VShojo is a US-based VTuber agency headquartered in San Francisco. As of April 2024, the organization has 12 active talents with a combined 7 million followers on Twitch and a combined 4.75 million subscribers on YouTube.
The company was founded in 2020 by former Twitch employee Justin "theGunrun" Ignacio and YouTuber Phillip "Mowtendoo" Fortunat, with the vision of creating an organization where the talent have complete freedom. Its goals are to provide members with in-house tech, legal, PR, sponsors, upgrades, opportunities, social media expansion and a positive environment.
Unlike the major Japanese agencies who typically only debut original characters, VShojo often recruits existing independent VTubers. VShojo members primarily stream on Twitch and reserve their YouTube channels for highlight clips and edited content. However, a few talents do livestream or multistream on YouTube as well.
VShojo is a talent-first VTuber company, dedicated to the growth and success of its members.
"Founded by fans of VTuber culture, we aim to create and foster content that pushes the boundaries of VTubing and talent freedom, while maintaining deep respect for the people and companies that helped paved the way."[1]
History
Origin
VShojo was founded by Gunrun, who worked at Twitch from 2011 to 2018; and Mowtendoo, a popular YouTuber and video game developer with expertise in 3D motion graphics, video production, and professional music production.
Projekt Melody, a VTuber originally better known for her adult content, was involved in the early stages of the group's creation. Her initial idea was to focus on adult content creators, but this was quickly shelved due to the lack of English-speaking talent in that field at the time.[2] Gunrun contacted Melody early in 2020 and offered critical technical and business support, developing the concept of a work-safe VTuber agency focused on Twitch.[3] Melody briefly served the company in a staff role in addition to talent, but relinquished her staff role a few weeks later after the company hired its fourth staff member.[4]
The project had been in the works since at least as far back as August 2020, with the web domain vshojo.com registered on 9 August, and the Twitter account @VShojoOfficial created that same month.
2020
On 7 September, VShojo created its official subreddit, r/VShojo.
On 15 September, the VShojo YouTube channel was created. In 2023, this channel would be renamed to VShojo Classic.
On 16 November, VShojo created a VShojo Highlights channel. In 2023, this channel would be renamed "VShojo" and made the main VShojo channel.
On 24 November, VShojo's YouTube channel uploaded a video introducing its first seven members: the formerly independent VTubers Nyatasha Nyanners, Zentreya, Ironmouse, Silvervale, Projekt Melody, and Froot; and newcomer Hime Hajime.[5] Five of the members held re-debut events on the same day, with Froot's debut scheduled for 27 November,[6] and Hime's debut delayed until 2021.
On 28 November, VShojo's Japanese Twitter account was created and made its first tweet.[7]
On 4 December, Lewdcast's Episode 9 was the first episode as part of VShojo. Froot was its guest, making her the first member of VShojo (not including the hosts) to appear on the show post agency launch.[8]
2021
On 30 January, Hime debuted on Twitch.
On 12 March, VShojo partnered with Metaview to bring the viewers a playlist of the best VShojo member moments.[9]
On 15 March, VShojo launched its first set of merch with sharkrobotstore.[10]
On 2 April, VShojo held the first episode of VShowdown, an online game show hosted by Highgai with Ironmouse, Nyanners, Silvervale and Zentreya as the contestants. Ironmouse was the winner with 4,900 points.[12]
On 6 April, VShojo's Twitter account uploaded a video hinting at a new member.[13]
On 9 April, Veibae joined VShojo, the first new member to join since the initial round of debuts.
On 24 April, Nyatasha Nyanners performed with Japanese VTuber Kizuna Ai at her Virtual US Tour. DJ TeddyLoid was also involved in the tour.[15] There was also a release party for Nyanners first single, Foolish Heart.[16]
On 16 June, VShojo made its first collaboration with hololive, between Nyanners and Takanashi Kiara. The event was streamed on both YouTube and Twitch,[17] and attracted a peak total of around 40,000 viewers across both sites.
On 19 June, another hololive EN collaboration between Ironmouse and Mori Calliope was streamed on Twitch and attracted nearly 25,000 viewers at its peak.[18]
On 22 June, VShojo was included in Nagoya VTuber Exhibit at PARCO, by collaboration with panoravr.[19]
On 3 November, VShojo announced "After sorting through thousands of applications, we sent an email to EN applicants who are advancing in the application process."[31]
On 21 November, VTuber Nux Taku reported that since spring 2021, VShojo talents and applicants had been targeted by malicious users impersonating VShojo to gain personal information.[32] VShojo responded by informing him of their ongoing investigation into the matter, releasing an official cybersecurity statment on 23 November.[33][34] Nux's reporting was criticized by VShojo members, who feared that it revealing their methods would inadvertently aid the attackers. Nux apologized, releasing an apology video and a statement on Twitlonger, and privating the original video.[35][36] VShojo followed up with a blog post clarifying the issue.[37]
On 19 January, VShojo created a VShojo Shorts channel.
