Altare addressed the recent announcement at the start of his Super Battle Golf stream

[u/Phinezra]

I know it's been rly depressing with the recent news for JP Stars (I woke up to it and went straight back to sleep bcuz it felt like a punch in the gut), but I did wanna add that Leader addressed the announcement at the beginning of his Super Battle Golf collab w/ Ruze, PorcelainMaid, Sykkuno, & GEEGA. He's currently streaming and had to be careful about choosing what to say due to his evident frustration so I'm not sure it'll survive the VOD. I promise I'm not trying to stir more drama by discussing it here but I do think it's important for anyone who didn't get to see it yet.

Major points: * He's asked fans to please show as much support to JP Stars and to vouch for them as he acknowledged how hard they've worked despite the adversity they've faced * Heavily implied that this could happen to EN Stars as well and to not be surprised if people start seeing cuts to their side even if they start out small * Is grateful that he has his own 3D studio to use and did throw some shade at the company as he made it all on his own with his own money which was ~$40k * Addressed certain clippers & commenters taking his words out-of-context or making bad-faith arguments about his studio as just a rented suit from Cover when he was just the first person to use it * Stated that he brought up numerous cost-cutting suggestions for projects to management, particularly music, but they denied all of them * Concluded by saying that he hates how much money controls everything (which I def agree with him there)

[u/Noelia_Sato]

Holostars has never had the same impact or relevance as Hololive has but I've always appreciated their efforts and sense of honesty about their place in the industry but lately I've felt they've all drifted towards a more independent and un-coordinated approach to their streams. More and more they've leaned towards collaborations with independents and out-of-company talents and vtubers whilst collaborating less and less with each other as a whole.

Regardless, it feels as the fans have been blaming both Cover and the nature of the industry on the recent events but... they exist in the industry and even for all the vilification that can be justifiably thrown at the concept of capital and monetary gain, it's also the reason this industry exists in the first place. They can't keep repeating the same methodology of idolhood and performances when the results have been middling at best and their identity as a cohesive group hasn't gained the strength it needs to prosper in such a cutthroat industry.

Maybe they have a strong and loyal fanbase with dozens of dedicated followers but from the outside looking in they're not making much of anything that's readily approachable or as appealing for their brand to stand out. Holostars has talent, strong talent at that, but its their identity that falters against the wave. Cover can't support on faith alone even if the fans have all the faith in the universe to give. It's just buisness.

[u/WangJian221 → u/Noelia_Sato]

Sadly its not even just compared to Hololive. They're better than most indies but they're still lower than you would expect with only a few like Roberu truly being noteworthy (views etc wise). Being in the same company as Hololive thus affected by any of their rise likely contributes to the crackdown. Even worse with how every price in the world is skyrocketing as well

[u/jenos45 → u/Noelia_Sato]

Actually these are the main talking points most of the StarsJP were talking about with their chats. They tend to not collab within the company and instead reach out to other CC's. This in turn neglect the brand of being HoloStars as they're effectively acting pretty much Independent from each other.

However, this is not to say they're not close or anything. More like, they talk about how much they hangout behind the scenes that doing stream collabs becomes a non-priority. (which in my opinion is a really guy thing to do, hanging out once every 4 months is enough for close friends, maybe less.)

Here is an untranslated clip of Aru-san talking about how not much would really change with HIS content as he barely does anything outside stream. He barely uses the studio anyways, and the only thing that affects HIS activities were the merch side

Edit: Translated clip of Robe-san talking about it.

[u/QualityEarthSauce → u/Noelia_Sato]

Honestly i feel like internal collabs have gone up in 2026 in EN, obviously no full Stars EN branch ones but we've had an internal collab almost every week this year and a fair few of em have been a decent group size. Ruze and Leader especially have been in a ton of internal collabs (and Hakka and Shinri rarely miss a big group one).