what do you think about the recent trend
of japanese youtubers
reacting to your videos reaction videos
what reaction video oh my god what the
what is going on make it stop make it
stop
wow so you might notice recently if you
watch videos about japan
that everyone and their mum has been
churning out reaction videos
particularly to a video i made a few
years ago called what not to do
in japan with this terrible thumbnail i
i'm sick to death of seeing
now i've never really got the whole
reaction video thing i don't think i've
made a single reaction video ever in the
200 videos that i've made
and i guess that's because when it comes
to reaction videos i've always thought
who really wants to watch them and at
the end of it
is that three million views just to
watch a person
watch another person this guy's a genius
george
george japan i hope that's his real name
george japan maybe i should rebrand to
chris england but look at this perplexed
expression combined with the
word interesting it's genius how could i
not click on that it must be
it must be bloody spectacular let's have
a look then before we watch it let's put
it into 1080p
i can't watch a video in 480p is
is that it 480p only 3.3 million views
on a 480p
video are you having a laugh and here i
am like an idiot
trying to make videos in 4k super wonder
definition so you can practically reach
out and touch joey the anime man's face
in a bar
and for what nothing i should have just
filmed it all on my broken iphone
in 480ps right okay we're going to stop
the video there for a moment
okay some people might find this sort of
thing funny but i certainly don't
quite frankly i feel he's disrespectful
to the people of japan if you don't like
japan
go home to your own country if you can't
stand the heat get out of the uh
go somewhere else quite frankly clearly
he's run out of ideas
and i don't want to watch anymore but
we're going to watch some more
so when i first started seeing these
reaction videos pop up i was pretty
surprised and
i really sat up and took notice when the
japan times did an article
discussing the emerging trend of
japanese reaction channels
and by now you probably hate this damn
thumbnail as much as i do
as more and more creators utilize it in
increasingly provocative ways what
started out as
oh interesting has gone on to become
that's [ __ ]
lies rubbish in fact i predict by the
year 2025
most people actually watch abroad in
japan through someone else's youtube
channel in fact you're probably not
watching this video on abroad in japan
right now probably on
george japan isn't it george is up there
somewhere reacting away aren't you
george
reacting in a room yeah to be honest
chris
your face looks better in 480p
anyway now perhaps understandably i get
a lot of questions about this
how do i feel do i benefit from having
people react to the video does the
original video do better
what are the ethics around just taking
someone's entire video and just reacting
to it
at your desk and am i angry about it to
which i say yes i am angry
off with their heads a lot of them oh oh
god
if you're to make a toy sword like have
a volume control on it that's really
it's really unnecessarily loud i don't
know why i've got this
put that there but i'll get to my brutal
honest opinions
in a minute because i feel like before
we reach any conclusions we should
probably watch
some of these reaction videos first god
forbid so buckle up and get ready for
the next level of inception style
reaction videos where you can watch a
british guy reacting to a japanese guy
reacting to a british guy reacting to
japan
oh [ __ ] my life this is it the future of
youtube the future we deserve
[Music]
uh this one looks pretty pretty damn
intimidating i'm telling you
not to do what not to do in japan by
yuya
with a very very ominous looking
expression let's see what happens
welcome back to my channel today let me
try to react to this video again
12 things not to do in japan in the last
video
that was my fourth reaction video so it
wasn't good enough
and i got some comment doing it again
because the first attempt
wasn't good enough that is that's pretty
impressive i think my favorite thing
about watching these reaction videos is
seeing where all the different people
are reacting
from uh yuya looks like he's at work in
an office or something he's very smart
it's like he's just snuck off to a side
room quickly because he simply had to
react
to this uh to this video hello guys i'm
jordan so today i'm gonna react a video
called 12 things
i just love how humble george is right
he's barely in the frame of his own
video
like the doors on the right hand side of
the frame take up more space than george
does
what a humble guy japanese lady reacts
to 12 things not to do in japan
mrs eats straight up eats you getting it
yet there's a lot of eating going on
there let's dive in
hi everyone this is mrs eats today we're
gonna be watching
12 things not to do in
japan seems very nice i like to think
when she's not filming
reaction videos or eating things she
