KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 — This weekend, an unassuming and slightly nerdy-looking boss of a technology company will appear here as a special guest at Malaysia Digital Content Festival’s Level UP Play 2024.
But to a small but fervent sub-set of VTuber fans in Malaysia, he may as well be the Pope himself. So who is Tanigo Motoaki, and why is he so revered by his fans?
Dubbed “Yagoo” by fans, the chief executive and co-founder of Japanese entertainment technology firm Cover Corporation was responsible for the creation of Hololive Production — one of the world’s top VTuber agencies with affiliated talents in Japan, Indonesia and English-speaking countries.
With Cover’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in March 2023 reaching ¥9.3 billion (RM280 million), he is respected as both entrepreneur and entertainment mogul.
From Tanigo to Yagoo to ‘best girl’
But first, why Yagoo? The nickname originated from one of Hololive talents, Oozora Subaru, who misread the Japanese “kanji” character “Tanigo” as “Yagoo” back in 2019. Ever since then, he has almost exclusively been called that by the talents and fans.
Tanigo graduated from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University near Tokyo, before starting his career by developing video game characters in collaboration with Sanrio at Imagineer Co Ltd.
He later dabbled in many sectors including in website management, e-commerce, app development, and finally co-founded Cover in 2016 as a technology company aimed at augmented and virtual reality, before pivoting into VTubers.
With his dedication to the Hololive talents, including appearing in their streams and promoting their merchandise, fans have even dubbed him their most beloved talent — calling him the “best girl” in Hololive.
Why are Malaysian fans excited for Hololive?
Tanigo has always imagined Hololive to be an agency of idols like the massive AKB48 — which also has talents and branches worldwide — but Hololive has grown beyond that, with talents who are capable in video gaming, singing, and even voice acting.
Earlier this year, Hololive announced that talents will embark on its first world tour concert called “Hololive Stage World Tour ‘24 -Soar!-”. One of the first announced stops was for Malaysia, much to the excitement of local fans.
Its stops include the United States, Indonesia, and Singapore before concluding at Kuala Lumpur’s Comic Fiesta 2024 on December 21.
The stage will feature some of Hololive talents in its line-up including AZKi and Tsunomaki Watame from the Japanese branch, Moona Hoshinova and Kobo Kanaeru from the Indonesian branch, and Takanashi Kiara, Ninomae Ina’nis and Hakos Baelz of the English branch.
In fact, Kobo and three other Indonesian Hololive talents — Ayunda Risu, Kureiji Ollie and Pavolia Reine — will also make an appearance in this weekend’s Level UP Play 2024.
'A'
Hololive’s first ever talent, Tokino Sora, made her debut in September 2017 to just 13 viewers.
Several generations of VTubers since, which also included the all-male group Holostars, there are 88 active talents with over 87 million subscribers on YouTube, of which 39 active members have over a million subscribers each.
Gawr Gura from the English first generation group HoloMyth is even among the most subscribed VTuber worldwide, with over 4.5 million subscribers. This was despite her first ever remark to viewers being a mere syllable: “A.”
Hololive production is also known to integrate advanced technologies into their performances, hosting numerous 3D live concerts performed by their affiliated talents engaged in various activities such as singing or dancing.
In addition, advanced technologies are continuously being explored by both talents and the company to enable at-home 3D streaming using devices such as mocopi and Meta Quest 2.
The company also boasts a built-in studio facility with Vicon — an optical motion capture system — to achieve accurate, high-fidelity motion tracking for multiple talents during 3D concerts.
Yagoo's dream is 'dead'... or is it?
With some talents’ usually comedic — and sometimes risqué — interactions, fans and the talents themselves have joked that Tanigo’s “dream” of his “pure” idols is dead in the water.
However as of 2024, Hololive talents have successfully branched out to appear in real-life entertainment content — a testament of their growth.
With a huge chunk of their streams being video gaming, many members have appeared in collaboration with video games. In 2022, Inugami Korone was made the official brand ambassador for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise in Japan.
Early last year, Hoshimachi Suisei performed her song “Stellar Stellar” on Japanese YouTube channel The First Take, becoming the first VTuber to perform on the channel that invites singers to record a song in a single take.
In July this year, they collaborated with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team — the world’s first collaboration project between a VTuber and a Major League Baseball team — perhaps too successfully, as tens of thousands turned up to the stadium.
Talents have also collaborated and held interviews with Hollywood stars over the release of their movies, like Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz for the Japanese premiere of The Batman and Jared Leto during the release of Morbius.
Mori Calliope of HoloMyth also sang the ending song for the anime Suicide Squad Isekai, in addition to previous collaboration with the video game Metal Gear Solid.
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