The Business: Hololive Animation Announced

Cover Corporation, the company behind Hololive, just put this out today.

That's right, a tie-in anime project that looks to be built on the girls' official lore to put together some sort of story. Nicchiban has some more info, but what I want to talk about here is what Cover's doing.

Cover's using the good-will and collective fandoms of the various idols to cultivate a built-in core audience for any Hololive media releases, and we're seeing the first major attempt to make good on that cultivation. No doubt that Yagoo and his subordinates went to the animation companies and the distributors with the data to make and support exactly that argument. It would not surprise me to see Cover use as much of their own talent as possible, from Voice Acting to singers for the soundtrack, and leave what they cannot do to their partners.

However, I can also see that doing more Hololive animation is going to be difficult if they do not produce a product that doesn't require the deep lore to be entertained. If this is nothing more than paying off fan investment, then it's little more than a vanity project and it's not going to have any lasting impact. They have to actually write a competent story, deliver competent performances of that story, all under skilled and competent direction backed by patient and prudent producers. Shovelware is a swift boat to Suckville, and that will damage Hololive as a brand thereafter.

Cover does not want that, not if they're smart.

Since the girls' have been radio-silent, I expect that they've been either compartmentialized or kept under NDAs for this to date. As this is a brand-new announcement, we know only what's there on screen and a bit more, so don't rule out non-JP girls appearing just yet. Don't expect them either, not at first.

We'll soon see if Cover's got a clue as to how to go about this sort of thing, and if so then there's another business model to consider for future creatives.