HYTE announced that they are canceling their collaboration with Nijisanji (AnyColor) following the recent events surrounding the VTuber agency after the termination of their contract with their Virtual Liver Selen Tatsuki on February 5, 2024.
In the official announcement made by HYTE through X (formerly Twitter), they declared that their ongoing projects with the agency, and all existing pre-orders of the limited edition NIJISANJI EN Y60 + Keycap Bundles, will be canceled. But all customers who were affected due to this incident will receive refunds.
HYTE stated that they made this decision to cancel their project with NIJISANJI, due to recent events surrounding the VTuber agency, including events over the past year. They also mentioned that they wish to stand alongside the VTuber fans and various artist in ceasing their support of the agency.
[NOTICE]
In light of recent developments regarding AnyColor [aka NIJISANJI], HYTE has made the decision to terminate our current projects with the VTuber Group. pic.twitter.com/mUUEkq8VzF
— HYTE (@hytebrand) February 7, 2024
The now cancelled HYTE Nijisanji collection included designs featuring three Virtual Livers Elira Pendora, Rosemi Lovelock, and Enna Alouette. But before the official announcement of the cancellation of the collab, it was reported that customers were experiencing errors accessing the Niji Collection page, with related products listed as out of stock.
On February 7, 2024, AnyColor updated its IR page with a message for their investors “Impact of the decision to terminate the affiliation contract with the NIJISANJI EN Liver on our financial results.” regarding the impact of their termination of Selen Tatsuki.
This was shared following Nijisanji’s official statement regarding Selen’s termination, which cited that their former Liver had committed various violations in her activities as a Niji Liver. Further noting that Selen breached a clause on her contract when she encouraged third parties to re-upload her song cover “Last Cup of Coffee” which was set to private by the management after it was uploaded on her channel. According to the same statement, due to Selen’s actions, the company suffered damages to its reputation.
The termination and the official statement drew a strong response from many fans given how it is worded.
Selen Tatsuki’s termination makes her the second NijiEN member to leave the agency this year, along with Pomu Rainpuff who graduated last January. Another talent who also announced his graduation is Kyo Kaneko, with his graduation scheduled for February 17, 2024.