Refutation of Selen Tatsuki/Dokibird and Nijisanji EN – a different truth
As some of you, or many of you, following the Dokibird ( Formerly Selen Tatsuki) conflict with Nijisanji EN, may have noticed, a document has recently been released, it is claimed to be a "neutral" stance on the situation at hand and there to provide refutations to the claims that Dokibird has made.
LINK to the document - https://rentry.org/nijidoki
This document is here to serve as a refutation to that "refutation" and to point out the flaws in the arguments presented. Due to writing this out relatively quickly, my sourcing will be more scarce than the document i am replying to, but i hope that it will not diminish the arguments i am going to make.
0.5: Orchestrated Campaign of Misinformation
First of all, let me begin by saying that the document i am replying to is most likely a document that was made specifically to smear Selen in this conversation and to unify the narrative of Nijisanji defenders. The first point to note is the tweet that this document was posted in - https://twitter.com/misouchu/status/1758426115599950087 - If one looks at the Quote Tweets one might notice a pattern. Almost every positive response to the document reads nearly identical and many of the accounts sharing it not only did it in a short amount of time, but also have associations with being Nijisanji fan accounts. One could be forgiven if they thought it was a botted wave of responses, but they are not.
Not too long after this situation started. Fans of Nijisanji congregated to multiple different places to plan and coordinate attacks against Selen and to protect Nijisanji. Some of those people leaked some of what was and is going on in those private discords.
While 4Chan is not often the most reliable source and contains a lot of undue speculations, they have also been known to uncover information like this. If this was just the post and nothing else, it could be dismissed as just false. But we have already seen the proof of coordination. The discords, the way that the Quote Tweets to the document on twitter are near identical in the wording they use and were written in short spans of time? It all comes together to paint a clear picture on what this all is about.
The post i am about to analyze is not neutral, it was never meant to be. What it is doing is using the cover of "neutrality" to seem "reasonable" while at the same time, constantly admonishing Selen and praising the company. Its a good way to manipulate people, almost taken straight from a mediators handbook. Regardless, onto the claims.
1: Nijisanji = ‘evil company’
Being an adult who signs a contract does not prevent that contract from being exploitative or the company holding it being exploitative either. In fact, many companies use and design contracts in such ways as to retain most power in a worker/employer relationship. Black Companies, something that Nijisanji is being called currently do not just abuse their workers, they usually shackle them in exploitative contracts as-well.
As an example we can provide another Japanese company involved in Entertainment - Konami. From what has been alleged people they found "underperforming" in various sectors of their company were assigned menial tasks. Is it legal? Yeah, because of their contracts.
Is it morally acceptable? You tell me. I personally do not think that being reassigned to menial tasks when your manager doesn't like you is fine at all.
And yes, these are all adults. People who work in Black Companies? Also adults. Being an adult is irrelevant where contracts and Black Companies are involved. Regardless of being an adult one can be roped into a contract or company that turn out to be bad.
Everyone who is in the Vtuber community or is a fan of corporation Vtubers know that Corporations that operate in Japan are restrictive, especially so due to their lack of Fair Use laws. However, not all corporations are made the same and the way that Anycolour operates is not the same way that Hololive operates in. The document brings up Hololive as an example, but the problem is that these companies cannot be equated. From what we are made aware, after the Copyright strikes, Hololive reorganized itself that such an event did not repeat. From what we know their managers are also heavily involved with the livers. Unlike Anycolour, Hololive encountered a problem, and then SOLVED IT.
What we have here is a misdirection. The conversation has never been about the copyright of "Last cup of Coffee", Selen had the permission from the original creator of that work. Her video was taken down because it featured ex-livers of Nijisanji, and for the record, those models of ex-livers are the property of Anycolour, it is their work. The conversation has always been about how Nijisanji management is woefully inadequate. Which was exemplified in the screenshots of discord conversations between Selen and her manager and how her manager when asked questions did not respond for 36 hours.
