Zentreya fires back at “heartbreaking” VShojo nepotism claims

VTuber Zentreya's Live 2D model that she first debuted in 2023.VShojo

Zentreya has been criticized after VShojo began auditions for its next member, with some of the community questioning the VTuber agency’s hiring process, to which she has now fired back.

VShojo is made up of 12 active members, with most of them having backgrounds as either successful indie streamers, or graduating from other VTuber agencies like Hololive and Nijisanji.

This hiring pattern has led the VTuber community to question the company’s hiring process, with the most-liked reply on a Reddit thread sharing the VShojo auditions expressing, “Interesting, seems they were really pushing for really anyone to apply…wouldn’t be surprised if it still is a medium to large indie vtuber that is chosen, however.”

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This and other comparable remarks, with some going as far as to accuse VShojo of nepotism, have led Zentreya to defend herself on X/Twitter, “Heartbreaking and disheartening to see so many people pushing the idea of ‘Zen friends only’ when each person I found had to work their way to the top regardless.”

Insisting that these claims against her are baseless, Zentreya continued, “I even pushed management to open auditions again finally after so long and to scout for new and upcoming people to mesh with.”

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She went on to concede, “Then I came to a realization that even if we bring in a new person, people will claim we focused on new people instead of helping others who are halfway to success,” believing that she would be criticized regardless of VShojo’s chosen approach.

Zentreya’s statement closed with her asserting, “Management and Gunrun are working their butts off,” before encouraging people to apply and “put in the work” like she did, with Zentreya’s streaming activities dating back to 2017, three years before VShojo was founded.

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When it comes to VShojo, it is difficult to predict who they will hire, with the application not even detailing how many talents they intend to add to the roster. Equally, the agency’s once presumed female-only rule was thrown out after K9Kuro joined, following his adventures elsewhere.

While traditionally they have hired talents with larger followings, Zentreya’s post suggests that smaller content creators may have a big chance to land a spot this time around. Applicants will know if they have been successful on August 6, with an official announcement following sometime after.

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