Wikitubia:Interviews/Darkscream

Darkscream is a YouTuber with over 1,700 subscribers as of October 2018.

QUESTION 1:  When Did You Discover YouTube?

ANSWER 1:  I discovered YouTube around my senior year in high school around late 2006 when people were using that site off school computers to watch anime and AMV’S, back when YouTube was less restrictive over copyright. I mostly used the website to watch fansubbed anime such as Negima!? and Higurashi where each episode was broken into three parts when the uploads had a 10 minute time limit. I’d also saw episodes of Angry Video Game Nerd, (back when he was the Angry Nintendo Nerd), as a recommendation from a friend and I thought he was funny at the time. However, I didn’t discover the vlogging scene until a couple of years later after my freshman year in college around 2008.

QUESTION 2:  When and Why Did You Decide to Become a YouTuber Yourself?

ANSWER 2:  During the summer of 2008 I discovered vloggers who would talk about anime and video games. Is tarted with AikoARisaka420 aka The Anime Overviewer, which trickled through seeing vlogs of MagusX1 and Big Al. The vloggers being more like everyday geeks and nerds such as you and me, and the amateur-ish quality of the videos was the charm and appeal I enjoyed from them, even to this day. Around September the very same year I had the inspiration to give it a shot myself. At the same time, I became IRL friends with another YouTuber named k87jury, (aka The Hated Washu), and he encouraged me to do my first rant. That rant was my old Street Fighter IV vid, which was recorded on Windows Movie Maker with a cheap Xbox 360 microphone at the time. I shared that video with Magus, he loved it, and gave me a plug which got me about 25-30 subscribes right off the bat.

QUESTION 3:  Can You Remember What Exactly the First Video You Ever Watched Was?

ANSWER 3:  Oh wow lol. Honestly around that time I can’t remember which video Is aw first from A420. I wanna say his Genshiken review maybe…but I do remember back in 07 I saw a video from RandomDCE back when he was known as KittyDCE where he defended Transformers Animated from the backlash of its announcement. But that was over a year before I discovered the ranting/reviewing communities on YouTube as a whole!

QUESTION 4:  What Was the First Anime You Watched?

ANSWER 4:  Ronin Warriors.

QUESTION 5:  What Was the First Manga You Read?

ANSWER 5:  Chobits.

QUESTION 6:  What Was the First Vide Game You Played?

ANSWER 6:  Super Mario Brothers for NES.

QUESTION 7:  What Is Your Favorite Anime and Why?

ANSWER 7:  Well, that’s a vague question. It’s difficult to answer something like this wh en you’ve been a long time anime fan, because over the years y ou would accumulate multiple favorites. So I really can’t pick one favorite anime at all. However, to name a few…I like Tenchi Muyo for it’s fun characters and sci-fi lore, Slayers for being a hilarious D&D adventure, Excel Saga for being one of the most insane comedies I’ve ever seen,  Hellsing Ultimate for it’s violent action, Riding Bean for it’s badass protagonist zand being one of the few anime to take place in an accurate representation of the USA. That’s not all my favorites, but that’s just to name a few.

QUESTION 8:  What Is Your Favorite Manga and Why?

ANSWER 8:  Like the anime question, it’s hard to select one particular favorite. However, even though I love the mangas of Azumanga Daioh, Higurashi, and Gunsmith Cats, I can say my all time favorite manga is currently Negima! And its sequel UQ Holder! I’ve been reading this series all together for 11 years. Even though it’s fanservice-heavy Ken Akamatsu, I was really invested in the characters and action of the franchise, even though it started out as what I thought would just be another harem riding off the high of Love  Hina, but the series eventually turns into a fantasy shonen that was a fun right from beginning to right now! I would recommend the series more, but like I said, the fanservice gets in the way a little too much!

QUESTION 9:  What is Your Favorite Video Game and/or Series of Games and Why?

ANSWER 9:  I’ll try to keep this one brief, because I’ve been a gamer longer than an anime fan and I could go on forever like this. I like the Persona series, the Yakuza franchise, Street Fighter III:  Third Strike, The Legend of Heroes:  Trails series, Saints Row 2, Danganronpa, and the Zero Escape trilogy.

QUESTION 10:  What’s your opinion on modern anime and video games? Do you think there’s any exceptional standouts, or do you think that most mediums have gone downhill?

