I’ve been in charge of overall EXPO management since 2023, and with the move to three days this year, even more people were able to attend, which meant the energy felt stronger than ever. The moment the opening announcement plays, and the crowd erupts into a huge round of applause, is rather overwhelming every year. It really hits me again how much responsibility comes with creating content with this level of passion, and it motivates me to take on my work with even more drive.

Since two years ago, I’ve been mainly in charge of the production of exhibitor booths, the EXPO stage, and more. From an operations perspective, the first thing I feel is relief: there were no major incidents, and everyone went home with a smile on their face. Each EXPO takes about a year and a half to prepare, and we plan it step by step through ongoing conversations with talents and teams across the company. This year brought many new challenges, so it was a huge relief to have pulled it off without a hitch. We are still in the middle of post-mortems with different departments, but it’s starting to sink in that it’s really over.

The theme was born from the idea that VTubers should be able to freely travel across time and space because they are VTubers. Early on, we also considered recreating a specific historical period, but eventually we settled on repeatedly time-warping across different timelines to bring countless “what-ifs” to life. We chose this theme because we thought it would make the event more fun and create a new kind of event experience.

First was creating the key visual that would serve as the foundation for everything. We struggled with how to define the futuristic feel associated with “time-warp” and how to fuse it with a sense of excitement unique to hololive production. The key visual for this EXPO was a brand-new one, the first of its kind, and it was especially challenging to translate the vibe of time-warping to the year 3000 AD (Y3K) into outfit concepts.

The next big hurdle was how to recreate the same feel from the key visual with real-world structures. When we first announced the theme, we saw that some fans were confused by what was meant by “time-warp,” and we were worried about how well we could convey this concept. So, together with Hakuten, our production partner for EXPO this year, we were fully committed to creating a whole world inside the venue, down to lighting design and the finest structural details. One standout was the “hololive Time Capsule” booth, built around the question: “If hololive made a time capsule, what would you put inside?” It received a lot of positive feedback, with many attendees saying it was the exhibit that left the strongest impression on them. We wrestled with the concept a lot, but in the end, we feel we created a really strong theme and world.

We believe that creating a place where talents can express themselves freely allows fans to feel each talent’s individuality and intent more directly, which leads to stronger reactions. So, as a basic principle in planning, we always asked ourselves: “Would the talents genuinely think this sounds fun?”

Especially for the hololive Time Capsule, we asked each talent, “If you were to put something in a time capsule, what would you choose?” and then left everything up to their interpretation. The result was a lineup of personal items and creations chosen by each talent: equipment used in their first stream, letters to future fans, and more. It became a highly engaging corner with messages from talents to fans and even to other talents. The exhibits reflected each talent’s personality so strongly that the area remained busy all day, and we heard many people say it was very much worth seeing.

For the exhibits I was responsible for, the top priority was focusing on each individual talent’s personality, which is why we curated the exhibits for projects like hOCG, Holoearth, and hololive Dreams under very strict criteria. We built each booth around talent-focused content, working closely with each project team. The goal was to design every space as a place where talents and fans could connect, and we coordinated extensively to make that happen.

Throughout event preparations, the question I kept asking was, “Do management intentions align with fan expectations?” We had fewer projects this year than last because we kept revisiting the question, “Do our fans really want this?” Especially with unannounced projects, there is only so much information we can share, making it challenging to build anticipation. As we proceeded with our preparations as a team, we shared knowledge among ourselves to build our confidence, little by little, in whether fans would enjoy the experiences we were planning to provide.

Every year, we are joined by many sponsors, but this year, collaborations with sponsors that own major IPs stood out in particular. The day before the event, we announced a special collaboration between GUNDAM and hololive production, and we also had the GSX250R [Chihaya Remix] (not for sale), a motorcycle co-designed by Suzuki and Rindo Chihaya, on display at the venue. Major projects were announced one after another in conjunction with EXPO.
Seeing well-known brands align their announcements with EXPO felt like a clear sign of expectation for the hololive production brand. Due to space constraints, the total number of sponsors was about the same as previously, but we also had companies joining for the first time.

Many sponsor booths revealed upcoming projects and new products, and with venue-exclusive novelties, the excitement was so palpable that almost all booths had people lining up immediately after doors opened. We often hear from the sales team handling sponsorships that only at EXPO can companies see excitement build on the day of the event. As companies directly experience that passion rather than just looking at figures in a report, they feel motivated to reach new markets and launch new initiatives. The role of EXPO as an entry point for the hololive brand gets stronger every year.

Going forward, we want to keep delivering experiences that allow talents and fans to connect no matter where they are in the world, beyond the confines of one’s location or environment. As technology evolves, the look and feel of events, as well as the range of possible experiences, will continue to change. There is still a lot of room for us to grow.

We want to connect the online world of streaming with the offline nature of EXPO so that they are adjoining spaces where talents can exist naturally in both. Rather than just a once-a-year event, we want to elevate EXPO so that fans can feel the presence of their favorite talents every day on an infrastructural level. If each event represents a single point, I believe that drawing lines between them will further deepen our understanding of our offline events.

Overseas fan meetings can sometimes be even larger in scale than those in Japan, and the passion for hololive production overseas is extremely strong. That said, we don’t think it is right to simply draw upon our know-how acquired in Japan as is. It is important to adapt the event to suit the culture and people in any given country or region. Bringing EXPO to the world and sharing the excitement with people all over the world is one of our major objectives.

EXPO keeps growing year on year, but a recurring theme is how to translate that scale into a meaningful experience for each individual fan. We want to keep increasing the number of people who can take part while also providing deeper points of contact with talent.

Through this year’s EXPO, I feel that what we want to deliver to fans has become much clearer. We will carry forward what worked this year into next year and address the issues that arose by leveraging evolving technology as planners.