I didn’t know what to expect from “Chronicles of hololive Nexus Gate: Act 1.” Sure I’ve been to booths and events centered around hololive, but this seemed…different.  It wasn’t a cross-promotion with a restaurant or anything. It was held at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey, the second largest mall in the United States after the Mall of America. And from what I heard, it was supposed to be in some ways similar to the online hololive role-playing event series ENigmatic Recollection.

The description was bizarre enough that I wasn’t sure I would make the trip in the first place, but I went just to see what the deal was. What I got was a multipurpose pop-up booth that provided five different forms of interaction. 

First, it was a shop where you could buy both general hololive merch and stuff directly related to this whole Nexus Gate thing. I bought a little Nexus Gate–themed passport-style stamp booklet.

Second, it was an exhibition of fan works (art, cosplay), as well as a place to leave a record by adding a sticky note to a wall.

Third, it featured a series of brain-teasing puzzles that netted a prize in the form of a hololive STAGE ‘25 card for the hololive TCG. 

Fourth, it was a gallery of the Nexus Gate concept, which was about the girls of hololive English entering a mysterious and mostly barren world.

And fifth, it was also a screening of a drama that played out like a series of visual novel chapters, all exploring how each EN member approached the element most core to their beings. Also, because I went on the last two days, we also got to see an Episode 0 that showed how everyone ended up there.

The main drama, titled “Act 1: The Portal Awakens,” consisted of script readings not unlike the audio dramas they sometimes sell on their online store, it didn’t quite have the off-the-cuff feel of something like ENReco. It was likely another alternate world where facets of them remain, blending kayfabe lore with aspects of the EN girls’ personalities established through their streams. This lasted a lot longer than I anticipated, but it was probably the highlight of the trip. I do have to say that the special miniature lawn (?) chairs set up for viewing were comfortable at first, but being on them too long was not entirely pleasant for my crotch area.

Perhaps the most interesting things were the way this other world seemed to be connected to three girls in particular: Baelz Hakos and Ouro Kronii of the old hololive Council generation, as well as Koseki Bijou. The former two seemed to recognize the world beyond the gate as being either in some primordial state of creation or nearing the end of its life. Bae and Kronii’s lines gave a lot of hints that both the rest of Council departing over the years and everyone’s desire to step back from essentially godhood would affect things significantly. As for Biboo, she seemed to hear something he others couldn’t, perhaps tying into her backstory as a sentient jewel who has a strong connection to emotions.

The biggest question to me about Nexus Gate is that if this was Act 1, where and what will Act 2 be? Are booths going to show up all over the US and perhaps the world, all situated in malls? How many will there be? What is the ultimate purpose of all this? I found it all to be pretty cool, but I can’t help but wonder what the overall goal is.

As for the curry, it was definitely Japanese curry from a mall food court