Hololive Kiryu Coco Incident Notes, while refuting "Kiryu Coco graduated and retired, proving the horror of anti-human civilization consumption actions"

It is estimated that the first reaction of many people when they see this title is probably stunned. What is Hololive, who is Kiryu Coco, and what is a virtual anchor?

Many people who are in the event, or who have been paying attention to this matter, are easy to ignore a key issue: after all, Vtuber is a relatively small circle; the Kiryu Coco event was once in the virtual anchor circle. High-intensity conflicts that are known to everyone, but people outside the circle do not have a high degree of understanding and attention to these matters; things that are fiercely contested by the two parties involved may not attract attention to people outside the circle, Even seem ridiculous. After all, even in the ACG circle, the virtual anchor circle is easy to be at the lower level of the discrimination chain and belongs to the existence of being ridiculed.

The main purpose of the author's "writing" this time is to refute the nonsense article "Kiryu Coco's graduation and retirement, which proves the horror of anti-human civilization consumption actions" written by @Hu Qigan. Many of the basic facts cited in the article confuse black and white, and there are fundamental problems in the author's understanding and judgment of the incident, and the results obtained are naturally ridiculous. The author of the article is a self-proclaimed advocate of universal values. After the author sent only one reply, the author was blocked by a "little pink" hat, which is an ostrich.

From another point of view, although the incident this time was limited to a very small circle, it was indeed a political controversy. The high-intensity conflict between the online community inside the wall and the online community outside the wall should also have a certain impact on the future situation. reference meaning.

The previous answerer on Zhihu gave a very complete introduction to the event , but there are still problems with some specific details. Most of this article is for transportation, and slightly modified.

Virtual anchor (Vtuber) : Vtuber's full name is Virtual Youtuber, which is generally realized through facial capture/3D motion capture to control 2D/3D models as video bloggers or anchors of character images. The earliest use of the word Vtuber was on Youtube in 2016. It is recognized as the world's first Vtuber, Kizuna AI. Later, the word Vtuber was also used to refer to various platforms other than Ytb (such as Bilibili, Twitch) virtual streamer

Hololive : The virtual anchor project of Japanese motion capture company Cover. So far, more than 40 anchors have been active at the same time, and the revenue is firmly at the top of Ytb. In the most exaggerated case, there will be 9 anchors in the top ten Ytb income. Also from Hololive.

As a background, it must be mentioned that Hololive has a very deep connection with the Chinese mainland market. In the second half of 2018 in the early days of Hololive, Japan's local virtual anchor market was still in the "Warring States Period" among the people in the circle. At most, there were more than 8,000 virtual anchors active on Ytb at the same time, and there was E company (ENUM), The Rainbow Club, the "Four Heavenly Kings" and other behemoths, there are groups of individuals and small boxes under the activity, Hololive is facing huge operating pressure. After some emojis and recordings and clips became viral in some communities in mainland China, Hololive decisively decided to sign a contract with station B and officially settled in, becoming the earliest virtual anchor project outside the wall in mainland China.

Correspondingly, Chinese mainland partners have also provided a lot of support for Hololive. For example, through the Bilibili booth, Hololive members were able to participate in the Nico Super Conference for the first time in 2019; games such as World of Warships and Azur Lane provided Hololive with linkage planning; various activities at Station B are naturally indispensable for Hololive. The revenue in the Chinese mainland market will undoubtedly help Hololive to stand firmly in the Japanese domestic market, and will provide support for the development of Europe and the United States in the future. On the eve of the incident, although the frequency of Hololive’s live broadcasts in mainland China has shrunk for more than half a year (for example, from 30 times in May 2020 to less than 10 times in August), the Chinese mainland market rewards on the books still account for more than half a year. 20% of the total

More importantly, fans in mainland China, especially the members of the subtitle group, have made great contributions to the development of Hololive. They continue to be responsible for channel operations, editing and translating videos, performing simultaneous interpretation during live broadcasts, and even producing MVs (the most typical example is the subtitle group produced for anchors such as Comet Star Street) without any monetary return. The "Saga Incident" MV , as of writing, has had more than 1100w views, more than three times that of the original). Fans also spontaneously contributed a lot of 2nd creation videos, some of which were excellent works were transferred to Ytb, which helped Hololive to develop on the Ytb platform to a certain extent. Including the Hololive page on Reddit, which was first created by users in mainland China

