Kadokawa invites anime YouTubers to live & work in Japan [when you could come]
GeeXPlus brings anime YouTubers to Japan
Social-media influencers who review products on platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Instagram are now pillars of marketing agencies worldwide, especially when their consumer base skews young. Whether the product is hand soap or ham sandwiches, in a world where “expert” has become a dirty word, getting a push from a social-media star with over a million followers can make or break a sales campaign.
One major Japanese publisher and producer is seeking to capitalize on the phenomenon in pop culture with a concrete if highly unusual approach. Last July, Kadokawa Corp. soft-launched a subsidiary of its Book Walker Co. Ltd. digital e-book division called GeeXPlus (“Geeks plus”) Inc., whose main goal is “connecting Japanese brands to global influencers” by providing “promotion planning, production and distribution” for English-speaking YouTubers.
In October of last year, GeeXPlus invited three anime YouTubers to live and create their posts in Japan: Garnt Maneetapho and Connor Colquhoun from the United Kingdom, and Sydney Poniewaz from the United States. The company announced its official launch on Feb. 17 at a private event in Tokyo’s Michelin-starred Inua restaurant, which is produced by Kadokawa.
For the three English-speaking anime influencers, the opportunity to live and work in Japan mere minutes away from the studios and creators they love is a rare and unexpected gift.
The 29-year-old Maneetapho was raised by Thai parents in Brighton, U.K., and started posting anime reviews and recommendations to YouTube 13 years ago, while still a teenager. He was one of the first anime vloggers on the platform in 2007 (YouTube itself had just debuted in 2005). He started, he says, because he grew bored studying for his engineering exams at the University of Bristol, preferring instead to watch and talk about his favorite anime series, “Bleach.”
The Japan Times
One major Japanese publisher and producer is seeking to capitalize on the phenomenon in pop culture with a concrete if highly unusual approach. Last July, Kadokawa Corp. soft-launched a subsidiary of its Book Walker Co. Ltd. digital e-book division called GeeXPlus (“Geeks plus”) Inc., whose main goal is “connecting Japanese brands to global influencers” by providing “promotion planning, production and distribution” for English-speaking YouTubers.
In October of last year, GeeXPlus invited three anime YouTubers to live and create their posts in Japan: Garnt Maneetapho and Connor Colquhoun from the United Kingdom, and Sydney Poniewaz from the United States. The company announced its official launch on Feb. 17 at a private event in Tokyo’s Michelin-starred Inua restaurant, which is produced by Kadokawa.
For the three English-speaking anime influencers, the opportunity to live and work in Japan mere minutes away from the studios and creators they love is a rare and unexpected gift.
The 29-year-old Maneetapho was raised by Thai parents in Brighton, U.K., and started posting anime reviews and recommendations to YouTube 13 years ago, while still a teenager. He was one of the first anime vloggers on the platform in 2007 (YouTube itself had just debuted in 2005). He started, he says, because he grew bored studying for his engineering exams at the University of Bristol, preferring instead to watch and talk about his favorite anime series, “Bleach.”
Garnt Maneetapho
“Back then, I was happy when I woke up and I saw that five people had watched my (first) video,” Maneetapho recalls, laughing. “I didn’t get my first comment until like a week later. Anime wasn’t yet popular enough to make any money (on YouTube).”
After graduating, he got a technical project manager job at the BBC that delighted his parents but left him dissatisfied. He continued producing anime commentaries for YouTube in his increasingly limited free time — at the meager rate of three per year.
In 2016, inspired by an online Canadian friend who made a living reviewing anime, Maneetapho quit his job and plunged into anime YouTubing full-time, telling his parents he’d give himself one year to make it or else return to his BBC day job.
Today, his anime-focused channel, Gigguk, boasts over 2 million subscribers. He credits Patreon, the U.S.-based crowdfunding platform for independent creators, sustained by fan donations, for driving and maintaining his ongoing success. YouTube ad revenue, he says, is unreliable.
It’s not easy: Maneetapho works long hours scripting, shooting, producing and editing his videos with one colleague. But now he not only makes a decent living out of his passion for anime, he’s doing it in Japan — a far cry from what he describes as a sheltered and provincial upbringing in Brighton.
Meilyne Tran
GeeXPlus, which brought him here, is partly the brainchild of its 27-year-old director Meilyne Tran, who is originally from San Francisco. Tran says its seeds were planted a little over a year ago, when the Japanese government announced plans to increase the number of working visas granted to non-Japanese involved in the production and promotion of Japan’s “cool contents.”
“The government has actually started recognizing ‘YouTubers’ as legitimate entertainers,” she says, “because they do the same thing as tarento (TV personalities).”
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