To bring up other livers who "graduated on good terms" is also a misdirection. Nina Kosaka (Currently Ma Tarakan) and Mystra Rias (K9kuro) have both expressed that the management at Nijisanji has been bad. When they joined Vshojo they could be caught talking about how strange it is for them to have an actual manager that helps them. This and this video being some of the many examples of ex-Niji livers pretty much making their stance on Nijisanji management clear.
The document i am responding to is trying to weave a very sneaky narrative. They are trying to associate Selens termination with Zaions, implying no wrongdoing on Nijisanji part while portraying the other livers who left in a positive light. How convenient.
2: Selen’s ‘no profit’ claim
Nobody serious is making the claim that Nijisanji is not profitable for its livers. It has been long known that being a corporation Vtuber is more profitable than being an indie in no small part due to the influx of guaranteed fans that will come to a streamer that is associated with a big corporation.
Dokibird also never made that claim. What she said is that she did not make any profit due to investing that money in her personal projects. That has never been a problem, but the document is trying to make it seem like a "claim" that is made as a way to make a strawman, an easy way for the document to establish that its just trying to "seek for truth".
What the document (conveniently) fails to mention is that many of the projects that Selen invested her own money in were cancelled by management.
The Fall guys tournament was cancelled by management and then they FORBID Selen from making any more international tournaments. Her "Last Cup of Coffee" cover was taken down by management. These are but two of MULTIPLE other examples of Selen making something, putting work AND money into it, only for management to wait till that effort is expended to cancel it all.
It is very "convenient" how the document i am responding to just "failed" to mention this simple fact of Selen not minding spending money in personal projects, the problem instead being the Nijisanji Management cancelling her works at the finish line.
Its almost as if the document i am responding to is trying to weave a narrative.... Hm....
The document in question also brushes past the 2% for merch Sales fact. I will not. Nijisanji as a company pays 2% of merch sales earnings to their livers. This is by far the lowest percentage in the entire industry. The document compares Nijisanji to Hololive many times while failing to mention that Nijisanji does EVERYTHING worse than Hololive does.
While talking about money the document also "fails" to mention that some of these payments that Selen made were to artists that were not paid by Nijisanji when they were supposed to be. Projects that were not her own personal expenses but her covering for the company that refused to pay artists.
This being one of MANY artists coming out and saying straight up that Selen gave them money to cover the expenses that NIJISANJI management was supposed to cover, but either didnt do it, or were late in doing so.
3: Selen’s termination
What this proves is that Selen had all of the relevant permissions to post her cover. The document tries to reframe the situation as "Well, Selen didnt wait for confirmation" when Selen already had taken care of all copyright permissions.
Not only did it take over 24 hours for her manager to reply, the reason the video was taken down is because the video contained images of ex-livers. As a reminder. Livers in corporations like Hololive and Nijisanji do NOT own their models. Those models are owned BY THE CORPORATION. So what we have here is Selen using material of the corporation she is WORKING in.
So once again, the management is messing up, badly.
What Selen has stated in her Dokibird twitter is that after her attempt of self-harm, she wanted to leave the company and as such, retained the services of a lawyer who was meant to facilitate this. According to her, the management/lawyers of Nijisanji failed to respond to her own lawyer and thus the lawyer was then given a document by Selen to be given to Nijisanji, as to explain what she has experienced and why she wanted to GRADUATE. Instead of responding, Nijisanji terminated her.
The document being interpreted as a threat and given to Livers of Nijisanji is a mess up of Nijisanji. There is a reason why 2 hours after the stream of Elira, Vox and Ike they released a statement that they were legally in the right. Because they KNEW that they were in trouble for sharing information they were told NOT to share with anyone. This was them covering their butts.
There is no need to believe that Nijisanji is an evil company to see their statement as full of holes.
(1) - Dokibird never made the bullying claims public. Nijisanji on the other hand stated that LIVERS were allegedly involved in the bullying. Something that Dokibird tried to avoid in her statement.
(2) - For those not familiar with corporations, this is a really scummy corporation tactic that they use to prevent anyone to ever respond to them over their wrong doing. Admiting to fault either in writing or recorded word (even when you are not at fault) clears the corporation of legal liability. Whatever happens, it makes the corporation "right".
