Production? Entered. Financial Decisions? Bad. They're bad. (KYN #5 - August 2026 Edition)

    Hello, everybody! To start, I'm happy to announce that the Otachan video has officially entered production (or, at least, the editing stage, which is the stage that I actually start making what you'll end up watching)—which, if you've been keeping up with this video's horrifically turbulent development, may be a tad bit surprising. The Otapocalypse that took over my life from the early hours of July 2nd to the afternoon of July 3rd (not sure what I'm talking about? Read this), for the most part, was survived—though I'd certainly like argue that a small portion of my soul was lost along the way. The script isn't entirely done, but I'm happy to announce that the solidified portions have been recorded and are now being edited together.

    Overall, the events of the Otapocalypse didn't affect nearly as much as I thought they would, and I'm honestly very grateful that the whole ordeal even happened, as horrible and stressful as it was in the moment. The situation essentially forced me to go back to the drawing board, making me re-do my research under the assumption that every single word out of OtakuVs's mouth was a lie—an assumption which very quickly turned out to be, for the most part, true. I now believe I hold the largest repository of OtakuVs-related content on the internet; to call myself an OtakuVs scholar would be an understatement, and quite the insulting one at that. With this incredibly wide view of the channel and the man behind it—a view that, I remind you, I did not have when I set out on this horrible, terrible, awful, no-good journey—I have been able to refine my points and arguments in a way that I'm incredibly satisfied with. Though my thesis remains largely unchanged by this new research, it is now able to be supported in a much more effective way, and that's what it's all about at the end of the day.

    As for the video itself, I'm having a lot of fun with editing. It's not necessarily my favorite activity in the world—hey, pal, how about you try spending a whole night's work on two fucking minutes of a video—but, on the technical side of things, it's going quite well, and the technical side of things are the only side of things I can truly complain about. In my old videos, I used Vegas 14, and, mid-production of my last video (all the way back in December of 2024!), Vegas 15. Both, as Vegas is known to do, crashed incessantly. I'm happy to report that I've only experienced a single crash when it comes to my current editing software, Kdenlive. Any more, and I might just do something crazy! Haha! (<-- Cry for help.) Currently, my main issue is making the video distinct stylistically without being intrusive or making the editing experience any more strenuous and complicated. For now, I've settled for simply using fonts for any and all text on-screen that correspond to the media used in frame. It's cute, I think... I'm also considering putting an atrocious border around the entire screen, like how Scott the Woz does it. If anyone wants to design me an atrocious border for no payment whatsoever, hit me up. :).

 

Screencaps of the video, showcasing my insanely tedious method of citing media used as B-roll. Do you know how many fucking fonts I've had to download...? Why do people make you pay for fonts...???

     Alright, alright—I hear you. Who gives a shit about editing? I know what you're here for. Let's talk about my cosplay.

    So, for the uninitiated, one day, I had the horribly irresponsible idea to shoot a portion of the video in full Otachan cosplay—to my knowledge, the first in existence (don't correct me on that if you learn otherwise; let me have this). As it stands, the entirety of parts 3—The OtaTakeover—and 4—The Otapocalypse (not to be confused with the July 2nd, 2026 apocalyptic event of the same name)—are shot in two variations of the cosplay (her main and casual outfit respectively). This thing cost an embarassingly high amount of money, especially for what it looks like, coming in at a modest ~$70 USD. That may not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but let me tell you, as someone whose soul leaves her fucking body whenever spending more than $30, it hurt a little. Still, it came in today, and I'm pretty excited to show it off! I shipped some early pics off to renowned cosplay critic AnthonyZoxide for initial thoughts, and he wrote that it "has potential for her sinister soul," whatever that means. Oh? You want to see it? HA! That costs extra. A showcase video is going up on my Patreon soon (when I can figure out how to fit the entire cosplay in the shot without it looking bad, anyway). For everyone else, you'll just have to wait, it seems... or get someone to leak it. That's a thing that happens, right? Sigh... I better make back the ~$200 put into this video so far. @ YouTube, give me a million dollars, please? Please? Please...?

    Finally, I'd like to once again address the state of this blog. July was okay, hitting nearly half of what I should be putting out, but that isn't a very high bar, now, is it? Frankly, I've been feeling quite depressed since the start of July, and I'm not entirely sure why. The worst of my moods come and go—I think the worst was just two days ago on August 1st, where I refused to get out of bed for hours, refused to speak for the majority of the day and, most inconsequentially but funniest of all, took a shower and was ambushed by some sort of cellar spider from which I cowered in a corner whilst crying and pleading for it to go away. Yes, feel bad for me; yes, I was born in a wet cardboard box all alone. Anyway, that colorful little picture is to showcase to you how my life has been going lately, and with that picture, I hope you can understand that I'm not exactly raring to go when it comes to this blog. I've made plenty of, like, 75% completed posts to be released on time, but I've never gone through with it. Unfortunately, the majority of this month's outputs will probably be those old posts. I'd like for them to see the light of day, that's all. I hope you can forgive my inactivity—I'm going through a lot at the moment, and while I certainly don't want your pity, I do want your understanding. This month, I'm going to try to hit every single post on schedule, even if its "old" content and thoughts of mine. Wait, what? I already missed Sunday? NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....

