VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY



VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY (バーチャル・タレント・アカデミー, stylised in uppercase), also known as VTA, is a Talent Training Project for those who aim to be "Virtual Livers" (バーチャルライバー Bācharu Raibā), or Virtual YouTuber (VTuber).

VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY is managed by ANYCOLOR Inc. (formerly known as Ichikara Inc. until May 16, 2021), the same company who also manage NIJISANJI.

VTA is an initiative launched by ANYCOLOR in June 2021 as a vocational course specialising on the skill set required for streaming and content production. Admission is audition based. Training costs are paid by ANYCOLOR and upon completion, the graduate may be given the offer to debut in NIJISANJI or freely move to other agencies to try to audition to them.

The academy students have their relay stream on VTA official YouTube channel every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday lasting for 30 minutes each students. Weekly schedule will be posted on VTA's Twitter one day before the stream schedule.

Background
The project started when they advertised the audition on 18 June 2021 that run until 5 July 2021. VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY was officially announced through VTA Official Twitter on 1 November 2021 along with the announcement of the first batch academy students.

2021
On 1 November, VTA announced the 9 names of academy students along with the schedules of their first streams.

On 4 November, Umise Yotsuha, Misono Satoshi, Shikinagi Akira, Suzumiya Sonata, and Kaburaki Roco held their first streams.

On 5 November, Ponto Nei, Fuura Kanato, Amagase Muyu, and Watarai Hibari held their first streams.

2022
On 16 March, ANYCOLOR announced that Ponto Nei, Amagase Muyu, and Umise Yotsuha would be graduating from VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY and debuting as Livers in NIJISANJI as the first livers to debut in the branch in 2022 and the first graduates in VTA. Upon graduation, their stream archives on VTA YouTube channel had been made private.

On 22 March, in continuation of the ongoing audition from last November, ANYCOLOR announced VTA 2nd batch audition only for those had experience in streaming in order to make the members more diverse. The audition for 2nd batch were opened until 31 March (JST)

On 1 June, ANYCOLOR announced VTA 3rd batch audition and it would last until 20 June 12PM (JST).

On 21 June, VTA announced the 17 names of 2nd batch academy students. Along with the addition of new academy students, VTA also added Wednesday on to their original stream schedules on Thursday and Friday only.

On 22 June, Kuno Orihito, Tachitsute Toto, and Kuramochi Meruto held their first stream.

On 23 June, Aokiri Mihono, Saiki Ittetsu, Tsuyuzaki Tsuyu, Warabi Raika, Mikoshiba Jin, Ishigami Nozomi, and Usami Rito held their first stream.

On 24 June, Meano, Koyanagi Rou, Mikuni Otoha, Hiyama Ritsu, Kusakabe Azusa, Onibushi Chihaya, and Hoshirube Shou held their first stream.

Trivia

 * The kanji pronunciation on the academy students' names are unusual (commonly referred in Japan as "kira-kira names"), making many Japanese people having trouble reading it, notably Lauren Iroas from NIJISANJI. In one of his stream, he was checking out the VTA members and completely misread all their names.

Official Channel

 * バーチャル・タレント・アカデミー - YouTube Channel

Website

 * ANYCOLOR Website (Japanese)
 * VIRTUAL TALENT ACADEMY Audition Page (Japanese)

Twitter

 * @VTA_ANYCOLOR - Twitter Account (Japanese)

Hashtag

 * #VTA応援中 - General tag