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