NIJISANJI

''This article is a general overview comprising all the branches of NIJISANJI Project. For information about the main branch, see NIJISANJI (main branch).''

NIJISANJI Project (にじさんじプロジェクト), colloquially known as just NIJISANJI, is an agency of primarily 2D 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.

Managed by ANYCOLOR Inc. (known as Ichikara Inc. until 16 May 2021), a company founded by Riku Tazumi in 2017, NIJISANJI started in Japan in February 2018 as one of the first major VTuber agencies. Their focus on livestreams set its members apart from other early VTubers, such as Kizuna Ai or Kaguya Luna, who primarily made prerecorded videos. This, as well as the use of Live2D over expensive 3D, led to NIJISANJI's success in the Japanese market and codified the current VTuber format of Live2D streaming.

As of January 2023, there is a total of 179 members across two different branches: 148 NIJISANJI members and 31 NIJISANJI EN members. Outside of those two branches, there's also 43 VirtuaReal Project members from VirtuaReal, a joint venture project between bilibili and ANYCOLOR in China.

The agency has over 60 million subscribers on YouTube with 179 Livers in the platform, making it the agency with second more total subscribers, only behind hololive. VirtuaReal members stream primarily on bilibili instead of YouTube, so their numbers aren't counted for these figures.

Kuzuha, a Japanese member of the branch, is the most-subscribed male VTuber worldwide with 1.4 million subscribers; and Hyakumantenbara Salome, also a Japanese member of the main branch, is the current world record holder for being the fastest VTuber to reach 1 million subscribers in just under 14 days.

Technology
NIJISANJI Livers usually stream with iPhoneX facial motion capture technology, Live2D models rigged in-house by ANYCOLOR, 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 brushups initially were distributed randomly but since 2021 its distributed per wave. 3.0 brushups began in 2021 and are instead distributed 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 November 2022, 139 Livers from NIJISANJI have received 2.0 brushups. 3.0 began to be released with new expressions, more movements and toggle options and as of January 2023, 73 NIJISANJI, 10 VirtuaReal and 1 NIJISANJI EN Livers have received 3.0 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 January 2023, 103 Livers from NIJISANJI's main branch have received 3D models (including Livers who have used their models in events but have not had their YouTube debut yet) and 7 have received 3D brushups. 19 Livers from VirtuaReal have received 3D models, while 3 Livers from NIJISANJI EN have received 3D models.

2018
On 8 February, Ichikara Inc. announced the debut of eight Virtual YouTubers on Mirrativ. At the time, their purpose was to showcase the capabilities of an iPhone Live2D facetracking app called NIJISANJI. These eight would later be known as NIJISANJI's first generation.

On 15 March, Ichikara Inc. announced NIJISANJI's second generation of Virtual Livers.

On 2 May, Ichikara Inc. 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, Ichikara Inc. held an audition for NIJISANJI SEEDs, a third group of Virtual Livers, and the first batch of selected candidates started their activities on 3 June.

On 17 July, Ichikara Inc. 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, Ichikara announced that both NIJISANJI Gamers and NIJISANJI SEEDs would be merged into the main NIJISANJI group at the end of the month. After the merge, 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. Unlike other branches, thisis a joint venture formed between Ichikara Inc and Bilibili, with both companies having shares over the project.

On 10 May, Ichikara Inc. 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 Tsukasa and Fairys Chan. It was first hinted at on 8 May.

On 19 July, 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 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 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 31 December, NIJISANJI NetWORK ceased operations, and its former members are no longer officially partnered with NIJISANJI.

2020
On 22 June, NIJISANJI IN was rebranded as "NIJISANJI EN." NIJISANJI also launched its official English YouTube channel on this same day.

On 27 November, the NIJISANJI IN branch (previously rebranded as NIJISANJI EN) was rebranded back to NIJISANJI IN.

On 1 December 2020, Ichikara Inc. announced the official launch of NIJISANJI's first-wave auditions for English-speaking countries. The audition period lasted until 15 December.

