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 480 piss 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 gonna 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 isn't it the future of youtube the future we deserve
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 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 uh 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
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 uh 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 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
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 thought so 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 as a question if we
meet today right now and exchanged our business card what would you think if i act like this oh
your name is yuya wannabe the cool cool business card huh 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 ryotaros japan here we go welcome to ryotaro
japan and i need to confess that i never watch a board 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 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 trying to one-up me with his massive plan
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 plant
so intimidating that um noise you think that
something bad's gonna happen any hand gonna get [ __ ] up by george
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 i'm 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 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 laughing at a dead cat george it's a disgrace 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
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'd 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 uh 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 uh i think if you can
have a channel with two million subscribers but not make videos ever point it's time to go home