Content advisory: This article makes reference to bullying, self-harm, and suicide. Please take care while reading.
The YouTube stratosphere always has something up its sleeve — for better and for worse. Sometimes, it involves some of the highest-grossing YouTubers in the industry, while other times, it involves our favorite small-scale VTubers. This time, the figure behind one of the most convoluted dramas in the VTubing industry is SelenTatsuki, also known as DokiBird.
While it may seem as though most YouTubers, or in this case, VTubers, are entirely independent in their craft — creating and designing all the videos and business plans themselves — that couldn’t be farther from the truth. More often than not, these small-scale celebrities operate under the jurisdiction provided by a company or agent. In Selen’s case, the company in charge was Nijisanji. So let’s start at the beginning.
Who is SelenTatsuki?
DokiBird was a V-Tuber who began her career on Twitch in 2016. Over the years, she gained recognition for streaming Overwatch and hosting art-related livestreams before transitioning to YouTube in 2020. However, DokiBird’s time in the spotlight proved to be short-lived. Less than a year later, she hosted her final livestream as Dokibird, after successfully auditioning for and joining Nijisanji’s second-wave group — OBSYDIA.
Nijisanji had plans to debut an English-branch group consisting of English-speaking V-tubers who would create content both collaboratively and individually. If you’re not deeply entrenched in the V-Tuber world, think of it as akin to a K-pop company gathering talent to form and debut a K-pop group. And it was here that SelenTatsuki was born.
From that moment on, DokiBird assumed the identity of SelenTatsuki, working in partnership with Nijisanji, a Japanese talent agency that supports V-Tubers with business and financing. In 2021, SelenTatsuki made her debut as part of OBSYDIA, alongside Rosemi Lovelock and Petra Gurin, becoming known for her skills in Overwatch and Apex Legends.
What is Nijisanji?
Nijisanji is a VTuber talent agency based in Japan that actively seeks out emerging V-Tubers, offering a more secure means of generating a stable income. While often considered a niche interest, V-Tubers enjoy widespread adoration in Japan, and in recent years, they have amassed a significant following worldwide.
These talent agencies ultimately assume control and create rules over the content and social media presence of V-Tubers, alleviating much of their workload, while still preserving their creative freedom to some extent — they are subjected to project approval. V-Tubers affiliated with talent agencies are permitted to manage their accounts and create videos, provided they receive prior approval.
Among the popular V-Tubers affiliated with Nijisanji are Kuzuha, Hyakumantenbara Salome, Vox Akuma, and Kanae. All of these mentioned V-Tubers have garnered over one million subscribers on YouTube. However, the company boasts over 150 talents under its umbrella — previously including SelenTatsuki.
What happened between SelenTatsuki and Nijisanji?
On February 5, 2024 — three years after SelenTatsuki’s debut — Nijisanji announced that they would terminate their affiliation with the V-Tuber, effectively concluding their association with her. According to the agency, this decision was prompted by claims of contract breaches and allegations of misleading statements made on social media platforms. However, the situation is much more complicated than it seems.
According to Aerithgirl — a popular TikToker — the situation began during Christmas 2023, when SelenTatsuki decided to release a video clip featuring a song as a gift to her fans — however, the project had not been approved by Nijisanji. Although the entire project had been financed solely by the V-Tuber herself, the song and music video were taken down by Nijisanji within hours. This prompted the talent to share on social media that the song had been removed by the company. She also allegedly encouraged fans to re-upload the song and video.
It wasn’t until a few days later that SelenTatsuki would post on social media again. At this point, she allegedly shared the news that she had been admitted to a hospital after an accident. However, it was later revealed that both tweets related to this incident had been fabricated by Nijisanji. She then disappeared once more, causing confusion and uproar among fans.
What happened to SelenTatsuki’s Twitter?
On December 26, nearly two months before her contract termination, Selen was locked out of her socials. In the termination contract, made public by Nijisanji on February 5, the company claimed that Selen had violated several terms of the contract, and the video released in December did not warrant the necessary permission to be released. Following this, the original musician for the song in the video, Lily Pichu, confirmed that she had given SelenTatsuki complete creative liberty to use her music.
Within hours of these events, on her former Twitter account, DokiBird explained that in December, she had indeed been hospitalized following a suicide attempt, but she did not post the tweets informing fans of her hospitalization. She also claimed that this incident was a result of Nijisanji’s continuous bullying, mismanagement, and mistreatment.
Nijisanji’s confidential documents situation explained
Earlier this month, three Nijisanji V-Tubers hosted an unusual livestream essentially praising the company — perhaps in an attempt to mend all that had transpired. Coincidentally, the livestream occurred within the same timeframe as DokiBird’s alleged return to V-Tube. However, during this livestream, the three V-Tubers mentioned the existence of a legal document sent by DokiBird’s attorney to Nijisanji.
The V-Tubers brought up this document due to the fact that their personal information is allegedly included in it — although neither of the V-Tubers involved should have had access to the aforementioned document. Following this incident, Nijisanji released a statement essentially refuting any accusations of illegality, once again bringing up DokiBird’s name.
Where is DokiBird now?
At this time, DokiBird is starting the reinstatement of her V-Tube and creating more content, albeit not without first clearing her name. Regarding the document controversy, DokiBird took to social media to clarify the situation, informing fans that the document was authored and compiled by her as an attempt to organize information and document all that had transpired. The document was never intended to be leaked to anyone other than those directly involved in the situation.
Nevertheless, both Nijisanji and the V-Tubers feared that the document was created to be released to the public, potentially containing personal and private information — something that was never DokiBird’s intention. The information was leaked against her wishes, and at this point, the V-Tuber desires nothing more than to be left alone and granted complete freedom to create her content.