The VTuber Awards 2024 was a huge success, reaching over 90,000 concurrent viewers, but the absence of Hololive has left some fans confused why the industry’s biggest agency wasn’t involved.
While Hololive members managed to win 9 of the show’s 22 awards, none of them provided acceptance speeches or attended the event. Some talents did acknowledge it, with FUWAMOCO hosting a celebration stream after winning VTuber of the Year, but they were not present at the event itself.
Event host and Twitch streamer Filian has provided insight into why: “Basically, there’s a lot of interest from the talents. However, the problem is that when it comes to an awards show and all of the laws between Japan and the US, it’s a complicated situation, so we couldn’t have it this year.”
With the revelation that laws are the main culprit behind Hololive’s absence and not the company itself, Filian then expressed, “However, for next year, we are going to see if we can figure it out. It’s a show for everybody, so I’m hoping that next year we can have them on.”
Hololive could feature in next year’s event
Given this statement, there is a good chance that Hololive and its parent company, Cover Corporation, could feature in The VTuber Awards 2025, assuming both sides can overcome legal issues.
As for what these problems are, Japan has regulations that mean if an award show states that someone is the best at something, like the “Best VTuber,” they need to have factual evidence to back that up.
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Of course, that’s difficult to do when the show itself is essentially just a popularity contest where fans get to vote on whoever they like. FUWAMOCO weren’t necessarily voted VTuber of the Year using any objective metric, but rather just because people really like them.
A potential fix to this could be to rename categories. For example, “Best VTuber” becomes “Fan-favorite VTuber,” stating outright that the winners are decided by fan votes and nothing else.
However, there is no guarantee that this will be enough, as Japan’s laws can be awfully strict. The odds of this causing issues at The VTuber Awards are low but not zero, and that’s seemingly too much of a risk for Cover at this moment.
Only time will tell what solution Filian will settle on, but the host’s comments at least give Hololive fans hope that their favorite agency could make an appearance next year.
