Nina Kosaka’s advice to pass NIJISANJI, Hololive auditions: Be “self-aware”
YouTube: Nina KosakaNIJISANJI star Nina Kosaka is the adoptive “fox mom” of her fans. The VTuber came up with some great advice generally for life, but especially for those wanting to audition for top agencies like NIJISANJI and Hololive: Be reflective and self-aware.
Nina Kosaka is the polar opposite to her Ethyria genmates at NIJISANJI at times. She isn’t down with all the zoomer lingo and references, and not entirely one with the gamer lifestyle.
However what she has is maturity, grace, and wisdom. Her viewers often ask her for advice about life, big or small. So when one viewer asked Nina “how do I make myself stand out,” the fox mom was there with plenty of advice on hand.
She stopped what she was doing in Minecraft and got serious with her chat, diving deep into how to improve as a person — and perhaps make it through a top VTuber agency audition like those for NIJISANJI and Hololive.
“If you feel any similar, and there’s no shame in feeling that way, that’s something you’ll deal with for the rest of your life. Who am I? How do I stand out? What are my skills? What am I good at? Why do people like me,” she mused.
Nina got very personal, relating to her own experiences as a VTuber and in broader life. She gave an example of doing an “assessment” on herself every year to try and build some self-awareness. This makes it easier for her to tackle her goals, like her dream to release six musical covers in 2023 — despite not having a plethora of experience.
“If I am coming in here and saying ‘I am not a singer’, that I don’t pursue music, [I won’t make it]. But [the] Nina who says ‘I want to be a singer’… I went to my vocal teacher twice a week. 30 minutes we’re doing ear training, pitch training. 90 minutes a week we are singing. I am committing to six covers in genres I’m not ready for, right?
“[The] Nina who decides ‘my identity is a singer’ will do things differently.”
That changing of mentality, and being self-aware, is how viewers can not only ace auditions but life itself. It doesn’t have to be self-reflective. You can ask close friends, work colleagues, or family about their first impression of you, and what makes you stand out. If they have something negative to say, you can take action on it.
“If you don’t do this, you end up being not self-aware,” she warned. “I think we all lack self-awareness here and there, but especially if you’re auditioning.
“I think it’s really important to know who you are and who you’re not. Because people will try to put a story on you. You’re a villain, you’re a sweetheart, you’re dumb, you’re kind, you’re mean. Good for you if the story they assign for you is a positive one… but bad for you if people decide you’re horrible and awful and any time you breathe it’s to be mean or rude.”
It’s not a one-off journey either. Nina admitted she “became a worse person during quarantine”, and it took some time following her NIJISANJI debut in late 2021 to overcome the defensive mentality she built up.
Her personality shifted, her goals adjusted, and she had to be self-aware enough to catch onto it and grow.
“Your personality will always shift, it will change around,” she said. “But it’s up to you to sit down and reel it back in and think ‘which way am I going? Do I want to be somebody who is defensive over every little thing? Do I want to be somebody who is abrasive over every little thing?’”
How does this all relate to auditions? Well, it’s all about the attitude you bring to streaming. If you make a positive impression on viewers, as well as agency staff, you will do well in auditions. If you don’t, you will struggle. However, if you have the self-awareness to grow, you can make it in.
Many VTubers have spoken about their plight of getting into agencies. Some have auditioned upwards of five, even ten times, to try and pursue their dreams at Hololive or NIJISANJI.
Nina emphasized the fact “anybody can be a streamer, even if you look a certain way, even if you talk a certain way.” But there’s more to streaming than just being entertaining on Twitch or YouTube.
“Get rid of the idea that content is bad and content is good. Your first stream will probably not be as good as your 10th year of streaming. But there’s so many variables that come into content and streaming, YouTube and YouTube videos.
“We’ve seen paintings being sold for millions of dollars and I’m sure you’ve heard people go ‘I can draw that.’ But it’s not just art, it’s also marketing and so many other things. I do believe, if you keep creating really good content, it can rise to the top. But you will also need some good marketing behind it.
“It’s not just your stream. It’s not just what you do on stream, it’s what you do off-stream. It’s the friendships that you make and play together so you’re always in people’s psyches together. It’s the plan you have for the next week. There’s so much in it.”
And at the end of the day, being successful in streaming can be like math. It does require a degree of luck, but if you do your homework and pass the exam, you can make it somewhere. As long as your self-aware attitude shows growth, you can have a chance of making NIJISANJI or Hololive.
“You don’t need to be the best, you just need to pass. I think if the person is trying to stream and trying to take it seriously… I don’t think there’s bad streamers. People are learning, people are developing their skills, and that’s it.”
