Auditions open today for the world’s most popular adult VTuber (or “lewdtuber”) voice acting agency, VAllure. If you grab one of the five coveted spots for Gen 2, you might just get to star in an adult video game.
But don’t fill out that audition form quite yet. Despite VAllure’s offer of an 80/20 revenue split, equipment funding, fast popularity, and your very own Live2D model, the agency seems to be stumbling into one controversy after another.
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VAllure messed up with trans talent early on
VAllure originally made a splash in the VTuber landscape after the company debuted its announcement trailer in December 2023. Finally, an “AVTuber” agency for lewd voice actors across the English-speaking industry! Yippee! Even I was excited at the time, writing that VAllure “offers a really good deal” to talent and promises “more visibility” to lewdtubers across the industry.
To be clear, what VAllure offers in theory is great. New and semi-experienced voice actors, adult models, and VTubers are encouraged to apply to the company in exchange for significant agency support. Equipment, editing, and scriptwriting are all provided to talent, along with an agency-created VTuber model and personality. Talent slips into the role they’re given and stream on YouTube along with creating adult ASMR. In early 2024, VAllure seemed like a fantastic opportunity for new talent to spread their wings and soar.
However, trans VTubers started to have misgivings about VAllure during the Gen 1 audition process. VAllure’s audition requirements said the company only wanted “female” talent, with no additional clarification. “Female” can mean a lot of things. It can mean “anyone who identifies as a woman.” It can also mean “someone born with a specific set of genitals.”
This quickly left trans VTubers confused. Why “female” instead of “woman”? We figured this was just a minor point of linguistic confusion, so a number of us reached out for clarification last year to clear the air. But we never heard back. Not in emails. Not in tweets. Nor with a public statement. Nothing. Trans talent quickly feared the worst: Trans women weren’t welcome, and VAllure was going to dodge the question by leaving the answer murky.
Oh God, not lolicon vtubers
Time passed. VAllure finally debuted its Gen 1 models. And, Jesus Christ, what the fuck? One-third of Gen 1 looks like children. Yes, children.
The first- and third-most popular VTubers in VAllure are lolicon, or characters made to look like prepubescent girls. The company calls these models “lolipop,” although the agency’s most popular star, Immy Bisou, pretty openly goes around calling herself a loli. Everyone knows Immy and her fellow “lolipop” star Icey Snowpaws are leaning into lolicon viewership. One Redditor even said he was “thankful for that because there’s not a whole lot of loli VTubers that actually heavily lean into that fetish.”
The agency has two lolis at the moment, and it plans to unveil two more lolis for Gen 2. That means 33% of VAllure will be made up of VTubers that appeal to a desire for underage girls.
To be clear, adults are performing these characters. However, these loli VTubers are creating explicit sexual content as their characters and proudly flaunting it. Immy Bisou’s page has adult ASMR with tags such as “jerk off from behind,” “blowjob cleanup,” “pussy licking,” and “ass eating.” Icey creates content with tags such as “footjob,” “femdom,” “ball sucking,” and “anal.”
One sexually suggestive image created by an Immy Bisou fan was purposefully designed to make her model look particularly underage, writing on Twitter that the image is “literally illegal in the EU” and “can’t be viewed.” Twitter reportedly sent the artist a message warning that the content was banned from the platform in the European Union for “pornography or sexualized content.” Immy responded by saying, “I’m just too sexy.”
There is no EU-wide ban on lolicon material. However, various European countries have laws that criminalize the sexual depiction of underage characters in artwork.
Ohio State University’s Shari L. Savage argues that the “proliferation of eroticized girl imagery in visual culture, seen in anime, music videos, and other popular media outlets, further tantalizes and at the same time normalizes due to numerous available representations.”
“Images do hold the power to tantalize and move consumers to action. If images did not hold power and influence, and consumers could readily resist advertising, image-laden advertising would not be a billion dollar industry,” Savage writes in one study. “Sexual predators have also convinced children that sex with adults is normal, using the images in [erotic lolicon content] to say, ‘This is how you practice with adults.’”
Trans Girls, I Guess You Can Be A loli now
A year later, VAllure is now prepping for its Gen 2 audition run, which starts today. Talent are promised the “exciting opportunity to voice act in a lewd video game,” likely performing as the VTuber models created by the adult agency. Along the way, new talent will likely pop up in video games by the agency’s viewers; a twin-stick shooter fangame, The Endless Stream, is already out with the Gen 1 cast.
Naturally, VAllure’s Gen 1 team decided to host an audition advice stream for their potential Gen 2 sisters. And that’s when a second bout of controversy blew up for VAllure over social media.
On Saturday’s stream, “So you wanna be a wh*re ay?” the VAllure team finally addressed whether trans women can apply to the agency. The answer is “yes.” However, there are caveats. Maybe. Once again, communication is not VAllure’s strong suit. During the stream, talent Shibi Cottonbum stressed VAllure will accept transgender talent as long as they “go by female pronouns,” “live life as a woman,” and “sound like a woman.” The Gen 1 team laughed as the issue was discussed; at one point, Shibi said transgender talent asking about the issue should “shut the fuck up.”
