Wikitubia:Interviews/Mother's Basement

This interview was conducted on April 12, 2019 by JakCooperThePlumber.

Mother's Basement is a YouTuber with 845,000 subscribers as of April 26, 2019.

QUESTION 1:  How and when did you discover YouTube? QUESTION 2:  When and why did you decide to become a YouTuber yourself? QUESTION 3:  Can you remember what exactly the first YouTube video you ever watched was? QUESTION 4:  What was the first anime you ever watched? QUESTION 5:  What was the first manga you ever read? QUESTION 6:  What was the first video game you ever played? QUESTION 7:  What’s your favorite anime? QUESTION 8:  What’s your favorite manga? QUESTION 9:  What’s your favorite video game/video game series? QUESTION 10:  What’s the oldest anime you’ve ever watched and when did it come out? QUESTION 11:  What, in your opinion, is the best year for anime so far? QUESTION 12:  What were your YouTube influences, (if you had any)? QUESTION 13:  Does your family or real life friends watch any of your videos? QUESTION 14:  Do you have a favorite or least favorite video that you’ve uploaded (and why)? QUESTION 15:  APPROXIMATELY how much anime do you own? QUESTION 16:  APPROXIMATELY how much manga do you own? QUESTION 17:  APPROXIMATELY how many video games do you own? QUESTION 18:  What advice would you give anyone who is looking to get into anime/manga? QUESTION 21:  Who are some of your favorite YouTubers currently? QUESTION 22:  Do you enjoy any other artistic mediums besides anime, manga, video games, and movies, (such as music, for example)? QUESTION 23:  How do you get inspiration for a video? QUESTION 24:  Will a topic being discussed in depth by other anime YouTubers prevent you from making a video on it? QUESTION 25:  Have you ever liked the story of an anime, manga, video game, movie, ect., even if you disagreed with its message? QUESTION 26:  Currently, your channel has almost 800,000 subscribers. Did you ever think you would reach this level? QUESTION 27:  Currently, the most viewed video is Why SAO is a Terrible Game, Too. Does this surprise you, and also are you surprised that it has almost almost 3 million views? QUESTION 28:  How long do you think YouTube will last? QUESTION 29:  What’s your thoughts on the recent “Advertiser Friendly” guidelines on YouTube? QUESTION 30:  How long do you think you will be making videos? QUESTION 31:  What’s your advice for anyone who wants to make anime, (or other medium), analysis? QUESTION 32:  Do you have, (or have ever had), a lifetime YouTube goal? QUESTION 33:  Do you have any other artistic aspirations aside from anime criticism? QUESTION 34:  Have you ever done an interview like this before?
 * ANSWER 1:  I started watching YouTube right around when it first started picking up steam.  I can’t remember the exact year, but I do remember that Fred was the king of the platform and basically everybody hated that.
 * ANSWER 2:  After 2 and a half years of working as a game journalist and seeing negative profit from it, (I was taking more work with the promise of future pay, but never any actual pay), I decided I might as well put my writing ability to work for myself.  If I wasn’t going to make money anyways, I might as well do in on my terms.
 * ANSWER 3:  The Capture the Flag episode of Red vs. Blue.  One of the older guys at my library’s anime club showed it to everyone after one of our meetings.
 * ANSWER 4: Intentionally?  Pokemon.  But I saw Sailor Moon on TV a few times at friends places before that.
 * ANSWER 5:  Also Pokemon, back when Viz was publishing the ocmics in English as single chapter issues.
 * ANSWER 6:  Mario Kart 4, at my friend’s place.  He knew all the tracks inside and out so I never won.
 * ANSWER 7:  Mob Psycho 100.
 * ANSWER 8:  Spirit Circle.
 * ANSWER 9:  Steambot Chronicles on the PS2.  it’s basically wh at would happen if Hayao MIyazaki made Grand Theft Auto.  But with giant robots.
 * ANSWER 10:  Namakura Gatana from 1917.  It’s the oldest anime known to still exist.
 * ANSWER 11:  I made a video about this!  I think there’s a strong case to be made that 2018 had the widest range of good and great shows for Otaku of all tastes.
