WACTOR



WACTOR Production (ワクタープロダクション Wakuta Purodakushon), also known as WACTOR for short, is a Japan-based agency of VTubers managed by the company of the same name.

Since 2019, WACTOR has expanded towards Chinese streaming on bilibili. On January 2021, WACTOR's talents presented themselves to Spanish-speaking audiences.

As of April 2022, the agency has over 960,000 subscribers on YouTube. The five members with the highest YouTube subscriber counts are Hizuki Miu, Hina Misora, Mitsurugi Lia, Shino Laila, and Rurine Luna.

Background
WACTOR Production first announced auditions on 25 April, 2018.

The first two members were Hizuki Miu and Irisu Mia, who debuted on 21 October 2018, but their affiliation and relationship remained undisclosed at the time. The third member, Otogo Lilu, debuted on February 2019.

In March 2019, the VTuber unit "Mirais" managed by WACTOR was formed, with Miu, Mia and Lilu as its first three members, and a staff Twitter account was set up in May.

WACTOR was eventually established as company on July 2019.

2019
On 3 October, WACTOR's Twitter account announced auditions for two new members for Mirais and four new members for a sister unit. Over the following days, WACTOR introduced five of their new talents: Mihana Rio, Komori Aina, Tsukito Hana and Mashiro Yuyu, who would form the new sister unit, and Kogure Piyoko, who would join Mirais. The silhouette of another character was teased as well, and would later be revealed to be Mitsurugi Lia.

On 25 October, Otogi Lilu announced her retirement via Twitter. She graduated on 16 November.

On 21 November, WACTOR introduced Mitsurugi Lia, a new member for Mirais.

On 12 December, Mihana Rio's contract was cancelled due to a serious contract breach.

2020
On 11 January, Irisu Mia announced her retirement via Twitter, and graduated on 29 February.

On 26 January, a large amount of data about upcoming members was deleted from the company's cloud storage. After it was found that one of the many IPs involved belonged to a former employee, on 12 March Komori Aina's and Mashiro Yuyu's contracts were cancelled, and all VTuber units were merged to form one group called "WACTOR."

On 28 January, WACTOR introduced Nanaha Rui, their first bilibili-exclusive VTuber (or Virtual UP).

On 2 February, Kokoro Ichiru made his debut.

At some point in 2020 (presumed late December, which also coincides with the termination of Kokoro Ichiru's contract), archives on graduated Otogi Lilu's and Irisu Mia's channels were wiped, leaving their respective Twitter accounts the only official way to view their stream logs.

2021
Throughout January and February, WACTOR's talents began expanding towards Spanish-speaking fanbases, which caused a sudden surge in subscriber numbers. On 16 January, Miu was the first to publish a presentation video in Spanish, followed by Lia on 19 January,, Hana on 24 January, and Piyoko on 10 February.

On 17 March, WACTOR's Twitter account announced auditions endorsed by bilibili for five new members (now known as second generation), from 17 March to 5 April.

On 25 April, a public audition event featuring the 15 finalists was held on bilibili, with Komori Chiyu and Otome Oto as guest commentators.

Throughout May, the second generation made their debuts: Shino Laila and Hoshina Suzu on 9 May, Kurari Rose on 18 May, and Hina Misora on 25 May. One of the five avatars did not debut.

On 16 June, WACTOR's members were re-organized into generations according to their audition and debut date.

On 30 June, WACTOR announced auditions for a third generation and opened early registrations.

On 31 July, WACTOR was ranked 8th among the top 10 Japanese vtuber companies with the most overall subscribers. The company also officially announced the start of the third generation auditions and shared the three avatars of its members, one of which was originally released during the previous auditions.

Throughout late 2021, the third generation made their debuts: Sumeragi Pal on 12 September, Rurine Luna on 15 September and Inumaki Himari on 15 October.

On 23 December, WACTOR announced auditions for a fourth generation sponsored by Bilibili. The new "fantasy"-themed generation is called "GATE" and is comprised of five new members.

Members
WACTOR members were organized in units, but in March 2020, the idea was scraped to form one single group, which was later separated into generations.

0th Generation
Founding members.

1st Generation
Debuted from November 2019 to January 2020.

2nd Generation
Debuted in May 2021.

3rd Generation
Debuted in September and October 2021.

4th Generation
Also called GATE.

Mirais
Mirais (みらいず Miraizu) was WACTOR's first Vtuber unit which originally comprised only Hizuki Miu, Irisu Mia and Otogi Lilu. All of Mirais were VTubers who streamed from the future.

Sister unit
Mirais' sister unit (みらいず姉妹ユニット), known simply as "sister unit" (姉妹ユニット), comprised Mihana Rio, Komori Aina, Mashiro Yuyu and Tsukito Hana. According to some media, it was provisionally called "ケモミーズ" (pronounced Kemomizu), but the name was never truly decided.