NIJISANJI

Nijisanji (にじさんじ) is a group of mostly 2D-only Virtual YouTubers who are also known as "Virtual Livers" (バーチャルライバー Bācharu Raibā) when posting on sites outside of YouTube, such as NicoNico Douga, Twitch and Bilibili. The term Liver, coined by mixing Japanese and English, is a heteronym for calling Nijisanji's streamers.

Managed by ANYCOLOR Inc. (formerly known as Ichikara Inc. until May 16, 2021), the group started in Japan in February 2018 and has since 2019 expanded to other countries such as China, Indonesia, South Korea and English speaking markets as an international project.

As of August 2021, there are 107 Japanese NIJISANJI members, 19 NIJISANJI ID members, 20 NIJISANJI KR members, 6 NIJISANJI EN members and 46 VirtuaReal members (a joint venture chinese branch between Bilibili and Anycolor). There are also 5 VirtuaReal Star members and 22 VirtuaReal Link members who are independent VTubers, not considered part of Nijisanji's VirtuaReal per se and are only in a network partner system with support from Nijisanji.

The group has 30 million subscribers on YouTube for all of the 152 members (JP/ID/KR/EN) who have it as their main platform. VirtuaReal members aren't included as they have bilibili as its main platform.

Kuzuha has the highest number of subscribers in Nijisanji with over 1 million subscribers, with Kanae, Tsukino Mito, Honma Himawari, Sasaki Saku, Hoshikawa Sara, Lize Helesta, Ange Katrina, Yuki Chihiro and Ars Almal following in order in the top 10 most subscribed livers.

For the list of original songs released by Nijisanji members and musical units, refer to the following Wiki page: List of Nijisanji Songs.

Technology
Nijisanji Livers usually stream with iPhoneX facial motion capture technology, Live2D models, and the Nijisanji app (commercially unavailable). This method is technically simpler and much less expensive than full-body 3D motion tracking equipment but the resulting motion is mostly limited to facial features, rotation of the head, and limited movement of the upper body. These models suffered from many stuttering and accuracy issues in the early days of Nijisanji but less of these issues are seen today as their technology has improved.

After debuting, Livers are able to receive 2.0 and 3.0 brushups that allow them to expand their range of movement and make more facial expressions. 2.0 and 3.0 brushups are announced through Twitter and are distributed in batches at random times and to random members in a lottery system. Those with 3D models are also eligible to receive 3D brushups, which are also announced through Twitter. Updates of any kind are tagged with #にじあぷで on Twitter.

As of September 2021, 104 Livers from Nijisanji's main branch have received 2.0 brushups and 20 have received 3.0 brushups. 3 Livers from Nijisanji ID and 5 livers from Nijisanji KR have received 2.0 brushups and are the only Livers from foreign branches to have received brushups.

In addition to Live2D and conventional full-body 3D motion capture, Nijisanji also supports "Niji 3D" (にじ3D), which allows Livers to stream using their 3D models without a studio. The range of motion for Niji 3D is limited to the upper body and hand tracking.

As of August 2021, 76 Livers from Nijisanji's main branch have received 3D models (including Livers who have used their models in events but haven't had their YouTube debut yet) and 4 have received 3D brushups. 8 Livers from VirtuaReal have received 3D models as well and are the only foreign branch to have received 3D models (not including members from VirtuaReal Link or Star).

2018
The Nijisanji project began in February 2018 as the first major virtual youtuber agency with its first wave of livers to show the capacities of the Nijisanji App, which is also where the name of the agency came from. The vtubers from the agency got the liver nomenclature to differentiate themselves from vtubers such as Kizuna Ai and Kaguya Luna, who made content in pre-recorded videos while Nijisanji focused in livestreaming, which is why they got such name. Aside from this, Nijisanji made use of the cheaper Live 2D from the Nijisanji App in a time where most vtubers made use of 3D. In both cases, Nijisanji introduced two new concepts to vtubers and popularized them in Japan to the point where it became the default for the industry to follow to this day.

On 2 May, Nijisanji introduced Nijisanji Gamers, a new Virtual Liver group with a focus on Let's Play streams, with Kanae and Akabane Youko being its founding members.

From 5 to 15 May, Nijisanji held an audition for Nijisanji SEEDs, third Virtual Liver group of Nijisanji, and the first wave of selected candidates started their activities on 3 June.

On 17 July, Nijisanji announced Chinese and Taiwanese Vtubers as an expansion into those markets. However, they are no longer active within Nijisanji and on April 2019, were transferred to another virtual group called "VEgo" which only lasted for a month before retiring from Youtube entirely.