    Anyway, that's about it! As for the video's release date, optimistically, it'll be within the month; realistically, it'll be sometime in September. I've no clue how long the video will end up being, but, doing some Quick Math, it'll certainly be over an hour long, perhaps multiple. A preview of the video's introduction (which clocks in at around eleven minutes long) will be up on my Patreon whenever it's finished. I wish I had more to report, honestly... The bad thing about good news in these newsletters is that they don't make for particularly long or interesting posts. I mean, the Otapocalypse newsletter did numbers, man—it seems to be human nature to be fascinated by misfortune, but I'm not here to play into human nature (that's what I'd do if I placed ads on this blog; you think about that). As for me, though I'm obviously in a bit of a rough spot at the moment, I'll be chipping away at this video, and it'll be out before you know it. "Ota On!" Kim says, as she is immediately shot in the head by a CIA sniper from across the street. Her funeral is this Wednesday.

-Kim

Watch my dumbass videos on YouTube
Read my dumbass microblog posts on Bluesky
Read my dumbass ?????? on Tumblr
Give me your dumbass money on Patreon

 

Otapocalypse (KYN #G4)

 

 

 

 

 

    Yuuuup. That's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation. Well, I need to take you back. Back, like, a few hours since my last post. The world moves so fast...

    Hey, all, and welcome to the first ever guerrilla issue of Kimbahly YouTube Newsletter. This is being written the night of July 1st (technically, early July 2nd). I wish I'd come on better news; unfortunately, that's not how things are playing out. To be upfront with you—long story short, the Otachan video has essentially collapsed in on me. The video is now being substantially altered to reflect new developments in the story. To summarize, a user known as OtachanPlease or HemtaiBussy69 (someone I've had something of a personal history with, though I doubt they'd recognize me now) has come out with a Google document that serves to, among other things, expose nearly a decade of alleged scams run by Yusef Iqbal of OtakuVS. The document accuses Iqbal of intentionally scamming his Patrons on Patreon by promising overly-ambitious products, only to run off with the money and come up with an excuse. Inside evidence from OtachanPlease seems to indicate that this has been going on for years—at the earliest, since 2019. At this time, I am not making any definitive claims on Iqbal's guilt, nor his innocence; additionally, I am not validating the claims of the document by bringing it up—at this time, more research on my end is desperately needed. This is how I will be spending the next few days of my life, unfortunately. You can find the document here and be the judge for yourself. Additionally, if anything is to happen to this document, I've archived the current version by saving it to my PC as a PDF; feel free to ask me for that file at any time.

    So... what does this mean for the video? Well, thankfully, the threads I'd need to pull on to bring this issue up are already present within the script, which means I'm not totally starting from square one, and I'm incredibly thankful that this news plays perfectly into my thesis—though more research is needed, I'd like to thank OtachanPlease for supplying these sources. I've currently gotten OtachanPlease lined up for an interview taking place sometime next week; we'll see how that goes. Previously, the script had been running on what information was publicly available—it is now obvious to me that such surface-level research will not suffice. The last thing I want to do is tell an incomplete story, and it now seems that I'm unable to trust OtakuVS at their word; frankly, I've got some work to do. This will likely change the video's contents dramatically—in particular, a segment following the halfway point (subtitled "Otapocalypse") will see drastic updates. I'm currently unable to speak on how this will impact the video's release date I floated around just hours ago, but it seems that this is delaying the project's completion substantially (again).

    Though this has been something of a frightening experience (as I said, I've never had a video of mine collapse in on me like this before), I think I'm going to come out of it with a better project overall. As I said, this situation plays basically directly into my overall thesis, and for that, I'm most grateful; this could have easily been a situation in which I had to overhaul my entire argument, or even scrap the video entirely if I couldn't come up with anything. Once again, I'd like to thank OtachanPlease for their near immediate willingness to help me out here. Until that interview, the script is basically being put on hold—in the meantime, I'll be researching. For now, though, I want to go to bed; this has been something of an endless night. Be sure to check in on my Bluesky every now and then for more live updates. Even if I've lost some sleep over this (and will probably lose more attempting to rectify it), I'm glad it happened. See you soon. (Also, about SQZ—sorry! Kinda got wrapped up in this. It may or may not come out; I'm, um, a little busy, if you couldn't tell. See ya!)

-Kim 

Otachan Delay and Patreon Announcement (KYN #3 - July 2026 Edition)

    Hi, and welcome to the July 2026 edition of Kimbahly YouTube Newsletter. You know the drill by now; first and foremost, let's talk Otachan. Unfortunately, I've bad news. I'll be upfront with you in that June was a much slower month for the video than I'd hoped it'd be; truthfully, I'm still wrapping up the scripting process, which, given the figures I supplied last month, is not good. Let's talk about that first.

