Video upload hype train, my favorite YouTubers
Tomorrow, the With Eyes East YouTube channel will roar back to vibrant life with its first upload in, I think, years? WEE-heads already know this history, but this site was founded as a component of the channel, until my interest in making videos buckled under the weight of the logistics. I remember having to reupload that Departed video half a dozen times over the course of a few days, to the point where my roommate asked why our Internet sucked lately. Copyright. The problem was copyright. The solution? I’ll cut down on the use of copyrighted video by filming myself! Already camera shy, this was a difficult proposition. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, how to memorize lines, how to keep the camera batteries charged. Plus, it was the pandemic, and my hair looked bad[der than usual]. I gave that a college go before quitting partway through a video on Shin Godzilla, which ended up being text-only. And everybody cried.
My eventual resolution was to do one super great video essay a year, but even that fell through. Maybe a subconscious New Year’s resolution for 2025 was to, if not get back into regular videos, at least try the one. I even had a subject lined up: Baby Assassins, obviously. And then I sat down to write it and, wow. I love those movies to death, but there is not a lot to talk about. So, what else could I do?
And then it hit me. There is something I’ve been thinking about basically nonstop for the last six years.
But if I’m worried about copyright, something so music-heavy is gonna have to wait. In the meantime, the focus on Baby Assassins expanded to other Japanese action movies with female leads. I’ve always wanted to “tell the story” of the High Kick Angels alumni, because the two stars of that movie have remained friends in the intervening decades — that’s so cool! And then of course, there’s the original, Rina Takeda, so in total, the video’s gonna cover the history of the female Japanese action star in the modern period, this period when the Japanese film industry doesn’t always hit it out of the park. Please look forward to it.
My Favorite YouTubers (in no particular order)
Since we’re all talking about YouTube all of a sudden, let me tell you about some of the welcome faces (or voices) who pop up in the subscription feed now and then.
It’s weird, I wouldn’t consider myself a mecha fan in particular, but I’m always interested in mecha. It’s a subgenre of science fiction that has everything I like — future military stuff, space politics — I just don’t like giant robots that much, which would seem to be the key ingredient. So instead of watching Gundam, I watch Pyramid Inu talk about Gundam, or Gasaraki, the mecha show that seems like it would be cool but is impossible to watch. He’s an insightful, precise media critic, which is a bonus on top of the rarefied subject matter.
I know nothing about the fearsome technology that is the home computer, but I did like the movie Steve Jobs. Sayaka is a self-proclaimed non-expert who takes broken devices and fixes them with nevertheless expert finesse, from old Commodores and NES systems to modern PS4s. Yes, those modern PS4s. I don’t think they made any more after that.
One of the things that stands out is Sayaka’s very matter-of-fact “performance” in front of the camera. There’s no mugging or overreaction or jokes. If she’s funny, it’s because she’s naturally funny, but she’s mostly all business, and that’s super refreshing. Here’s someone who’s very good at something and very good at communicating it.
Man, I remember my first mukbang. It was Apink’s Bomi, and watching her slurp those noodles sent a chill down my spine and I immediately closed the video. I’ve gotten used to it since, though I couldn’t tell you why I watch them. That is, until Tzuyang, who provides a bit more substance. Indeed, she’s the mukbanger who makes you cry.
From what I understand, she’s got some sort of metabolic thing that means she can really pack it down. We’re talking dozens of hamburgers, aquariums of aquatic creatures, and any given restaurant’s gimmicky challenge. “Where does she put it all?” the onlookers wonder. It’s with this superpower that she’s amassed millions of subscribers on YouTube, but it wouldn’t be that alone. She’s also an engaging host, and a reflexive food critic who says as much with facial reactions as explanations between bites.
Her recent videos are a portrait of unbridled joy, and this isn’t just because food is awesome. Last year, Tzuyang told viewers that she was the victim of domestic violence by her boyfriend (who was also extorting her). When criminal charges were filed, the boyfriend died by suicide. Awful, but now she’s free of him. And yet, there’s something else that makes me teary.
As a very successful YouTuber, she naturally brings a spotlight to eateries of all sizes, including tiny ones tucked away in Indonesian marketplaces. Recently, she returned to a noodle stand that had, following her original visit, decorated with Tzuyang signage. And seeing her approach, the owner ran over for a hug and cried.