On 13 December, it was announced that both Nijisanji Gamers and Nijisanji SEEDs would be merged into the main Nijisanji group at the end of the month. Since then, members who originated from Gamers or SEEDs started to use the term "ex-Gamers/SEEDs" when having a collab with their debut-mates.

2019
In April 2019, a new branch of the Nijisanji Project in China called "VirtuaReal" officially began their activities.

On 10 May, they announced the commencement of their Nijisanji NetWORK (にじさんじネットワーク Nijisanji NETTOWAAKU) partnership program which is aimed towards giving support to other virtual talents. The first VTubers to participate in the program were Tenkai Tukasa and Fairys Chan. It was first hinted at on 8 May. Since 31 December 2019, it is no longer operational.

On 11 June, the second wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 19 July, Nijisanji's parent company Ichikara Inc. announced a new branch of the Nijisanji Project in Indonesia called "NIJISANJI ID." Auditions for four initial virtual YouTuber positions were open from 19 July until 4 August, and the selected candidates officially began their activities in September 2019.

On 20 July, VirtuaReal announced the commencement of VirtuaReal Link and VirtuaReal Star, two partnership programs where members are given technical support from Ichikara Inc.

On 14 August, the third wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 16 September, the fourth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 28 October, the fifth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 18 November, Ichikara Inc. announced a new branch of the Nijisanji Project in India called "NIJISANJI IN." Auditions for three initial virtual YouTuber positions were open from 18 November until 2 December, and the selected candidates officially began their activities in January 2020.

On 20 November, the sixth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 17 December, Ichikara Inc. announced a new branch of the Nijisanji Project in South Korea called "NIJISANJI KR." Auditions for five virtual YouTuber positions were open from 20 December until 6 January 2020, and the selected candidates officially began their activities in late January 2020.

On 18 December, the second wave of NIJISANJI ID started their activities.

2020
On 14 January, the seventh wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

A 6-show national music concert tour called "Nijisanji JAPAN TOUR 2020 Shout in the Rainbow!" took place between 9 February and 5 April. A total of 29 Nijisanji members performed across 5 Zepp venues (Sapporo, Fukuoka, Namba, Nagoya, and DiverCity Tokyo). Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Zepp DiverCity Tokyo show was entirely cancelled and the second Zepp Namba show was exclusively streamed online.

On 13 March, the third wave of NIJISANJI ID started their activities.

On 8 April, the eighth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 22 May, the second wave of NIJISANJI KR started their activities.

On 22 June, NIJISANJI IN rebranded and changed the name of their branch to "NIJISANJI EN." Additionally, Nijisanji launched their official English YouTube channel on this day too.

On 20 July, the ninth generation of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 31 July, the third wave of NIJISANJI KR started their activities.

On 7 August, the fourth wave of NIJISANJI ID started their activities.

On 20 September, the tenth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 9 October, the fourth wave of NIJISANJI KR started their activities.

On 11 November, the fifth wave of NIJISANJI ID started their activities.

On 27 November, it was announced that Aadya, Noor, and Vihaan would continue streaming as "NIJISANJI IN" once again.

On 30 November, Ichikara Inc. announced that they were launching the first wave auditions for English speaking countries. The auditions were open until 15 December.

On 6 December, the eleventh wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On December 25, Ichikara Inc. announced that the previously unofficial Nijisanji subreddit, r/Nijisanji, would become officially run by Ichikara Inc. Many of Nijisanji's Livers joined as moderators for the subreddit as well.

2021
On 28 February, it was announced at the Nijisanji annversary fesitval that 3.0 brushups would be implemented, which allow for Live2D models to have more movement and facial expressions. JK Gumi (Tsukino Mito, Higuchi Kaede, Shizuka Rin) will be the first to receive 3.0 brushups in April 2021. Nijisanji ID's first wave, Hana Macchia, ZEA Cornelia, and Taka Radjiman received 2.0 brushups during the festival as well, making them the first members of any foreign branch to receive 2.0 brush ups.

In 3 March, Kuzuha became the most subscribed Nijisanji liver, surpassing Tsukino Mito who was the most subscribed VTuber in the agency since Nijisanji was established in early 2018.

On 5 March, the twelfth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 13 April, it was announced on Twitter that Nijisanji IN would be temporarily suspended at 30 April 2021, 23:59 JST, as well as the coming graduation of the branch's livers, Aadya, Noor, and Vihaan.

On 23 April, the fifth wave of NIJISANJI KR started their activities.

