My YouTube Channel: Going Forward

To whoever might or might not be reading this right now, Happy New Year, or should I say Happy New Decade? Well, whatever I should say, it's a fact that it's now 2020, and with a new year comes new things. For example, the YouTube algorithm is becoming more effed up than before due to the whole COPPA situation and such. If anyone has been keeping up with the crappy videos I post, however, they would know that hasn't been stopping me; in fact, after a bit of a hiatus, I have actually come back!

I should explain why I left in the first place, though. The reason is simple, really: burnout. I tend to feel burnout when it comes to some things, and I was feeling burnout from doing YouTube. Something like this is partially why I don't monetize my videos; I don't think I could handle constantly uploading videos and making YouTube into my career. (Not like I was planning on it, anyway, though. I'm not dissing those who do have a career on YouTube; it's just that I doubt that it's a career I could have.) In any case, though, I want to try to get over it. I'm going to try to record as many videos as I can when I feel like it and hope that it keeps my channel alive.

There are a few things I have to talk about while I'm on this topic. First of all, the games I've been playing on my channel. I just got done playing through "Cafe Memoria", but even while I was playing through that, I wasn't also playing "Katawa Shoujo" or "Seduce Me 2: The Demon War". I want to continue playing "Katawa Shoujo" on my channel; I want to try to finish the game - or at least, Shizune's route - before the end of this year, and considering how the year just started, I've got plenty of time to do that! "Seduce Me 2: The Demon War", on the other hand.... I'm sorry, but I'm strongly considering canceling that Let's Play (even though it's not even out yet). It's not that it's a bad game; considering how I've already played through it, I personally think it's great, even if Michaela Laws herself doesn't think so. If I'm not mistaken, though, Michaela has said that she's currently working on "Seduce Me: The Complete Story", which is basically the first and second games (plus the episodes, if I'm not mistaken) with, if I remember correctly, some revisions. If there are enough significant revisions, I may buy that game and do a Let's Play of it instead. As for any new games I may bring to the channel.... I'm not entirely sure at the moment. I might do a Let's Play for the demo for Cafe Memoria's upcoming sequel, "Cafe Memoria Deux", but I also might wait for the full game to come out before doing a Let's Play for it. Other than that, I don't really know.

Second, any other kinds of content I may put onto the channel. Although Let's Plays have pretty much completely taken over, the truth is that it has other kinds of content, too, namely my flute covers and my MMD videos. I don't think I'll do any further flute covers for two reasons: practically no one watches them, anyway, and I really can't play my flute anymore. I mean, I can still kind of remember how to read music and where to place my fingers and such; it's just that when I try to get sound out, it won't come out that well. I don't know if it's my flute's age or just me being out of practice, but in this state, I literally can't record any more flute covers. As for MMD, I actually messed around in MMD a bit last month and made something. It made me remember how difficult yet oddly rewarding making pictures and videos in MMD really is. Plus, if it weren't for those really bad MMD videos on my channel with the motions I made myself (plus the premade motions that I used), my channel wouldn't have gotten at least part of the attention that it did. Thus, I would like to try to make MMD videos again, but due to MMD backgrounds being in .rar files, the amount of backgrounds I can use is quite limited. Perhaps I could remake the videos that have the backgrounds I have and come up with new scenarios that would require the use of those backgrounds. Also, I could create new MMD images and record the process of the creation of those images.... Yeah, that's also an idea.

To tell you the truth, there are quite a few other things on my channel. I have mentioned so back in 2014; I even said that I wanted to do gaming videos, which is something that I'm actually able to do now that I know how to. However, there are two things that I still haven't done on my YouTube channel that I would love to give a try: speedpaints and fandubs. I've been watching quite a few speedpaints lately, especially from GinjaNinjaOwO (a.k.a. Rea); for somewhat related reasons, I've been trying to get more into art over the last few months. In case anyone who might or might not be reading this doesn't know, I have a Deviantart account where I put artsy stuff like drawings and MMD pictures, including the MMD picture I mentioned before. I could record the process of creating these drawings (kind of like what I mentioned before about possibly recording the process of creating an MMD picture), and on the chance that someone slowed my video down enough to really watch me work, chances are that someone might give me some constructive criticism in order for me to improve; no one really provides me with constructive criticism on the drawings (in fact, not a lot of people pay attention to the drawings, period), so it could be a good opportunity. There is one thing I need to figure out, though; what should I do about the sound playing while the drawing is being created in the video? I'm worried about copyright issues that might come with using music; at the same time, however, I probably wouldn't have anything interesting to talk about if I just talk, and even if I do have something interesting to talk about, I'm worried that people might be thinking that I'm just copying the way Rea does things!

