What happened to Selen Tatsuki: NIJISANJI termination and where did she go?

Since late December 2023, one of the main talking points in the VTuber community has been the ongoing saga of Selen Tatsuki and NIJISANJI EN. Things eventually concluded—at least publicly—but not everyone is clear on what exactly happened to Selen.

Before delving into the specifics, NIJISANJI EN is a branch of NIJISANJI and its parent company ANYCOLOR which operates as a VTuber management and talent agency. Compared to independent streamers, corporate-backed or operated VTubers usually act as the talent behind their characters but do not typically own the rights to their art, stream, or social channels. Which is part of what led to this fallout with Selen Tatsuki.

Who is Selen Tatsuki? 

Selen Tatsuki was part of  NIJISANJI EN’s second wave of VTuber talent debuts, titled “OBSYDIA,” who made her first appearance in July 2021 and quickly became one of the organization’s most popular streamers. Her theme was that of a sky dragon from the moon with a chaotic, competitive, and energetic personality. 

Best known for her skills in FPS games like Apex Legends and being incredibly hardworking when it came to collaborating on content and hosting events, Selen peaked at over 800,000 YouTube subscribers and 130,000 Twitch followers at the start of 2024. Those numbers saw a steep decline in February, however, following the end of an extended period of silent and sudden termination from NIJISANJI EN.

What happened to Selen Tatsuki and NIJISANJI EN?

On Feb. 5, NIJISANJI EN and ANYCOLOR released a multi-page document on Twitter, confirming the company’s English division terminated Selen Tatsuki’s contract.

The company cited “Repeated breaches of contract and misleading statements on social platforms” as well as “non-compliance with rights confirmation” and “ongoing reports of inappropriate behavior” by Selen as the main cause for the decision. This was all centered around a set of vague claims regarding a lack of active communication and the company’s Activity Rules for its creators. The company noted there were several violations but only gave two examples. 

According to NIJISANJI, a warning was given to Selen in May 2023 for making “misleading statements that could damage the company’s reputation.” The second direct example was a celebratory cover of LilyPichu’s Last Cup of Coffee that Selen reportedly paid out of pocket to produce and release for her community on Dec. 25 as a Christmas gift. It was quickly made private with very little explanation for why outside of Selen apologizing and openly pushing back against the removal, even telling fans they could reupload the video. 

NIJISANJI claimed that there were permissions that needed to be obtained from relevant parties before the video could be released and Selen “proceeded with the unauthorized posting.” This has since been pushed back on by multiple other sources, including LilyPichu herself, who says she told NIJISANJI she was fine with the cover being produced in August 2022: “I very much enjoyed Selen’s cover, so it’s sad to see what happened,” Lily said. 

The company also said that lack of communication with Selen led to delays in payments to commissioned parties, however, multiple artists reported that this is false and that Selen often paid for commissions herself when the company failed to do so. 

Regardless of the listed causes from NIJISANJI, Selen said she was caught off guard by the termination and was not informed by the company ahead of time, reading the documents at the same time as everyone else. 

Outside of these claims, it is important to note Selen reported on Dec. 27 that she was hospitalized after the music video issues, claiming she was in an accident. She later clarified, following the NIJISANJI termination, that she was actually hospitalized for “an attempt”—most likely referring to a suicide attempt, though she has not clarified the specifics following her public statements. This was caused by a build-up of what she claims was internal bullying and a “toxic environment” in NIJISANJI EN. 

There are also growing concerns that NIJISANJI may have taken control of Selen’s now private Twitter account to make statements regarding her hospitalization prior to a month of radio silence and her termination, essentially deceiving fans and publishing info without clarifying it was not the streamer. 

She made one final statement about the entire situation live during her “return” stream that were basically just an elongated version of her initial tweets, which were looked over by legal representation ahead of time. Those posts stated that after everything that happened in December, she was trying to leave the company on “more neutral terms” on Jan. 26. That did not happen, however, and it appears no further updates will be shared publicly from either side.