On 3 March, VShojo announced that they would be holding a week-long fundraiser for Project HOPE, a humanitarian charity helping out during the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.[39][40]
On 1 April, as an April Fools joke, VShojo it a rebrand into GShojo, with the various members being replaced by gecko-ized versions, based on a form initially introduced by Zentreya.[43][44]
On 6 June, VShojo announced that it would be working on a new project with Kagura Nana.
M3LWARE TAKEOVER
On 15 June, Projekt Melody debuted a new model for Melware, her evil doppelganger. The VShojo social media accounts featured a takeover by Melware, with the VShojo YouTube account briefly changing its profile description to a binary representation of the ASCII string "MELWARE IS HERE," and the Twitter account posting teasers in binary meaning "SHE HAS KEY" and "SAVE HER!!!" The event concluded when the day was saved by cyber Zentreya from the future.
On 24 June, an official VShojo x Senpai Squad Itasha wrapped GT-R was announced to appear at Anime Expo.[45]
On 2 July at Anime Expo, VShojo announced two new members: Kson, a formerly independent VTuber who made an in-person appearance at the convention; and new Japanese member Amemiya Nazuna, designed by Kagura Nana.[46]
On 16 July, Kson made her official redebut under VShojo, and Amemiya Nazuna made her original debut.[47][48]
On 26 July, VShojo, looking to bridge the gap between the Japanese speaking content creators and the English audience, released a translator application form.[49][50]
On 6 August, VShojo members Ironmouse, Nyanners, and Projekt Melody attended the Crunchyroll Expo VIRL Experience, selling merch released by Senpai Squad.
On 30 August, Kson appeared on Nico Nico Live Broadcasting.[51]
On 2-5 September, VShojo attended PAX West with appearances by Ironmouse, Silvervale, and Kson. At the same time, from 2-4 September, VShojo appeared at the San Japan convention with Nyatasha Nyanners and Ironmouse.
On 25 September, VShojo opened applications for Spanish translators.[53]
On 6 October, VShojo announced that they would be partnering with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (@BCRFcure) this month for the Paint Gaming Pink charity.[54]
On 27 October, Streamy Awards nominated VShojo's own Zentreya, Ironmouse, Nyanners and Veibae in the VTuber category.[55] Zen formally applied to withdraw from the nominations.[56]
On 24 November, VShojo pushed back its 2 year anniversary to November 28th, because it fell on the same day as the U.S. holiday Thankgiving[57]
On 28 November, VShojo celebrated its 2 year anniversary by releasing their cover of DECO*27 - Zombies, featuring all 7 original members: Nyanners, Projekt Melody, Ironmouse, Froot, Zentreya, Silvervale, and Hime Hajime.[58] They also released a short video by Kanauru featuring all the members.[59]
On 3 December, Haruka Karibu announced that she would be joining VShojo. She held her re-debut the same day.
At some point VShojo changed their Twitter name from @VShojoOfficial to just @VShojo.
2023
On 4 January, VShojo collaborated with Ironside to release limited edition PC cases.[61]
On 18 January, all of the current VShojo lore videos were made available to watch in order in a YouTube playlist.[62]
On 28 January, VShojo started advertising for a maid cafe for Golden Week.[63]
On 14 February, VShojo after 2 years streamed episode 2 of "VShowdown" for Valentine’s Day featuring Melody, Zentreya, Veibae, and Kson.[64]
On 20 February, The Streamer Awards nominated VShojo for "Best Content Organization", Apricot for "Best Battle Royale Streamer", Ironmouse for "Best Just Chatting Streamer"/"Best VTuber" and Veibae for "Best VTuber".[65]
On 28 February, VShojo teamed up with Makeship to release plushies.[66]
On 11 March, Ironmouse won ”Best VTuber” in the The Streamer Awards.[67]
On 13 March, Nyanners had an IRL backpack stream with Aethelstan and VShojo staff.[68] The stream featured theGunrun singing karaoke.[69]
GShojo 2023
On 1 April, as an April Fools prank, VShojo held an event titled GShowDown, where they were invaded by the "gremolin" versions of seven members,[70] They also revealed a male version of VShojo, "VShoBro," debuting a male version of Kson, called K"son".[71]
VshoBro
On 25 April, VShojo's Twitter account announced that Silvervale and Veibae would be leaving the company after choosing not to renew their contracts.[72] This was followed by an announcement on 30 April that Nyatasha Nyanners would also be leaving the group.[73][74] All members retained their intellectual property and channels, and continued streaming as independent VTubers.
