As if the world needs more scumbag companies to stiff people, here comes a talent agency that has managed to do exactly that with what amounts to fraudulent behavior including other bad things such as doxxing their roster of talent. VShojo has also managed to speedrun how quickly one can damage its own reputation (I write this only having learned about the company – see next paragraph).
I first need to preface this by mentioning that I’m very much not into the VTuber scene (like I’ve never really followed/watched this genre of content creators except when AI Kizuna was the major thing years ago), and thus have a very cursory view of who the top talent are in this space. Like I’ve heard of Ironmouse but that is about it (just the name). I also fully understand why some choose this route to do content (anonymity and privacy being key). I also had to look up what VShojo was… I’ll just link to the Wikipedia entry.
American talent agency that focuses on promoting VTuber content creators based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2020 as the first major VTuber agency fully based in North America, VShojo bills itself as a “talent first” agency, oriented towards providing resources (such as models, merchandising, and advertisement opportunities) to its talent.
I saw only a few videos pop into my recommendations regarding VShojo where curiosity got the better of me… instead of clicking the videos though (since I knew what that would do to my feed), I did a quick search and read KnowYourMeme’s overview of the situation. I then jumped onto my other browser to watch the embedded Ironmouse video and was left disgusted by how this talent agency (VShojo) could screw over their talent in such a way (and bilking a charity is the definition of repulsive conduct).
I get it. Saw this happen with those lesser known idol talent agencies in Japan where they would have those “scouts” find those looking to break into the geinokai (where their naivety of the business realities leads them into being taken advantage by contracts that aren’t written in their best interests, being led on by false promises, and generally other terrible behavior by the men that are usually the heads of these operations). A talent places their trust with these agencies and in the case of these VTubers, a whole lot more since their anonymity/privacy is a key component where they are also allowing this agency to manage their finances (and in Ironmouses case, ensuring that money raised for charity drives are properly paid out; in her case, $500,000 in revenue to be donated to a charity that is important to her).
I fully empathize with her situation (her chronic illness, her trying this format for content creation, being very successful and placing her trust with this agency to manage affairs). Trust once broken is VERY difficult to get back. Relationships fall apart because trust is broken on many different levels including finances. And I can only imagine how many of these VTubers must feel given the revelation of what their managing agency has been doing behind their backs.
People (at the company) need to face accountability for this. There is fraudulent behavior in this particular case (where did that half-a-million go?) Executives have long been able to get away with criminal conduct unfortunately because there are two different tiers of justice across the board. I dislike that drama like this even exists but as we’ve seen, money leads to corrupt behavior/practices. In this case (with so many VTuber’s leaving VShojo and opening up about their own experiences), things do not look good for VShojo. Part of me wonders of how much the company will try to double down on trying to downplay this/not take upfront accountability. Like everything else, time will tell.
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