A statement from Kawarazaki Okamura about “Iku Tsuba,” the paid streaming show featuring Hello! Project’s Tsubaki Factory, has become a hot topic on 5ch. He explained that the show ended because of illegal uploads to Bilibili, and that a revival is now impossible.
The thread mixed reminiscing about the show’s viewer numbers and the content in its final stretch with a split in reactions: some took the illegal-upload explanation at face value, while others suspected the real reason lay elsewhere. Since it was a paid show to begin with, some argued it should be treated purely as content for existing fans rather than a tool for attracting new ones, turning the discussion into a broader debate over what it actually takes for a show like this to survive.
What people said
1AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:00
32 Anonymous 2026/09/05 (Sat) 19:53:17.55 0
Kawarazaki Okamura: "Iku Tsuba ended because of illegal uploads to Bilibili. A revival is no longer possible."
Figured this would spawn its own thread, but it hasn't.
3AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:02
The Urufaa crowd (a fan nickname) were always team Bilibili, huh.
5AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:03
I wonder if this guy was pulling a Mōri Shinobu too.
9AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:04
Not totally sure, but the whole show got boring right around when Yagi graduated.
11AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:05
Is this the guy who went to France with Kawanishi?
12AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:06
Didn't watch a single episode in the final stretch — King suddenly missed one and then went on a long hiatus.
14AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:08
Solo Fes tanked because of that too, but it made a comeback.
15AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:09
Is it actually racking up views on Bilibili?
17AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:11
Iku Tsuba was actually being uploaded somewhere else — I was grabbing the raw .ts files from there. But that ended too once Nishimura joined.
19AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:12
Didn't it always come back after a few months' hiatus anyway?
20AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:15
Honestly, telling them to just quit isn't realistic — a real pro factors all that in. So what's the average "byuryu-byuru" (mocking, garbled way of saying "view count") for Iku Tsuba anyway?
21AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:15
Bilibili's gotten strict lately.
22AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:16
Just find a sponsor and broadcast it for free.
24AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:18
Chinese sites are awful too. How do they even get to set up shop in Japan?
25AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:19
It had completely run out of ideas by the end, so it's honestly for the best that it ended cleanly.
26AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:20
Tsubaki becomes "Shancha Hua" in Chinese, and Morning Musume's got "Zao'an Shaonü" too (the Chinese nicknames for the groups).
28AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:21
Can it even keep going? That season with Kawanishi was the peak.
30AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:21
Every show gets hit with unauthorized reposting, doesn't it?
31AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:23
I don't get how getting reposted leads to the show actually ending though.
32AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:23
Old-guy fans have zero sense of compliance, so any business built around catering only to them gets wrecked by reposting.
33AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:23
Hello! Project otaku are especially notorious for this kind of thing — there were even dedicated upload boards. H!O pulled out early, but there was still a board, right?
38AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:26
He's just behind-the-scenes staff but overstepped so much that the agency started giving him the cold shoulder.
47AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:29
Re: #38
Where's that even from? (original uses an unclear slang term, "ryōkaku")
55AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:33
If someone pitched this to the agency, they got turned down citing illegal uploads — meaning that's not the agency's real reason. Something along those lines, probably.
61AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:36
Re: #55
Space Shower TV is the one footing the bill for producing the show, you know.
62AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:37
Wild that there are still people who can't tell terrestrial TV and CS satellite broadcasting apart.
102AnonymousSep 5, 2026 21:17
Re: #62
No no, it's precisely because of the times now — young people these days have no clue what CS even is.
68AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:41
The whole point of idol variety shows is getting people to watch and get to know the members, but the moment you make it paid and cut off everyone but the hardcore fans, that's the problem right there.
72AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:44
Re: #68
It was made for existing fans from the start — what are you even talking about?
74AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:47
There are actually idiots out there who think even live concert broadcasts are done as promotion to attract new fans lol
75AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:49
Re: #74
They just use "attracting new fans" as their noble excuse when really they just want to watch it for free themselves.
76AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:49
Re: #74
That's just how Tsubaki fans think, given their age demographic.
79AnonymousSep 5, 2026 20:50
Just checked Bilibili and only the old episodes are up there — couldn't find hardly any recent ones.
Has this already been taken down?
89AnonymousSep 5, 2026 21:03
Re: #79
The Hulu ones get taken down fast, but I wonder how it works for the SKY PerfecTV! side of things.
Background and Key Points of This Story
“Iku Tsuba” is believed to be a paid streaming show featuring Hello! Project’s Tsubaki Factory, viewed through CS/cable-linked services and streaming platforms. The thread was sparked by a statement from Kawarazaki Okamura, described as someone connected to the show, explaining that it ended because of illegal uploads to Bilibili and that a revival is impossible. Bilibili is a China-based video site, and there have long been reports of Japanese paid programming and terrestrial-broadcast content being reposted there without rights holders’ permission — as seen in comment 24, complaints of “why is this one Chinese site allowed to run wild” are a recurring theme with other shows too. Opinion in the thread split over whether to take this explanation at face value or to suspect it as cover for some other underlying issue (such as production circumstances or changes among the cast), with comment 55 voicing suspicion that “the real reason lies elsewhere.” There was also a difference in temperature over how the show should be positioned: since it’s paid content, should the priority be attracting new fans who expect free viewing, or should it be accepted plainly as a program for existing fans? Worth noting is that illegal uploading isn’t an issue unique to this one show — it’s being discussed here as a challenge facing the industry as a whole.
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