One of the most popular VTubers in the world, ironmouse, has officially announced that she has left her talent agency, VShojo, and is taking some form of legal action against the company due to a number of reasons, including the alleged withholding of funds to herself and charity organizations.
According to Ironmouse, VShojo was misleading her for the last several months, largely around monetary compensation owed to her and her charity of choice for numerous fundraising events, the Immune Deficiency Foundation.
Why is Ironmouse Leaving VShojo?
“I believe I am owed a significant amount of funds which I have not been paid,” Ironmouse said. “And, most importantly, the thing that hurts me the most is that the Immune Deficiency Foundation, which is the most important charity for me and also the reason I am here today, is owed over half a million dollars from VShojo.”
Ironmouse goes on to say that it is important for her to be honest with her community about everything going on, especially as it could impact things moving forward, but she can’t speak more on the deeper issues behind her decision on instruction from her attorney as legal procedures continue moving in the background. Though, she does promise to one day reveal the whole story when she is able to do so.
While she can’t go into further specifics about the reasons for her departure, ironmouse did elaborate on her time with VShojo, the pressure placed upon her to help the company succeed, and other thoughts in her announcement video. This includes noting that she felt “guilt tripped” in some ways because she felt responsible for others, including some talent and staff of the company, because of how important she was to the success of the company
Ironmouse notes that, over the last several years, her own content and that of her friend Connor “CDawgVA” Colquhoun have helped raise over $4 million for the Immune Deficiency Foundation. This includes half of her earnings from multiple subathons being donated to the charity from her Twitch earnings, which she allowed VShojo to manage on account of her preferring to remain as anonymous as possible due to personal concerns and reasons.
Her most recent subathon, which saw Ironmouse surpass 310,000 subscribers and set a new record on Twitch last September, before it was later surpassed by Kai Cenat, raised over $515,000 for the Immune Deficiency Foundation. Unlike with her 2023 subathon, however, Ironmouse says that VShojo did not send the payment through to the charity almost a year later.
As someone who actively got into VTubing to make friends and X Ironmouse has been among the loudest advocates for the Immune Deficiency Foundation, as it helped her when she “had nowhere else to turn” regarding her own condition. She goes on to say that this entire situation has “broken” her, as she just wanted to support a cause she fully believes in in order to give back to a community that has done so much for her and so many others.
Ironmouse finished the video reiterating her disappointment, saying that she was both “very sad, and very confused” about what to next now that she is suddenly an independent creator, but that all of the ad revenue from her announcement video would be donated to the Immune Deficiency Foundation. She also has plans to do another special live stream later this month to raise even more funds for the charity and to continue to show “VTubing is a force for good.”
“I may not have the same condition as Mouse but, as someone who has had to shelter themselves due to a rare condition. I relate to a lot of what she has spoken about over the years,” Reddit user CatApprehensive6995 said. “Mouse is who got me into Vtubing but what made me want to support Vshojo was seeing girls like me be given support by a company that appeared to embrace that inclusion and flexibility so many of us are desperate for in our lives.”
Ironmouse is not the only talent to leave VShojo this year. In April, Matara Kan announced that her contract with the agency would be ending in May and she would be going fully independent. This was followed by GEEGA terminating her contract with the company on June 27, the same day one of the founding VShojo talents, Zentreya, announced that she would be leaving the agency on July 11.
None of those departures said anything negative about VShojo. Despite that, Zentreya responded to the situation, hinting at the fact that more ongoing issues behind the scenes with the agency, potentially influencing her own decision to leave earlier this month.
As for a potential impact on streaming and esports, there is a chance that other talent will also leave VShojo now that Ironmouse has publicly shared this information.
None of the current talent with the agency are specifically known for competing in esports events, though they do occasionally appear on streamer-centric tournaments and other content. This could also cause future problems for agency-led projects such as concerts, events, and tournaments.
With VShojo specifically, I'm not sure. But there's definitely been other VTubers who work for other companies that have openly said that a company sucked/mistreated/poorly paid them.