What happened to wrwrd? | 〇〇の主役は我々だ！/ OO no Shuyaku wa Wareware da!
This is quite unexpected, but this might be the most important post on the blog, since for many people (myself included) fan content for wrwrd is their first and last exposure to jikkyousha at all and after certain events it became even harder for newbies to navigate through their legacy. An English wiki is luckily still up as the time of writing, but it's been vandalized in certain places and was barely updated even when the channel was still going.
TLDR: wrwrd is a gaming group that doesn't exist anymore, its former members are all active elsewhere (mostly as mzyb) after leaving due to a legal dispute. Their old videos are still up on the main channel, but with legally 3 members to its name none of which actually film videos it functions more like an archive.
Long version will be a history lesson for all who came late - this info can be found on Pixiv Dictionary, but my retelling will be a bit more personal, touching on what happened on my side of fandom too. So even though I'll try to follow a matter-of-fact narration, this post will likely sound a bit opinionated at times. Sorry.
Disclaimer: the only reason this post exists is to clear the air for all the fans who came in late. It's seen as rude to bring it up in the fandom, some people will even scrutinize others for mentioning wrwrd and mzyb in the same breath. Legally, wrwrd have nothing to do with mzyb. It's fine to acknowledge that mzyb and kougai had history before going their separate ways, but please respect the creators' wishes and don't mash them together in discussions. This is also not an attack on any parties mentioned, just a retelling of events in retrospect. Do not harass the members, whether you agree with their decisions or not. But that should go without saying.
So, what was wrwrd?
〇〇の主役は我々だ！, usually shortened to wrwrd or just d!, was a gaming group mostly focused on Minecraft and variety skits. Their history goes a long way - they're the mainstays of NicoNico Douga, and initially the group was just a yukkuri gaming channel ran by Gruppen Furher, focusing primarily on Hearts of Iron letsplays. Slowly but surely, more members joined, starting with Osuman, who brought Tonton, then Hitoranran, then it just kept going until on its peak the group had 15 named members! wrwrd was absolutely packed, even if technically only 12 of them were considered active at the time of the crash. And they were incredibly popular, gaining over a million on their main channel, having FIVE MANGA SERIES running at the same time, and that's not to say of their frequent collaborations with other streamers.
Of course, the group's image shifted over time. Minecraft became their main game of choice, focusing primarily on different variations of the Jinrou mode, and every Monday Utsu hosted their version of the Japanese comedy show Shouten. Alongside that, some became more active than others, Gruppen and Osuman slowly fading into the background and only working backstage, Hitoranran disappearing from the Internet completely just like Nii-san and Shinpei Shin barely even being a proper member to begin with, only appearing a handful of times. By the end of 2023 Koneshima, one of the main active members who represented the group alongside Utsu, went on a hiatus due to health problems. Other members jokingly described it as him being sent to prison over tax fraud, and put a pin in that, it will become surprisingly relevant.
So, in 2024, we had nine active members: Tonton, Utsu-sensei, Shaoron, Roboro, Zomu, Emile, Shoppi, Cino and the recently added Reparou. Reparou himself was a bit of a sudden addition, appearing right after the group's 8th anniversary - it should be noted that he was met with slight controversy, since by that moment Koneshima had been abscent for almost a year and he was initially interpreted by some as his replacement. Still, the fan reception was mostly warm, and he was being very slowly introduced to the videos to get acclimated to his groupmates' wild temper. Very, very slowly I must admit, only having a handful of videos to his name by the moment he was forced out alongside everyone else.
But really, everything boded well. Aside from the group announcing a slight change to their schedule and NND going down for the whole summer, their output was stable, the fans were delighted to see Reparou adjusting to the group - him finally being added to the intro, after a few months of adapting! - and anticipating Queue's yearly horror event, Minecraft Kimodameshi, where wrwrd members were scheduled to appear. And it all seemed fine, until one fateful night.
