The whole Gen 3 Production Kawaii disaster hurt both groups more than either of them will ultimatly gain I'm actually astonished that PK hasn't filed a lawsuit. It basically stalled that entire company out for the rest of the year, killing what seemed like it could've been the first western idol-friendly company.
VShojo seems to have become comfortable in their role and seem happy to be the main vtubers on Twitch. I don't watch them, but as an outsider, it seems like they had a more-or-less drama free year which is more than you can say for most other groups.
Hopefully 2024 will be better. Hololive will have to decide whether Gura is going to start streaming or get graduated because the current situation is unsustainable and I think it will set the tone. I'll shout out Kanata for potential here. She spent most of this year still rebuilding the image that was still broken from 2022 as being Coco's 'other'. She's largely succeeded. 2024 can be her year if she wants it to be.