    At the time, those figures were accurate. However, they was based on the pace I'd set in May, and that pace didn't hold the way I thought they would. Between now and then, I truly thought I was done with the video's script for a good minute—the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted, all ready to get into recording and editing after I sent it out for peer review for rectification of any glaring errors—but, upon one final personal inspection, there were so many things that I wanted to adjust when it came to style, wording, presentation and tone, combined with some new developments in the OtakuVs story (most notably a new YouTube video titled "The End of OtakuVs," which, contrary to its title, is a merchandise advertisement—but you'll hear more about that in the video proper, as I do have a bit to say), and finally, a couple of small but important factual errors (one of which regarding inexplicably incorrect dates that somehow made it into May's newsletter—fixed now) that I essentially decided to delay the video right there. 

    These changes may seem trivial, and it may seem like I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but I assure you that they are absolutely vital to getting my point across, as well as just a personal investment in assuring that every video of mine hits a certain standard of quality when it comes to writing. This is necessary work if I want this video to come off the way I want it to, and when I'm dealing with a critical analysis of a deeply personal and ongoing project that is likely to be viewed by its subjects, that's a high priority for me. I really don't want this video to come across the wrong way. However, these revisions also means that the video is being 'delayed,' as mentioned prior, though my estimated release really isn't too far off from what I said last month; I could possibly squeeze it out in July, and I'll definitely try, but August is more likely. We'll see more about that next newsletter, if applicable. Frankly, the temptation to cram is strong here; I seem to just naturally be that kind of girl. However, as I keep trying to remind myself, the only people who will inevitably notice me working overtime on this video are those I care about. At best, it'll play the same no matter how fast I make it; at worst, it'll be obviously rushed. That is the last thing I want. If I rush this thing out, everyone suffers, and I'll be unhappy with the result basically forever. I'll be taking my time with this; I hope you understand. Be sure to follow my Bluesky for updates on when this script is done—I'm hoping for sometime this July. Recording will be swift, and editing is just a big chipping-away job I'd expect a few weeks on that, maybe, but it's hard to say. TLDR: Otachan video's script is being revised heavily, release date is impacted. Sorry, but I hope you understand my thought process here.

    Next up, last newsletter, I promised you that I'd supply some updates on future videos, which I said I'd moved most of my creative manpower towards. Well, here are some details. I'm still currently undecided on which of these I'm going to follow through on (I'd like to produce all of them at some point), but like last time, these are all in the "pondering my orb" stage. Don't take them too seriously. Here's an internet-friendly numbered list, in no particular order. All titles are subject to change.

1.  "Media About Girls Who Kill People." - This one's been on my mind for, like, a year (maybe more, honestly). At its core, the video is to be a feminist analysis of media involving feminine angst expressed in the form of excessive on-screen violence. A "girl who kills people" is a pretty well-defined classification in this video, and I won't bore you with the details here, but it isn't, like, Pamela Voorhees—think of some classic "good for her" films involving murder of some sort. This one's pretty heavy to write about (and yes, I have started writing it, though it's been so long now that I probably need to start over), given that, as it stands, it collectively features discussions of misogyny (obviously), sexual abuse, cannibalism, incest, all sorts of stuff—still, though, I think it's a very interesting topic, and this is sort of my "dream video." You probably won't see it soon (definitely not immediately following Otachan) but you will some day, and when that day comes, I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to recommend me something to discuss at my Bluesky, Tumblr or at sonicsegajp@gmail.com.
2. "Why Are Anime Piracy Sites Like That?" - A video inspired by Dead Chat Is Ded* by Eron Rauch (who I held a brief correspondence with over this video months ago—a lovely guy), this video will explore the online communities formed around anime piracy sites. For the gist of this one, I'd recommend checking out Dead Chat Is Ded*, as the works are essentially operated on the same premise—however, they operate in different eras. Rauch's work presents more like an elegy for the community of a bygone era of weeb history, assessing the slow rise and fall of a particular site in a particular time, while my work aims to assess the current state of the anime piracy industry. As Rauch told me himself, "But where I leave off is the question of who starts using bootleg anime sites once you can pay ~$7 for Crunchy and another ~$10 for Netflix and get most content in borderline simulcast seems keen. Watchers in 2026 almost assuredly have a different suite of motivations and inhabit different places on the internet. I'm not sure about the veracity, but I had heard through the industry that some of the biggest bootleg sites [prior to being taken down] would sometimes have more daily anime viewing hours than the legit sites. But on the flip side, 2026 sees an anime industry struggling with low wages and crunch, still not profiting from all this mega global success." This is where I come in. In even a cursory search of forums attached to a single piracy site, I was greeted with a post praising the leadership of Adolf Hitler; digging deeper, I found a great amount of transphobia, homophobia, ableism, racism and, for lack of a better term, incel shit. It's my aim to examine where this community comes from, how it's being sustained, and how it impacts the anime industry along with its own users. Thanks, Crunchyroll. (That's not legally actionable, right?)
3. "The Anime Old West." - Inspired by Hazel M.'s The Anime Countryside, this video is an examination of a hand-full of anime set in or inspired by the American west in the 1800s (or, more specifically, the western genre and all the baggage that comes with it). This one's fun, but it's probably the least developed idea of all present here. Ultimately, I aim to explore the history of the western genre, the themes it often touts and why the fuck any of that was adapted into anime. More on this one later, maybe. This is a thinly-veiled excuse to dress up like a cowgirl for a video. Maybe I can use Marty Robins's Big Iron? Well, I wouldn't want to mess up the pacing... Plus, with any long segment, it'd need to be licensed properly... how much is that...? I probably don't even want to know...
4. "Scott Pilgrim (Is a Woman.)" - This one is another I've been wanting to work on for a while (and was actually a pretty good candidate for my first video. In this video, I argue that the main character of the Scott Pilgrim comics, Scott Pilgrim (imagine that), is a closeted transgender woman. This is an interpretation of the work that, while most certainly unintentional, is incredibly captivating to me and explains a lot about the series in a very neat way. While starting with the notion that this reading is purely fun speculation, I hope to analyze the way Scott Pilgrim treats its female characters, the way Pilgrim is characterized throughout his precious little life, and the underlying inspirations behind the series that drive me toward this conclusion. It's a pretty well-known fact that I don't like Scott Pilgrim very much (it's something of my "nemesis" series, if I had one) but I'm willing to put that aside to speak my truth, and also talk about Utena a little. (P.S., note that I haven't seen Takes Off, won't be taking into consideration the film adaptation, nor either game. (I like the first game, though.) P.P.S., be on the look-out for an ILU issue about Scott Pilgrim someday.)