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

2021
On 13 April, NIJISANJI IN announced the upcoming graduation of its Livers and the branch's temporary suspension on 30 April 2021, 23:59 JST.

On 12 May, Ichikara Inc. announced a new branch of the NIJISANJI Project for English-speaking countries, "NIJISANJI EN", as well as the upcoming debut of the branch's first wave "LazuLight", previously selected during the auditions in December 2020. The new Livers started their activities on 16 May with a special debut program hosted by NIJISANJI ID's Hana Macchia and Bonnivier Pranaja.

On 12 May, the English version of NIJISANJI's official website was released.

On 13 May, NIJISANJI announced the start of its official TikTok account.

On 17 May, Ichikara announced the company would change its name from Ichikara Inc. to ANYCOLOR Inc.

On 18 June, ANYCOLOR announced the opening of VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY, a training program for amateurs interested in becoming VTubers, featuring vocational courses specialized toward streaming and content creation. Admission is audition-based, and training costs are covered by ANYCOLOR. Upon completion, academy graduates may be given an offer to debut directly into NIJISANJI, or are otherwise freely permitted to audition for any agency.

2022
On 17 February, ANYCOLOR announced that the NIJISANJI ID and NIJISANJI KR branches would be merged with the main NIJISANJI branch starting in early April 2022. Currently active Livers would continue their activities under the NIJISANJI brand, using any languages of their choice. All activities and events on the ID and KR social media channels would be cancelled, including currently running programs and new wave auditions.

On 15 April, NIJISANJI ID and NIJISANJI KR officially merged into the main branch.

On 24 April, the NIJISANJI official YouTube channel reached 1 million subscribers.

On 28 July, the NIJISANJI official website was renewed with a new design.

On 11 August, NIJISANJI began their 2022 Power Pro (Pawapuro) NIJISANJI Koshien (Japanese High School Baseball Championship) tournament. The program happen over the course of four streams (11-14 August) featuring all the Livers across NIJISANJI (excluding VirtuaReal), and hosted by Maimoto Keisuke and Tenkai Tsukasa. The event was sponsored by Rakuten Collection and broke records, with the finals stream reaching over 320,000 concurrent viewers, a higher number than the 201,000 from the previous year.

On 26 September, NIJISANJI launched their official Weibo account with the hashtag #NIJISANJI入驻微博#.

On 8 November, the NIJISANJI official website was updated with a "Streams" tab that displays all Livers' streams in a unified schedule and allows fans to track their favorite Livers' streams.

On 18 November, following the new update to the NIJISANJI official website, it was announced that the Itsukara.link website (the original NIJISANJI website for talents' page) would be terminated as of 30 November 2022.

NIJISANJI
Prior to April 2022, NIJISANJI's main branch consisted of Japanese-speaking Livers and catered to Japanese audiences, so it was sometimes unofficially referred to as "NIJISANJI JP" to distinguish it from overseas branches. The Indonesian and Korean branches merged with the main branch on 15 April 2022. Members = Former Members =

VirtuaReal
Also known as VirtuaReal Project, it is a joint venture project between ANYCOLOR and bilibili, with mainly Chinese-speaking Livers and catered to Chinese audiences.

While it also has two partnership programs in VirtuaReal Link and VirtuaReal Star, only the main group is listed under "VirtuaReal" on the official NIJISANJI website.

Members = Former Members=

NIJISANJI EN
NIJISANJI's English branch, consisting of English-speaking Livers. Unlike other overseas branches, it is not associated with any specific country and is aimed at English-speaking audiences around the world. Members = Former Members=

NIJISANJI Shanghai/Taipei
Based in Shanghai and in Taipei, these branches were NIJISANJI's first presence overseas. Referred to as NIJISANJI VTuber Project (二次三次虚拟主播企划), it was created and fully operated by CAPSULE Inc. with ANYCOLOR (at the time, Ichikara) providing branding and technical support.

The branches began running from 24 August 2018. However, CAPSULE lost the license for the "NIJISANJI" brand and they abandoned the name on 29 March 2019, changing their name to VEgo.