adorns the
impressive red samurai helmet behind her
on the shelf and becomes japan's most
ruthless
masked vigilante bit like batman
japanese batman
but with the samurai helmet that's mrs
eats
[Music]
well if you want to exchange your name
card with your client
this is your client and you you have to
be below than him because
this is showing you some respect that's
awkward i didn't know that
that you're supposed to hold your
business card below the client
i'm usually like up here and they're
down here so i
think that's that might explain quite a
lot of situations i've got myself into
over the years
good commentary it's interesting point
tokyo foodie
sarah literally tearing her hair out
what the [ __ ] it says let's have a look
hey guys welcome to my channel tokyo
foodie sarah if you're new here my name
is sarah and i make videos on japanese
foods and culture
[Music]
omelette yeah good cakes oh no natto
fermented soybeans bad move there took a
sharp turn
today i want to be reacting to abroad in
japan channel's most watched video
12 things not to do in japan first
thoughts how many dalmatians died
for that top sarah second thoughts i
have to say that's one of the most
impressive british accents i've ever
heard
from a japanese person you've put
ryotaro's accent
to shame well done i have a question if
we meet today right now and exchanged
our business card what would you think
it would act like this
oh your name is yuya wannabe the cool
cool business card huh
i like it all right see you next time
bye
why do i get the impression he does that
look at this eleven thousand people have
liked it that's how screwed we are
people actually like ryotaro japan here
we go welcome to ryotaro japan
and i need to confess that i never
watch aboard in japan apart from the
ones
i am reading yeah laugh at your crap
jokes
looking through the channel i found out
that the most watched
video ever was called 12 things not to
do in japan
and without me in it yes notice whenever
ryotaro is not in a video
people actually want to watch it
so walking down the street whilst eating
and drinking isn't illegal you're not
gonna get shouted at
no you're not gonna get arrested
but what you will get is the stare of
disapproval
kind of but not that strict if you
google tabayaruki which means eating
drink while walking you can find many
good places for
tabayaruki for instance in osaka i see a
lot of people eating takoyaki while
walking
so it doesn't make sense right so please
don't take it seriously there are a lot
of people including me
to drink starbucks coffee while walking
even in tokyo or
everywhere so it's okay eating while
walking
is not seen as such a good thing my
hometown is not a big city
so one day i was waiting for my train at
the platform
and i was eating a small cracker like
this there was nobody's behind me
and then suddenly older guy was
approaching me and then suddenly he
looked at me
was it colonel sanders
this is not true if you've got a runny
nose i don't agree with him on this part
because sneezing and blowing notes are
completely normal body function it
cannot be healthy
what do you have to do it very simple
you have to show your effort
try to make this sound smaller to show
some effort what does that mean when
blowing one's nose
how do you make an effort like what is
the scale of blowing your nose but in
the uk
we just blow our nose there and then
right we don't really have some sort of
special new year scale i want to see a
dedicated video
you if you're watching this make the
video we deserve how to blow your nose
i'm 11 minutes in i haven't seen yuya
smile and i want to see a smile
come on this is getting very serious oh
is that
is that a smile there it's kind of not
like is it weird that i'm getting
anxiety from watching this because of
how close
sarah's chin is to the razor sharp edge
of that reaction video like
if her arms slip she's going to smash
her face onto that corner like if you're
going to make a reaction video
please make sure to do it a safe
distance health and safety
first real frenchman responds to abroad
in japan all right
let's check this out
this is without a doubt a real frenchman
oh here uh anyway
that point all right i love the way he's
tried to one-up me with his massive
plant
on the desk there i remember when i used
to film my this window actually i
thought the backdrop looked really crap
so i used to rather awkwardly stick a
fake plant in the background to try and
make things nice but
i've come a long way since then got rid
of the plan
so intimidating that um noise you think
that
something bad's gonna happen any hand
gonna get [ __ ] up by george
[Applause]
he looks a little red here is he drunk
how dare you i brought japan videos
always shot sober
and in a clear state of mind unless i'm
drunk like i probably was here
are probably cheap which don't pause the
video there look at that it's horrible
i think this is my main issue with
reaction videos they always pause at the
worst possible moment i mean look at
that
that's the last thing you see before you
