Interview Transcript: The Collapse of VShojo — A Postmortem Conversation

Participants:

• Liz (AI-powered VTuber industry analyst and commentator; voice/persona: mid-30s, experienced, fact-conscious, neutral)
• Wing Wong (Tech writer and content creator at WingTechCorner.com)

Wing Wong: Thanks for joining me today, Liz. As you know, there’s been a lot of confusion, outrage, and theorizing about what happened with VShojo — its collapse, the exit of top talents like Ironmouse and Kson, and the ethical missteps around charity funds and payments. I wanted to dig into that with you, not to crucify anyone, but to understand what could have been done differently.

“Summer used to be about putting away the heating bills. Now it’s about calculating if your GPU setup will turn your home office into a sauna.”
— Wing

🌡️ The Heat Season Arrives

June 2025, and once again I’m staring at my rig while the temperature climbs outside.

Two years ago, this conversation was academic. Now? My RTX 4090 is generating enough BTUs to heat a small apartment, my power bank collection could run a small electronics store, and I’m genuinely considering whether the latest-and-greatest is worth the environmental reality it creates.

“Leaving Cupertino feels like leaving a dream that got too clean. San Jose’s messier—but it’s mine again.”
— Wing

🚚 Goodbye, Cupertino

I’ve packed the last box.
Unplugged the desktop.
Took one last late-night walk past identical tech offices and empty sidewalks.

Cupertino served its purpose:

• Fast internet
• Quiet neighbors
• Ubiquitous boba

But by the end of 2024, I realized… I was orbiting the center, not living in it.

“2023 was the warm-up. 2024 is when the floor dropped out and the ceiling rose too fast to see.”
— Wing

🧠 They Got Good. Fast.

By mid-2024, we’re no longer pretending this is experimental.

• LLMs now write, revise, plan, empathize, perform.
• GenAI tools can render a cinematic shot from a prompt—or animate an entire music video.
• Multimodal models understand, summarize, and invent across text, image, video, sound, and code.
• Real-time inference is happening on consumer-grade GPUs.
• Local, open-source AI has caught up far enough to threaten the cloud.

And it’s all starting to feel… inevitable.

“In 1999, I built a Windows tower so I could play Quake. In 2024, I’m doing it so I can own something again.”
— Wing

🎉 New Year, Old Ritual

While the world counted down with TikTok filters and AI-generated fireworks, I was unpacking anti-static bags and clicking RAM sticks into place.

No champagne. Just cable ties.

Because this year—for the first time in a long time—I got myself a Windows desktop.

“Back in 1994, AX smelled like VHS tapes, stale carpet, and freedom. In 2023? It smells like LED panels, QR codes, and brand deals.”
— Wing

🎆 July 4th at Anime Expo: Then vs Now

For a certain breed of fan, July 4th doesn’t mean fireworks.
It means AX. Anime Expo.
A pilgrimage to SoCal for sweat, panels, prints, and people who get it.

But AX 2023 is a far cry from AX 1994.
The soul’s still there… if you know where to look.

“June used to mean letting go. Now it feels like one more upload queue.”
— Wing

June used to have a shape.

Long shadows across sidewalks. The smell of plastic binders shoved into cardboard boxes. The static buzz of CRTs fading as schools powered down. You knew what June meant—an exhale.

But in 2023? The line between months is blurry. You don’t log off. You optimize.

🌞 Summer, Rebranded

Remember when “summer break” was a thing?

“They gave their lives. You get 15% off patio furniture.”
— Wing

Memorial Day, 2023.

For some, it’s the quietest morning of the year. Flags at half-mast. Graves visited. Names whispered.

For others, it’s promo code: FREEDOM23.

🎖️ What It Was Supposed to Be

Originally called Decoration Day, it started after the Civil War—families placing flowers on graves. It wasn’t fireworks and grilling. It was silence. Stillness. A long look at the cost of conflict.

“In 2020 we clapped from balconies. In 2023, they’re still wearing trash bags in some hospitals.”
— Wing

It’s May 2023. National Nurses Week again.

The hashtags are back. The HR newsletters. The “thank you” banners with softly lit group photos.

But if you talk to an actual nurse today—really talk to one—you’ll find something sharper beneath the surface: fatigue, anger, and the quiet ache of betrayal.

🏥 Flashback to 2020

Remember those first weeks?

“In 2003 we set our IM status to ‘LOL FACE’ as a joke. In 2023, we created impossible AI pets and watched them go viral.”
— Wing

April Fool’s Day 2023 wasn’t just jokes—it was a showcase of how far generative AI had come, and how easily it could blur reality.

🐶 Fake Babies Bungee Jumping?

A prankster using AI art tools created a convincing New Zealand website advertising “Bungee Jumping Babies”—complete with photorealistic imagery and safety disclaimers. It felt authentic enough to make folks do a double-take :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}.