Then, there are fandubs. When I say fandubs, I'm talking about song covers and fanmade English dubs of anime. The latter, in particular, is something I've always wanted to do. I've been seriously trying to get my foot into voice acting lately (and even lent my voice to a small project, although I'm credited as "miyako-chan", and my channel isn't listed in the description, probably because I didn't tell the creator of the video that I even had a YouTube channel), and this would be a good opportunity for me to do so; doing something like this might also help some other aspiring voice actors get some attention. One anime, in particular, I want to do a fandub for is Rec; I'm not sure if my voice even suits her, but ever since I watched it all the way back in 2014, I've always wanted to try voicing Aka Onda, the main female character. (I'm not even joking when I say that I've even read the manga just so I could read whatever she says out loud.) Of course, accomplishing that could be a problem. Not only am I worried about copyright problems, I'm also worried that downloading anime episodes from the Internet could destroy my computer. (Abridged series are also a problem for similar reasons.) Plus, I'm not sure if it's okay to use English subtitles as a base for a script in a fandub, and I'm still not skilled enough at the Japanese language to translate anime episodes from scratch.

For the most part, those same reasons are why I haven't done any song covers yet. Actually, saying I haven't done any song covers yet is a lie; I actually did a cover of "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" back in 2016. It got copyright claimed, though, and in response to this, I took down the video myself and complained in the form of a short video that I'm pretty sure has since also been deleted. (No, I don't still have the cover; it went down with my old laptop.) In all fairness, though, the instrumental track I used was from Only Wednesday Music, and I didn't really ask for permission before I used it. (I don't remember if it was actually Only Wednesday Music or even YandereDev who copyright-claimed it, though....) I would like to try again to make song covers with instrumental tracks that I do have permission to use, but what if I ask for permission to use an instrumental track and never get a response or get rejected because of the mere fact that I have no covers on my channel? Creating my own arrangement is out of the question, too, because when it comes to instrumental music, I'm kind of stupid.

I'm getting off-track, though. I should talk about one more thing related to my YouTube channel, and that is the look of it. Originally, my profile picture on YouTube was a picture of Miu and Shingo from "Mashiroiro Symphony" (which is quite underrated, by the way), but at some point within late 2015 or early 2016 (I don't remember for sure), I changed it to an attempt to draw myself in a Kyoto Animation style (at least, as far as the eyes are concerned). Lately, I've been seriously thinking about changing it again. It will, once again, be a picture of myself, but this time, it'll be in my own style. I still haven't drawn it, but I want to set aside some time to work on it. I would also like to set aside some time to create a new banner for my channel, because I don't like the one I have anymore. Once I have it all done, perhaps it will be time to finally reveal the channel's Facebook page.

Yes, that's right; I have created a Facebook page for my channel. I honestly don't know why; I just decided to make a Facebook page for my YouTube channel one day. Maybe deep inside, I want my channel to get bigger than it is and expand my audience? Either way, I really haven't done anything with it, and because of the inactivity, I don't think the page is even visible on Facebook right now. If possible, though, since I have that created, I would like to actually do something with the page. It's not ready right now, though, and no matter how many videos I upload, it will never be ready until I get the channel's banner and my profile picture done. I'm sure that once it's all done, it'll be worth it. Hey, maybe I can make a video about the creation of my profile picture and the channel's banner!

In conclusion, my Katawa Shoujo Let's Play will be returning (although I can't really say a date), I want to try to do new things, the channel should be getting a new look, and there is a Facebook page. Even though I have no intention to make YouTube into a career, I want to try to give it attention this year. No matter what I do with it, though....well, here's to hoping for a great 2020!