So, I am not sure what to think about the open auditions thing yet. It has always been not a VShojo thing to do auditions, but I wonder if what I predicted a while back is starting to come true. I said that with the expansion of Niji-EN, Holo-EN Gen 2, and with the smaller upstarts like Tsunderia et al, and with the biggest boogeyman incoming at Sony, that VShojo might be forced to try to snatch up talents to stay competitive and / or to keep some talents from getting into other agencies. Another thing we've talked about ad nauseum is that we don't really KNOW how VShojo does their recruiting. Is it just invites? Is it just all nepotism? Do they wait for people to ask to join VShojo or do they reach out? To date, having 7 strong members (and Hime), has worked just fine based on the original 5 members coming together shortly before forming VShojo and then Apricot debuting soon after, Hime months later, and Veibae being the only addition post formation (the other 7 were all planned at time of launch). One new member has joined and we are a little over 3 months away from their 1 year anniversary. They have had other candidates they could have invited on the nepotism line, but heretofore either haven't or have been rejected depending on whose rumors you believe. Where this has left VShojo is in an interesting place. Have any other people even asked VShojo or members of VShojo if they can join? Or are they unsure of how to go about it? VShojo is just a talent agency that represents their members, but how does one become a member? Maybe there are dozens of indie vtubers who want to join but have no idea how to go about that. Maybe they, like us, think you have to be friends with the existing members before you can, so they've never even inquired. Maybe they're intimidated by the big numbers and think that as a smaller streamer they have no place to even ask.
Thus, VShojo is doing themselves a big favor here in two ways: they're going to try to snatch up talents before Sony / Niji / HL / Whomever snatches up more and they're now letting everybody know that there is a process in place where they can join VShojo without any of the speculative nepotism / friendship requirement. I am sure that existing familiarity with VShojo members will HELP (nepotism is still a thing), but now a regular streamer with no ties can give it a shot. We'll see what comes of this. The process will not be nearly as important as the results. The most telling part is on the Reddit page:
"We are looking for people with experience already in streaming regardless of size, and you’re welcome to apply if you’re already a debuted VTuber too."
So they want experienced STREAMERS, but you don't necessarily have to be a VTUBER already. This is also an opening for people who do IRL but wanting to convert to vtubing. Casting that kind of net out there means they could get a massive influx of people, as more and more established streamers contemplate the vtubing route. I note that there has not been a stated limit on how many people will be accepted into VShojo. It is possible they don't know yet themselves. If they get 20 really good candidates, would they refuse any? If they're REALLY GOOD you want them, right? Refusing them could mean they go to another agency later, so there's a risk in all of this. If the accepted are all just friends of VShojo already then the auditions are kind of a sham as nepotism wins the day. If they accept complete unknowns, then we'll know they were serious about expanding the brand with quality talent.
