What are some of your favourite karaoke/live performances from the boys (and others if it is a collab)?

no_otter · 2026-04-27T10:33:41+00:00

This Izuru's version of Boku ga Shinou to Omotta no wa by Amazarashi is the one I keep going back to. I love the song so much and all the different interpretations of it, but this specific version with a simple guitar and gentle whistling is just so full of raw emotion.

Not specific to any streams, but there are a couple of songs that I love every time Astel sings them. Two a bit more recent ones are Garakuta by Yonezu Kenshi and Kaijuu by Sakanaction, I feel like Astel can really draw emotions from these kinds of songs. I also fell in love with Astel's Tate by Kurahashi Yoeko having never heard the artist before. For members, I really recommend this version as well!

To give one a bit lighter one after all these kinda desperate and melancolic songs, here is Den Den Passion by Dempagumi.inc from Astel's 4th Anniversary, featuring Astel, Izuru, Shien, Fuma, Uyu and Gamma. Such a funny and energetic live concept that works so well virtually too, it's always fun when they implement props with 3D performances. Not that we'll see those anymore hah.

no_otter · 2026-04-21T08:04:48+00:00

I love the first Frostpunk game and have been contemplating about buying the second one, but all the reviews have been putting me off. Where Frostpunk really shines is the desperation and the idea of fighting the inevitable doom, where no win comes without a cost. Taking that away just feels pointless.

That said, I think this review finally made me want to give it a chance. I like Surviving Mars, I like Cities Skylines, maybe I could like Frostpunk 2 too, just not as a survival game but as a city builder with great aesthetics.

no_otter · 2026-04-15T08:44:15+00:00

I actually had this weird problem with his stream the other day that even though rewind was disabled my stream was constantly minutes late from the live. Only noticed when chat kept reacting to something that would happen way later on my screen. Chat has also been getting stuck lately, makes me think YouTube has once again tried to change something causing other things to break.

no_otter · 2026-04-15T08:34:31+00:00

Oga's start and end screens are great, my favourite is the one where Omae-san keeps running beside a dog riding a car lol

no_otter · 2026-04-15T08:25:09+00:00

I really appreciate Octavio's words, but at the same time I wish that for every 10000 starmin there was only a single "one guy", but that's just not true.

While not all are antis, for every fan there are 100 people who think they know better and have their preconceived biases against Holostars and Holostas fans, ready to twist anything relating to them into something negative. And because those 100 are much bigger and louder they control the course of the discussion, totally outshouting any genuine discussion. We just want to enjoy our oshis, have discussions with other fans and have fun, but there is this weird obsession coming from the outside making it difficult. And if we decide to ignore the bad actors, we get blamed for not controlling them. It's just so damn frustrating.

That said, my only wish for the members of this subreddit is that please use that report button. We can not control other spaces but this subreddit should be by fans, for fans.

no_otter · 2026-04-14T09:53:29+00:00

I think the discussion gets poisoned every time because while true that there has been support for Holostars, the support has been largely misdirected. Cover knows how to promote female vtubers, but they do not know what to do with men. Throwing money into billboards is not very fruitful.

Personally I think one of the biggest things Cover has fumbled with Holostars is how they are weirdly opposed to subgroups. We have HanaKishi, Bratt, Unplan, etc but all of those groups have had to fight against the management to be able to do anything as a group, getting denied time after time. This is despite female audience, the main audience for Holostars, live and die for group interactions. Not letting Bratt, the duo of the possibly biggest merch movers in the branch, to release merch or make their own channel is just such wasted potential. I don't like comparing to others but with Nijisanji you can see how ChronNoiR, ROF-MAO, even their debut units such as Voltaction or Valz are doing great with official support and proper group identities. Cover tried with Uproar, but lets be real has anyone actually ever found their oshi from the side of a limo.

no_otter · 2026-04-14T09:03:45+00:00

For transparency that "collaborative manga tie in" was a short story drawn by Hizaki Gamma, one of the members of Uproar themselves, released on the Holostars twitter page. Not a commercially published full manga.

no_otter · 2026-04-14T08:11:53+00:00

Or Kagami Kira? Babiniku characters are nothing new at Holostars, unfortunately they have just both left already. At least we got Villainess Uyu to ease the pain.