ANSWER 10:  Video games, despite some bad business practices like loot boxes, have been in a good position nowadays. The Yakuza franchise is getting love from the west, JRPG’s are fun, there’s a good Spider-Man game, ect. It still has it’s downs, but I haven’t completely given up on hte medium. Anime on the other hand, I think has gone downhill. Sure, there are some great standouts like Madoka or Kill la Kill this decade, or even some stuff I personally enjoy like Sega Hard Girls Academy. But the majority of the medium is just full of middle-of-the-road forgettable garbage that I don’t want to spend my time on. There’s hardly even anime so bad that it needs to be watched. Just mediocre stuff. Regardless, I also haven’t given up on that medium either, since there are some classics I can always go back to that I haven’t seen before.

QUESTION 11:  Approximately how Many YouTube Videos Do You Think You’ve Watched in Your Lifetime?

ANSNWER 11:  Lol oh boy! If I have to guess, I had to see at least a thousand in the past decade!

QUESTION 12:  Are There Any YouTubers Who You Used to be a Fan of But Aren’t Anymore, and also any YouTubers who don’t make videos anymore but you wish they did?

ANSWER 12:  Wow! There are so many YouTubers that I was a fan of and subbed to that I eventually unsubbed and moved on for various reasons. Whether it’s because their videos got stale, or they were such a holes that I would ask myself “Why I even subscribed to this person in the first place?”  Such examples include BlackBusterCritic, Louis Le Vau, TheAmazingAtheist, and AlphaOmegaSin. I could go on forever for that first part, but you get my drift. As for YouTubers who retired, I miss the old anime review community I was part of that included Hardy (aka Who Is Your Anime), The Anime Overviewer, and GrapplerJMo to name a few. I also miss MagusX1’s content, since he was one of my major inspirations. I also wish Multifire would return to making vlogs himself, but I don’t know if he ever will. However, one channel I want to shout out is TheJosephShow, who made himself infamous with his Why Anime Sucks a decade ago! I recently watched all 3 parts and I still found them to be hilarious and relevant in terms of quality in the anime industry. Like most YouTubers, unfortunately, he just disappeared without a trace so I don’t know! I hope everything is alright with him.

QUESTION 13:  Who Was the First YouTuber You Were a Fan Of?

ANSWER 13:  To this day, I still watch BigAl’s content. He is the first one I was a fan of, and he’s still making videos to this day albeit on a different account.

QUESTION 14:  Who is Your Favorite YouTuber Currently and Why?

ANSWER 14:  Believe it or not, it’s akin to the favorite videos, anime, ect. question. I still have a good amount of favorites besides BigAl, I like Silent Rob, JustKeepThatInMind, and I’m even liking newer YouTubers like Mercury Falcon and The Self-Hating Weeb.

QUESTION 15:  What Do You Think of the New YouTube Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines?

ANSWER 15:  Painfully restricting! From a business perspective, I could see why they’re doing this, but it’s so cynically oppressing to everyone who creates content on this site. And I don’t eve do this for ad-revenue or Patreon-bucks! I do this just sfor fun! To express myself, and possibly entertain for free. But words like shit and fuck just drive everyone around the corner nowadays.

QUESTION 16:  How Did You Come Up With Darkscream as Your YouTube Channel Name?

ANSWER 16:  I was in a Transformers High at the time since the first Michael Bay movie came out. I was looking up various episodes of G1, Beast Wars, trivia online, ect. There was this short lived anime called Transformers Robots in the Disguise that had the Predacon Dark Scream which I thought was a cool name at the time. It sounded like a more sinister version of Starscream. So when I created my YOuTube channel, I used this name, but instead of spacing it I’d just put the Dark and Scream together as one word, and added the 217 as a reference to the live action movie.

QUESTION 17:  Was Darkscream Your First Channel When You Started to Make Content? Some of Your YouTube Friends, like Big Al, Have Had to Create Multiple Channels Over the Years Because of Copyright, and I’m Curious if it’s the Same for You or Not.

ANSWER 17:  I had to create a secondary channel called TheDarkscream217, which is still active on the stie. As for my current channel, it’s the same as it was in 2007, but I did have to pure my videos and move to Blip.tv for awhile. When things with the copyright strikes died down, Multifre was the one who recommended I should upload on my main channel again.