This is very immoral and something i personally have had experience with. These are not things done by "good" corporations, these are the kinds of actions taken by corporations who are in the wrong and try to pressure their employees to admit fault.
(3) - They clearly outline what actions they THINK she took to terminate her. There is a large difference between reality and what a corporation CLAIMS to be reality.
4: Is NIJISANJI EN really full of bullies?
I will apologize in advance for being personal in this stage, but i have to be. This statement feels like it is either writen by a naive child, or someone who knows that they are lying.
1 - Why is Nijisanji so adamant to denying these claims of bullying? - Because corporations will ALWAYS deny wrongdoing even when they are clearly in the wrong. Corporations do not care about morality, they care about profits and legality. If a corporation ADMITS to wrongdoing, they automatically lose any case they might otherwise have. This is why corporations do NOT admit to wrongdoing even when they can.
There is a reason why "Humans Resources", something that is meant to help employees of corporations is a known joke in society. Because these kinds of departments do not care about the workers, what they do is that they try to silence the victims and hide the victimizers to protect the CORPORATION. Thats how this all works.
Even if Livers or Managers in Nijisanji bullied Selen, they would fight against these claims, even if the corporation knew. Because their reputation is more important to them than anything else in the world. That is how workplace abuse and sexual abuse are allowed to go unchecked in many corporations until they blow up in Scandals like Blizzard Entertainment.
2 - Even if a person has a case against a corporation, due to power imbalances, its almost impposible to sue a corporation unless it is done as a class action lawsuit by HUNDREDS of people. Lawyers and legal fees cost money. A lot of money. It is a known tactic by Corporations to intentionally stall court judgements and to impede the progress of trials because in doing so, they are running down the clock. If they can hold out for long enough, the person suing the corporation will run out of money for legal fees. What matters is not who is right, but who has more money.
Welcome to corporations my dear reader, it is not a pretty sight.
What the document "Conveniently" fails to mention is that we know for a fact that while Selen was incapacitated due to her attempt on her own live, Nijisanji management used her account to make messages. To try and pretend that people have no reason to question the validity or actions is silly and misleading. This suspicion exists only because people know for a fact that Nijisanji HAS done this before.
Neither is it infantilizing to acknowledge the power that Nijisanji has over its livers as a corporation that they are CONTRACTED to. Some of the livers in question live in Japan on work Visas, others are financially dependant on Nijisanji, we also do not know what kind of clauses their contracts have. Corporations can take control of a lot of aspects of your live, regardless if you are an adult or not.
What i want the readers to pay attention to is just how many times this document minimizes the power that Nijisanji holds over its livers. How many times there is a pretense that Nijisanji is "Just like other companies" and how people working under it are perfectly happy with it because otherwise they would say otherwise. It is by design.
This document is not meant to be "neutral", it is meant to look "reasonable" and while doing so, manipulate public opinion. Unironically, Nijisanji should hire whoever wrote the thread i am responding to, because they very much are adept at PR speak and manipulation, a lot more adept than whoever writers Nijisanji notices.
This is something i want everyone to pay attention to. "the entire NIJISANJI EN branch has been deemed harassers that perpetuate a toxic work environment and need to be put in their place" - Why? Why were they deemed to be harassers?
Because Nijisanji said that livers were involved. It was not Doki. It was Nijisanji who stated that. Is it not funny how the document blames the actions of Nijisanji on Dokibird? This is what i meant by saying that this person is adept at PR speak. They make "convenient" ommisions to make it look like Dokibird is at fault even when it was actions of Nijisanji.
5: Discrepancies in Selen’s statements
Now, what i covered before was just the appetizer. The author of the original document made sure to only stick to lies of ommision and half-truths to convey a narrative. In this "Chapter 5", they directly start lying and contradicting their own document while, ironically enough, covering Selens "contradictions"
(ANSWER)
What Selen has stated is that she wanted to graduate peacefully and was ignored by Nijisanji until she asked her lawyer to send a legal document. She has never said that she threathened to go public with the documents. That is what Nijisanji stated, as mentioned in your own document.