As I mentioned during my own discussion stream over the weekend, the one-year delay on the topic and the insensitive tone during the advice stream revealed an extreme level of unprofessionalism toward VAllure’s transgender colleagues. For trans talent who considered applying to VAllure during Gen 1 (at least, prior to the debut of the aforementioned lolicon models — yeesh), the lack of communication toward trans VTubers was a clear sign that the company was not prepared for the professionalism and maturity required from an adult company.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great VAllure does, in fact, allow trans women to work with the team. But even then, its standards are still very strict for trans performers. What does it mean to “sound like a woman”? Is VAllure willing to accept trans women like myself? Even though I have a feminine voice, I’m often clocked as trans during streams and in ASMR comments; would I lack the right credentials to sound “like a woman”? In other words, do they want trans talent, or do they want trans women who sound specifically like cis women? Trans women who pass for cis women and could, if necessary, hide their gender identity? VAllure never clarified these specifics during the stream, essentially putting trans talent right back to square one: How does VAllure really feel about trans women?
And then, of course, comes the issue of pronouns and transition. Not every woman uses “female pronouns.” Cis, trans, and nonbinary women commonly use pronouns other than “she/her.” He/him lesbians are out there. So are women who use they/them. And what does it mean to “live life as a woman”? Do you have to socially transition IRL and present as a woman? Do you have to stream with a female-presenting model X-amount of times? These questions may seem silly and dumb to VAllure’s performers, but they are serious considerations for trans talent running a VA business. Auditions take time. More specifically, they take time away from streaming or ASMR work. Why work hard on something that will lead to an instant rejection?
Ironically, by addressing the controversy poorly, VAllure has taken one step forward but two steps back. But I guess trans women can be lolis if they sound feminine enough. If you try hard enough, you might just get a trans-inclusive fan who draws fanart of you that’s banned in various European countries.
Oh, and there’s a ban on lesbian content
The second and more baffling controversy is VAllure’s policy on lesbian ASMR, or F4F (female-for-female content). In short, there’s an F4F ban, as the company has a specific “method” focused on appealing to straight men. When asked whether the company was “open” to content beyond F4M (female-for-male), VAllure head Stronny Cuttles said, “straight up no.”
“VAllure is based on a previous, established method that worked fantastically, and I want to ensure the success of anyone who is willing to take the risk to join under me, join under the company, and share the vision that is what VAllure is going for,” Stronny said. “So at this point in time, no. It will always be F4M content, and I can’t see that changing at this point in time.”
So, let me get this straight. Erotic content of young girls is fine… but lesbian content goes too far? What?! This is particularly strange when you consider the popularity of F4F. Simply put, the genre is not only enjoyed by queer women, but straight men as well. Men commonly listen to F4F content for the same reason that men enjoy watching real-life lesbian porn: Because it’s about two women having sex. This is doubly the case when it comes to fetish material, like bondage, feederism, giantesses, and vore, where the premise is more important than the gender of the performers.
Also, F4F isn’t illegal in various European countries. That’s a plus, too.
But let’s stop talking about men for a second here. Content oriented toward queer women is very popular in the ASMR space thanks to the explosion of F4F and F4A content creators on Reddit’s r/GoneWildAudio. In just five years’ time, GWA’s sister subreddit r/GWASapphic gained 137,000 followers. I post on GWASapphic myself, and I can attest to its immense viewership. My most popular audio on the site, a trans-girl-for-cis-girl yandere breeding audio, has 18,800 listens. That makes it more popular than one of Mercy Modiste’s top yandere ASMR audios, “Yandere Forces You To Love Yourself.” To quote the old adage: “if you build it, they will cum.”
Erm, “come.” Sorry. I meant “come.”
No doubt, there are more men out there listening to F4M content than there are queer women enjoying F4F. But what makes F4F incorrect for the “method,” while literal lolis are A-OK? That makes no sense, especially when you consider the popularity of the F4F genre among listeners across genders. Even in spaces where F4F and F4A are highly disliked, it’s not uncommon to see listeners request the occasional lesbian pairing with talent. Boys want to watch girls kiss each other (among other things). And it’s an open secret that a lot of the VAllure talent are queer women. At the bare minimum, bring on talent for an F4F-focused model or something — it would do numbers.
Don’t expect me to play that lewd game
Such is the case for VAllure. The AVTuber agency that continues to disappoint.
As for that lewd game in the works, Gen 2 auditions open today, and if you want to play as one of the three remaining non-loli talents… the opportunity is yours. But things are not looking particularly flattering for the world’s first EN lewdtuber agency. The lack of professionalism, the lack of sensitivity, the fans drawing illegal content. Why bother?!
And to be clear, Stronny is talented. I have a lot of love for Mercy as a fellow yandere myself. And I do legitimately enjoy Shibi and her content (we are both degens for futanari, after all). But even though I want the best for the girls piloting the (non-loli) models, I can’t support what’s going on at VAllure in good faith. Nor do I think you, dear reader, should apply for Gen 2. Even if you want to be in that lewd video game really, really badly. Which I won’t be playing if there’s loli content.
TL;DR? Just make 33% of the company futa instead, VAllure. That would be so much better.
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