Kiryu Coco : The fourth-year student recruited by Hololive, the person in the middle (can be understood as an actor) KSON is Japanese-American, so his English level is significantly better than most of the Hololive members. Before the incident, Kiryu Coco was the world's highest-paid anchor , and in 2020, he received more than 150 million yen in rewards on Youtube. Before the incident, its representative live show "Good Morning Coco" was extremely popular . Although there is an official channel at station B, there are only personal video clips in the channel. Because Kiryu Coco himself has never broadcast live directly on station B, his income in the mainland Chinese market is negligible . It must be pointed out that Kiryu Coco has long been known for his controversial words and deeds in the live broadcast, such as the earlier "Inhaled Good Morning Coco", and the "awakening agent" "Holometh" after the incident, and I have never been to these. Questions were answered.

Before the incident:

The incident isn't the first time Hololive members have stepped on the radar for touching on political issues. In March, Minato Akuya was reported after talking about topics related to "tw" and "pearl milk tea" , and was banned from the live channel by station B, which was soon unblocked. In June, Yuyue Qiaoke encountered a multiple-choice question that listed Tibet as a country in a linked live broadcast, which resulted in the ban of the live channel of station B for one month; Cover and Yuyue Qiaoke issued an announcement on the same day to apologize , saying that they would teach artists. Understand the relevant sensitive issues (but the live broadcast room of Bilibili has never been broadcast again after the fact). In August 2020, Baigui Ayame suspected of juxtaposing China and Taiwan in the SC reading session, which caused controversy , but was not dealt with in any way.

September 20, 2020:

Kiryu Coco made some strange remarks in the live broadcast of the day:

After the incident, the audience was surprised to find that the situation of this incident and the remarks of Kiryu Coco on the day almost perfectly corresponded, and the remarks of the day were considered to be "criminal notices" in the future.

September 24:

In the evening, under the question of the audience, Akai Xin, a member of Hololive, read out the proportion of his own SC income source provided by Ytb in the live broadcast. The chart uses the term " higher country ". In Japan, "country" can be used to refer to "region" or "country", but in Chinese, "country" can only be used to refer to "country". In the English version of the chart, "上の国" is directly translated into "the top countries" . Taiwan is listed separately in the chart, so it is quickly and officially understood by mainland China as an indirect insinuation of "Taiwan is an independent country." (In this guge-supported website, Hong Kong and Macau are listed as countries. A few weeks after the incident, guge has corrected its expression, "higher country" -> "higher region", "the top countries"- > "the top geographies")

Although no chart was released directly, the juxtaposition of "Taiwan" with other countries quickly sparked controversy. The official station B announced that night that Akai Xin's Bilibili channel will be suspended for one month. The controversial video was later deleted, but neither Hololive nor Akai Xin responded immediately.

Although the "poor supervision of Cover" has been dissatisfied by many people, most mainland Chinese viewers believe that Akai's behavior is unintentional. The official subtitle team also quickly appeased the audience .

September 25:

In the morning, Kiryu Coco released her new issue of "Good Morning Coco". Compared with Akai Xin who read out the chart information, Kiryu Coco directly released the chart also from guge in the form of pictures, showing his own statistics, among which Taiwan is also listed (Ytb recording and broadcasting have cut the relevant pictures after the re-release. ). Officials at station B immediately banned Kiryu Coco's channel for one month (then changed to permanent ban).

The incident aroused strong dissatisfaction among netizens in mainland China. In the case that Akai Xin had been banned from the channel the day before, Kiryu Coco stepped on the same issue again the next day, and most people could not believe that this was just a coincidence. Many people highly suspect that Kiryu Coco is deliberately provoking mainland Chinese netizens. A certain number of mainland Chinese netizens expressed dissatisfaction on platforms such as Bluebird or made personal attacks on Kiryu Coco.