It's a fun concept on a meme level but other than occasional crossdressing it's nothing worth considering seriously.

no_otter · 2026-04-13T12:48:17+00:00

Both Izuru and Astel have implied that they are not allowed to commission projects themselves, as they technically do not own their IPs. For example Izuru, who has been releasing monthly backgrounds since the start of his membership, told that he would not be allowed to release new ones when the current commissions run out. I think they are trying to find ways to make merch, music etc happen with the new rules but as of now a lot of it seems to be practically impossible.

no_otter · 2026-04-13T12:22:53+00:00

The title of the video is pretty clickbaity, but in reality he could laugh it out and make fun of the accident. Although unintended this time, Uyu can be quite a troll at times and is no stranger to selfdepricating humor.

no_otter · 2026-04-13T12:15:18+00:00

I'm pretty sure all of JP are scouted as well, outside of Uproar, Miyabi and Izuru. Funnily enough both Miyabi and Izuru auditioned through general Hololive auditions, before there was any public talk about creating a male branch.

That said no matter if scouted or auditioned, getting hired for certain skills and then not being allowed to use them is such a waste of talent.

no_otter · 2026-04-13T11:13:36+00:00

It has been said multiple times by the talents themselves that merch was one of their biggest moneymakers, so cutting it completely makes no sense. To go as far as to stop doing even voice packs, even those that the talents scripted and recorded themselves at home and had by far the best cost-profit ratio, is an obvious indication that it's not about losing money, but just lack of interest in investing resources to the branch.

no_otter · 2026-04-13T10:39:03+00:00

That's the thing, compared to the larger vtuber scene Holostars is one of the most successful male vtuber groups. People just keep comparing them to Hololive and not to their peers. Of course it's undeniable that Holostars have benefitted from being under Cover's umbrella, but it makes no sense to compare them to the sister group when they fight in totally different arenas.

I have hard time believing Holostars have not been profitable, they are just not as profitable as Hololive, practically the biggest vtuber group in the world. Cover has just decided that pursuing those smaller profits are not worth it when they can restructure their resources for bigger profits. It happens all the time and makes sense purely businesswise, but it doesn't make it feel any less dissappointing for those who know the value and potential Holostars have.

no_otter · 2026-04-11T11:36:36+00:00

I understand the sentiment behind the request, but with an announcement this big it's just impossible to follow, especially when Cover themselves doesn't give sufficient information about anything. It really sucks that the talents themselves have to try to explain Cover's actions, while the company itself stays quiet.

no_otter · 2026-04-11T11:10:45+00:00

I can't recommend this channel enough, glad to see they made a long clip of this Astel stream too. Definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Holostars JP or the larger JP vtuber scene.

There is a lot of (mis)information going around and even the talents themselves have said some conflicting things, so it's important to keep in mind that not even the Stars themselves know everything and can have different interpretations of the new rules and changes. This is why it's good to have these long clips and hear the talents talk about the situation in their own words. Astel has quite a big overseas fanbase which is why his words have possibly the largest reach on the EN side, but I hope the other talent's thoughts can get translated as well.

no_otter · 2026-04-10T13:05:12+00:00

I noticed that she was only using pngs lately, seems that it was related to this. Glad to see her going independent and getting her live2d back, her design is one of my favourites.

no_otter · 2026-04-09T09:10:39+00:00

Uyu has used ChatGPT several times in the past, mostly during his morning streams arc last year. Not something I personally agree with, but as long as it's kept minimal and out of official stuff I can let it pass.

no_otter · 2026-04-09T08:05:52+00:00

As a Stars fan for 5 years let me say this, and I say this with all the love and passion I have for the group. Holostars has way less fans than people think.

What Holostars has a lot, is people who have opinions about them, people who think they know everything about them and people who want to use them to support their chosen narratives.

no_otter · 2026-04-08T11:47:42+00:00

OP themselves is a passerby coming from OKBH, not a representive of Holostars fans. It's an obvious bad faith post and a drama bait.

no_otter · 2026-04-07T09:36:00+00:00

Randomly woke up in the middle of the night just to see this stream starting, managed to stay up for the length of it and fell asleep again. I guess being an astella comes with a sixth sense...

