>>88584996NijiEN drew in basically 2 main fanbases.
Western men
>usually ex-holofans>mostly interested in the girls>NA timezoneAsian women
>Kpop fans >mostly interested in the guys>JP/CN timezoneIt was possible for NijiEN to service both these audiences. But in order for that to happen, you'd have to keep the male and female sides relatively separate. The biggest problem the branch faced was an ideology which insisted that mixed-gender content and "owning the incels" was a mandate of Nijisanji. This ideology was being pushed by a few key individuals, most notably Enna, Millie, Reimu, and Luca. It later became apparent that Elira was a major component as well.
The Ethyria girls + Luca were single, and horny, and their interest in mixed-gender content was for impure reasons. Aside from being horny, Ethyria was also getting a huge boost in viewers since they were suffering financially do to their rapid debuts. As for Luca, he was such a creep that he was the only male who streamed in the NA timezone specifically so he could creep on the girls, despite being the only male who would have a convenient time streaming in JST.
Elira for her part seemed to be encouraging everything, and motivated by pure ideology and her kinship with Ethyria.
Other girls looking at Ethyria felt like they were missing out, since they were getting so much attention and popularity. There was huge financial pressure for them to start taking mixed gender ships and cozy up to the males in collabs. They didn't realize in those times that doing so would come at the expense of their loyal male fanbases. Ethyria never had much in that regard to begin with.
It was like Ethyria was "winning the argument" as other girls took the plunge. Most embarrassingly girls like Pomu who is secretly a hardcore numberfag and got a healthy ccv boost out of her associations with Luca.
Management should have stepped in at this point and separated the two sides. Because although the male fanbase was smaller and technically less valuable, there was no value-added by including the girls in fujobaiting streams. The girls were just being leeches, and throwing their loyal male fanbases out to the wolves. In the long term that proved to be a catastrophic mistake, as everyone knows the male fanbase is the most important one in the EN market.
But responsible management is too much to ask for in NijiEN. Not only were they placing the guys on a pedastal, they actually banned the girls from keeping the guys out of their collabs, even if they wanted to. As a result, the branch went months without a single all-girl's collab, as the boys became competitive with each other for the girl's attention. Some all-girls collabs were planned after fanbase demands, but were invaded by the guys almost every time.
The entire purpose of NijiEN at the outset was to penetrate the Western market. To that effect, the girls such as Pomu and Selen were actually the most valuable talents in the company and should have been treated as such. Instead management threw them under the bus and went full-bore with Luxiem and their orbiters Ethyria. They started promoting Enna front and center in all things and made Enna the face of the branch. Mika later related an incident where her own manager started raving about how amazing Enna was out of nowhere.
But by making Enna the most important girl, they were also throwing the male audience under the bus completely. Eventually Pomu was committed to leaving after years of mistreatment. Selen was driven out after reaching her breaking point. It never should have come to this if they were treated with the respect they deserved as diasenpais of the branch. This injustice is put into sharper relief when you realize how many problems Enna was creating --- stirring up drama after drama, insulting her coworkers, being a malignant and malicious little sprocket.
The real solution the entire time was terminating Enna. They had every excuse to do so with her numerous dramas. She was the main factor behind the mixed-gender ideology, as evidenced by the fact she was the only girl whose female audience eclipsed their male audience. If Enna was fired, Millie would probably leave with her, solving more problems. Reimu would straighten up, the male fanbase might have been saved. The Luxnoc fans were always going to move on at some point, but many more of them would have been retained if their boys remained committed to streaming.
The cancellation of the AR live is a notable moment. However this concert was originally supposed to be for Luxnoc only. The hard work of Luxnoc filming the concert was thrown in the trash because the girls, lead by Elira, put their foot down and demanded to be included as well. It never would have manifested like that if the male and female sides were separated, and if the guys weren't simping so hard for the girls that they would lead a protest against management on their behalf.