On 7 May, VShojo began releasing a series of short teaser videos using the hashtag #IQ999'.[75][76][77]
Smite x VShojo
On 10 May SMITE announced a crossover event with VShojo, having current members Froot, Ironmouse and Kson, and recently graduated members Silvervale, Nyanners, and Veibae as character skins.[78]
On 11 May, VShojo announced that they would be debuting a new talent, Henya the Genius, on 13 May.[79]
On 17 May, Froot, Ironmouse & Kson had their first ever SMITE collab, in an official a SMITE x VShojo crossover event.[80]
On 26-27 May, Ironmouse and Zentreya hosted a panel at MomoCon.[81][82]
On 31 May, SMITE member Zeus made a video about VShojo and VTubers, claiming the he was a VTuber the whole time.[83]
On 9 June, VShojo announced a limited time GiGO collaboration, featuring members Kson and Amemiya Nazuna.[84] On the same day, Henya the Genius had a collab with Hololive EN's Ninomae Ina'nis.[85]
On 16 June, The VShojo Maid Cafe opened.[86] The maid cafe was a limited merchandise promotion.[87] Henya and Melody held V-IRL panels at OffKai.[88]
On 17 June, Froot, Kson and Nazuna had V-IRL panels at OffKai. Ironmouse also performed a live concert at the event.[89] VShojo also posted a YouTube video titled Kson & Sydsnap Become Maids for a Day, featuring a real-life appearance by Kson and virtual appearances by Melody, Zentreya, Ironmouse, Froot, Haruka, and Henya. The girls appeared in Japanese maid cafe "at-home cafe", where they were accompanied by maids Fuwaru, Machii, and Hime Hajime’s grandmother Sydsnap, and with Highgai as cameraman.[90]
On 30 June, VShojo announced a collaboration with Raynos by Sony to demo Sony's new mobile motion capturing system, Mocopi, at Anime Expo.[91]
On 2 July, day 2 of Anime Expo featured a VShojo Japan panel with Kson in person and Henya on screen.[92] Ironmouse also appeared alongside CDawgVT in a "Monke vs Gremolin" panel.[93] Day 3 featured a VTuber Panel with Haruka, Apricot, and Zentreya.[94]
On 26 July, VShojo began recruiting video editors.[95]
In side the VShojo Art Gallery
On 30 July, VShojo announced the opening of a VShojo Art Gallery in Tokyo from 1 to 13 August.[96]
On 4 August, VShojo released the Ironmouse Unleashed lore video. When Ironmouse (Season 3) loses the silver bell that constrains her power, a squad of different Ironmice from across the multiverse must team up to stop her. She is defeated and changes into Brat Princess Ironmouse, but Season 2 Tiny Queen Ironmouse is killed in the fight.[97][98]
Candy Pop Explosion logo
On 5 August, during Ironmouse's 6th year anniversary, the first teaser for was dropped for the first VShojo 3D concert, "Candy Pop Explosion." This was held on 26 August, with tickets being sold through YouTube's membership feature and granting access to the concert on the day and VOD. The event premiered five original songs: Sour Taste, by Ironmouse; Q-pid, by Melody and Hime; Umbrella, by Haruka and Henya; Sodalicious, by Nazuna and Kson; and Color Blind, by Apricot and Zentreya. The concert ended with a teaser featuring a sealed envelope, indicating a new member.[99] A further new member teaser appeared the following day.[100]
On 27 August, a new VShojo member was teased with a video snippet depicting Henya and Haruka preparing an invitation letter.[101]
On 1 September, The VShojo store prematurely added merch that spoiled the identity of the new member.[102] General GEEGA made her debut on 2 September,[103] following a VShojo Triple Threat panel at San Japan that featured Mel, Zen, and Haruka, hosted by Nagzz21.[104]
On 24 September, a teaser video was uploaded on YouTube titled #UndeadK9, showing VShojo members in front of a graveyard strewn with missing person posters.[105]
On 27 September, Kuro Kurenai was announced as the next member to join VShojo.[106] Some fans had already discovered the new member's identity earlier that day by noticing the username on his Minecraft account.
