>>77964086Honestly, the branch may not get folded anytime soon. The corpo may be just that stubborn, and JP earns enough to fund EN's attempts to cling to life. Absorbing EN into NijiGlobal won't happen because Riku needs something to exist, even in name only, to pretend he's making a real effort. Most importantly, we may not be seeing graduations (though I'd like to believe we'll get them soon) for a while for a variety of reasons.
With Selen and Pomu gone, the biggest resource suckers in recent memory are now absent and the branch can now distribute the manpower across everyone more evenly. They may actually be experiencing better management and kindness behind the scenes, for all we know. And for this reason, it's likely that the Niji livers will continue to stay with the branch because they're "being supported contrary to what many believe." Aia said as much, anyway.
Assuming the branch does get absorbed as you described, it will mean that the former EN talents will likely get the ID treatment: slowly losing members over time until it's basically a skeleton of the shadow it once was. NijiDefenders will scatter if the branch evaporates; some will follow the talents to their new identities, some will migrate to other fandoms, and others will do as Riku said they would and watch other Niji talents instead. The worst of it really is that the loss of EN makes Riku look like a moron because he has attempted overseas expansion repeatedly only to fail miserably each and every time.
The fact that he had lightning in a bottle and failed to harness it because he didn't know how to maximize its potential speaks volumes of the kind of leadership he brings to the table.
