My Problem With The Anime Man (Joey Bizinger) Gatekeeping content in Japan

So recently, The Anime Man, also known as

Jerry Bazinga on his second channel, has

made a very critical and judgmental video

on an IRL streamer known as Suspenders.

Some of you might have already seen the

clip, it's gone kind of viral on Twitter,

of this American guy on a train in Tokyo

playing very loud music and basically just

annoying everyone around him. If you watch

Ice Poseidon, then you'll know exactly who

I'm talking about. I found it kind of

funny, but it seems like a lot of people

didn't find it very amusing, including The

Anime Man, Mr. Gatekeeper of Japan

himself, coming out with the most Karen

opinion on the situation I could ever

think of. Whenever there's some kind of

scandal that happens in Japan involving

foreigners, Joey is always there with this

very authoritative opinion and take on the

situation, as if he's talking from a place

of power, as if he can dictate to people

how they should behave and act in Japan.

Joey wasn't even born in Japan. He was

born and raised in Australia, so he's an

Australian person, but he keeps pretending

or talking as if he's a Japanese person

and he owns Japan or something. So

basically, in Joey's video, he complains

about this suspenders guy being a nuisance

and a menace on the train in Japan, and

that you shouldn't be making this kind of

IRL content where you're just being a

public nuisance to people. But that's just

your opinion, Joey. Okay, sure, you don't

like that kind of content, but I'm sure

thousands of people do like it, including

myself. And sure, maybe it's not as

popular as it used to be, like back in

2017 or '18, but there's still a huge

demand for this kind of content, and

thousands of people would happily tune in

to watch this kind of crazy content. I

just don't really feel like it's his place

to be dictating to other people what they

should be enjoying as content or what

shouldn't be enjoying, and I don't really

think it's his place to be telling content

creators what they should or should not be

making in Japan. Yeah, I get it, it's

disrespectful towards Japanese culture to

go onto a train and start blasting really

loud music, but it's not illegal to be

loud on a train. Those people could have

just stood up and walked away if they

really didn't like the music. I would feel

sad if that kind of content disappeared

because I find it entertaining. Not

everyone enjoys watching a bunch of guys

sit around in a fancy studio arguing about

boneless chicken for 2 hours. If Japan

really had a problem with it, they could

take it to the government and make it

illegal to stream in public places, but as

far as I know, it's completely fine to do

a livestream in public places. At the end

of the day, it's the government's job to

tell us what we can and cannot do by

making it illegal or legal. It's not

really the Anime Man's job to gatekeep

content in Japan and tell us what we can

or cannot make. I and many thousands of

other people who enjoy this kind of

content will continue to consume, watch,

and support this IRL content. I recently

finished watching Ice Poseidon's subathon

in Japan where he streamed nonstop for

over 2 months, and it's been some of the

most entertaining content content I've

seen come out of Japan. And if you're

telling me that this kind of content

cannot exist because Joey doesn't like it,

that's just so silly. Was Ice kind of

annoying and loud in public to Japanese

people? Sure, maybe a little bit, but I

don't really care because I just want to

be entertained. Joey then also talks about

how you shouldn't make toxic content or

drama content because it's not

sustainable, and he's not wrong, but I

feel like he also doesn't understand that

a lot of content creators don't really

have anything to offer in terms of content

apart from just clickbait and drama and

negativity. And Joey says that we

shouldn't be using toxic drama to try and

create a community because it won't last,

and we should be creating good stuff that

we can leave behind a good legacy on

YouTube instead of toxic drama. But that's

difficult. That's not easy. Sure, in an

ideal world, we'd all make amazing content

with amazing editing and everyone respects

us, and we'd grow a community that loves

us and keeps growing and growing and

growing. But the sad reality for a lot of

people is that's just kind of impossible,

and without drama or toxicity or

negativity, they just won't get any views.

Joey says that drama content is not

sustainable long-term, and he's not

completely wrong. I think drama is

sustainable long-term, but only if you're

willing to carry on creating more drama to

make videos about. The problem is when you

burn out and get fed up with all the

drama, and then you run out of drama to

make videos about, then the channel kind

of dies. I also relied heavily on drama

content to grow my channel, and for over 2

years, my entire channel was all about

drama that involved my marriage and

relationship with my ex-wife. And whilst

the marriage was happening, whilst I was

still married, there was lots of drama

happening, I had loads of content to make.

I had endless amount of videos about

arguments and stuff like that. But as soon

as the marriage ended and there was no

more drama that I could extract from the

damaged and destroyed relationship, then

people started to lose interest because

they were like, where's all the drama? I

kind of got burnt out from all the drama

and all the fighting and arguing. I really

hated it, to be honest, even though the

views were great. Mentally, I was in a bad

place, and I still haven't fully recovered

from it. I just didn't have the stomach to

create more drama to keep the drama train

going. I never really enjoyed making drama

content, you know, I never would have

chosen to make that kind of content by

choice, but I felt like I had no choice

and I had to make those kind of videos

because that's the only thing that worked

at the time. Unfortunately, not all of us

have the luxury of being really talented

at making good videos or being really

likable, and we've had to resort to doing

things that we're not exactly proud of. I

think it's kind of unfair for the Anime

Man to sit up there very high up on his

pedestal, look down on us people who don't

really have the same gifts that he was

born with. With. Joey is very privileged

as a YouTuber. He's very attractive, he's

very likable, he's very passionate and

knowledgeable about anime and manga and

Japan, which is a very popular topic on

the internet. For someone like Joey,

yeah, he can easily sit there and talk on

about how you have to make good content

and be nice and grow an audience. For

someone like Joey, that's very easy and

would come naturally to him. But not all

of us have the ability to stay interested

in one or two topics for nearly 10 years

and consistently make videos about the

same thing over and over again without

getting bored. Joey's lucky that he

doesn't have to resorts using drama to get

views. He doesn't have to go on a train,

blast loud music, and make a fool of

himself to get attention because he

already gets attention by talking about

Japan and anime from the safety and

comfort of his own bedroom. So yeah, I

think Joey needs to be a little bit more

open-minded about different types of

content, and just because you don't like

it doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist.

It just means that you don't like it, and

that's fine. Later in Joey's video, he

also complains about how it's getting more

and more difficult as a YouTuber to get

filming permissions at businesses and

restaurants and places and stuff like that

in Japan because, because of people like

Logan Paul, I guess, and other YouTubers

that are kind of a menace in public. It's

giving YouTubers a bad name, and

businesses in Japan don't really want to

be associated with YouTubers anymore. And

I just found this kind of funny because,

I mean, the comparison between people like

Joey and Chris and Ice Poseidon are just

so big. So for Chris, for example, and

Anime Man, they probably go around asking

for permission before they film a YouTube

video. In comparison, Ice Poseidon would

just walk into places with his camera

streaming live, and if he was asked, are

you filming? Ice would just lie and say,

no, I'm not filming, I've just got a

camera because I went snowboarding. And

these places he went into streaming where

you shouldn't be streaming just believed

what he said and didn't really tell him to

take the camera off. And I think it's just

so pathetic going around begging

businesses for filming permission. Who

cares? Just go in there and film, and they

probably won't have a problem with it.

And even if they do have a problem with

it, what are they gonna do?