LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 31 – A New Idol Unit First
To be honest, I didn’t really know that much about the idol world or culture in my previous world. Even though the idol I was aware of may only be AKB-48 and that they have a branch in my country, I also read a manga called AKB-49, which I found very interesting.
Ah, I thought I knew other idol groups even though they are from Korea, such as Blackpink and BTS, although the latter is more often said to be a boy band.... because they often become advertising ambassadors in my country.
You could even say that all my knowledge about idols came mostly from manga and anime. One of them was, of course, from Oshi no Ko. The thing that caught my attention was the words in the manga where usually idols will stop when they reach the age of 30, or in other words …
In other words, Ai, who turned twenty-five this year, only had five years before retiring as an idol. Although I do not think Ai needs to think much as she is already famous enough to work other jobs in the entertainment world.
The reason why this started to become a topic of conversation is that the B-Komachi group was getting older, so of course there was talk of creating a new, younger idol group. If I am not mistaken, B-Komachi disbanded in the original manga four years after Ai's death.
"Yeah, but it became difficult to find another gem." Ichigo expressed his opinion when he stopped by after talking about a job for Ai.
"Haha… Sorry, it looks like my talent is just too good…" Ai responded with her own confidence and humor. Even so, what she said may be true.
However, Ichigo's face did not look very happy... and he began to speak once again.
"Besides, lately it seems that the interest of children in becoming idols has decreased a little..."
"Really…?" Ai tilted her head in disbelief at Ichigo's words.
"Yeah… And that’s thanks to technological advances... Some youngsters must change their perception and more likely want to become YouTubers or V-tuber."
"Ah… Miyako's internet sector really exploded with those V-tubers and Hololive. Isn't that good?"
"Yes, but that's the reason our resources are split in two. So are the talents who are interested in joining this company. Most of them are interested in becoming V-tubers rather than Idols."
"That’s because you focused too much on B-Komachi and didn’t make another idol group for so long… Of course, people don’t have that much faith when they see those kinds of records…" Miyako told Ichigo with such a stern tone.
"Ugh... It's hard to manage B-Komachi, especially when I'm constantly trying to maintain balance and not make some members jealous of each other… Also, we're the biggest agency in V-Tuber, while still a relatively small agency in the Idol…" Ichigo sighed and was disappointed with the reality of what was happening at Strawberry Pro. It wasn’t that bad, it’s just human greed. Even though he had been successful, he still wanted more, of course.
Especially in this world, what Ichigo said is true: Strawberry Pro was the pioneer when talking about V-tubers in this world, which will most likely emulate the success of Hololive in my past life.
Within three years, Strawberry had three generations and one overseas in Indonesia, and early next year, the first En Generation would finally be launched. I didn’t think we were different from Hololive, especially in design or how to operate.
Well, the difference would be that when we announced this project, it felt like more buzz than Hololive. To be honest, I didn’t really knew about about Kizuna Ai before her clips about her saying ‘Fuck’ went a bit viral and before slowly watching many of her V-tuber clips.
I don't think I remember how Ai did her first video or introduction, but in the end, our V-tuber followed the practice of most video introductions done in my previous world. But, there is a distinct difference between our company and the Hololive of my past life.
While Kizuna Ai may have been the first noticeable V-tuber, Hololive brought the V-tuber landscape to another level of successful business. But even so, their first generation and first live show wasn't that big, I remember that Tokino Sora's first live show was only watched by fifteen people, most of whom were her acquaintances.
It could be because Hololive was just a small company with a new kind of project. Within the hope that one day their talent would be like AKB48… On the other hand, Strawberry Pro had their own fame in the Entertainment Industry, even though people doubted this new kind of project. There was some buzz among people who followed B-Komachi. Especially our first live talent would have some familiar sounding name with Ai.
Also, even though I didn’t want to say it, when Kizuna Ai was about to have debuted my stabbing case happened. And one week after that, Ai announced that she would take a break after such traumatic events. Even though Ai had a history of going on hiatus in the past because she had to give birth to me and Ruby. So there was some buzz, about her retiring as an idol and other stuff.
It started with a little gossip about that, but slowly those rumors started to become bigger and bigger. Not only that, but that gossip started to evolve into Ai, who may be retired and actually the person behind those new V-tuber. It was a ridiculous rumor, but still an interesting one for people to spread and talk about, especially between B-Komachi fans and Ai fans.
I remember when I told Miyako to spread those kind rumors since she looked at me like, ‘Really?’
And my answer at that time…
"It’s fine. With this kind of rumor, there will be people locked into our Kizuna Ai. We’re kind of secretive about this… There are a lot of Idol fans who kind of have a parasocial relationship. So there is a big chance some of them will stay with Kizuna Ai. We already knew she was a good streamer too."
"Well, that’s true… but still, will this be successful?"
"I think if we get a lot of subscribers in one video. It’s already a big success. In the first place, it’s already a ridiculous rumor, and Ichido and B-Komachi already rejected such a rumor, but people will still be excited when we still spread this rumor and make small, stupid rumors about why Ai may be retired on small and dubious websites to keep the rumor alive. It will be fine as long as mass people are fascinated… they need entertainment after all."
"Well, that’s fine… but don't go overboard… We don’t want any backflash or B-Komachi getting a bad rumor too…"
"It’s fine… How about we show some Ai footage on YouTube and stuff…"
"Ah… that may be work…"
With that commotion, while at the same time I used Ai as a promotion, Kizuna Ai first live was successful. Well, different from Hololive, we already had a big budget and allocated the best we could do toward the first generation of our V-tuber.
Even though we may be one year earlier than HoloLive in my previous life. Our talent in design and technology was already better or may be the same as Hololive in 2020. Because of that, Kizuna Ai already had a lot of subscribers after first live show, and within one- month, she had already gathered 10.000 subscribers.
With that, our first generation of V-tubers was a success. And I made Kizuna Ai as the first one with multiple talents, like drawing too, the other two were gamers, and two were more into music.
Even though I may use the same concept of Hololive, especially Generation 0 for our first generation. In the end, it was a different talent, and the people who made it were different. So even though it feels familiar, it is, of course, different. Even i tried to choose a pretty similar personality with the hololive as best I could. Well, in the end, our V-tuber is not Hololive, it was different talent and people behind them. But seeing our success. I didn’t need to think that much.
But seeing this success, B-Komachi started to age in the Idol industry… No wonder, Ichigo started to think about making another Idol group.