     Anyway, I've a few more videos in mind, but these are the ones you should know about going into the future. I hope to produce all of these at some point, but who knows—the only one I can basically guarantee I'm going to make is the one about anime piracy sites, since I basically sealed my fate when I told Rauch about it and got him all excited. "It sounds like you've got a lot of great threads to pull together into your video and I'm excited to see the final product"? Yeah, uh... no pressure... haha...

    Next, let's follow up on my Patreon. Last month, I floated the idea of starting one up as a way to finance my efforts both here and on YouTube. After gauging some interest, it seemed like people would be willing to pay at least $1 a month for what I do right now, and that was greatly encouraging. Still, I had a lot to think about (that post was more of a philosophical discussion about the nature of accepting such money from an audience, so that's to be expected). Still, I'm happy to announce that, after much deliberation, you can now give me money on Patreon. Sweet! It's pay what you want—as I said, minimum is $1 USD a month—and any amount of money gets you every single perk. As some minor incentive, there are a few benefits—you get all of my YouTube videos a week early (and they're all ad-free and uncensored (if they had to be censored to begin with)), you get to ask questions for postmortem QnA's to be published on a second channel (inspired by Hazel M.'s system, which I really like), and, finally, the obligatory "added to credits." I like Patron credits, they're cool and give the video some weight. These benefits, while rad and awesome, are in no way meant to tempt you to donate—do that if you want to support me, not for anything else—but hopefully they make that decision go down a little easier. Go here to find my page. I'm not necessarily expecting anyone to donate as of yet (truthfully, I don't even have my bank information set up... I'll do it when someone actually gives money, I suppose), and shit's bad financially for basically everyone right now, so save your money if you've got to, but if you've got spare funds and think I deserve them, I'd really appreciate it. Donating makes the continuation of my projects possible. If, one day, this becomes my job, I'd be very, very happy.

     As implied earlier, I was actually a little scared to open this Patreon. I mean, do I deserve it? If you haven't noticed, it's been a little quiet on this blog—in all of June (at the start of which I explicitly promised to get back on track and threatened altering my schedule if I couldn't find myself able to) I wrote a staggering two articles. Wow! With that, I was a little hesitant to come back swinging with this of all things. There's a reason I put this at the bottom of the article... June was a bit of a "break month" for me. I'm happy I was able to get out an issue of In Lilium for some pride festivities, but, on the whole, I'm not too bothered by my lack of work on this blog. I've got four KQS issues in the making, three SQZ issues and more; with some time, I'll get back on my feet; it's just that outside arrangements got in the way, and I didn't have as much time as I thought I would going into the month. Even if I'm not personally bothered by this blog's inactivity, and I'm sure you don't, like, SUPER care, I still feel a little guilty immediately asking for money. It really was a sort of ethical dilemma, in my mind—is opening this bad? is now a bad time...? I've thought about this a lot. After some consideration, I found that I shouldn't undervalue my work like this; I deserve to have the opportunity to be paid for my labor, even if I can't produce as much as I'd like to sometimes. This kind of thing is what my philosophy when it comes to this sort of thing is built in consideration for; I wholly believe that my audience should be the ones determining how much I'm paid, so the best I can do is set up the infrastructure and, as the kids say, lock in. From this point on, I'm committed to maintaining this blog with the best writing I can offer to you. Maybe with some money, I'll be able to sustain this better—but that's not your problem, it's mine. The best I can do is work hard and let you decide what I deserve for it.

