💀
"disagreement with management"
I've been thinking about this phrase today. Either you know what this is about, or you don't. If you don't know, you're better off not reading any further. It's vtuber shit. You have been warned.
I want to start with an analogy of sorts.
Let's imagine you work for Starbucks, and you're fairly content with the job. Not a great job, but not terrible either, and you make good money. (I know, it's hard to imagine, but just stick with me).
Now let's imagine Starbucks institutes an uniform policy, that you absolutely hate like nothing else in the world. So you do the reasonable thing, and decide to quit.
If someone were to ask you what happened, you'd probably answer "I left because I didn't like the uniforms", or "I left because I didn't like the new policy".
But you could also phrase it as "I left because of a disagreement with management". Still basically true, but it has a different ring to it, doesn't it?
In the first example it feels more like you're fully assuming the blame and responsibility for the departure. In the second though... it feels a bit different. It brings a different nebulous person, "management", into the mix, potentially to share the blame. Suddenly, it feels like management did something wrong to spark a disagreement, doesn't it? It's not solely on you for having an unreasonable hate of uniforms. Management did a bad thing, and you're calling it out for it.
Now going back to the "if you know, you know" bit. I did a double check. Ame didn't use the phrase. She didn't give any reason for her departure in fact.
Fauna, Mumei and Gura used "disagreement with management", either with exact words or similar enough, while Mumei also added "health reasons".
Mumei probably had the strongest reason that was publicly known and that fans would have understood and sympathized with. Her health situation was well known. She wouldn't have needed to add anything else to her reasoning, she could have blamed it on the cough, and kept everything else private. But she added "disagreement with management".
The more I think about it, the more I think this was a phrase that management coached them to say, as a way to take some of the fans' negative attention, and the anxiety that could produce, away from the talents, and onto the company that can better handle it.
Remember what happened with Selen and Niji? When Niji tried putting the blame on Selen, it created a controversy so big, normies ended up talking about it, and some fans ended up convinced Niji is keeping other talents hostage.
Lessons learned:
1) don't blame the employee
2) fans are gonna blame the company anyway. Don't fight it, create the image that you are receptive of criticism from employees.
You can't convince me that Cover couldn't have forced talents through NDAs to stay silent about their reasons for departure, and not mention "disagreement with management". Cover allowed it and likely encouraged leaving talents to say the phrase precisely so that fans get implanted with the idea that employees are indeed allowed to say such things and criticize the company.
Whether this is true or not that Cover listens to criticism, I don't know and it's not the point I'm making. My point is just that "disagreement with management" is a PR statement that is unlikely to reflect much of what the talents actually felt. And even the little bit in which it is accurate, it is designed to control, to redirect, the disappointment and anger of the fans away from tangible people, and more to a faceless entity.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. You're a fool for having read this much.
ひげ
"disagreement with management"
@alyx I do think there was probably a disagreement still, especially because so many are leaving in such a short amount of time. It is something that Cover definitely told them to say though, and just leave it at that. I think it is a good way to keep it as neutral as possible.
Ame didn't say it because she's still technically with Cover.
A lot of people speculate that the girls just didn't want to be like idols and that's what they were pushing them more towards instead of just being little dudes who stream and have fun. I can see it being something like that.
Some people also think that they were being asked to move to Japan and they didn't want to do that.
We'll probably never know the real answer but I think the "disagreement with management" line, while subversive, is the best thing to say overall.
"disagreement with management"
@beardalaxy
For some of them, the disagreement lies in the permission system.
My bet for real reasons:
1) Ame and Fauna mostly wanted more freedom. They weren't great fits for the idol thing either. Even if I fully trust what they all say, that they weren't forced into singing, peer pressure is a real thing. If everyone around you has a good to great voice, and participate in shows and whatnot, you begin to feel out of place if you don't do any of it. And then if you don't have the talent, even if you want to fit in and release songs and covers, it takes you far more work to record a single thing, than someone else who breezes through the recording process because they can actually hit notes.
So Ame and Fauna were indeed not comfortable with Cover focusing on idol activities, even if it's not a mandatory requirement as they insist.
But what they both cared about most was probably freedom to stream whatever, whenever, however.
Going back to my previous example, how does: "I left because *I* wanted more freedom" sound? Imagine a pissed off fan: "the other girls are okay with the freedom they get, why do YOU want/deserve MORE freedom?!". So you avoid all that pressure on the talent by adding "management" there.
2) Mumei left because her health issue stressed her out. Nothing else really. Remember, over a year ago, when the Selen thing hit, she was praising Cover and management for giving her the space and freedom she needed to handle her things (likely school). She even said back then, that she would have outright left if she couldn't take time off for herself.
But now she's saying "disagreement with management", while at the same time saying that she's been thinking about graduating for well over a year, presumably because said "disagreements". So which is it? Was management a problem, and she had disagreements with it, or was management flexible and good with her? Seems like a contradiction.
The idol concern doesn't apply to her one bit. She had a great voice, great talent, she sang all the time, and had so many covers lined up at graduation, that she still has one that didn't get finished in time, and will get released later on. She was a good fit for the idol life.
3) This is the part that might piss someone off.
Gura simply didn't want the attention anymore. "Don't tell me everyone around is waiting". She couldn't handle the stress of being #1. If she had only a fraction of the audience, if she were more comparable to Ina in how much attention she got, she might have stuck around for longer.
Two weeks ago I was sure she'd come back as Senzawa. After the song, and some of the other things she's said recently, I'm no longer convinced she'll come back at all. Even from some of the graduation collabs, it just doesn't look like her heart was into it anymore.
The idol reason doesn't apply to her either. Great voice. Ash Again is a masterpiece. Her problem wasn't being an idol, it was the stress and anxiety behind the attention of being #1 vtuber idol.
Going back to the example, imagine: "I'm leaving because I don't want to be your oshi anymore"... unicorns have gone insane over less.
The Japan thing doesn't apply to any of them. If Cover asked them to move to JP, why didn't Kiara go back to JP? She's one of the more dedicated to the whole idol song and dance routine. She knows the language. She's lived there before. She could have easily complied with the requirement, yet she's still in Australia.
There's plenty who could have easily moved to JP if needed. They don't because it is not needed. There's no truth to this rumor.
There is some truth to the idol theory, but it can only explain 2 out of 4 EN departures.
As for them leaving in a short amount of time, considering they seem to have all have been discussing this between them for a while, they were basically bound to leave together. They were all part of each other's support network. Take Gura for example. After Ame left, and most of SNOT left, it was bound that Gura would leave, cause she didn't have enough people to anchor her to the company. Fauna left cause she knew Gura and Mumei wanted to leave. It was just a matter of who had the courage to fire the first shot.
Ame might have been the only one that made the decision independent of what everyone else was doing.