And here, everything goes to hell
The moment it turned September 1st, all active members changed their Twitter icons and IDs, suspiciously removing _wrwrd from all of them and replacing their sonas with crude MS Paint drawings of things loosely associated with their characters. Fans immediately got to speculating: was this a bit? A setup for a video? Was this promotion for Emile's Twitter, since by then he was the only one without an account? Moreover, Roboro was now following a mysterious account Moritaka Cola, who had a dark silhouette with a question mark as his pfp - what was that about?! It got even more confusing when Utsu posted a video on a burner account, where him and all the other active members explained that they can't continue their activities as wrwrd due to... copyright dispute? They couldn't share all info yet, but declared that they're not resigning from content creation and will return whenever they can.
And while the larger fandom was theorizing who could've claimed the right to their sonas (and ru fans tarot-reading what on earth was going on), a really strange thing was bothering the English-speaking fandom specifically. An account dedicated to anime leaks posted about a new season of the Iruma-kun anime in production, claiming it's the adaptation of Makai no Shuyaku wa Wareware da! aka the crossover manga between wrwrd and Iruma-kun. The possibility of the members losing their sonas seemed absurd and plausible at the same time, but luckily the leaks turned out to be a red herring. A really terrifying one at that, mind you. As this debacle was going down, Moritaka Cola debuted and proved to be Roboro himself, taking on a new v-tuber persona, and proceeding to stream with Shaoron and newly reincarnated Hyoutaro, formerly Reparou. The YouTube channel staff was explaining the irregular videos by their "performers'" conflicting schedules, but seeing how they were all getting back to streaming already, something seemed off.
Oh, right, they had staff now. wrwrd having a management was actually huge news to everyone, since it was commonly assumed that all the inner business was ran by Gruppen. But now they came forward to explain that they were going through an internal reorganization and their performers just had to renew their contracts. And while the main channel kept posting older videos, the runaways posted another announcement on the burner, announcing the creation of a new channel - Majimeni Yabacity. People assumed it'd be a temporary name, but as we know, it ended up sticking.
On September 19, the management announces that Koneshima and Gruppen have renewed their contracts and the former will soon return on his new solo channel. This made fans hopeful, but alas, the next day, for the last time, Utsu declared that the members had no intentions of returning to wrwrd. The main reason is that their channel was transfered to new management amidst of negotiating with the previous team, and new staff demanded they get all the copyright from their content, which the members refused by exposing all of this on their burner. Six of them would move on as mzyb, while Roboro, Cino and Reparou will go their separate ways as indies. Initially Cino went on a short hiatus, posting drawings on Twitter instead of streaming, but after a nudge from Tonton he started up his own Twitch account and went back to business. The next morning Osuman suddenly reappears on Twitter for the last time to declare retiring from being an online creator for good.
(one detail that really stick out to many people is that the day koneshima's return was announced, the editors accidentally used an opening without reparou in it - a coincidence for sure, but it had people talking nonetheless given how his initial reception was like.)
And seemingly, that was it for wrwrd. Mzyb quietly kept growing their channel from scratch, while the old channel just fell into radio silence after their pre-recorded videos ran out. When suddenly, on his solo channel, Koneshima announced that he's looking forward to finding new members for his activities - as many as he can. And so, by the end of October, Koneshima EX becomes a hub for Prison Friends, his new unit that's not technically "new wrwrd" but is still closely related to their activities. On top of all of that - Hitoranran suddenly came back after seven years! And is still somewhat alive on Twitter, which for all the fans was a literal miracle, since seemingly all hope for his return had been long lost.
And, finally, there we have it. Formerly one incredibly popular gaming group, presently three people with the channel now serving as merely an archive. Almost a year and a half have passed since then, and a whole new wave of fans have been discovering the remains of a group that once was - so I hope this cleared up the timeline of one incredible autumn when everything was on fire every single day. I omitted some details, obviously, but with some research, I'm sure you can piece the puzzle together yourself.
Again, do not harass or seek out any of the parties mentioned. Enough time has passed for everyone to go their separate paths, and if anything, treat this post as simply a missing piece for new fans lost on where to go with wrwrd.