    Well, that's about all I've got for you. As per obligation, an issue of SQZ will be uploaded later today, so keep your eyes peeled for that in this blog's first ever DOUBLE FEATURE; speaking of double features, the next TVT is going to be delayed by a day; Saturday (when the broadcasts nigh-invariably occur) is July 4th, and I, quite begrudgingly, am going to be busy basically all day. As such, the stream is delayed until the 5th, and the article the 6th. Don't worry, though—this one's good. Also, they should make a bullet hell game themed around fireworks. Game Jam-ers, get on this. Toodles!

-Kim 

Growing Pains, Otachan and Capitalism (KYN #2 - June 2026 Edition)

    Hi, everyone! Welcome to the second monthly Kimbahly YouTube Newsletter. This one, if you’d believe it, actually has very little to do with YouTube, but it is pretty important. There’s a lot of changes going on around here, and I’m happy to share them with you. Hey, actually, before we get into the swing of things, isn’t it worth celebrating that we even got a second newsletter? That means this blog has officially been running for one month, and while it may seem silly to celebrate such a small amount of time—an amount of time that hopefully ends up as nothing but a footnote in the total runtime of this blog—not every blog makes it even this far. This blog was pretty damn close to not making it, too; more on that later.

From Otachan #1. This image is being considered for the Otachan video's thumbnail. Tell me what you think!

    First, though, let’s address what’s on the tin: Otachan. If you're unaware of this project, I recommend you read the first issue of KYN to get caught up to speed. I’m happy to report that the video is going very well! There have been a few hiccups here and there over the past month—namely, just not having a lot of time to write every day (rectified easily by just going ridiculously hard whenever I do get the time to write, though that isn’t necessarily sustainable)—but, overall, I’m on a very good pace. I’m aiming for a release sometime in June or July, though I wouldn’t be too shocked if it ended up being pushed back to August, either—that’s an absolute worst-case scenario, though, and, as it stands, it’s pretty unlikely. There’s not much to report on with regards to the video’s contents, especially since I laid the whole thing out last time—I suppose I’ll just say that I’m really enjoying where the project is going so far, and I hope that, whenever you see it (which is hopefully sooner rather than later), you enjoy it, too. Outside of Otachan, most of my creative man-power has been moved onto planning other videos. I’m still not exactly sure what next time will be—and I’m not overly concerned with it, given that this time hasn’t even happened yet—but I’ll figure it out definitively near the end of this video’s development lifetime. I’ve got some fun ones planned—some of which include interviews and talks with real "industry" people (look, mama! I'm a real journalist now!)—and I hope you’ll enjoy them when their time comes. Expect some more details on these future projects in July's newsletter.

    Well, that’s the good news; if all you care about is my YouTube channel, you can click off now. However, if you care about my blog or (gulp) my personal life, stick around as we get into the bad news. Without getting too personal here, May was an incredibly shitty month for me. My house was infested with, like, three different species of constantly evolving bugs, which consumed extensive amounts of my free time for a good week or two. Spring is a bitch, huh? On top of that, there were tons of personal and work-related complications that halted my progress on not only my channel, but this very blog; in my introduction post, I said that the blog would formally start on the first of May with the debut issue of KYN. TVT followed shortly thereafter, and then everything fell apart. I was able to get an issue of SQZ and an additional issue of TVT out before the end of the month, so it wasn't a total bust, but it definitely wasn't pretty, and, going into June, I'd like to avoid such a fate. It wasn't like I was running out of ideas or anything substantial like that—I'm booked easily to last the entire month, if not longer—but extenuating circumstances, along with the unexpectedly high workload for maintaining this blog with quality writing, have been kicking my ass a little. If this continues into June, I may, unfortunately, have to lighten the load a little bit, primarily by making posts more infrequent (my current thinking is TVT weekly, SQZ bi-weekly, and KYN and ILU both monthly), though I hope it doesn't come to that. It wouldn't be the end of the world, though—I aim to provide the best written work that I possibly can, and for that, I need more leverage than I'm currently offering to myself. Maintaining this blog at its current level is hard, and maintaining it in its ideal form with my current schedule is, as it stands, damn near impossible. I set that schedule entirely blindly; I hadn't written anything for the blog yet, nor did I understand exactly how long each piece would be, nor how much of my time it would take, nor how much stress it would cause me—so, forgive me if that schedule is forced to change by the reality of things. We'll see how it goes, but it is what it is. This would be a positive change.