(ANSWER)
None of this is a discrepancy. Also bringing in the claims of Vox who has been caught directly contradicting himself on this matter does not help your case. For the record, Vox stated in the video posted on Eliras channel that he READ the document, what Nijisanji stated AFTERWARDS was that they were only given PARTS of it. So Vox has already been caught in a lie.
(ANSWER)
Selen being heated in no way contradicts NijiEN being mismanaged or her being treated badly. Its not a contradiction. As far as to why she doesnt release screenshots is because she legally cant. Japan has very strict laws on defamation and she MIGHT be under an NDA. She also made it clear that she ALWAYS wanted to keep this between the LAWYERS of both sides.
(ANSWER)
There being possible miscommunications between legal teams and there being proof of workplace harassment are not contradictory statements.
(ANSWER)
Her publically speculating on shared information is not contradiction to anything she has said.
(ANSWER)
Selen did not "start this". She tried to keep this private and asked Nijisanji for a graduation. They then terminated her and FORCED her to respond. This was all started by Nijisanji if we are talking about this entire public sphere. Once again, the author of the document takes what Nijisanji did and puts the blame on Selen. This is by design.
(ANSWER)
Both Nijisanji and Selen have used emotional statements, Selen in her tweets and Nijisanji through the livers in Eliras video. Neither side has provided any "proper" evidence to their claims besides a single discord interaction from Nijisanji. Basically, both sides have used the same level of language and the same level of evidence. But the writer of the document tries to make them seem different, like Selen is the "Emotional" one while Nijisanji are "Fact based".
Once again, this is by design. This document isnt meant to be neutral. Its meant to make a narrative spin positively for Nijisanji. I do have to say once again that the writer of the document is quite adept at PR speak and manipulation, this is professional level work.
6: What is the truth?
This is the language of manipulation. When one makes a document while spinning a specific narrative and then asks people to "Come to their own conclusions" the author of the document knows that most people reading their document will come to the conclusion that their narrative across the entire text presented. This statement is made to make the reader feel "smart". Because they have read the document and "came to their own conclusion". Its meant to pretend that the author did not try to spin a narrative, that they are just stating "facts", when in reality, they were doing anything but.
Notice how this "statement" puts blame on Selen but fails to mention any possible mismanagement of the company. The only things said badly in this statement are about Selen, like she is the only one at fault. A narrative is being weaved.
Vox has been caught lying in his public statement.
Selen wanted to LEAVE on amicable terms and got herself the services of a lawyer to facilitate the communication between her and Nijisanji. According to her timeline of events, Selen got fired not because she threathened to sue, but because she wanted to leave and sent Nijisanji a document that outlined WHY she wanted to leave.
I repeat, Selen WANTED to leave.
7: An important note
WARNING, from here on now, my language is going to be a little bit toxic.
This entire chapter, Chapter 7 is some of the most abusive fucking shit i have seen for a long time. The author of the document says that they are not bringing up any mental health problems of Selen maliciously, that she just wants to "provide an important perspective". Fucking BULLSHIT.
This entire chapter only exists to say one thing and ONE thing only "This person has mental problems, they cant be trusted" and this is copied PITCH fucking perfect from an abusers handbook. This entire chapter is meant to cast shade on EVERYTHING Selen has done and said because of her any possible mental problems.
I know i commended the writer of this document for their PR skills. But do not take it as a moral agreement.
The person who wrote this document i am responding to is a disgusting wretched creature, with no sense of morality or right or wrong. They are bottom feeding scum of the earth.
8: Conclusions
There are no conclussions here besides the fact that the document i just responded to is a manipulative spin piece concocted by a group of fans of Nijisanji. This is tailor made to pretend to be Neutral while in reality, this is just a smear piece against Selen, just written in polite speak. This should serve as a warning to people that people can make the most disgusting statements and lies without needing to resort to toxic language.
The most dangerous lies are the ones that sound as smooth as silk.
This document is probably not going to be seen by many people regardless of me sharing it. But hey, i needed to put my anger somewhere after reading the document i responded to, this felt like the most productive one besides punching the nearest wall in anger over how such people can exist.