QUESTION 18:  Do You Have a Favorite or Least Favorite Video You’ve Uploaded?

ANSWER 18:  I was happy uploading my Love Hina manga vlog recently. Since I railed on the anime back in the day, I thught it would be a fun throwback to return to the franchise and talk about manga, and discussions about manga are eithe rlacking on this site or they’re not getting enough attention. As for my least favorite videos…it’s actually most of my commentaries on other YouTubers. I was being a real asshole back then, and I have regrets doing those ty pes of videos, even if I got the biggest subscriber surge out of it.

QUESTION 19:  What is Your Favorite Part of Having a YouTube Channel and Being a YouTuber?

ANSWER 19:  It’s the communication spect of it that I like. Interacting with other people through videos or comments, as well as receiving comments on your upload are things I anticipate the most. It also helps me learn how to edit my videos and such.

QUESTION 20:  Do You Play A Lot of Video Games in Your Free Time that You Don’t Stream?

ANSWER 20:  Of course! It’s actually a bit frustrating when there are so many good games coming out, your backlog just gets filled to the brim. Still need to buy Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise lol.

QUESTION 21:  Approximately How Much Anime Do You Own? You don’t have to count if you want to, all you have to do is estimate.

ANSWER 21:  Even if I did that, it’ll still be at least over 100 DVD’s and Blu-Rays for Anime.

QUESTION 22:  Approximately How Much Manga Do You Own? You don’t have to count if you want to, all you have to do is estimate.

ANSWER 22:  It’d possibly be the same case for manga as well lol. But I do own at least five different complete sets of manga…I think!

QUESTION 23:  Approximately How Many Video Games Do You Own? You don’t have to count if you want to, all you have to do is estimate.

ANSWER 23:  I currently own a PS4, Switch, and a PC for some gaming there. But I also have some older consoles…so God knows how many games I own lol!

QUESTION 24:  You Currently Have Over 1,700 Subscribers. Did You Ever Think you Would Reach that Point When You Started Out?

ANSWER 24:  No, not really. I didn’t think I would hit the 1,000 mark in the first place, lol!

QUESTION 25:  Currently, Your Most Viewed Video is Ikki Tousen:  Dragon Destiny Review (Part 1:  The Basic Review Itself). Does This Surprise You? Also, Are You Shocked that it Has More than 15,500 Views?

ANSWER 25:  Hell yeah it does! I didn’t expect a whole lot of people to care enough about Ikki Tousen to actually watch what I had to say about it in the video. Unfortunately, nobody really comments on that video anymore, though.

QUESTION 26:  How Long Do You Think YouTube Will Last?

ANSWER 26:  I dunno…it’s been about 12 years, despite all the BS the site keeps doing. Even thugh competitons like Blip and Dailymotion have come around, YouTube is always staying at the top. It feels like it could end at any moment…yet at the same time it doesn’t.

QUESTION 27:  How Long Do You Think You Will Be Uploading Videos?

ANSWER 27:  No idea really. Never had a plan to throw in the towel just yet. It’s possible I’ll just disappear like a trace like most YouTubers one day. But I do plan to keep entertaining my niche fans out there whenever I can!

QUESTION 28:  Have You Gone to Any Major Anime/Gaming Conventions in the Past, and Do You Plan to in the Near Future?

ANSWER 28:  I’ve been to one anime convention every year since 2010. in fact, the first Louisianime was wehre I first met Windzer. Conventions have always beena  fune xperience for me, so I don’t have any reasons to not go outside of maybe financial reaosns.

QUESTION 29:  What Advice Would You Give to Someone Who is Trying to Make Videos on YouTube?

ANSWER 29:  If you’re doing a vlog, and you have a hard time getting words out via stuttering, perhaps a script is necessary to type out. As for tying to get your video out there…that part’s pretty tough nowadays. As you can tell, I’m still a small channel lol. However, I try to plug a channel that I like, and I might do that soon to help boost smaller channels up. But I think the most important tp is to have fun making your videos. If it gets tiring or becomes work, then you might need a break until you’re fully rejuvenated.

QUESTION 30:  Have You Ever Done an Interview Like This Before?

ANSWER 30:  There was one interview I did on YouTube, but it never got uploaded. I was a bit upset that my time was wasted, but other than that, I haven’t done any interviews like this!