    That's only a hypothetical change to the blog that relies entirely on the circumstances of this month, though; let's get into the changes that are being enacted right now. First of all, and perhaps most excitingly, I'd like to introduce to you my new column: Kimbahly Quickies, or KQS. This is an unscheduled column that will serve as the blog's very own "wildcard". Topics can range anywhere from musings on media that I can't quite fit anywhere else to random interests, thoughts and opinions of mine regarding any manner of subjects. Given that premise, it's a bit hard to exactly sell you on this one in the same way I can all the others—just let it take you where it wants to, and I'm sure you'll understand what it's all about after an issue or two. Expect the first issue this week; it's about a certain anime-related form of internet archaeology, and I'm very excited to be writing about it. See you there! (Also, since this one's unscheduled, you can't really know when one comes out unless you're following me on Bluesky, which is where I host my post announcements. Keep that in mind.)

     Secondly, and perhaps more abstractly, is monetization. I am currently running this blog purely at loss—even if it's at loss of my time. I work hard on this blog, and money would be a nice incentive to keep going. This can manifest in multiple ways. First are placing outside advertisements on the blog's webpages, which would be fairly easy to implement. However, I'd like to commit myself to avoiding ads for the sake of maintaining your viewing pleasure, your focus, and your webpage performance. The site currently presents you with a simple HTML page, which nearly anyone can comfortably run—loading HTML pages is nigh instantaneous on modern consumer-grade technology—but ads also invite a lot of junk into the house that may slow things down and make the pages unpleasant to browse. Secondarily, ads basically pay me on the basis of how many people are exposed to them. This means that placing ads on the blog introduces a financial incentive to maximize view counts while minimizing effort; I'd be richer by clickbaiting my audience, and that's something I want to avoid. Money has a really putrid way of ruining things, so, for all of those reasons (and more), I'd like to avoid placing ads on the site.

    Then, I'm left with few options—the best of them are outside sites that allow subscriptions and donations for my efforts, namely Ko-Fi or Patreon. I haven't set either of these up yet, nor am I planning to right this moment—but it's something that I'm planning on doing at some point in the future. I'm happy to write for free—I do it for fun—but it strains so much of my time and energy that some financial compensation would be appreciated. These subscriptions would be entirely optional (I, above all else, want to avoid hiding my content behind a paywall), pay-what-you-want (with a minimum of $1 USD/mo) and wouldn't unlock any special perks or benefits inaccessible to everybody. I know that's how some creators who use these sites operate—with different tier options that unlock more perks the more you spend a month—but this isn't about the money, so I have no reason to incentivize you to pay me more with a Discord server or early access to finished projects or whatever else people do. These sites, for my purposes, will serve as a way of directly supporting the continued services I provide—and how much money you pay, if you even choose to pay any, shall be dependent entirely upon your judgment of the quality of my work. This incentivizes me not to become a saleswoman, but to work harder on what you're paying me for. I believe that this is how my monetization plan should be, and I hope I've done well in arguing my position on the matter. These are standards I hold only myself to—shit's rough for everybody right now, and I'm certainly not judging anyone for deviating from my comparatively strict and punishing standards for monetizing my own work. As I said, these options are not currently available, though they may be in the near future—I don't outright expect anyone to donate, but the payment options will be flexible to both what you're able to give and what you think I deserve, and one-time donations will also be accepted. Sorry for the weird money talk, everybody, but it was necessary. Onward!

    Excitingly, I'm looking into branching out and writing articles commissioned by various online publications—primarily ones focused on anime. A flashback to "(look, mama! I'm a real journalist now!)" appears translucently beside my face, fading out as I stare wistfully into the sunset, shedding a single, glistening tear. I'm telling this story a little backwards, actually—I originally wanted to start by working as a freelancer for these sites, then building a repository for the works I couldn't get published / anything majorly inconsequential or silly over on this blog. However, I deemed it best to work on this blog for a month or two before getting into this whole journalism thing proper; it'd buy me time to refine my skills, get preliminary experience with the exact medium, and, whenever a site asks for some samples of your writing, it'd be very nice to be able to refer a publication's staff toward my entire blog after providing them with some examples. Read up, motherfuckers. So, that's what I did—I built this blog from the ground up, putting my full effort into making it the best it could be, and now, I'm looking toward working with other publications to spread my horrible mind virus to their unsuspecting readers. I doubt I can simulcast those works over here (though that's entirely dependent on the individual publishers—some are nicies about that), so that's probably some of the last you'll be hearing about this over here—I'll be sure to repost their marketing of my work where applicable so you known I've done it. Speaking of, the benefits of branching out are three-fold: 1. I get paid for it, 2. I get connections for it (leading to better work in the future, as more options for interviews and such become available to me), and 3. I get exposure for it, which, with some finesse, can turn into some more 'influence' for me. There's an inadvertent financial incentive to that, obviously, but what I'm more interested in is the increase in impact exposure allows for me. This blog is all about sharing my ideas with the world, but those ideas are practically wasted breath if nobody sees them. I mean, doing it for myself—for the satisfaction of having done something—while beautiful, can only take me so far. Hopefully, this move can allow me to share my vision with that many more people. You never know who could be reading, nor how your ideas could help them.