NIJISANJI has not publicly acknowledged Selen in any way since the termination barring a single statement to ANYCOLOR shareholders noting on Feb. 6 that the impact of Selen’s contract termination would result in “negligible” financial impact. That may hold in the long term, but ANYCOLOR stock has dropped 10 percent as of Feb. 11 and multiple companies like PC accessory brand HYTE and individuals have openly ended collaborative projects or spoken out against the treatment of Selen.

On Feb. 12, NIJISANJI responded to the Selen situation in three different ways—a stream featuring NIJISANJI EN Livers, a post regarding legal documents on the NIJISANJI EN Twitter account, and a video statement from ANYCOLOR CEO Riku Tazumi.

The talent stream was hosted on EN Liver Elira Pendora’s YouTube channel and featured Vox Akuma and Ike Eveland. Vox spoke the most, but all three streamers discussed how Selen’s behavior followed a “pattern of events” that continuously caused issues internally through failing to communicate and follow management guidelines.

Most fans thought this method of addressing the situation was poorly handled and at least partially manufactured by NIJISANJI EN to take heat off the company by using some of its most popular talents as detractors. There were also concerns raised by fans and DokiBird, Selen’s current alias, regarding the fact NIJISANJI shared portions of documents from Selen’s legal team that were supposed to remain confidential with members of the company’s talent, leading to private information being dragged up in that stream.

“It was requested that none of this info should be revealed to anyone other than legal. Thank you everyone for the support,” DokiBird said. “I really wish things didn’t have to go this way, I didn’t say anything more and I was ready to move on and start a new life.”

NIJISANJI EN posted another statement on the distribution of those legal documents, noting it only shared “necessary parts” with certain talents to “check the validity of Selen and her lawyer’s claim.” Additionally, the company claims it went through its legal check and is at no fault for nor made any confidentiality violations. “After a rigorous legal check, ANYCOLOR Inc. hereby declares that it has not made any confidentiality violations while checking the validity of claims made by Selen and her lawyer with its affiliated Livers,” NIJISANJI EN said.

Not taking into account the potential legal fallout from that decision, ANYCOLOR released a video featuring CEO Riku Tazumi backtracking the wording that called “undervalued the impact of Selen’s contract termination, or Selen herself.” This video was mostly well received, especially because Tazumi spoke about plans to change how it handles internal management, reporting, and other business practices to ensure problems like this don’t happen again.

“Our livers are irreplaceable, each and every one of them. Beyond being business partners, they are the most important individuals that we must protect as a company,” Tazumi said. “To everyone who has and continues to support the livers, I am very sorry that situations were allowed to arise where our dedication to their wellbeing was not clear.”

Where is Selen Tatsuki now? Who is DokiBird? 

Following her sudden termination from NIJISANJI EN, Selen Tatsuki’s social profiles were all set to private, including her YouTube channel and all of the content hosted on that page. Since the company technically owns Selen from an asset perspective, the talent behind the VTuber was left without a platform. 

Throughout her time as Selen, and during her likely company-driven hiatus in January, the talent behind the moon dragon had reverted to using her personal account DokiBird to share information about what has been going on.

This is the alias she used prior to joining and debuting for NIJISANJI as Selen, and, as of Feb. 5, is now her full-time alias in the creator space. 

Within hours of releasing her public statement on her NIJISANJI contract being terminated, Doki’s social media pages exploded. Before her return stream on Feb. 7, her YouTube channel had already surpassed 200,000 subscribers and, as of Feb. 13, broke 500,000. That initial steam has since been viewed over 1.2 million times—though it was demonetized for Doki’s very fitting use of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird.

Over the last several streams, she has mostly been celebrating her ability to broadcast after being kept from doing so for so long and planning what she will do as an independent creator without the shackles of corporate approval, such as streaming Garfield Kart or hosting more events. Though this time she shouldn’t have to spend what she claims was $200,000 out of her own pocket in just the last year to get things done as she focuses on the future. 

“My final note on all of this is let’s not harass or bully anybody,” Doki said. “I know how that felt. I want us to be adults and not make it high school. And, I want to move on, focus on us, succeed, and be better.”