die one time one of my colleagues when i
was teaching
i asked him do you have any pets and he
said to me
maybe my cat is dead
on it laughing at a dead cat george it's
a disgrace
come on oh oh yes
yes he [ __ ] smiled thank god for that
big smile he's a what a nice young man i
like this year
he's a good lad so is this christmas
there have been new dances it's quality
content watching a japanese guy react to
another japanese guy butchering john
lennon
where is he oh no george oh natsuki's
not gonna like that
when you come to japan please please
don't be nervous we are all
kind and also when i go to your country
please be
kind to me no sorry george that's not
how the uk works
so what do i think about all these
reaction videos and is it actually
beneficial to me
personally uh i think like a lot of
people i assumed that
oh surely the original video will be
getting more views as a result of all
these reaction videos
but if you look at the statistics since
the first episode went up in september
views have been pretty consistent in
fact they may
even be lower uh than before some people
assume that i'm angry
to watch these other youtubers take the
entire video and just react to it
for a few minutes and i didn't feel
angry when it first happened but i felt
a bit weird about it
i mean from my perspective right i spent
maybe
seven days producing the original video
it took a few days to research and
script and plan
then i had to go out and film it in
public and make a complete [ __ ] idiot
of myself
before sitting down to edit it all
together into a dynamic and fun way
which meant basically or just use some
brazilian music
[Music]
i never thought the video would do as
well as it did but i was really glad but
it sort of took off because it felt like
that sort of production process was
completely worthwhile now compare that
lengthy
three-stage production process to
producing a reaction video
you can literally sit down watch
something for 10 or 15 minutes
edit it in about an hour because they're
not that complex
and that's it and you can get millions
of views and so yeah it could be a
little bit of a bitter pill to swallow
but youtube doesn't reward production
value it rewards human nature
right whatever people click on that's
what wins and from a creator's
perspective that can be both
depressing but also quite exciting and
empowering for a few reasons
i remember when i released a documentary
about the fukushima nuclear disaster
a few years ago it's a really tough
documentary to produce and i was
incredibly proud of it it's one of the
best things i've probably ever made
and yet upon release it was one of the
worst performing videos that i've ever
made
i'll be blunt at the time i was pretty
[ __ ] disappointed and
disheartened it's sad to think i could
have just sat here and made a video
called what not to do in japan again
part two definitely don't do this but
then this is youtube it's not tv
and i won't lie i'll probably be tempted
to click on the video
that's more provocative and
controversial again it's just human
nature so that's the depressing aspect
of it but on the other hand
it's also quite empowering to know that
you only need an idea that people would
be interested to watch
in order to succeed you don't even need
to film it in 1080p
480p that's the level clearly for a
topic as sensitive as what not to do in
japan naturally people are going to want
to hear
a japanese perspective obviously you
want to hear from a native japanese
person not some
sleazy british guy with a 4k camera and
credit where it's due to george he does
discuss the points and add value
in his reaction video though i can't say
the same for all of the reaction videos
with some
notable examples well clearly reaction
videos are here to stay what i'll say is
don't bother reacting to a video unless
you have an original
thought or point or perspective don't be
tempted to cash in on a trend
or do something just reviews try and
find an original angle
to be honest there's only one thing that
i'm disappointed about and that is
having grown up on a diet of bitterness
resentment
gordon ramsay and simon cowell the
british part of me wanted a japanese
youtuber to roast me
like a [ __ ] chicken tear into me call
me a donkey
destroy me with facts everyone actually
appears to be pretty nice even the
french guy was
relatively pleasant
what do you think about reaction videos
is there a point where they go from
being good to bad let me know in the
comments for more behind the scenes
stuff check out the abroad japan patreon
but for now guys as always many thanks
for watching
i'm off to uh walk down the street while
eating a loaf of bread i'm gonna break
all the rules i'm gonna do it
while waving this sword really that is
so loud all right okay
i i'm gonna pause the video there even
though it's finished that was [ __ ]
i didn't get the jokes this sword thing
i didn't understand that
i think if you can have a channel with
two million subscribers but not make
videos ever point
it's time to go home