Ophelia Rosenkreuz VTuber Project to be Retired, Though Social Media Accounts Still Remain

Studio Emiko announced Thursday on Twitter that the Ophelia Rosenkreuz VTuber probject will be retired and replaced with a new character in the future due to undisclosed circumstances, even long before the character’s planned debut. The project was first announced back in July and Studio Emiko did not even get to a debut date. Drillimation Systems composer Susumu Takajima even wrote a theme (video below) for said character to promote the then-upcoming VTuber.

Rosenkreuz took inspiration from two of Hosokawa’s interests: vampires (particularly the novel Dracula) and the visual kei scene of the 1980s to the 2000s. Other inspirations included her interpretation of Pokémon Black and White‘s Grimsley in Helligbard, the popular manga series The Case Study of Vanitas, and a cover version of We Drink Your Blood from the German band Powerwolf.

ANNOUNCEMENT / 発表 pic.twitter.com/o18ZwPG00m

— 細川英明娘 (@HimmelAvHimiko) September 5, 2024

According to Hosokawa, this might come off as a controversially disappointing decision as she is notorious for having what TVTropes calls a “high turnover rate” – the inability to focus on one project for a long time. “As a person who have been working with her since 2022, I can tell that most of the projects she started ended up never getting past the prototype stage,” Hosokawa said. While many of them are cancelled for no apparent reason, some projects’ cancellations are justified as there were underlying issues behind such projects:

• Muse Genkaroku was cancelled in 2022 due to content regarding the depiction of religious discrimination that would run afoul of legal systems if left intact.
• A planned game adaptation of Touhou Tengyakushuu ~ Zenith of Antinomic Monarch was cancelled in December 2023 after the original IP holder, Atelier in Wonderland (also goes by Melody Harmonia), refused to license the IP for such adaptation.

Within the same announcement, Hosokawa stated that a new identity will take ownership of Ophelia’s social media accounts in the near future. Although not mentioned in the announcement, it is implied that there would be no activity from Ophelia’s (former) accounts from her identity’s retirement to the transition towards the new, and possibly finalized, identity.

The exact time when the new identity is expected to succeed Ophelia is still uncertain – and so is any information regarding the identity, although in a post made within minutes of the initial announcement, Hosokawa mentioned “something” in store for the ninth anniversary of Undertale – one of her favorite games. Said title also served as inspiration for Touhou Kourinden ~ Mythos of Phantasmagoria which officially released back in May. Speculations from Drillimation’s end suggests that she might tease the new identity – or even renew Ophelia’s accounts under their name – on that date, although we would never know for certain until that day comes.