Ringing in the Holidays with NePoLaBo Live re:VISION Holoearth Live

It really is impressive seeing how Vtuber groups and companies will find new ways to innovate. Live concerts have always felt like impressive major events, and they've been popping up more frequently around the world. However, hololive has created a means for us to experience their concerts firsthand from the comfort of our own homes, no expensive VR headset or other pricey technology required. All you need is a holoearth account and decent internet, which is what I used in order to watch NePoLaBo Live re:VISION Holoearth Live.

While I do think the interface could've better communicated exactly how you should be able to navigate through all of your settings, a lot of this setup did feel very familiar. Holoearth drops you into a virtual room where you're able to directly interact with various other hololive fans. The whole interface reminded me of a fighting game lobby where you can have your avatar run around, purchase items or accessories, and have a LIVE chat. You can even purchase different outfits and customizable assets to stand out. However, unlike a fighting game lobby where you would physically move your avatar to a specific space in order to enter a specific match, here there are separate stages and rooms that give you the ability to watch certain events after purchasing the appropriate badges.

The NePoLaBo Live re:VISION concert itself was just under an hour long, but I think it did a fantastic job of showcasing this innovation. The event took place in this small circular area with a mini platform stage in the middle and large projecting screens all around. It was even covered in Christmas decorations to reflect the season. The stars of the event were hololive's fifth generation talent members Momosuzu Nene, Omaru Polka, Yukihana Lamy and Shishiro Botan, who appeared on the small middle stage that was slightly elevated above ground level. The benefit of the stage layout was that it was very easy for your avatar to get up close and personal with the talents. You couldn't go onto the stage platform, but the talents were able to directly wave and interact with the audience in a closer way than at other LIVE shows.

This is exactly what NePoLaBo did as soon as the event started. All four talents digitally appeared on the platform and after performing their first song Hyper Jumpin, they all ran around the stage to greet everybody with fun banter. I wish there were more moments like this, because after the initial banter, the talents cycled through about five songs, four of which were solos, before we got another moment of fun banter between all the talents on stage. They brought out lights to hype the audience up and even posed for pictures. I liked the running gag of two talents trying to make a heart with their arms for the audience and a third member would come to break it up.

The talents then changed into their Christmas outfits for a Christmas remix of their song Cosmic Wonderful Tour!, which was hands down my favorite performance of the event. Not only was the bounce bouncy and catchy, but the performance had the best mix of on-stage choreography and fan interaction. This culminated in a group photo with the audience, similar to what you would see done at an anime convention.

I had an enjoyable time with this event. The visuals were fun and the sound quality was amazing, especially if you watched the event with headphones. Even if you couldn't catch it live, the actions of the talents themselves were live recorded and preserved in a 3D archive. That 3D archive was then replayed a couple times each day between December 1 through January 4. It was a little funny revisiting the event afterwards via the 3D archive because since it was pre-recorded, that means you would get to see the way that the talent interacted with the initial live audience. However, since the audience wasn't live recorded as well, that means that there were some humorous moments where you could see the talent interacting with nobody on the stage. Still, it does create further incentive to catch the shows live when more events like this show up, as it definitely creates more opportunities for the Vtuber fans to gather, share their interests and enjoy the company of the talents. Plus, as things get more hectic, the convenience and accessibility factor is a major plus that I do not think should be overlooked.