On 30 September, Kuro Kurenai made his debut as VShojo's first male member.[107]
On 8 October, VShojo released a "breaking news" teaser for another new member in the form of an old-timey news broadcast.[108]
Between 17 and 18 October, the official "VShojo" YouTube channel was renamed to "VShojo Classic", while the VShojo Highlights channel was renamed to "VShojo" and is now acting as its main channel.[110][111][112]
On 18 October, Kuro and Matara had a Q&A stream where they shared about their past, how they joined VShojo, and how happy they are now.[113]
On 19 October, VShojo appeared at TwitchCon 2023 in Las Vegas with the Senpai Squad.[114]
On 23 November, VShojo and Makeship released glow in the dark plushies.[116]
On 17 December, VShojo held a VShojo x Toys For Tots charity event.[117]
On 28 December, VShojo's Twitter account announced that Amemiya Nazuna would leave VShojo, concluding her contract with the company on 31 December 2023. She retained her intellectual property and assets.[118] She held her final stream as a VShojo member on 29 December. However, she would return to streaming as Nazuna as an independent VTuber on 8 February.
2024
On 5 January, VShojo announced that they were teaming up with BISOULOVELY to release VTuber inspired jewelry based on Haruka, Henya, Hime, Ironmouse, Froot, Melody, and Zentreya.[119]
On 8 January, the V4Mirai’s 3D concert featuring a VShojo encore was streamed on VStream.[121]
On 10 January, VShojo took part in the NIKKE New Year campaign where Haruka, Henya, Matara, & Melody were invited to engage with Scarlet.[122]
On January 28, the specially created modpack for VShojo's Minecraft server called "VShojoCraft" was released publically on Curseforge by TofuToons.
On 9 February, VShojo announced the VShojo x Animate Fair merchandise, featuring original illustration merch and special limited postcards of the VShojo talents.[123]
On 1 April, following in the tradition of VShojo April Fools events, Zentreya became a toaster.[124]
On 9 April, VShojo mysteriously tweeted a portrait of VShojo CEO TheGunrun with a salute emoji, leading to speculation that he had either died or retired.[125]
Between 13 and 17 April, VShojo released three promotional videos about a VShojo HQ head of security named Code Blue (played by Ify Nwadiwe) trying to figure out who stole TheGunrun's briefcase. The events were set between 8 and 12 April. In the last video, it is revealed that the briefcase was in Gunrun's desk the whole time. Code Blue opens the briefcase, which contains a VShojo invite subsequently stolen by a mysterious purple-haired figure. The entire event was revealed to be a promo for new member, phantom thief Michi Mochievee.
On 20 April, Michi Mochievee made her debut as the sixteenth ever member of VShojo.
In the month of April, VShojo opened up their previously member exclusive Minecraft server to invited close friends of the group. The first wave of friends who joined included Ai Candii, Arielle, Obkatiekat, Heavenly Father, and FroggyLoch.
On 4 May, the VShojo X NIKKE ANNIVERSARY MUSIC SPECIAL event was hosted by General GEEGA and Ironmouse's friend CDawgVA.[126]
On 1-2 June, VShojo talent appeared at OffKaiExpo, hosting a maid cafe. The talents that showed up were Ironmouse, Zentreya, Kson, Mochievee, GEEGA, Henya, and Matara. Though not a member of VShojo, Mint Fantôme was also a part of the advertised VShojo roster.[127]
On 26 June, VShojo collaborated with Do Not Peek Entertainment to play ShipWrekt for the charity Gamers Outreach. Players included Haruka, Ironmouse, Kuro, and Zentreya.[128]
On 2 July, The VShojoJP Twitter account announced that they were opening applications for talent for VShojo Japan.[129]
On 9 July, The VShojo Twitter account announced that they were opening applications for VShojo.[130] The opening continued until 20 August.[131]
Between 20 and 22 September, VShojo members made appearances at Twitchcon San Diego, where they held meet and greet events.[132]
On 30 September, VShojo member Ironmouse broke the #1 all-time Twitch subscriber record, previously held by Kai Cenat.[133]
On 1 October, VShojo started a Stamp Rally event, in which members competed to hold the most collab streams with other VShojo members. Rules required a collab to be one-on-one, livestreamed, at least two hours long, and limited to one per day. All current members except Henya the Genius were participants. The event continued until December.[134]
On 11 October, VShojo members Zentreya, Ironmouse, and Haruka along with chat in a Gecko body participated in a Ghouls & Geckos D&D charity campaign.[135]
On 30 October, VShojo released a group cover of the song I Put A Spell On You from the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus.[136] VShojo also made their 12 active talent's VRchat chibi models public.[137]
On 8 November, VShojo released a group cover of a Disney Villain Mashup medley from 11 Disney movies.[138]
From 10 to 13 November, the VShojo and VShojo Japan Twitter accounts tweeted a teaser depicting five portals in the sky, and four silhouettes.[139] On 14 November, they posted art revealing the silhouettes to be new members Akatsuki Hotaru, Hestia Happiness, Yutori Peke, and Okamoto Nagi. These four make up the group NOVA.[140] Akatsuki and Hestia debuted on 22 November, while Yutori and Okamoto debuted on 23 November.