The incident also sparked a backlash outside mainland China. On platforms such as 404, Bluebird, Hongdi, 5ch, Baja, PTT, etc., there have been a large number of political attacks against mainland China and users in mainland China. Some believe Kiryu Coco has no political stance at all. Another part of users believed that Kiryu Coco's behavior showed his support for the political position of Taiwan independence, and called for solidarity with Kiryu Coco. Highly provocative words such as zhina and west taiwan appeared very frequently, and a large number of users expressed their support for Taiwan independence more bluntly, which further angered the audience in mainland China.

September 26:

On the same day and the day before, Kiryu Coco did not respond to the contact of Bilibili's official subtitle team, and there is still no explanation for the incident.

The continued unresponsiveness of Kiryu Coco and Cover further intensified the conflict. In the absence of explanations provided by the parties, all parties responded in accordance with their own convincing explanations. More mainland Chinese viewers were angered, and the number of people who expressed support for Kiryu Coco continued to increase; under the situation that people with political positions continued to pour in to express criticism and support, Kiryu Coco and Cover were actually lined up, and the incident was further politically charged. change.

September 27:

Bilibili officially announced that the live channels of all members of Hololive will be suspended for one month on Bilibili (these channels have never been used by the anchor for live broadcast again).

Cover issued two statements on the same day, apologizing to the outside world and announcing the punishment of Akai Shin and Kiryu Coco for three weeks off the air. Many viewers in mainland China believe that Akai was unintentionally and was punished too heavily, while Kiryu Coco deliberately provoked and was punished too lightly. In the eyes of viewers who support Kiryu Coco, the punishment for Akai Shin and Kiryu Coco is Cover's submission to the censorship in mainland China.

Cover's previous statement is only available in Chinese and published only on Bilibili. "Cover always insists on respecting China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, ... and firmly upholds the one-China principle," the statement said. The latter statement is available in both Chinese and Japanese. The Chinese version of the statement is only published on Bilibili, and the Japanese version is only published on Twitter and the company's official website. In the Chinese version, "acts that damage the feelings of the people in some areas" corresponds to "acts that damage nationalism" in the Japanese version (やナショナリズムの䁫機けた言行など) .

Both mainland Chinese users and users who support Kiryu Coco believe that Cover's inconsistent statements are disrespectful to themselves: in the eyes of the vast majority of mainland Chinese netizens, it is extremely offensive to describe the anti-Taiwan independence field as "nationalism". The apology is pointless ; and in the opinion of many viewers who support Kiryu Coco, Cover should not support mainland China positions such as "one China".

September 30:

Cover made another statement. The statement is only published on Bluebird and the company's official website, and there is almost no difference between the Chinese and Japanese versions. Key information points include:

"This (Chinese) statement is only a Chinese translation of the Japanese version, and is only for reference in understanding the Japanese statement. If there is any discrepancy between the Chinese translation and the Japanese statement, the Japanese statement shall prevail."

"1. Following the violation of the company's articles of association (publishing trade secret data), there has been a large amount of defamatory and personal threats to the artists under the Hololive group (on the Internet). As a solution, we have removed the video related to the incident."

"2. However (after we took action) the situation did not improve. According to the company's internal charter, we issued a statement and announced that the relevant artist will be punished."

“3. Regarding the official statement (in Chinese), we have carefully discussed (the current situation) with our local partner companies in China. We have been told that a strong statement must be issued to guarantee the business activities of companies and artists in China. "

"4. Considering the above situation, we have chosen to issue a statement promptly after the incident for the safety of the artist and related personnel in the first place..."

Summary: The dissatisfaction of netizens in mainland China is seen as "defamation and personal threats" (three weeks before the attack on Kiryu Coco's live broadcast room), the suspension is to protect the artist rather than punish, the Chinese apology statement is based on The request of the Chinese partner does not represent the company's view

Summary: The apology statement on the 27th was basically overturned; and according to Cover's statement, mainland Chinese netizens and mainland Chinese partners should be primarily responsible for this incident .

