Talents from the most popular Japanese VTubing agency Hololive had their first meet-and-greet event in Hong Kong at MacPherson Stadium on March 30, 2025.
The meet included two sessions with talents from Hololive’s English branch, lasting one-and-a-half hours each and comprised of fan interactions, trivia games and music performances.
Around 2000 tickets were sold on a real-name registration raffling basis ranging from $680 to $980 based on seat allocation, special goods and interaction opportunities.
Hololive has maintained its position as the most popular VTubing agency internationally and in Japan, even going public on the Japanese stock market in 2023.
Unintelligible cheers and shouts riling up the crowd were heard before the start of each session, as cosplayers in full set walked past to take their seat.
As if to ease the tension or perhaps excite them further, the crowd was teased when a glimpse of singer IRyS and talent Ouro Kronii, Hololive’s second-generation English VTubers with 1M YouTube subscribers each, appeared for just a second as organisers announced the commencement of the show during the first session — interrupted by shouts of their names from fans.
Fans from around the world, including Korea, Taiwan, Japan and other Southeast Asian regions, also attended in support of the talents, displaying Hololive merchandise, caps, coats and plushies by waving them around as the event started, using lightsticks synchronised with the talent’s respective colours.
The talents’ earnest but curious attempts at pronouncing Cantonese greetings and answering trivia about Hong Kong among their display of personality quirks saw the crowds laugh alongside their decisive attempts.
Sub Nil, an IRyS fan from the Philippines who had never attended a Hololive event before, stated that he had no words and was left speechless as everything was new to him.
“It was very wonderful, seeing your Oshi (favourite talent) on stage. It’s a unique experience,” says Nil, wishing Hololive would also enter the Philippine market as he believes there are many fans there as well. “I think their attempts to localise is a good idea, since people are coming here from around the world, I think introducing other cultures is always a good thing, it always gives an insight into what place you’re going to.”
Minkeon Kim, a Korean fan invited to stage, stated that he had no idea about how to speak Cantonese but did his best for his Oshi, adding, “It’s actually for the locals, this is a Hong Kong event, you have to prepare for the Hong Kong people.”
The confession of love of their Oshis remains rampant. During an interaction where fans were chosen at random by the talents to appear on stage to assess both talents’ “rizzing” ability, a fan stated, “IRyS really touched [my heart], but Kronii is my one and only.”
Members from the self-proclaimed “Overseas Hololive Fan Club Hong Kong Branch” were spotted handing out cards, mini-gifts and bracelets to fans as they entered the venue during the intermission between sessions, even putting up a banner in the lobby area. A fan club representative then happened to be picked to be on stage and introduced all the items to the talents.
20 fans of the $980 tier tickets were also selected at random as VIPs for a one-on-one 3-minute interaction with one of the four talents individually.
Jeff Tse promised friends that he would arrive in cosplay if he won the chance to get the one-on-one with the talent. He ended up with both the one-on-one opportunity and being selected to be on stage.
“The atmosphere was really great, I didn’t think there would be this many fans,” Tse stated as the interview was interrupted with fans handing out Hololive goods to him. “I hope the Japanese branch [of Hololive] could be invited here.”
Historically, Hololive events in Hong Kong have only been fan-organised based on cosplay and the sale of doujinshi, or community-made products, as the brunt of the attention remained with events held in Singapore, Indonesia or Taiwan. The meet-and-greet acted as an answer to the fans’ demands for an official entrance.
When questioned on expectations for the second session, Connor Poon, a fan wearing merchandise from another Hololive EN talent, Ninomae Ina’Nis, stated that he wished to see the unique interaction between talents that you could not experience on stream.
“You can tell based on my outfit that my Oshi is Ina, but unfortunately, she didn’t come. I came to support regardless just to display a support from fans since it’s Hololive EN’s first entrance into Hong Kong,” says Poon. “I treat this as Hololive dipping their toes into the HK market, testing out the reaction from fans for potential business opportunities, which is why I came today to show support and let them know Hong Kong has a large market potential.”
In the second session, both songwriter Mori Calliope and idol Takanashi Kiara, with 2.5M and 1.6M YouTube subscribers, respectively, made comments about how the crowds held up banners during their introduction, which was typically not seen in other events such as those in America. The emcees confirmed that this is indeed a culture in the local concert scene, with one even displaying their dakimakura, or body pillow, of their favourite VTuber.
As the music performances went on, attendees stood throughout the 45-minute long “mini-live” as described by Mori Calliope, waving their lightsticks in unison with the songs, with some even paying tribute to the Wotagei culture in Japan as the crowd lit up and turned bright orange.
“This is obviously going to be the last song,” says Mori, as her avatar winked repeatedly amidst laughter from the crowd, which acted as a foreshadowing of sorts when fans shouted “encore!” for a full minute after the performance was concluded.
However, some fans have made comments about the venue’s sound mixing quality as they left the venue.
William Choi, a Korean fan from Los Angeles who has claimed to attend all Hololive events worldwide, believes that there is always room for improvement for each event.