 * ANSWER 12:  Before I started my channel every Frame a Painting, Nerdwriter, Cinefix, and Extra Credits.  Nowadays my favorites are Game Maker’s Toolkit, Movies with Mokey on Filmjoy, Captain Disillusion, and Internet Comment Etiquette.
 * ANSWER 13:  Yeah, most of them do.
 * ANSWER 14:  My favorite video is probably “I Miss Dubbed Anime Openings”--it was alot of fun to revisit and I think it really spoke to a lot of people.
 * ANSWER 15:  Without going to count, I’d say over 200 blu rays and DVD’s.
 * ANSWER 16:   At least a hundred different volumes.
 * ANSWER 17:  300 or so?  I’d really ought to count these…
 * ANSWER 18:  Look for something similar to western things you already like!  That bit of familiarity might help you get used to anime’s weirdness a little quicker.  If you’re into superheroes, give My  hero Academia or One Punch Man a try.  If you like sci fi, try Gundam or Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
 * ANSWER 21:  Ah, looks like I already answered that one above!
 * ANSWER 22:  I enjoy western comics and novels.  I’m a huge fan of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.
 * ANSWER 23:  Generally, when finishing watching an anime, I’ll notice something that I really love about it, and try to work backwards to understand why I love it.  I find that process to be really valuable, and apparently,s o do my fans!
 * ANSWER 24:  Depends on the subject.  If it’s a show that I’m really passionate about I still might want to offer my own take, but generally, if I feel like someone has covered something well, I’ll shift focus to something else.
 * ANSWER 25:  Absolutely!  I really loved High School of the Dead, infs pite of its glorification of nationalism and militarism.
 * ANSWER 26:  I was honestly shocked when I reached 10,000 subscribers.  I thought this would be a portfolio building hobby when I started, not a full time job.
 * ANSWER 27:  That does and doesn’t surprise me, because it’s a very unique take on a very popular anime.  I feel like that video was a gamble, because criticizing the design of a fake video game is either going to strike people as really interesting or really dumb.  Luckily, it seems like mos tpeople had the former opinion.  Even so, I didn’t expect to see it hit 3 million views.  That’s about 3 times as much as I ever thought it would get in my wildest dreams when I was making it.
 * ANSWER 28:  In it’s current form?  Probably until some kind of bad law ruins it’s creative economy.  But as a brand, I think YouTube will be around as long as Google still exists.
 * ANSWER 29:  While it’s frustrating to have to work under stringent content guidelines to get paid on what was once a much more free platform, I understand that it’s advertisers who gets to decide where their money goes, not the other way around.  It’s definitely preferable to having advertisers pull out entirely.
 * ANSWER 30:  At least a few more years.  I have other creative projects that I’d like to work on, but I enjoy how much this platform allows me to interact with fans, and how it encourages me to work quickly and innovate, I’ll stop when I run out of things to say, (so maybe never, haha).
 * ANSWER 31:  You’re not going to get anywhere making the same things as other people.  If there’s a question about the medium that you wish your favorite YouTubers would answer, answering it yourself is probably a good place to start.
 * ANSWER 32:  I know I’ll never be 100% satisfied with my subscriber count, because that’s just the psychology of this business.  But a million is a nice, round number.
 * ANSWER 33:  Plenty!  I went to school to learn how to design games, and I’d really like to make a few of th ose at some point.  I’ve also got novels and comics I’d like to write, which I’d also like to see turned into TV shows or movies…or maybe anime, if I’m really lucky.
 * ANSWRE 34:  No, I haven’t!  And I almost didn’t do this one.  Sorry that it took so long for me to respond, and thank you for asking all these great questions.