I'm a little sad, a little numb, even a little angry that it had to come to this, but mostly happy that she made the decision to move on to where she'll be happier.
The worst part is knowing it didn't have to be this way. That if things were a little better, and the frustrations that pushed her out didn't exist or were at least mitigated to some extent, she'd still be here. A few of the people who left NijiEN in the last half year or so would probably still be here. It feels wrong, unnatural, that she's gone from Niji. One of the pillars of the branch, a mainstay and probably the most recognizable face of the branch. I'd go as far as to call her the poster girl of the branch, if I had to choose only one. Her leaving under these circumstances is a terrible look no matter how you look at it. Of course everyone leaves eventually, that's something we all have to deal with eventually. But I made my bed in the vtuber community in NijiEN because I was comfortable there. With the people and their characters and how they bounced off one another. Even if they all reincarnate in the same place down the line, that specific vibe, that mixing pot of people and personalities, in that setting? We'll never get that back, and it's a bitter pill knowing it didn't have to be taken from us so soon, if only the company gave a fuck about its talents and actually tried for them, and if only some parts of the fandom weren't pure undiluted cancer. Even if NijiEN gets its shit together, even if a year or two from now it becomes a 10/10 destination vtubing branch, cool, whatever. Would have been nice if it had been like that all along, like it should have been. Would have been nice if Pomu, Nina, and Mysta were here for it. That's a NijiEN they would have deserved to be a part of, having carried the branch on their backs and swallow shit for it for so long.
My venting and coping aside though, in reality, Niji is in the state it's in, and Pomu made the best decision for her and her Pomies to ride off into space when she did. I'm fairly convinced about where she's gonna pop up next, but wherever she does go, I'm happy she made this decision for herself.
