8 min read
On the 15th of April, anyone with a passing interest in VTubing – Virtual YouTubers – witnessed a bombshell.
Rumors had warned us. We didn’t want to believe them: the face of English VTubing, graduating? No… it couldn’t be… But then an “Important Announcement” stream was scheduled, with a white-background thumbnail we’d seen too many times before. Ominous, silent, inevitable. No one had died, and yet, why did it feel like someone had? Before she even went live, we knew.
Gawr Gura, a member of Hololive English’s first generation, -Myth-, announced her graduation effective May 1st. Her stated reason was “disagreements with management and company direction.” She is the first member of -Myth- to formally call her departure a “graduation,” joining the ranks of alumni not only from her branch, but from others across Hololive as well.
-Myth- debuted in September 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside Mori Calliope, Takanashi Kiara, Ninomae Ina’nis, and Amelia Watson. Like their Japanese counterparts, the members of -Myth- were introduced with distinct stories and gimmicks: Gura, for her part, is a shark girl from Atlantis who grew bored of life underwater and ventured to the surface in search of fun.
Gura’s departure follows a string of graduations within Hololive in 2025, including Ceres Fauna and Nanashi Mumei from English’s second generation (-Council-), as well as Murasaki Shion from Japan’s second generation. In terms of impact, her graduation is as seismic as Kiryu Coco’s was four years ago.
Before Hololive English was even a concept, Western fans discovered VTubers through clips – fan-translated snippets of Japanese streams that circulated on YouTube and Twitter. I remember seeing a lot of Inugami Korone from Hololive Gamers, along with Usada Pekora and Houshou Marine from Hololive Japan’s third generation. I’m sure I also came across Coco clips, though I can’t say for certain whether that was before or after -Myth- debuted.
While clippers played a huge role in growing the fandom back then, Kiryu Coco is widely credited as the “bridge” to the West. She actively incorporated international audiences into her content, switching between Japanese and fluent English with ease. It was a fitting role for someone who understood both cultures and dominated the art of unscripted banter. Not even Kizuna Ai – the godmother of VTubing – managed such a feat. Cover Corp was in a unique position to act on the global interest that was building.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and curfews went into effect across the globe, and everything had to move online – there wasn’t a choice.
Auditions for what would become -Myth- began on April 23rd, as announced on Hololive’s X account, and ran until May 24th. Five months later, on September 8th, the group was formally unveiled. Their debuts followed four days later, quietly setting the stage for what would become a shift in VTubing’s reach – Gura was the fourth to take the stage.
You can hear this GIF…
Late to her own debut stream – later revealed to be due to technical problems – the stress of the moment nearly overwhelmed the new performer. A peculiar mic test inadvertently became iconic, sparked by nothing more than a single letter sound. Her nervousness was palpable throughout, yet endearing, like a little sister you wanted to protect. Continuing tradition, each performer closed with a song – after all, singing was part of the job. Gura chose Tatsuro Yamashita’s “Ride on Time,” a city pop classic. Like many others, I was surprised – not just by how good of a singer she was, but by how naturally she spoke Japanese. I seem to recall her mentioning she’d taken some Japanese before joining Hololive, but only became fluent years into the role, fluent enough to sing entirely in Japanese by the time of her first original song, “Reflect.”
With the world in such a bleak state, it was easy to see why people gravitated toward comfort. Not that awful “Imagine” cover by Gal Gadot and friends, but things like sourdough baking, reconnecting with friends (and time itself) in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or watching feel-good shows like Ted Lasso. Gura hit that comfort nerve for many reasons – she was wholesome, she was genuinely talented, she was fluent in meme-speak, and she was quick-witted. Word spread fast about the “funny shark streamer,” and just over a month after her debut, she hit a million subscribers. The next month, one and a half. By January, two million. Her rise was meteoric – and Cover had little to do with it. She was a natural performer who connected with the community in a way that few others in VTubing ever had. She felt like one of us.
I drifted from the fandom in 2021, as lockdown curfews lifted and I threw myself into the “new normal” – as messed up a concept as that is. I clung to everything I had once taken for granted. I still kept up with the scene through clippers – the same ones who’d helped the fandom grow before Hololive English, now less needed for translations but still vital for highlights and memories. I no longer had time for full streams, but I stayed connected through moments. I thought I might return with IRyS’s debut, but it didn’t last. Life had moved on.
I kept tabs on Gura’s health struggles – and the almost cruel irony that whenever she did stream, it was to push product. The pressure of being VTubing’s most-subscribed English talent. The pressure of staying visible as Cover shifted toward going public. It sometimes felt like the fandom forgot there was a real person behind Gura’s smile. I believe she did her best to hold on, but perhaps Amelia Watson’s quiet “affiliation but really graduation” changed her outlook. I don’t know if she was close with Fauna, but she clearly bonded with Mumei. And when Mumei left too… that might’ve been the heartbreak that made her question whether this was still worth it.
I hope one day, Gura’s performer can speak freely about what happened – what led her to leave Hololive. Not out of bitterness toward Cover, but so that a sometimes ungrateful audience can finally see what she carried behind the curtain.
I’d like to take a moment to address the reason Gura is departing. Calli’s comment that it’s become a “catch-all term,” like “personal reasons” in the corporate world, doesn’t sit right with me. Gura isn’t the first to cite “disagreements with management and company direction” – Mumei and Fauna did too. That they’re saying this publicly, on company-owned channels, reads to me as a respectful way of calling out their employer. And the fact that Hololive English’s most popular talent is echoing this? That should raise some eyebrows.
I’m aware of Yagoo’s (Motoaki Tanigo, Cover’s CEO) long-held dream of building a virtual idol group – Hololive exists because of it. But ever since Cover went public in 2023, the company has pushed to be seen not as an entertainment group, but as a tech company. Its stock is evaluated accordingly, and shareholders expect the kind of returns they’d see from other tech firms. Not that Cover was hurting for cash, but global expansion and keeping those operations running comes with a cost. And now, that cost seems to be passed down to the talents.
For those in the entertainment division, it likely means rising expectations. Some just want to stream and have fun, not prepare for concerts or push products. That may come with the job, sure – but if the parts you don’t enjoy start eclipsing the ones you do, you’re going to start asking yourself some hard questions.
I don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth. But I’d imagine thoughts like these may have crossed their minds before making the call to stay or walk away. Whether it’s health conditions made worse by the job, creative frustration, or simply feeling the company no longer reflects your values – whatever it is, this should set off alarm bells.
Cover isn’t in danger of becoming the next Nijisanji… at least, not yet. But fans should stay alert, and approach both the company and its defenders with a healthy dose of skepticism.
-Myth- will always be five. 💜❤️💙💛🧡
So what’s next for her, beyond a long, well-earned rest? Will she find her way back under a new name, or maybe one we’ve heard before? Could she team up again with old friends, or explore something entirely different, away from the spotlight?
We don’t know what’s ahead. For now, thank you for being our little shark. Return to Atlantis with the satisfaction of a job well done – and maybe even a way to make French fries in the sunken city.
Keep swimming. Always.