I still don't get why the ”graduation" system for vtubers is even a thing. like, i get why they do it for irl idols, but when your persona is completely digital, there's no reason why there needs to be a system for retiring vtubers who are still fine.
And why do they unperson them as well?
For retiring vtubers who are still fine
I mean that's kind of the issue though isn't it? Usually if the vtuber is retiring things
weren't fine. Whether that's because they were corpo and had a bad contract or the company is struggling, or they're indie and can't keep up with real life responsibilities and online ones, in most cases when someone graduates it's because something was stopping them from continuing as normal.
Also with corpo specifically when you see someone graduate and then they take on a new unrelated persona that's just because there's very few corporations that are willing to give away the model/IP to the talent when they leave. As for the unperson-ing, that depends on the company and circumstances. I think a lot of it has to do with liability, the talent was a big part in making the character after all so to continue to profit on that after they leave might leave them open to something. Depending on the circumstance there's probably also an aspect of not advertising a competitor, these are businesses after all, continuing to talk about a past talent usually leads to questions of "What happened?" by new people which inevitably leads some amount of people into finding their new persona if they're still around. There's no one answer though for when that happens, since every circumstance is different.
In the end though the answer to why do vtubers graduate is as simple as any other tradition: People do it because it was done previously. Idol influence on the JP side meant that people did it that way, and as people continued to do it newcomers do it because that's what everyone does. It doesn't really matter whether or not they're big into idols or understand them, it's a thing that is done so others will do it to fit in culturally.