    Well, to summarize, the Otachan video is going well, most of my creative energy has moved onto future projects, the blog is back (and, if it isn't, changes to the schedule will be made), KQS has been born and will soon utter her first words, capitalism has driven me to do horrible things, and Kim's goin' global. I hope you have a good day, I'm looking forward to the rest of June, and see you next month!

-Kim 

An Otachan in the Shadows (KYN #1 - May 2026 Edition)

    Hi, everyone! I'm Kim, and this is the May 2026 edition of Kimbahly YouTube Newsletter. I'm very excited to share all I've been working on this past, um... year. It's certainly been a while, but I assure you that, throughout a maelstrom of serious life problems and numerous creative droughts, I've been working on a lot.

    I've got plans for videos easily stretching into next year, and as someone who really isn't good with time pressure, that makes me, for lack of a better term, one happy Kim-per. My channel's next string of videos are no longer a panicked matter of "what" idea I'll go with, as was the case shortly after its liberation from Sonic the Hedgehog topic-dom, but a calm and excited matter of "which one." I've longed for days like these ever since my impromptu YouTube hiatus, starting in April of 2025, and I'm incredibly happy with the situation I've found myself in.

    Let's get down to brass tacks, here. You've been waiting for videos, so here they are. I'm excited to share with you my next (and first) video on the Kimbahly channel:Otachan: An Anime YouTube Post-mortem.

An Otachan Emerges... 

 

(A screencap of the video's title sequence, featuring the awesome logo I made by viciously stealing two free fonts online—an act roughly analogous to being a bad person.) 

    This video, as you can see by the title, focuses on "Otachan." If you don't know what Otachan is—which is highly probable, don't worry—it's an original YouTube anime webseries, conceived by English anime channel OtakuVs (ran by Yusef Iqbal) and animated by Studio Yuraki (with help from Collateral Damage Studios), formerly produced by the now-defunct Tonari Animation, and, as of a certain point, from what I can gather, partially animated by an in-house team (at least, they stopped explicitly crediting specific studios). If you're in the loop with all of the hot anime studio drama, I'm sure one of those caused you to raise an eyebrow. "Eeee-yup," I say, as I gesture wearily to the world.

    Financially supported by ~666,000,000 YouTube subscribers and ~5,000 Patreon supporters (~$6,000/mo), OtakuVs has been publishing episodes of this professionally-produced, original anime for free on YouTube, on-and-off due to numerous financial issues (as one could imagine, given that premise), since 2019. Starting in 2013, nearly a decade prior to this incredibly—arguably, foolishly—ambitious endeavor, OtakuVs produced uniquely spirited content-farm-adjacent videos, from slop listicles to MVPerry styled "What ___ Says About You" videos (well, there's only one of those, but—BUT!—that video was an adaptation of an Amino post by user Sarcasm+Anime, if that makes up for it. What the fuck were these guys doing...?). These videos, though unassuming and seemingly belonging in an internet landfill somewhere, had clear passion and care put into them, even if subdued and suppressed by a thick veil of business-type cynicism and irony; they hosted an intricate weave of multi-video running jokes, characters and motifs that fostered, if anything else, a sense of continuity that endeared them to their audience. This, above all else, was what piqued my interest. And so, here we are.

    In Otachan: An Anime YouTube Post-Mortem, I conduct the following, organized into an internet-friendly numbered list.

1. A detailed analysis of the history of the OtakuVs channel (pre-, during and post-Otachan); an in-depth, episode-by-episode review of the entire webseries, all in an attempt to ascertain clarity on its rise, peak, and slow yet gruesome fade into obscurity, along with an analysis its themes, both intentional and unintentional (a.k.a., the misogyny);
2. An empathetic approach to examining the Otachan project's continued (yet failing) fight for survival among its home platform's ruthless algorithmic pressure, touching upon corporate exploitation, industrial suppression of passion and creativity, and the mistreatment of workers;
3. A character study of the early series' two main characters—Otachan and Cam—under the context of their implicit* lesbian* relationship, followed by an evaluation of its underlying intent, value as representation and what it personally means to me;
4. A personal reflection upon what I was able to take away from the wider OtakuVs story, including how it changed my views on the internet as industry, helped me empathize with even the most soulless of content farms, served as both a word of warning and encouragement as I presently arm myself to delve deeper into the eldritch-abomination-like online industrial marketplace, and how it taught me to find meaning in mediocrity, as well as that meaning's worth in media analysis.