For those less initiated, there’s also the arc from low expectations to bafflement to, surprisingly, pride. You can see this in her visit to a Vegas-based steakhouse on her U.S. tour last year. I always get nervous whenever Korean celebrities go to the U.S., because it’s such a hostile place, but everyone she meets is won over (or left on the cutting room floor). I also think that people who make food like seeing genuine appreciation for it. The spectacle is the mere fact of a tiny woman eating a Thanksgiving portion for lunch, but it isn’t gross. She isn’t jamming her face, and the process takes hours. At the end of her steak(s) dinner, she gets another hug, from the owner and various staff members, and I get this twinkle — maybe America isn’t so bad.
Well, it’s like what they say about Los Angeles: it’s good to visit. Still, for a mukbang channel, that’s a lot!
A very modern gamer like myself — in that I watch more video games than I ever play — has to navigate the sprawl of content creators whose content doesn’t tend to flag copyright IDs. With such a low barrier of entry (lower, I should say) and since everyone’s got an opinion to share, it can be tough to know who to trust. And, you know, trust to not throw in an ethnic slur or a weird, dogwhistle jab at The Last of Us Part II every now and again. What I’m looking for specifically is some continuity with the old guard like 1up, Retronauts, Giant Bomb — someone knowledgeable and entertaining.
Matt McMuscles covers the behind-the-scenes stories of the craziest, most complicated productions — which is just about every video game — with documentarian integrity but more humor than, say, noclip (which is also good). If you’ve read any of Jason Schreier’s books, this is a no-brainer. Engine switches, crunch, corporate mergers, bad management — after a while, you’ll feel like you know all the pitfalls to avoid in development while knowing enough to never, ever try.
He also does Let’s Plays (if we still use that term) over on his second channel Flophouse Plays. As an ex-QA tester, he plays games in a more interesting way than the average streamer type.
Yuka is a young ex-rickshaw puller who makes travel videos where she manages to find the quietest, loneliest places in Japan — some of these videos are downright liminal, but she maintains the biggest possible smile throughout. Like with Matt McMuscles, her past career has clearly helped her with YouTube, as she navigates the world in a very logical way and especially knows all the best (empty) places in her home country. Also, she occasionally plays video games like GTA to learn English, and those videos are very funny.
I’m not supposed to talk about my creative work anymore, having adopted a pen name/secret identity (in the hopes that I have Hanna Montana wig-removal reveals in my future), but regardless, Julianne has proven a great resource for insight into life as an artist and small business owner. I am not an artist myself, but I will be shipping up to Baltimore in October to sell comic books, and her convention reports have been invaluable.
I’m sure I was peripherally aware of Alanah Pearce, as a wee video gamer in the 2000s and 2010s, as she was at one point an editor at IGN, and female, meaning her life was hell and it’s left her with a world-weariness that’s honestly intimidating for someone a few months younger than me. She’s had so many careers in the time I’ve managed to cobble together — checks — zero, having worked as a games journalist, an advocate for accessibility in games (she organizes an accessibility awards show when she can afford to), a games writer at Sony Santa Monica, and recently an actress, among other things — like being a YouTuber with multiple channels. If you’re a fan of Mike Flanagan shows, you can find her trying to scare the cast of Midnight Mass with games like the Silent Hill 2 remake on @AlanahStreams.
On @charalanahzard, she discusses issues in and out of the games industry with well-informed takes coming from experience, empathy, and enough edge to cut through the bullshit.
Once again veering outside my lane — hard — Angela Collier is a theoretical physicist with a lot of very funny things to say and an extremely deadpan delivery. The above video on Richard Feynman is an all-timer.
Long before I even had a Nintendo Switch, I still liked keeping up with Nintendo news, the shepherds of my beloved Metroid. OJ at PlayerEssence is an endearing mix of content creator and games enthusiast, who’s knowledgable but also just really excited to be talking about video games. It’s a kind of energy I never really got from the old guard as cited above.
Movie YouTubers
I don’t know that I have too much to say about any one movie YouTuber especially, but I really like Yhara zayd, especially her video on The Crow, Matt Draper, and The Morbid Zoo.
Last but certainly not least, maybe the greatest YouTube channel of all time, Ludi et Pugnae, a gaming channel with weekly streams (every Wednesday at 8:00 EST!). It’s a blast!
And that’s it! Compiling this list, I realize I watch too much YouTube.
With Eyes East 