The incident has now entered into a situation that is completely irreversible. The vast majority of mainland Chinese netizens no longer accept any explanation. A large number of netizens sought organized cyber brute force attacks on Kiryu Coco and Cover. Many well-known bloggers (even some of the anchors Hololive recruited in China) publicly denounced Kiryu Coco and Cover's guilt, and even personally encouraged viewers to participate in the confrontation. A large number of mainland Chinese netizens seek to pollute the Twitter related tags of Kiryu Coco. The confrontation continues to this day.

October 18:

Akai Shin and Kiryu Coco's live broadcast restrictions are officially over. Cover made another announcement, announcing that it would seek legal sanctions for personal attacks against the streamer.

Since most of the members of Hololive expressed their support for Kiryu Coco and its rebroadcast (the main reason), most of the Chongguo subtitle group chose to delete the manuscripts in the channel in a large area, and disbanded the subtitle group to express protest.

On the same day, Kiryu Coco's return live broadcast was subjected to a large number of cyber violence attacks ("rushing locusts"). Mainland Chinese users participating in the confrontation began to use scripts (“unicycles”) to flood the chat room with irrelevant content to disrupt the live broadcast. Attacks and counterattacks in live chat rooms continue to this day.

For more than a month after the incident, at the end of each live broadcast of Kiryu Coco, Kiryu Coco posted a picture of "Fuck U and never come back", which further angered many mainland Chinese netizens.

June 9, 2021: Cover announced that Kiryu Koko will graduate on July 1. So far, the confrontation between the inside and outside of the wall over this incident has lasted for nearly 9 months

Here's a response to @Hu Qigan 's article:

Because Kiryu Coco had a video earlier, where he shared where his audience came from, and also listed Taiwan as a region. As a result, the angry youth of the CCP who took xenophobia as their spiritual food found an excuse to vent, and they went out to slander Kiryu Coco and insult China. , the result was a major setback for the operator Hololive's plan to enter China

The logic is totally wrong. In mainland China, Taiwan independence is a violation of the Anti-Secession Law. On September 24th, it was the official of station B who banned Akai Xin’s account. On September 25th, it was the official of station B who banned Kiryu Coco’s account . In the case that Cover did not make a reasonable apology at all, it was the official of station B who decided that Hololive had no way to return to station B. Hololive had to completely withdraw from the Chinese mainland market. Even if there was no attack from the "angry youth", it was the inevitable result of the official handling.

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Operator Hololive was forced to rush to retire after China's VTuber graduates

Reverse black and white. The members of Hololive CN were directly abandoned by Cover during the incident, and received the support of almost all people in mainland China, including the locust fighters . The copyright of the virtual anchor image is in Cover's hands. At first, these team members thought they could leave Hololive with the virtual anchor image directly. After that, Cover directly set a sky-high price, causing all members to graduate. After Minato Aqua's S10 abolition case was released, the one who rushed to the front to explain the ins and outs of the incident to passersby was the most popular Arya in Holo CN. After these people graduated, except for someone who was confirmed to be a pua fan, the other five made their debut at station B and were very popular. These people are the innocent victims of the incident, and they have always stood in the trenches with the mainstream opinions of the Chinese mainland community.

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I believe that Kiryu Coco was retired after graduation, perhaps because the actuary of the operator Hololive, according to calculations, believed that the opportunity cost of abandoning Kiryu Coco was much smaller than the gain or loss of the CCP’s angry youth market, so she had to sacrifice her.

Many operators or companies are afraid of gaining or losing China's angry youth, which has nothing to do with the so-called socialism and left-wing of the CCP. This is exactly in line with the logic of capitalism, because the CCP is the second economy in the world and has huge consumption power (on paper). It is precisely because of this that they have the privilege of committing murders based on nationalism. In order to open up the CCP’s market, countries have to swallow their voices, and sometimes even kill Kiryu Coco like Hololive.

Therefore, Hololive seeks to develop in the global market, it will not tolerate its own VTuber gain or lose any market, even if the VTuber is very popular in a certain regional market, if these VTuber offend a certain market and affect the revenue rate of the global market, Hololive will deal with the VTuber the same way it dealt with Kiryu Coco this time. What Hololive seeks is to take everything big and small. For the sake of the CCP market, Kiryu Coco can only graduate and retire.

Unfounded false guesses.