NIJISANJI Shanghai
By the end of March 2019, with Saitania as its sole remaining member, the Shanghai branch had been deprecated and merged with the Taipei branch to form VEgo.

NIJISANJI Taipei
By the end of February 2020, VEgo only had one active member left, Talency, and finally ceased operations along with her retiring on 31 March 2020.



NIJISANJI NetWORK
NIJISANJI NetWORK (にじさんじネットワーク) was a partnership program aimed at supporting independent virtual talents. It was launched on 10 May 2019 and its first participants were Tenkai Tsukasa and Fairys-chan. The program was ultimately terminated on 31 December 2019 but both members still continue their activities.



NIJISANJI IN
NIJISANJI's Indian branch, also known as 3 idiots, consisting of English-speaking Livers and aimed at the Indian market, began their activities in January 2020. The branch was briefly rebranded to "NIJISANJI EN" on 22 June 2020 before being reverted back to "NIJISANJI IN" on 27 November 2020. It ceased operations after April 2021.



NIJISANJI ID
NIJISANJI's Indonesian branch, consisting of Indonesian-speaking Livers and aimed at Indonesian audiences, began their activities in September 2019. Originally operating as a separate branch, it was merged into the main NIJISANJI branch on 15 April 2022, where all of its members were still active at the time of the merger.



NIJISANJI KR
NIJISANJI's South Korean branch, consisting of Korean-speaking Livers and aimed at South Korean audiences, began their activities in January 2020. Originally operating as a separate branch, it was merged into the main NIJISANJI branch on 15 April 2022. Below is the list of the members who retired pre-merge.

VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY
VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY (also known as VTA) is a talent training project managed by ANYCOLOR. The program includes a vocational course specializing on the skill set required for streaming and content production, which require the students to have a 30-minute weekly relay live stream on VTA's YouTube channel. Upon completion, the graduate may be given the offer to debut as NIJISANJI Liver or freely move to other agencies.

Some of VTA's former students who debuted as NIJISANJI Livers are: Umise Yotsuha, Ponto Nei, Amagase Muyu, Fura Kanato, Watarai Hibari, Shikinagi Akira, and Seraph Dazzlegarden.

Trivia

 * NIJISANJI can be represented as the number 2434, the reason being that when you say the numbers out loud in Japanese, it phonetically sounds like “ni” (ニ), “ji” (四) “san” (三), and “ji”, so this is sometimes seen in their material. During live-streams, fans sometimes donate 2434 yen (~$18.64 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 and founder of the company and since 2021, executive officer at the Overseas VTuber Division. 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 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, Yumeoi Kakeru, and Pax.
 * 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.
 * There has been multiple instances where a model was left unused, one notable example being that of "Eudrick" who was revealed alongside Warabeda Meiji, Kudo Chitose, Fumi, and Gundou Mirei. While it isn't that big of a deal at first after Fumi officially debuted alongside Hoshikawa Sara and Yamagami Karuta fans began to question about Eudrick whereabouts as he is the only left from the previously mentioned batch, as time goes on with many more member introduced, none of which are him it began to devolve into a running joke among even the Livers themselves who treated him as some sort of unofficial member, he even makes an appearance at NIJISANJI Koshien 2021 where he was drafted and eventually join as part of Shiina Yuika's Team.

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
 * nijisanji-shop - Official Taobao shop (Chinese)
 * afdian.net/a/VirtuaReal - VirtuaReal's official Afdian account (Chinese)

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)
 * NIJISANJI - Official NIJISANJI channel on bilibili (Chinese)
 * 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 (Japanese)
 * @kirinuki_2434 - NIJISANJI clip channel account (Japanese)

Other Official Accounts

 * r/Nijisanji - Official NIJISANJI Subreddit (English)
 * @nijisanji_official - Official NIJISANJI TikTok account (Japanese)
 * @nijisanji_en - Official NIJISANJI Instagram account (English)
 * @virtuareal - Official VirtuaReal Weibo account (Chinese)
 * NIJISANJI-official - Official NIJISANJI Weibo account (Chinese)