Hololive's Second English VTuber Concert was a Dimension-Breaking Success

VTubing continues to grow as a prominent form of entertainment in the United States. While it is still nowhere near the degree of exposure that you would see in Japan and other Asian countries, Vtubing has exploded to a point where I could walk into a crowded theater in the middle of Brooklyn and listen to fans cheer on these digital idols—which is exactly what I did. "Breaking Dimensions" is Hololive's second major English VTuber concert. Like the first one that happened last year at the Anime Expo, this one was a resounding success.

The structure of this concert wasn't very different from last year's. We had three groups from Hololive English performing (Myth, Promise, and Advent) for a little under two hours on a digital screen that took up a majority of the main stage—with two smaller ones on each side that focused on showing off the models from different angles with closeups. The singers included Mori Calliope, Takanashi Kiara, Ninomae Ina'nis, Gawr Gura, Watson Amelia, IRyS, Ceres Fauna, Ouro Kronii, Nanashi Mumei, Hakos Baelz, Shiori Novella, Koseki Bijou, Nerissa Ravencroft, Fuwawa, and Mococo Abyssgard—and their models were rendered in glorious 3D with plenty of motion-tracked dancing.

Their last concert had more of an idol theme with more coordinated dance numbers, whereas this one focused on a wider variety of music. Every performance was ordained with backdrop visuals to accompany the songs. I particularly liked the second backdrop as it had a very New York style with skyscrapers and what appeared to be graffiti on some of the buildings. All the talents present had a chance to sing at least one song with cute little intermissions after every two to three songs.

We started with a big performance from the Advent group followed by a couple of back-to-back solos with Baelz and Amelia, hitting the ground hard. The former practically lit up the stage with their song GEKIRIN while Amelia entered the scene with a cute cover of MOGU MOGU YUMMY! There were a few covers, sprinkled in with the original music throughout the concert. While the concert ended with the big Breaking Dimensions musical number that included all the talents, it was preceded by two anime songs. One of them was Mori performing the ending song she produced for the Suicide Squad ISEKAI anime. The other was Gura and Amelia doing a duet of IDOL, the anime opening for Oshi no Ko.

A theme that permeated all of the intermissions with the talents was the idea of breaking dimensions and what that means to people. Some talents interpreted that comically as they wanted to break through the screen and crowd surf with everyone. You could argue that breaking dimensions was also a reference to VTubers who use two-dimensional and three-dimensional models to connect with people. One point that resonated with fans was breaking through one's limits. It's about pursuing a better version of yourself that you can appreciate and be happy with. It was a very nice message that I think fans of all ages can relate to. I look forward to seeing how many dimensions Hololive and other VTuber studios will break through in the future as VTubing gains more and more popularity.