/vt/ - Virtual Youtubers

>>47058677
Just look at anime for a reflection on what sells.
Girl-focussed stuff has -
> Yuri series
Yuribaiting among both corpos and indies. Easily replicable in VTubing.
> CGDCT
The entirety of Hololive JP, so much so that a certain subsection of CGDCT animefags have completely moved over to watching Holo streams instead.
> > Sub-genre - Slapstick comedy
Some of Hololive, Pekora, Miko etc. focus more on comedy instead of GFE stuff. More of a "generalized" audience without any of the attachment from gachi-type fans.
> Regular Romcom
GFE chuubas fall under this experience, VERY easy to transfer from anime to VTubing, successful when done well and when other male stuff is hidden from your streams. Very multilayered genre since there's hundreds of different types of girlfriends, so there's a lot of potential for variety.

Meanwhile, with Boy-focussed stuff there's a lot more genre variation -
> Shounen-Ai
Softer version of Yaoi, most easily reproducible in VTuber industry, tons of fans for a properly delivered experience (i.e. no girls in the mix).
> > Sub-genre - Bara
Maimoto, Belmond, Chaika etc. lean into it with their designs. They don't need to pander to anyone, just from their design they'll get a bunch of barafag fujoshi worshipping them. Aruran WAS one of them, but well... he did the redesign, losing all of his bara-loving fujos, in return for FUCK-ALL because the "pretty boy" niche is extremely competitive. And changing his design like that also sends the message that it might happen again in the future, girls don't like that kind of uncertainty with their oshis.
> Romcom Harem
Roberu basically perfected this dangerous formula and made it work in VTubing without ever threatening the male audience of any of the girls he collabs with.
He's basically "Tsuda" from that show "Seitokai Yakuindomo", under constant sexual harassment from the girls around him, and plays that tsukkomi role to PERFECTION.
> Shoujo/Josei
Basically people like Hakka and Vox, the end result of women reading manga looking for hot anime guys to fall in love with. This is the BFE style. The males need to be "theirs" alone (i.e. avoid girl collabs), need to have a good design and good voice. Shoujo types pander romantically while Josei types pander sexually. Vox goes a little too far into coomer territory for the Josei types though, which might explain his reclining numbers. Josei-loving ladies like the more sensual stuff, not the explicit kind.
BFE is also (in my opinion) a shallower field, there's not as many "boyfriend types" as "girlfriend types" - but that may just be my male bias talking.
> Shounen : ???
How do VTubers even do "battle" series, other than just doing constant tournaments?
Even putting "superpowers" in their lore doesn't really give them any sort of "arc" to move towards, especially when for Shounen it usually involves beating some arch nemesis (who would that even be in VTubing? And how would that work without fans of both sides taking things waaay too seriously?).
That kind of storyline is VERY hard to run in VTubing (it IS possible though, and a so-far untapped niche, but idk how much dedication that would take to perform).
> > Sub-genre - Gamer Bro
Kuzuha, Yashiro, Astel etc. have good skill in gaming, and entertain their audience. This is a VERY hard niche to fill because they will simultaneously be competing with Fleshstreamers in the same niche, so you BETTER have some skill or some quirk in your design or something that makes you appealing to the general crowd. Naturally with a good enough design these types can get a bunch of yumejos worshipping them as well.
> Mecha/Space Opera : ???
I'll be honest, someone with a model like pic related playing Paradox 4x games like CK2 or Stellaris would have me HIGHLY intrigued.
They might exist among the 2-view dumpster, but a concept as interesting as this would never stay that hidden forever, especially /here/.
This one of course is not limited to male VTubers alone, but something they have an inherent advantage in.

Holostars is, in addition to not knowing their market, extremely late to it.
The negative attention they get from the Hololive fans (who are increasingly becoming the "general" crowd as well) is not helping them either.
They should vary their genres, look into more things other than just the two or three niches they have. Try new things, see if there's anything you can connect with and grow from there, and try not to antagonize your adjacent audience too much.