【Announcement Regarding Ceres Fauna's Graduation】

Well fuck. My favourite EN member... I think Cover has to do some thinking because there have been many graduations this year, especially the latter half, and disagreement with management is a reason we've heard before
- Yeah, it's understandable that Cover wants to expand and do new things but if the people who are literally responsible for why your company is successful are leaving over it then maybe you need to take a step back and rethink
- Yeah, this doesn't sound great. I wonder if they can change things fast enough to avoid many more graduations at this rate. Cover is no longer a small independent anymore so it might not be that easy to do (and that's IF they see their decisions as problematic).
  I'm really curious how the next year is going to look like in that regards.

So an actual graduation this time, not remaining an affiliate.
This is the first graduation to hit a bit harder for me, Fauna has been one of my favourite members.

This is sad news to wake up to.

Ouch…
And the fact that “disagreement with management” is getting listed more and more as a reason is not a good sign, both because there might genuinely be something wrong happening and because even if there isn’t, the vagueness will let rrats spread more and more.
I wish we could get a bit more insight so we could understand their decision, but I guess this is the best we’ll be able to get (unless some serious Dokibird-tier stuff happens but god I hope that’s limited to Niji).
- They went public. It's always the death knell of your favorite subculture when it goes mainstream. Happened to video games. Happened to anime.
  Cover handled it better then Niji or maybe Niji was always going to have their exodus. Who knows?
  Last night Pippa of Phase connect told her chat that she's explained to her boss that she's walking if Phase ever went public or got bought out.
  
  Yeah, that’s definitely a thing to be considered. And apparently Hololive was started with venture capital so going public was bound to happen sooner or later.
  I’m not knowledgeable enough about the stock market to say if this is feasible or not, but considering this fandom seems to have many people with A LOT of disposable income, is it not possible for them to pool up money and “make it go private again”?
  
  It's never as simple as "They went public, everything is shit now". Kiara talked about that at length in todays stream. Those things don't just happen over night because a company goes public, it happens over years and affects each talent differently.
  I know it feels like people are graduating left and right but the golden age of vtubing is simply coming to an end. People retire not because 'every is shit now', they retire simply because they have been doing this for years and wanna move on to different stuff.
  And for corporate Vtubers, that often just means graduating
- And the fact that “disagreement with management” is getting listed more and more as a reason is not a good sign, both because there might genuinely be something wrong happening and because even if there isn’t, the vagueness will let rrats spread more and more.
  Grandpa Vesper talked about it with his other persona. The root cause is upper management being extremely risk averse, they shoot down 99% of all proposals and don't really let the talents be creative anymore. They want everyone to only chase what's already popular over and over. The Hololive of today would never hire a Subaru, or let a Hachaama arc happen.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyMKVDzlvh8
  And as the other commenter said, they went public. That's always the first step to enshittification.
  
  That could be the cause for some talents (I’m pretty confident it was for Ame), but from other clips (another from Randon/Vesper and especially Laplus talking about Chloe’s decision), to me it looks like behind-the-scenes workload might be a more widespread cause.
  Either way, in both cases it seems like something not worth losing talents over, so addressing this issue should be a no-brainer for Cover, imo (unless there’s a different issue we’re not aware of, hopefully not tied to the good old fucking LineGoUp™).

I think history is going to see Ame leaving as the turning point of Hololive. Where it's meteoric rise and "golden age" came to an end.
Hopefully it's not the beginning of the end, but it's certainly the end of the beginning.
- I think I'd point to Aqua leaving as a turning point, but maybe that's just me

I watched LemonLeaf/Fauna before she joined Hololive and will continue to do so now that she's out again. While I'm sad for her as she genuinely seemed to enjoy her time there and was sad to leave, I'm also excited to see what she will cook up without the corporate oversight hanging over her head at all times.

No black text on a white background. This is concerning because there could be bad news now associated with any correspondence from Cover.
I almost fear Dokibirds success after graduation is almost encouraging streamers to leave hoping they will grow more or something. This is also a concerning potential development.
- I mean if Doki’s success encourages people to go indie, I’d personally see that as a positive. Especially if they feel their agency isn’t providing the same value as when they first joined. What concerns you about this?
  
  Dokibirds success was kinda lightning in a bottle. A talent that greatly benefits from an agency might leave thinking they can repeat Dokis success, only to fail and end up worse off than when they were still with the agency. That is my concern.
- I almost fear Dokibirds success after graduation is almost encouraging streamers to leave
  That doesn't seem to be relevant here though. Fauna clearly said her reason was she disagreed with management. Doki's situation was also unique due to the Kurosanji shenanigans, which caused a lot more traffic to her PL than most others. I think most are well aware.

This is the first graduation that has hit me hard. I've been a long time fan of Fauna, but last year I was going through an extremely stressful time. Fauna and Ironmouse were a source of a lot of comfort for me during that time.
This is actually devastating for me. I hope she makes another debut in some capacity, but her model was one of my favorites in Hololive.
I would have expected this from Gura, but Fauna just came out of nowhere.
Fuck, this hurts.

I didn't see that one coming.
o7