Tokyo, JAPAN — COVER Corporation (Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Motoaki Tanigo) announced today the new unit “hololive English -Promise-“. Five talents from hololive English, IRyS, Ceres Fauna, Ouro Kronii, Nanashi Mumei, and Hakos Baelz, will join together and begin their activites as members of the new unit.
Once mere observers of humanity from a distance, the members of hololive English -Promise- now set upon a “life-sized adventure” on this world’s stage, seeking answers to their own “promises”.
Accordingly, VSinger project “Project:HOPE” has been closed, and IRyS will now officially belong to “hololive English -Promise-” starting from October 8th, 2023 (PDT).
There will be no major changes to the activities of the 5 members of hololive English -Promise-. They will continue to create and provide content in their unique styles, and we would appreciate your continued support for the talents.
Official Hashtag: #holoPromise
I do find it interesting that HopeRyS’s branch is closing for this, but they didn’t say that Council’s was. So it’s not technically a merge I guess, since Council is still a distinct entity?
I think it’s more in the trend of a single idol unit instead of group names. Hope and council still exist, but when performing it’s under the promise name.
Hope and council still exist
The announcement seems pretty unambiguous about Project: HOPE un-descending though:
VSinger project “Project:HOPE” has been closed
Not sure that we can still consider Hope as existing in that context, unless you’re just saying that now “Hope = IRyS” instead of before where “Hope = Project:HOPE (in which IRyS is (was) the sole member)”. This is becoming deeply semantic though haha!
I think this is just some weird semantics on Cover’s part since Project:HOPE technically wasn’t part of the regular HoloEN branches whereas Council was.
Also can Cover please stop trying to make Solo talents work? It is very obviously not a viable tactic (Azki, Suisei, Irys), I really hope (inaff) they learned their lesson (seems to be the case given that ReGloss exists as a group)
That’s… weird? But I guess that’s useful for marketing, saying “Project Hope + Council” every time was odd.
Now I’m wondering if the same thing would’ve happened if Sana hadn’t graduated.
Now I’m wondering if the same thing would’ve happened if Sana hadn’t graduated.
Me too now that you mention it! I’m leaning towards “probably”? But really who knows lol. Fun to think about the path not traveled though.
Thing is so far they’ve tried to keep units to a maximum of 5 members, only OKFAMS is bigger but it doesn’t really get advertised for official stuff. Even in Holosummer they went for AyaFubuMi instead of the “full” one.
Although the question still arises now that Holotori is an official unit and Nerissa is a bird.
I honestly think it would’ve just been 6 people instead of 5. From everything we know about the group Irys was fairly closely knit to the group with or without sana, it’s just that without Sana Irys was basically able to just fill all the places that Sana was originally in.
I think ultimately it’s just an official rebranding of Councilrys, since that was always a fanname combination right down to having Irys’s usual naming mannerisms.
I think it’s sweet since while she’s always been a part of the group, this is sort of making it official now.
That’s great! The tacked-on RyS at the end of Council felt awkward to me.
seeking answers to their own “promises”
Is a promise something that requires an answer? Is it obvious to everyone else what this means, and I’m just having a moment? I know it’s just marketing fluff, but I have no idea what it’s supposed to be getting at.
Sounds like just another awkward translation to be honest. I get this feeling often from these official notices.
