Marvel collabs with hololive for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

COVER Corporation, the parent company of Japanese VTuber agency hololive, has recently announced its promotional collaboration with Marvel for the upcoming movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is set for premiere in Japan on May 4, 2022. The featured hololive talents would be as follows: La+ Darknesss, Shirakami Fubuki, Aki Rosenthal, Oozora Subaru, Sakura Miko, Inugami Korone, Takane Lui, and Sakamata Chloe.

In addition, a special promotional program will be shown on May 3 through the hololive official YouTube channel, a setup that will include the appearance of a “virtual Doctor Strange.” A trailer has been released as of writing time.

Earlier collaborations have been made between the two companies, including a promotion in partnership with Square Enix for the 2021 game Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It was officially launched on October 26, 2021.

Of those involved in the Doctor Strange collab, Sakura Miko belonged to hololive Generation 0. Previously known as hololive Affiliated Talents, they joined the agency outside the usual recruitment periods. Debuting on August 1, 2018 as an independent VTuber, Sakura Miko officially joined hololive by December 25 of the same year.

Meanwhile, Shirakami Fubuki and Aki Rosenthal (debuted 2018) are part of hololive Generation 1; Oozora Subaru (debuted 2018) of hololive Generation 2; Inugami Korone (debuted 2019) of hololive GAMERS; La+ Darknesss, Takane Lui, and Sakamata Chloe (debuted 2021) of hololive Generation 6 (also known as Secret Society holoX).

A VTuber or virtual YouTuber refers to an online talent using a 2D or 3D avatar as alter ego in creating content. It was believed that Japanese VTuber Kizuna AI was the one who popularized the term, calling herself as one in her introduction video on December 1, 2016. Nonetheless, virtual idols who utilize similar technologies such as Hatsune Miku and Ling Yuan yousa, among others, have been around prior to her debut.

As motion capture rig and streaming technology became more affordable and easier to manage, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in the VTuber industry. Data technology company UserLocal has reported the existence of over 16,000 VTubers as of 2021. Meanwhile, ranking website Playboard saw that 9 of the ten most super chatted YouTube channels in the world last year were by VTubers, all of which were hololive talents.