The Ciel Chandelleur VTuber project by Studio Emiko has finally returned to the livestreaming airwaves for the first time after a five-month hiatus. The cause of the hiatus was actually the result of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last September, and the subsequent investigations opened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Congress on platforms such as Discord, Reddit, Steam, and Twitch, prompting fears that they could get shut down by the former.
Fake rumors of Discord being shut down, like in the images above, spread like wildfire. Kirk’s assassin had operated a server, which may have been used to plot the attack. Chairman James Comer was called to testify before the House Oversight Committee Inquiry about online radicalization and the role the assassin and his server played in the events leading up to Kirk’s killing. Frankly, this is not the first time Discord has faced public scrutiny and investigations from Congress over its links to crime. In January 2024, CEO Jason Citron had to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding abuse of minors.
The unexpected five-month hiatus came just days after celebrating her first birthday stream and over a month after debuting last July. She also had one of the shortest timestamps between debuting and becoming a Twitch Affiliate. Even after returning, the fate of the VTuber is uncertain. Throughout the hiatus, Ciel has often been posting images from Stardew Valley gameplay as filler to ensure the VTuber wouldn’t dry up and leave any gaps.
Even during the hiatus, Drillimation Systems has been making plans to model the in-game art direction of their next in-development project after Stardew Valley, despite disapproval from Studio Emiko for this decision. The heads of those two companies still have a bad taste in their mouths following the critical failure of Touhou Chouhatsuyou ~ Burgeoning Tresses of Longevity last spring. It coincidentally came out around the same time as Disney’s live-action Snow White remake, which garnered a similar reception.
While Drillimation still maintains its relationship with Studio Emiko, the two companies’ reunion for future projects remains a key issue for this year, but it is very unlikely to happen even if Drillimation pushes to take cues from visual kei and Stardew Valley for its latest project. Emiko Hosokawa pretty much quit the game industry after Burgeoning Tresses of Longevity and made VTubing her focus for the rest of 2025 and into today. Creating a licensed game based on Ciel Chandelleur won’t spell a reunion, as the two companies have conflicting philosophies: Drillimation’s creative choices of using retro pixel art aesthetics don’t simply work with Studio Emiko, and the certain subject matter in Ciel Chandelleur’s streams won’t fit in Drillimation’s philosophy of appealing to a wide audience.
Earlier this month, an official website for Ciel Chandelleur was opened on Wix, even having an official blog like this website. To date, no blog posts have been written. And that said, Studio Emiko is having high hopes for success this year.
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