Bonsai Pop

       

Bonsai Pop
YouTuber Information
Profile	Bonsai Pop
Style	Anime, Gaming & Educational
Date joined	December 3, 2018
Twitter / X	@bonsai_pop
Instagram and Threads	@bonsai_pop
Other media	Twitch Patreon
Videos	84+
Schedule	Unscheduled
Status	Active
Associates	Treesicle
Username
Personal information
Full name	Mike Pixley Tyler Baron
Nationality	American
Location	United States
Channel trailer
Toonami's Lasting Legacy
Most viewed video
Tokyo Ghoul's Tragedy- The Story You Never Knew - Ken Kaneki
First video
Cowboy Bebop- The Story You Never Knew - Spike Spiegel

Bonsai Pop is an American^{[citation needed]} YouTube channel run by Mike Pixley and Tyler Baron.^{[citation needed]} It discusses anime, analysis, discussion, reviews, Japanese culture and philosophy. As of May, 2023 the channel has amassed 250,000 subscribers and over 16,000,000 views Grant Ball, host of Treesicle as well as Ryan Kroner were also originally members of the channel before a split occurred some time in 2020.^{[citation needed]}

History

Bonsai Pop began as a sister channel to the video game theory and comedy Youtube group Treesicle. The concept of an additional channel centered around anime was proposed by writer and video editor Tyler Baron in 2018. It was officially announced in Treesicle's "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The Story You Never Knew," the same day Bonsai Pop went live: February 23, 2019.

Originally hosting duties were split between Mike Pixley and Grant Ball; Ball featuring his signature "Story You Never Knew" series while Pixley found his voice in original un-serialized content. By 2020 Pixley had taken on the majority of hosting until the Treesicle/Bonsai Pop split and eventual hiatus of Treesicle. This split has been amicable and the four remain good friends. Ball's videos remain on the channel in "Grant's Story You Never Knew Anime" playlist

The majority of videos were written by Tyler Baron and Mike Pixley until 2020, with Grant Ball occasionally contributing to the process. During that time Ball, Kroner, Pixley and Baron were opperating both Treesicle and Bonsai Pop. Since 2020 Pixley and Baron have solely written and produced every video, with Pixley taking on the duties exclusive of hosting and adding music and Baron creating the majority of thumbnails. Bonsai Pop's OP was created by Pixley including the original piece of music. Video Editors and anime YouTube personalities Axel Beats and Ray The Otaku have contributed to the editing of several videos.^{[citation needed]}

On July 31st, 2020 Pixley and Baron released the first episode of the Bonsai POPcast, a companion podcast to their YouTube channel. The comedy and pop culture podcast is ongoing and features the two having unstructured and often belligerent conversations; which end with them covering what anime or manga they've been consuming and what video games they've been playing. Due to their schedule the podcast goes on frequent hiatuses.^{[citation needed]}

Bonsai Pop's channel art was created by Pixley's long time partner Devon who goes by Ghostsaibu online as well as their logo of a stylized bonsai tree. She is also responsible for the concept and original art of their mascot Poppu The official design of Poppu was commissioned and illustrated by one of their patrons who went by SpiderMan It is a tribute to the Circle Jerks; an American hardcore punk band prominent in the 1980's. Additional art has been commissioned from Happidaesu and Mr. Sketcha

Content

Bonsai Pop is an anime centered YouTube channel focusing primarily on the video essay format. They have covered a wide variety of shows, manga and topics in continuously different ways, making the channel difficult to categorize. Pixley has said multiple times that the duo do this to stay sane; despite it's potential negative effects within the YouTube algorithm. (See the Bonsai POPcast)^{[citation needed]}

Since the departure of Ball and "The Story You Never Knew," there has been no long running series on the channel. Pixley has admitted to being inconsistent, indecisive and impulsive, which results in the wide variety of content he and Baron create. This can result in videos covering history and production of anime ^{[citation needed]}

Their favorite anime is Re/Zero: Starrting Life in Another World, and they believe The Promised Neverland and Kaguya-sama:Love Is War are underrated. Bonsai Pop also praised That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime for being one of the best isekais. Sometimes they will upload anime reviews.

Another series of theirs is revisiting older/forgotten 80s anime such as Wicked City, Saint Seya, Angel's Egg, Devilman, Perfect Blue, Golgo 13 and Fist of the North Star. They are also known for having very unpopular opinions and liking anime with poor reputations such as Japan Sinks 2020 and Record of Lodoss War. They have a love for Shonen anime such as Naruto and Seven Deadly Sins, saying that they are better than you think. Mike states that Naruto changed his life.

They also make videos on the impact of anime on the world, such as how Sailor Moon revolutionized the West's view of anime and how Attack on Titan showed how anime can be an art form.

A large amount of their videos are analysis related, especially regarding character arcs, such as The Human Tragedy of Vash the Stampede and the underlying message of Kill La Kill, the art of redemption in Rurouni Kenshin, the message of following dreams in FLCL, the terrifying reality of AKIRA, My Hero Academia's dealing with disillusionment.

As of 2020 they have started to focus on less mainstream anime such as Blame! and City Hunter.

Political Views

They have left-leaning views. In the "Beastars is political, deal with it" video, Mike revealed that he was a liberal as when he was homeless, it really showed him the reality of his privilege. Mike was homeless and stole, and he said that while being homeless as a white person was bad, it would be even harder if he was black. He criticised everyone who denied that rich white people were privaliged. They are against the Gaza Genocide being done by Israel.

Trivia

• In his review of Koe no Katachi, Mike reveals he struggles with an unnamed mental illness.
• Mike's favorite Gundam anime is G Gundam.
• In the video about classic anime, Mike revealed that he has very short legs.

Gallery

Mike with the 100,000 subscribers award

Mike

Tyler