    That's not all, obviously—I can't spoil everything, can I?—but I hope that, with that summary, you can come away with a better idea of what this video is all about. I've no updates on when it's set to release, as, unfortunately, I'm still fairly early on in development. I'm a good way through the writing process, and I've begun to edit together small portions of non-narrated video (adding and formatting outside footage, along with their corner credits, syncing / looping / mixing background music, etc.) as well as various other pre-production stuff (compiling music lists and sources, primarily). Preliminary research (most gruellingly, sitting through 6 hours and 7 gigabytes-worth of OtakuVs videos (which only accounts for what's public on their YouTube channel) is out of the way. The nightmare is far from over, though...

    As a fun treat, here's a sample of the current script. This is in the first section, where I'm getting the viewer acquainted with OtakuVs. Subject to change, obviously.

"Part 1: OtakuVs FUCKING Sucks, and Here’s Why

    There’s a lot of ways I could introduce you to OtakuVs. I could start with their founder; I could start with the concept of their channel; I could start with their distinctive style; I could start with how I discovered them, et cetera; but, if I’m gonna be honest with you, after gathering 7 gigabytes-worth of content, stored in a folder containing every public video on their channel, in chronological order, which I painstakingly sat through for a collective six fucking hours, much to the agony and total despair of my compadres, whomst I gleefully forced to accompany me, with little to no regard for their public cries for help, I came to a realization—just because you’re the viewer, that doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook. You’ve watched this far; welcome to my nightmare. Instead of introducing you with any of that, I’m just going to wheel out the old CRT, 9/11 style, step outside for a smoke break, and make you watch OtakuVs’s first ever video: “The 6 Girls You’ll Date in Anime.” Good luck.

“... This is you. And these are the six girls you’ll be dating throughout anime. The Young One.”

    ... Well, that was fast!

    Seriously, though, I want to walk you through this—and, 1., no, I’m not making you watch the whole thing, I was joking, I’m sorry, we’ll go out for ice cream later, just give me a minute, and, 2., even though that looks really fucking bad, I’ll have you know that, later on in the video, they put “““you””” in jail. And hell.

    Actually, I want to talk about that “you” for a second, because, for such an innocuous detail, it gives us a really good look at who their target demographic is here. The title, “The 6 Girls You’ll Date in Anime,” assumes that “you” “date” “girls”—which, fair play! Love wins, girls! Still, to get even more specific, we need look no further than frame #1, with the physical manifestation of this video’s viewer surrogate... This guy. Eugh...

    This pretty explicitly places this video’s target audience into the role of a heterosexual man, and given the humor and subject matter, we can probably assume that they’re on the younger side, which... Ha! That’s, um, fine. I’m used to it! It’s, uh... not like I wanted to know the six girls I would date in anime! I’m here for THIS GUY! Aha! Ha! Aha! I’m... ha... ha... *Gollum noises* rr... I’m... rrrrrrrrrgh... I’m not mad... I’m not angry... RAYGHHH!!!!!! *normal* Seriously though, I’m not exactly complaining about this demographic being targeted, per se—like I said, it’s totally a fair play—but I do take issue with how that demographic is used to avoid having the video meaningfully engage with its own subject matter, and that, above all else, is what already gives me an inclination to categorize this in “content farm” territory.

    After the first six seconds that I’ve already shown you, the video goes on to discuss and satirize various anime tropes—namely loli, tsundere and yandere characters—under the premise of the young, male viewer being romantically invol... HEY, KYN READER! IT'S ME, THE MONEY MAN! YOU MUST DEPOSIT $4.99 INTO MY MONEY HOLE TO CONTINUE THE PREVIEW. GUAHAHAHA!!!"

   ... Okay!  

    Speaking of pre-production—I got a new microphone in preparation for this video! Came into some spare money and decided to—with much pain, hesitance and agony—dump a portion of it on a Blue Yeti. It's certainly not the most advanced mic out there, but for my budget and in consideration of what I had previously (nothing, sans some rentals / highly contested studio space), I'm more than happy to take it. The average viewer won't care that I'm using what most people consider to be a pretty sub-par mic. It gets the job done, and that's all I care about. With this—now that I don't have to worry about when my next access to a mic will be, let alone its quality or how much time I have with it, if I can even make that time—my productivity has, theoretically (haven't started recording yet), fucking skyrocketed. The lack of a decent mic was my biggest hurdle for a long time, and it's finally gone. That period of uncertainty and scavenging for rentals wasn't a bad thing, I'd like to add, at least not entirely; it forced me to hone in on my writing skills, and since my last upload in December of 2024, boy, can you tell... shudders. That's an up-side that everyone is thankful for, I'm sure.

    Well, that's about it! I've got lots of things planned—so many things that, at a certain point, you have to look back at your ever-expanding list of future video ideas and say to yourself, "how the fuck am I going to do all of this?" The answer, my friend, is simply "one step at a time." 

    See you next month!

-Kim