“The bass was way louder, and some people couldn’t hear what they were saying at all,” says Choi. “But that’s something that you guys have to practice a lot to get used to. That takes time. There’s always room for improvement, as long as you take the feedback and try to fix it.”
Despite potential issues, that does not seem to quell the excitement of the crowd during the event.
Kiara shared some of the stories of the fans she met during the one-on-one interaction and invited them on stage to pay tribute to them.
One of the attendees wearing a chicken head was selected and stated that they were recovering from cancer. Having previously mentioned their situation on Kiara’s stream in 2024, Kiara replied as she reeled from shock over picking the one fan among the crowd, “Congrats on making it today.”
The whole stadium clapped in unison, as the crowd also shouted answers to help the fan in answering the trivia question.
On the topic of the appeal of VTubers, Max Jackowski, a British Pole with Hong Kong residency, stated he was “fortunate to get a pretty front seat from the raffle” and believed that the proximity of a VTuber to their fans and how they entertain fans through thoughtful engagement shows a more genuine character than some otherwise “real” idols.
In further supporting this ideal, during the event, Mori was not afraid to shy away from the behind-the-scenes of things, stating that she was unfamiliar with the live software when she misclicked to the title screen which was different from OBS Studio that she usually streams with, or when Kiara suggested that they look at the script to look for an idea of what to do for the “punishment game,” maintaining a conversational flow to the meet-and-greet.
These punishment games ranged from Mori doing a freestyle rap, fans interjecting and “going off-script” by teaching the talents how to say romantic Cantonese lines or having cosplayers dance along to “Biboo tax,” a meme song within the Hololive community.
Gordon Yeung, an attendee and influencer with 151K Instagram followers who recently made a meme video about a Hololive JP talent that got 940k likes, stated that being noticed by his favourite Oshi was just “a lot of emotions and one of the best days of my life.”
Yeung gave his reasons for producing content relating to Hololive, stating that he saw many talents “graduating” (term for permanent cessation of activities) recently and that support for your Oshi whenever you can is always appreciated because “you never know when that day will come, so, no regrets.”
In fact, Hololive EN talent Nanashi Mumei just made an announcement of graduation two days prior to the meet held in Hong Kong.
“The audience is hyped up, the arrangement, the fans and all that were incredible,” says Yeung, despite believing that if Hololive EN talent Hakos Baelz was chosen, she would be the perfect candidate as she speaks some Cantonese. “Overall, I enjoyed it all, the stage, the lighting, the sound performance. It was a good selection talent-wise; I would love to see them again soon.”
As talents saw crowds holding up “boat goes binted” signs in reference to a meme created by another Hololive member recently, the crowds were ruffled up to shout the phrase as excitement and laughter spread throughout the venue.
Choi stated that despite attending a variety of Hololive events himself, not everyone has the chance to do that, suggesting that there should be more fan interaction like this as opposed to fixed content and the “same-old-same-old kind of thing.”
Further complementing the event despite its scale, Choi added that just because it’s big doesn’t mean it’s always good.
Yeung said that this meet had many differences compared to events in Japan, but it was good to see Hololive members in Hong Kong as opposed to having to travel elsewhere. “Even just a small exhibition or collaboration cafe would be great,” Yeung suggested.
“Sometimes even the Oshis themselves want to have other kinds of interactions,” says Choi. “I don’t need to be there, but I want to see other fans— I want to see these guys get to meet their Oshis, so it will be a little bit better for a higher capacity or more of a kind of panel style.”
Secret announcements of a collaboration stream in the weeks to come were also mentioned to the fans in attendance, as fans were also reminded of Calliope’s upcoming birthday on April 4.
“I think there’s a strong business case for a larger venue in Hong Kong, given the love for Hololive in Hong Kong,” says Jackowski. “If they can, one day, do a full concert in Hong Kong, that would be brilliant.”
Hololive JP talent Momosuzu Nene has also previously been invited to meet fans during Ani-com & Games HK 2024, but this marks the first time a Japanese VTubing agency has made an individual event in Hong Kong.
“The Hong Kong [anime] community has a quite strong proficiency in Japanese. I think the JP talents will also have the fanbase to channel their love for their fans,” Jackowski added.
Concerning merchandise products of the event, some fans had opinions to express as well, believing that there should be more special representation of Hong Kong.
Kim, wearing official birthday merch of IRyS alongside event merchandise, stated that he believed people would be more interested in unique goods against official illustrations, which remain many and unmemorable. “Not that they aren’t precious, but it would be nicer to get something special,” says Kim.
On consideration of getting selected to be on stage, Kim reiterated, “I’ve been attending holomeets for three years, actually, this was the best experience in my fan life.”
“Let’s be honest, we are otakus, we like special merch to collect,” added Choi, when referencing potential Hong Kong style illustrations.
Concluding the event, Mori exclaimed as Kiara bickered over how she had to hurriedly grab her phone to pull up the Voice Memos app in remembering how to say the ending in Cantonese, “doh je daai ga (Thank you, everyone),” as the crowd continued to shout “TakaMori” even after they disappeared from the screen.
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