The above is a list of the frequency of Hololive's limited live broadcast on Bilibili. The live broadcast of Hololive anchors at station B is divided into two types: the live broadcast limited to station B, and the live broadcast broadcast by Ytb. In the latter case, the anchor has no way to interact with users of station B, so the income of a single live broadcast will also be greatly reduced. It is not difficult to see that the frequency of Hololive's live broadcast at station B is much lower than that of YouTube. When the frequency is the highest, it averages less than once a day. In fact, many members who live broadcast at station B broadcast live at station B about once a month. Not to mention some members (such as Kiryu Coco) who have never performed B-restricted live broadcasts ; after the fourth phase of Hololive was born near New Year's Day in 2020, the frequency of B-restricted live broadcasts did not increase at all, and it has been maintained at a very low level since June. It even gradually declined. The debut of Hololive's 5th phase in mid-August did not change this situation. This was the situation before the 9.25 accident. In the case of a sharp decline in the frequency of the B limit, Hololive's SC income at station B has also dropped to a very low level . In August 2020, except for Baishang Fuxue's one-person station B's SC is more than Ytb SC, other members' Ytb SC are significantly higher At station B, SC, and the SC obtained by Hololive at station B probably accounts for less than 20% of the total. If you attach so much importance to the Chinese market, why do you maintain such a low frequency of live broadcasts and let the audience's money not be earned?

Combined with the situation reported by the subtitle group (continuously unable to contact the anchor through official docking, or even losing the project book), the situation is very clear: it was Cover's own decision to give up the mainland Chinese market, and it was a strategy determined before the event broke out .

What's more, under the current circumstances, it is almost impossible for Hololive to return to China .

First of all, the graduation of Kiryu Coco itself is not the most critical issue of the Kiryu Coco incident. What completely caused the incident to be irreparable was the "nationalism" expressed in the announcement on September 27, and the statement on the 30th that he was "requested to apologize", referring to an apology. Not a sincere statement; Kiryu's graduation is no guarantee until these two key issues are resolved.

What's more, at the moment, Hololive's re-entry into the Chinese market is unfortunate . In the case of a large number of fans willing to work white jobs, Cover's behavior of patting the butt and leaving was a serious injury. And the incident has developed so far, the Kiryu Cocoa incident has been completely politicized, and any move by Hololive can cause fire on both sides.

Regarding the reason for graduation, Kiryu Coco's own explanation is as follows:

If I can't laugh, everyone can't laugh; so if I want everyone to laugh, I have to keep smiling; but now I can't, so that's why . Yes this is the reason.

Many people may have found that I can't do many live broadcasts that I wanted to do before (Note: For example, in the early days, Kiryu Coco attracted a large number of European and American fans to a large extent, and it was also the "Good Morning Coco" that broke out. If I remember correctly, this year This column was canceled at the beginning of the year) Of course, this is an environmental change, which is understandable.

I graduated from hololive not that hololive is gone, it's not anyone's fault, it's not who's problem, what should I say... I graduated from hololive please don't blame anyone. Everyone is right, I really don't care about this, but if I can't laugh, everyone can't laugh, then it's meaningless; if everyone looks at it with that kind of eyes, it's mine responsibility .

Yes, I think a lot, really think a lot . thank you all. I really thought about it a lot, and I also talked to the operation and talked many times . I really appreciate the operation of this environment for me. Members too, thank you very much. Please don't criticize anyone, it's just that I'm in the exact opposite direction of my operational efforts . This should be my problem. After all, I have brought a lot of trouble to everyone, and it has really brought a lot of trouble to the operation (Note: The most conservative direction can be understood as a polite word). I'm really sorry. It's not who's problem.

It's like a band, disagreeing about the direction . ...[Barrage: It's like a musical divergence] Yeah, that's about it. Not that it's anyone's fault.

So, I was right, the operation was right, and the members were right. Maybe the timing was just wrong . Maybe it is more difficult for everyone to accept it now, so I will not stop anyone who wants to criticize. Maybe I really haven't kept up with the times . ......

Tried a lot of methods, what are the possibilities. Considered a lot, and made a lot of proposals, together with ppt, such as how about this, how about that. Really many... proposals. ......