On 2 May, the thirteenth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 12 May, Nijisanji EN's first wave, Lazulight was revealed. Their debuts happened on 16 May (according to JST) and were accompanied by a separate debut program hosted by Nijisanji ID livers Hana Macchia and Bonnivier Pranaja.

On 12 May, the English version of Nijisanji's Official website was released.

On 13 May, it was announced that an official Nijisanji TikTok account had been started.

On 18 June, Anycolor announced new auditions for Nijisanji EN. Unlike the first audition, this audition has a separation between male and female vtubers, with the male ending the audition in August and the female one in July.

On 14 July, Anycolor announced Nijisanji EN's second wave called Obsydia. This second wave was part of the first audition done by the company, instead of the second audition opened. The wave shares themes and ideas with Lazulight, being a "darker" version of the group.

On 19 July, it was announced that a new wave was coming for the Japanese branch with 5 new members after almost one year without any debuts in the branch. All of them would debut in the same day on July 22.

On 20 July, the fourteenth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

On 28 July, the sixth wave of NIJISANJI ID started their activities.

On 25 August, the sixth wave of NIJISANJI KR started their activities.

On 2 September, Kuzuha became the first Nijisanji liver and first male VTuber worldwide to reach 1 million subscribers.

On 4 October, the fifteenth wave of VirtuaReal started their activities.

Gamers
The Nijisanji Gamers group was later dissolved and merged into the main Nijisanji group in December 2018. Post-merge, the group are often offhandedly referred to as "Ex-Gamers".

SEEDs
The Nijisanji SEEDS group was later dissolved and merged into the main Nijisanji group in December 2018. Post-merge, the group are often offhandedly referred to as "Ex-SEEDs".

VOIZ
Originally a four Virtual Liver ensemble that was merged into Nijisanji SEEDs. Only two members of the VOIZ group are continuing with their activities:

2019 Q1 Debuts
After Gamers and SEEDs were merged into the main branch, Nijisanji stopped officially numbering their debut groups.

Nijisanji NetWORK (former members; program terminated)
These two are still active VTubers but they are no longer officially affiliated with Nijisanji. Refer to Category:Nijisanji Network for more information on this program.

First Wave
Also known as 3SetBBQ.

Second Wave
Also known as CloverMcOver.

Third Wave
Also known as LAN_NEE3S.

Fourth Wave
Also known as 3FicLite.

Fifth Wave
Also known as 53Renade.

Sixth Wave
Also known as 6WS.

1.5 Wave
These members were formerly part of an agency named 541 E&C, which merged with Nijisanji KR on 25 January, 2020.

First Wave
Also known as LazuLight.

Second Wave
Also known as OBSYDIA.

VirtuaReal (China)


VirtuaReal is a branch of Nijisanji that was created in partnership with the Chinese media site BiliBili as a joint venture between the two companies. Apart from their VTubers/VUP's (what VTubers are called in Chinese), VirtuaReal has a producer named Tokimori Seisa, whose BiliBili page can be found here and Twitter can be found here.

VirtuaReal Star (China)
Members of VirtuaReal Star are the VTuber identities of popular, pre-established Chinese content creators and celebrities on Bilibili.

VirtuaReal Link (China)
VirtuaReal Link is similar to the former Nijisanji NetWORK partnership program such that independent VTubers are given technical support from Ichikara Inc. "Super Virtual High School" (SVHS) is the unit name for four members. JRM Project is another unit composed of three members that joined VirtuaReal Link.

Trivia

 * Nijisanji can be represented as the number 2434, so this is sometimes seen in their material. During live-streams, fans sometimes donate 2434 yen (~$21 USD).
 * NIjisanji is often represented using the rainbow emoji (niji) and 3 o'clock emoji (sanji). Livers use this to represent their affiliation with Nijisanji while fans use it to show that they are fans of Nijisanji.
 * ANYCOLOR Inc. is run by Tazumi Riku, the CEO of the company. He has made appearances on the Nijisanji YouTube channel and is even the inspiration behind some of the membership emojis. He has his own Twitter and YouTube channel.
 * Nijisanji is run by Tazumi Riku, the CEO of ANYCOLOR Inc., after Iwanaga Taiki stepped down due to his cancer treatment.
 * Nijisanji used to be run the by Iwanaga Taiki, the former COO of ANYCOLOR Inc. He switched to running SLEE, an idol group that used to be under ANYCOLOR, after he started undergoing treatment for cancer. He has now gone into remission and has left ANYCOLOR to become the president of Yokaze Inc, where he will continue to run SLEE. His Twitter is here. He sometimes does live-streams as a female-looking VTuber named Iwanaga-chan whose Twitter is here.
 * Nijisanji's app has a mascot called Yugamin. Livers can stream as Yugamin instead of their usual forms as Yugamin has a Live2D model. Yugamin was designed by ほーじろ, who also designed Shibuya Hajime, Kenmochi Toya, Fushimi Gaku, Sister Cleaire, Amemori Sayo, Todoroki Kyoko, and Yumeoi Kakeru.
 * Whenever someone who isn't a Liver appears in a 3D stream, their avatar is that of a kuroko (黒衣, black-clad), a stagehand in traditional Japanese theater wearing black clothes that cover the entire body. The kuroko are usually ANYCOLOR staff.

