VTube Giant VShojo "Failed" and Forced to Close Following Talent Abandoning Ship

If you aren't already familiar with VTube and the way it works, it may be hard to grasp the complexities involved. But to break it down: Content creators play games or create music using very specific anime avatars to represent themselves. It sounds simple, but the drama and complex interactions go far beyond that.

Especially when it comes to VTube talent agency VShojo.

For the past year, VShojo has been more about drama and accusations than creating quality content. A number of the agency's biggest talents left, supposedly due to disagreements over financial matters. Eventually, VShojo announced that they would be closing down for good. But what exactly happened?

Here's what we know about why VShojo is shutting down, and why fans and creators are so angry about it.

You can't keep a talent agency alive when your biggest talents abandon you, which is exactly what VShojo discovered after Ironmouse and Matara, among other creators, opted to leave the agency.

On her way out, Ironmouse leveled some pretty serious accusations at VShojo in a video on YouTube, claiming that the company had withheld funds from both herself and charitable organizations they were claiming to have money for, and that the company misled her.

VShojo CEO Justin “Gunrun” Ignacio eventually was forced to make a statement, and it was a bigger announcement than people expected. He was finally addressing it, sort of, and planned to shut the company down for good.

In a statement released on X (formerly Twitter), Gunrun said, "VShojo has failed,” admitting that he “mismanaged the company” to the degree that major talent was leaving feeling pretty disgruntled about their time with the agency.

Gunrun added that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led [the company] to this point.” He went on to add that the company had raised $11 million from investors and put it into a “bold, talent-first approach” to building the company. But, he acknowledges, "some of the money spent" was raised for charity, which Gunrun claims he later learned was spent on talent.

As a result, he explains, they "ran out of money" and would be forced to close.

While it seems like a somewhat earnest mea culpa, fans and other streamers aren't letting the company off the hook so easily.

In a community note under the post, one user added, "by 'some of the money spent' Gunrun means $500,000 that are for the Immune Deficiency Foundation. Despite the claim that he 'later learn[ed] was intended for a charitable initiative,' screenshots of Gunrun's RTs of the event can be found on the QRTs."

They provided links to several screenshots, which show Gunrun appeared to have contemporary knowledge that Ironmouse planned to donate money earned from her livestreams to the Immune Deficiency Foundation.

And Jacksepticeye, a major creator with over 31 million followers on YouTube alone, weighed in on the topic too, commenting, "Keeping charity money is some movie villain s--t."

Other commenters agreed, including former VShojo streamer Kson, who quit in the middle of a call to the company's CEO, uploading a video with an explanation.

Under Gunrun's statement, Kson blasted the company, writing, "Why didn't you let us know the moment you realized this situation? Why did I get the information two weeks ago not from the company but from my home girls?? Why did you lie to the JP branch A WEEK AGO that everything was good and taken care of?????"

It's clear that no one is buying Gunrun's "I didn't know what was happening" explanation. It seems unlikely that he will explain further, or that VShojo will ever admit their part in whatever happened.

But the end result is that the company is closing its doors, leaving fans frustrated and creators looking for a new home for their talents.