Hololive’s lucrative Summer event almost looked very different, VTubers say

Hololive Summer is arguably the most anticipated event the VTuber group puts on ⁠— outside of holoFes. However what fans know about the beach-inspired special was drastically different to initial plans, but the crunch was worth the effort.

There’s a few events on the yearly Hololive calendar fans look forward to. Debuts of new talents and anniversaries of old ones are obvious ones, and so too big concerts and the beloved holoFes.

However one promotion does stand out above most of the rest, and it’s Hololive Summer. The event in July and August — first ran in 2019, then returning in 2022 after three years without — took fans by storm as the VTubers debut new swimsuits and perform their idol songs on the beach.

It was lucrative event as fans eagerly awaited the designs and the performances in store. It was also an idea COVER Corp and the VTubers had early on about what Hololive could become.

“There’s this perception of ‘idols mean swimsuits.’ If you’re singing in a swimsuit, you’re an idol,” Shirakami Fubuki said during the agency’s fifth anniversary stream.

While there was plenty of song and dance, the original plan for Hololive Summer was much more simple. There would be new models of course, but there was only ever planned to be an artbook sold at Comiket.

That was before founder Motoaki ‘YAGOO’ Tanigo had the genius idea to create a music video showing off the swimsuits. The only issue was the agency had barely any time to pull things together for the first Comiket appearance.

“Everyone looked like they were having fun singing and dancing in the music video, but we were under a really tight schedule to make this music video,” Fubuki continued. The swimsuits were a thing but we originally had no plans for us to sing and dance in them. It was a sudden decision to have us sing and dance in our swimsuits.”

It was worth the effort though given the fan reception, and it was described by some as “a reckless move that paid off”.

“We got the idea ‘summer means swimsuits’ and wondered if maybe it’d make fans go wild if we did a group song,” YAGOO said. “That’s how we arrived at the decision. 

“I managed the project and I definitely put a lot of pressure on our team, like our external collaborators and our internal staff. But in the end we managed to make it happen. I remember us barely making it in time. I definitely put everyone through some tough times back then. 

It’s hard to imagine Hololive without the summer promotion as we know it, which drew so much applause back then as well as on its 2022 return. That little bit of extra effort, though, has defined the VTuber agency and its legacy as it continues to grow.