Video Clips

 * Virtual to LIVE - NIJISANJI 1st Anniversary Song
 * Sanbaka (さんばか) Cover
 * Ex-Gamers Cover
 * Nijisanji ID Cover (3SetBBQ Ver.)
 * VirtuaReal Cover
 * Nijisanji ID Cover (CloverMcOver Ver.)
 * Acapella Cover (Miyazono Rin ft. Kouichi)
 * SMC-gumi (SMC組) Cover
 * into reality - NIJISANJI ID 1st Anniversary Song
 * Wonder NeverLand - NIJISANJI 3rd Anniversary Song
 * 虹色の Puddle - NIJISANJI 3rd Anniversary Song
 * Diamond City Lights - LazuLight (NIJISANJI EN) Debut Song
 * Black Out - OBSYDIA (NIJISANJI EN) Debut Song
 * PUCHISANJI (ぷちさんじ, PetitSanji) - Short illustrated videos of moments clipped from Nijisanji Liver streams. Some English translations can be found in the Closed Captions. As of July 2020, PUCHISANJI clips with English hardsub translations are simulcasted on the official Nijisanji English YouTube channel. Chinese hard-subbed versions are uploaded to the official Bilibili channel.
 * CHOKOSANJI (ちょこさんじ, Snack Time!) - Short stories that are presented using 3D animations. English hard-subbed versions are posted simutaniously onto the official English channel with Indonesian subtitles accessable in the closed captions. Chinese hard-subbed versions are uploaded to the official Bilibili channel.
 * The official Nijisanji TikTok reposts short clips from the official clip channel on YouTube.

Official stores

 * Nijisanji Official Store
 * にじさんじ公式 nijisanji.booth.pm - Official Booth store
 * NIJISANJI ID nijisanji-id.booth.pm - Nijisanji ID's official Booth store
 * nijisanji-kr nijisanji-kr.booth.pm - Nijisanji KR's official Booth store
 * nijisanji-store.com - Nijisanji EN's Official Store

Official channels

 * にじさんじ - Main channel (Japanese)
 * にじさんじオフィシャル ニコニコチャンネル - Official Niconico channel (Japanese)
 * にじさんじ [公式サブch ] - Sub channel (Japanese)
 * にじさんじ公式切り抜きチャンネル【NIJISANJI Official Best Moments】 - Official Clip channel (Japanese)
 * NIJISANJI ID Official - Official Indonesian channel (Indonesian)
 * NIJISANJI KR Official - Official South Korean channel (South Korean)
 * VirtuaReal - Official VirtuaReal channel on bilibili (Chinese)
 * NIJISANJI English Official - Official English channel (English)
 * NIJISANJI_EN - Official English Twitch channel (English)

Official Twitter accounts

 * @nijisanji_app - Main Nijisanji account (Japanese)
 * @NIJISANJI_World - International Nijisanji (English)
 * @NIJISANJI_IN - Nijisanji IN (formerly Nijisanji EN with former Twitter handle @NIJISANJI_EN) (English)
 * @NIJISANJI_ID - Nijisanji ID (Indonesian)
 * @NIJISANJI_KR - Nijisanji KR (Korean)
 * @NIJISANJI_staff- Nijisanji staff contact account (English)
 * @Virtua_Real - VirtuaReal (Chinese)
 * @kirinuki_2434 - Nijisanji clip channel account (Japanese)

Official Facebook pages

 * @nijisanji.indonesia - Nijisanji ID
 * @NIJISANJI.KR - Nijisanji KR

Other official accounts

 * r/Nijisanji - Official Nijisanji Subreddit (English)
 * @nijisanji_official - Official Nijisanji TikTok account (Japanese)
 * @nijisanji_en - Official Instagram account (English)