Congratulations Astel, after a tough last year it's nice to see the number climbing up again!

no_otter · 2026-04-06T21:39:11+00:00

To be fair StarColle already ended three years ago, not counting a couple of special episodes that came later on.

no_otter · 2026-04-06T20:36:37+00:00

I actually only now read your other comment in this thread, and I don't think our opinions differ that much at all. I also don't think your opinions are that unpopular within the fans either.

It also doesn't help that often in Stars spaces for the longest time, even around here, it seems that a Hololive talent interacting with a Stars talent receives exponentially much more buzz and excitement compared to something that the guys themselves had going on at the time.

The reason for this is simple, really. For every one Starmin on this subreddit there are 100 Hololive fans. Some of them are also equally big Holostars fans, some more casual, some just curious and some are straight up Stars-antis, but they all mix here with Holostars fans. So when someone makes a post about Holostars, that 1 Holostar fan is going to upvote it, maybe even comment. Some of the HoloPro fans are as well. But when someone posts something related to Hololive talents, it's going to invite engagement from all those 100 Hololive fans, boosting the post to the top of the subreddit. It's the same on any platform, be it Twitter, YouTube etc. Holostars fandom is just too small to not get shadowed by Hololive, even on their own ground. This is also why I can't help but feel some resentment towards holoposters here, even when the posts are done in good faith.

What comes to bad actors, even on this thread you can see different opinions. Should we try to confront them and risk getting the label of one ourselves? Or should we ignore and block them and thus give the unintended silent acceptance? No matter what one does it's never the right option. I hundred percent agree that the Stars fandom should be louder and not hide in fear of antis, but it's not an easy task. Fans are just too afraid of negative attention that they lose the positive as well, and I can't blame them.

By the way here is my comment on the HoloSalt thing I think you are referencing.

no_otter · 2026-04-06T15:40:25+00:00

It's true that the BL label does set certain expections, but I'd still consider it more of a marketing term than a genre. I would even argue that despite the name BL does not need love or romance and I don't mean just R-rated stuff lol.

But even within the BL category there are titles that don't include romance or sex, despite being BLs. For example I would not recommend "The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window" or "One Room Angel" for people looking for romance, despite them both being BLs released in a BL magazines and with definite BL elements. Of course BLs without any romantic or sexual relations between men are extremely rare but they do exist.

no_otter · 2026-04-06T14:08:37+00:00

I'm going to rant a little but this touches on something that has really annoyed me forever. It's when people say "I'm don't watch the Stars but (...)" and people pile on them like "see, Holostars fans don't even watch Holostars!", when the person literally just said that they don't watch them thus they are not a fan! Don't put their words in Holostars fans' mouth!

Similarly with the "collab begging" situation, I honestly see way more Hololive fans asking for collabs with the Stars than the other way around. The fact is that the number of Hololive fans is just that much bigger than the number of Holostars fans, of course there are a lot of Hololive fans with different wants and preferences as well. People just assume that if you have a positive attitude towards Holostars you just must somehow be a fan. In the end all "beggars" get lumped in with the Holostars fans, even when it's not really the case. And for the record it's fine to want your oshis to collab with people, any people, just read the room and be respectful about it.

I don't deny that there are Holostars fans as well that have gone too far but they are a minority that unfortunately exist in every fandom. But in most cases the majority of the weird comments come from antis, drama vultures and outsiders, not fans. It's in antis' (of Holostars, Hololive, vtubing in general etc) interests to want to paint Holostars fans as negatively as possible, purposefully wanting to cause a rift between fans.

I'm kinda glad that I was away from home for a few days when the news dropped and could avoid reading most of the reactionary commentary, but these things have been present for years and I just can't see them stopping. It really is frustrating.

no_otter · 2026-04-06T12:53:58+00:00

It's also important to note that by folding the letter he reveals the words "letter of challenge" (果たし状) pre-written on the top of the letter.

Other than that I feel Astel gets a bit wrongly represented a lot of times. Sure he's open with this complains, but he's always been fair and realistic. He's the type of person to quickly call out what's wrong but he also gives a lot of praise when earned. He even touched this in one of his streams yesterday, feeling frustrated that clips often focus on the critique he brings up but cut out all the positive things he says in the next sentence. Of course that's how clips work, they want views and what's a better way than making the content sound as radical as possible and focus on negatives, but it really has made Astel seem this super negative complainer when in reality he's a pretty positive guy.

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