On 24 November, for VShojo's 4th anniversary, the talents (excluding NOVA members) took part in a charity relay stream raising money for Make-A-Wish in partnership with Don'tPeekEntertainment. Each of the talent streamed for a set amount of time then raided into each other for a whole 24hrs, in which they ended up smashing the original goal of $75,000 and raising over 160k.[141]
2025
Between the 15[142] - 24 January, VShojo had tweeted a total of four teasers leading up to the debut of a new Mafia themed VTuber.[143]
On 26 January, it was revealed that the Multiverse Monarch AmaLee had joined VShojo.[144]
Members
R
Retired from VTubing activities
F
Left the group or agency
The complete list of current and former VShojo members is as follows:
Founding VShojo Members
The original seven members of VShojo were selected by Projekt Melody. With the exception of Hime Hajime, all were established independent VTubers before joining VShojo. All seven made their re-debuts on 24 November 2020, except for Apricot, who re-debuted on 27 November, and Hime Hajime, who debuted on 31 January 2021.
The first members of the VShojo Japanese branch. Kson was a veteran streamer whose Nico Nico Douga streams dated back to 2016, and re-debuted on 16 July 2022. Amemiya Nazuna was VShojo's second entirely original character, and debuted on the same day.
Haruka Karibu was an independent VTuber who originally debuted in 2020 to an audience of just 28 viewers. She re-debuted with VShojo on December 2022, to an audience of 23,970. Haruka is the only member recruited from the 2021 auditions.[145][146]
Henya is referred to by the other girls as the bridge between the English and Japanese branches. General GEEGA was originally an independent VTuber before joining VShojo. Kuro marks the first time VShojo adds a male talent.
NOVA is the 2nd group in VShojoJP and 3rd in the overall company. However, the way this group is packaged fits more in line with a traditional Japanese VTuber wave or generation compared to their predecessors. Hestia Happiness was originally an independent VTuber before joining VShojo.
AmaLee is a professional voice actor and music artist. She was an independent VTuber that went by the name “Multiverse Monarch” prior to joining VShojo and changing her name back to AmaLee.
Kson, Nyanners, Zentreya, Ironmouse, Veibae, Apricot, Haruka Karibu
2023/04/01
Trivia
The name VShojo is a pun on the Japanese word "bishoujo" meaning "pretty girl." The letter "V" stands for "virtual," as in VTuber.
VShojo does not use "generations." According to the site's FAQ in 2021, all current and future talents are considered part of the same "generation."[161]
The Lewdcast podcast has been viewed as the precursor to VShojo, originally featuring founding VShojo members Melody, Ironmouse and Silvervale, and Nyanners as a prior guest.
VShojo has a reputation for positive support of members, both in terms of time and money. They offer to pay for members' therapy, legal support, costs in members' projects, and various other support services. They don't take money from community donations. They won't even allow members to sign without having the contract checked by an independent lawyer.[162][163]
VShojo operates closer to a cooperative, where all talents are free to upgrade or replace their models and outfits as they see fit, leading to a number of "styles" across 2D and 3D.
It is common for members to retain the rights to their models after leaving VShojo.
VShojo CEO theGunRun is one of the founders of Twitch, the main platform for VShojo streams.[164]
Although Kson and Henya are in the Japanese branch, they are both American.
VShojo is nicknamed the "VTuber Retirement Home" for its support of existing VTubers.
VShojo teamed up with Japanese cosplayer Mr. Izu[167] to hand out VShojo T-shirts in front of the Don Quijote Akihabara store 25 June 2022, and again in 1 July with cosplayer Sithle011.[168][169]
Kuro is the first male talent to join VShojo.
A running gag is that when VShojo teases a new member announcement, fans speculate it to be General GEEGA. This joke has continued even after GEEGA became a VShojo member.