The idea of graduation has been considered since the beginning of this year, but it has not been said, and the excuse of "I haven't said it yet" has been kept in my mind . I worked hard to create these contents, but now the environment has changed, it is not the same environment as before . ......

Graduation is really sad. I really don't want to graduate. To be honest, I really don't want to graduate . ......

To be honest, I... Because of the corporate situation, I can't tell you everything. So I can only try frantically on the edge, but I don't want to lie to everyone. I don't want to lie to everyone who supports me, so I can only convey what I can't say to everyone in the best way possible. ......

Combining various data to give the possible aspects:

1. Continued cyber brute force attacks put pressure on the active environment . Regardless of the massive amount of black mud on Twitter, Kiryu Coco's live broadcast room is repeatedly in a tug-of-war between "unicycles" (and their derivatives) and wrenches. Since April 23 this year, Kiryu Coco’s live broadcast room has been observed to use a new defense mechanism, because it is largely based on the IP of the user who sent the message. It is considered to be the proof of the official end of the tubing; The mechanism called the "Iron Curtain" actually greatly reduces the pressure of "rushing locusts". However, according to the principle of "turning fire", when Kiryu Coco is linked with other live broadcasters, if Kiryu Coco's live broadcast room is "immovable" (member-limited/Iron Curtain), then the "rushing locust" should concentrate firepower to attack and Kiryu The live broadcast room of cocoa-linked anchors; due to the lack of synchronization between the blacklist and the entry, "turning the fire" can often achieve better results, effectively isolating the linkage between Kiryu Coco and the anchors outside the company, and also brings other members in Hololive. realistic pressure. Regardless of whether you are a fan of Hololive or not, as long as you talk about the live broadcast of Kiryu Coco, everyone will think of the meeting limit and the unicycle like a conditioned reflex, and this is one of the goals that the participants hope to achieve.
2. Kiryu Coco's own mental stress. In the new year, I was emotionally broken under the attack of the script
3. Holorisk , any company with a presence in China that wishes to partner with Hololive, must consider additional risks. See the business case of ASUS and Hololive in 2020. ASUS Japan announced a collaboration with members of Hololive. After that, ASUS China immediately condemned, and the business was canceled within 6 hours.
4. Political labelling issues . After the incident, Cover has actually been marked with the political label of "against mainland China"; although its political orientation is almost the same as its income base, during the continuous confrontation of Internet platforms outside the wall, Cover's political label has actually continued. The state of being intensified (repeatedly pulled out during the confrontation process, making it difficult to calm down), and a very strong political label is a long-term risk for entertainment groups that should abide by political neutrality

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For example, even if Kiryu Coco was not criticized and humiliated China because of the Taiwan issue this time; if one day, the angry youth of the CCP thought that Kiryu Coco would not accept their great sage (National Security Law issue, inconvenient to name) rape is humiliating China, and then Criticism and fighting in groups, do you accept it again?

The author deliberately avoids the most crucial question: as a business, especially an entertainment company, Cover should not be involved in politics, and should keep in mind to remain politically neutral . Regardless of the source of the data, you have sent the wrong information to your audience. The direct executor of the violation is you, and you should apologize . The specific responsibility is another question, not to mention that the request for apology is not expected to be borne by Cover. more responsibility. Heart-to-heart, if a company calls Tsai Ing-wen the governor of Taiwan Province, and apologizes, claiming that "because his words and deeds have damaged separatism and aroused the anger of some people, so I apologize here", would you accept such an "apology"? ".

As citizens of mainland China, we clearly understand the maliciousness of the outside world against us. The "angry youth" in your mouth has never asked every foreign company that comes to China to sign a letter of guarantee, put in a certificate, and support all of the Diaoyu Islands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, South China Sea, and Tibet, and then allow them to do business, cooperate, and communicate. When doing things on a site, you must abide by the rules of the site; managers know that your views are likely to be different from theirs, but you have the right to remain silent; if you say something wrong, managers will give priority to cold treatment and apologize Indicates neutrality, the problem is solved; violated the rules, sorry, please leave. This kind of practice is the case in any country in the world, not the patent of the CCP.