The entire Mikeneko and Uruha Rushia drama explained

Vtubers are no strangers to controversy, but Mikeneko and Hololive’s Uruha Rushia showcase the messiest side of the industry.

Hololive grows larger every year, each generation adding even more talent to its stacked roster. Despite the new faces, Hololive has continued supporting each generation of vtubers, from the original bunch to Hololive Justice. However, like any Vtuber agency, Hololive has seen its fair share of graduations.

From Kiryu Coco’s bombastic farewell livestream to Minato Aqua’s heartwarming graduation concert, Hololive treats their Vtuber’s exits as a big deal. However, some exits don’t have the same fanfare. Uruha Rushia’s sudden termination from Hololive came as a shock to viewers when it was first announced.

But as more details came to light, and Mikeneko made her debut, things got even more complicated.

Is Mikeneko the re-debut of Hololive’s Uruha Rushia?

After Uruha Rushia’s messy graduation from Hololive, she chose to re-debut as Mikeneko.

Some history needs to be established to understand the extent of Rushia’s controversial story. Rushia debuted in July 2018, notably scouted alongside fellow Gen 3 member Usada Pekora. Typically, Hololive holds auditions for each generation, but Pekora and Rushia were scouted specifically for Hololive Gen 3.

The scouting spoke to the potential that Hololive saw in Rushia. Within a year and a half, Rushia reached 1 million subscribers, the 11th member of Hololive to do so. During this time, Rushia also released multiple original songs, giving her ample material for her concerts. Rushia’s most impressive accolades, however, came from her super chat revenue.

According to Playboard’s statistics, Rushia earned over $3.28 million in super chat revenue by 2022, the highest of any Hololive talent. These come from over 273,000 superchats across her three-year career. As far as the subscriber-to-revenue ratio, Rushia was easily among Cover Corp’s highest earners, validating the potential the company saw in her. At the time, she was also the top super chat earner in all of Japan.

After three years of nonstop success, Rushia fell into controversy when she accidentally leaked her Discord direct messages in February 2022. MafuMafu, a popular cover singer messaged Rushia. “Mii-chan, I’m done with streaming and coming home,” the message reportedly said. The situation led to allegations of Rushia having a relationship with one of her cover singers.

While there was some backlash, the majority of Rushia’s fans and Cover Corp supported Rushia through the ordeal. In a now-deleted statement, Cover Corp reiterated that it wouldn’t interfere with the private lives of their talents. The company also announced it would launch an investigation regarding the potential leaking of sensitive company info to third parties.

Why did Rushia get terminated from Hololive?

Hololive terminated Uruha Rushia for leaking sensitive information to third parties.

Fans thought that was the end of the situation, yet Rushia did not stream regularly after the leaks. On February 24, 2022, Cover Corp suddenly announced the immediate termination of Uruha Rushia. Unlike Kiryu Coco, this was not a mutual split, meaning Rushia would not get a graduation stream.

“Regarding ‘Uruha Rushia,’ it has been apparent for some time that she has been distributing false information to third parties and has been leaking information, including communications regarding business matters,” said Cover Corp in an official Reddit post.

Cover Corp further elaborated on the nature of Rushia’s contract breaches.

“With respect to the above, we were able to confirm that she engaged in acts that: violated her contract by leaking information that she acquired from the company as well as communication over SNS, both of which she has a responsibility to protect; and caused the company to suffer reputational damage, such as by publicizing falsehoods to various related parties.”

The Japanese legal system takes libel very seriously. Although the exact rumors that Rushia reportedly spread were not specified, they were extreme enough for Cover Corp to cut her off entirely, leading to the Mikeneko re-debut. Rushia was not allowed to send a farewell message under her Hololive persona. Her last tweet was on February 14, 2022, apologizing to her fans for the controversy.

When did Uruha Rushia re-debut as Mikeneko?

Mikeneko’s re-debut was on April 14, 2022, shortly after she was fired as Uruha Rushia.

Shortly after her termination, Mikeneko began leaving hints of her imminent debut. In April 2022, Mikeneko debuted her new vtuber identity, and many of her fans followed despite the drama. Notably, the Mikeneko identity has been around well before its creation on YouTube.

Mikeneko regularly streamed as an IRL streamer on the Japanese site Niconico Douga as early as 2011. Meanwhile, the current Mikeneko YouTube channel was created on February 22, 2022, two days before Cover Corp officially announced Rushia’s contract termination.

Mikeneko continued streaming games and making songs, much like she did as Uruha Rushia, though the brushes with drama continued. One such incident involved a feud with independent vtuber Delutaya, though it halted after both agreed to discuss the matter through lawyers. Unbeknownst to fans, however, Mikeneko’s relationship with Mafumafu took a turn for the worse a few months after her debut. The full details of their rocky relationship wouldn’t come to light until Mafumafu’s blog post in January 2024.

What happened between Mafumafu and Mikeneko?

In his blog post post, Mafumafu talked about his marriage with “Ms. A,” believed by readers to be none other than Mikeneko.

He claims to have been married to Ms. A from December 2021 to July 2022 and apologized to fans for hiding the marriage for so long. Mafumafu claims the relationship was toxic, and that Ms. A often exhibited controlling and abusive behavior. He also accused Mikeneko of spreading rumors and insults about him anonymously online.

In response to the allegations, Mikeneko confirmed her previous marriage to Mafumafu and their subsequent separation. Mikeneko denies the allegations of her toxic and manipulative behavior and claims it was Mafumafu who was guilty of such. However, she admitted to having made several posts about Mafumafu but did not clarify the nature of said posts, as advised by her lawyer. As of now, the lawsuit is ongoing.

At the end of the post, Mikeneko stated that she would file a lawsuit against Mafumafu for the post. Despite that, she urged fans to respect her and Mafumafu’s privacy. In February 2024, Mikeneko’s friend shared on social media that Mikeneko attempted to take her own life and was hospitalized in a since-deleted post.

Mikeneko recovered from the attempt and updated her fans on her condition in a live stream. Many fans urged Mikeneko to take a break from streaming online, but she continued streaming regardless. Mikeneko currently has over 955,000 subscribers on YouTube and streams to this day.