"Videos that confuse people."
— Ami Yamato's channel tagline
Ami Yamato is a Japanese YouTube vlogger, who also happens to be a 3D animated character. Her videos have no real ongoing theme, but can be broadly divided into two categories: the first are off-the-cuff vlogs with Ami talking to the camera, sometimes from her home in London, other times out and about at various locations; the second are her "mash-in" videos where she edits herself into well-known movies and TV shows, conversing with and interacting with the characters.
This show contains examples of:
- Animeland: Debunked in "Japan Misconceptions
". Ami explains to viewers who get their cultural knowledge of Japan from anime that not everyone there is always cosplaying and eating sushi, and that "there are definitely no giant robots" - as she walks past a gigantic Gundam in the background. - Blatant Lies: In her video "True Lies About London", Ami wanders around the city making up stories about the landmarks and people.Ami: As you can see, one of the guards is standing outside the gate. He's actually awaiting the very important delivery of the Prime Minister's pizza. And he looks impatient, so it must be late. I expect they're hoping for a discount.
- Cheap Costume: The premise behind Ami's two "Cheap Halloween" videos - getting made up for a Halloween party without spending any money on a costume. Particular highlights include a plastic bowl on her head with a black stripe across it for Robocop, and a cardboard box with a crudely-drawn Creeper face.
- Comically Missing the Point: Responding to the viewer question "How do you animate her?", Ami makes a video showing herself struggling to get to grips with some basic animation software.
- Crossover: Captain Disillusion and Ami did a crossover video where she helps him demonstrate the split-screen techniques used in the Back to the Future movies. There are a few other videos with guest appearances, including one with TomSka discussing vlogging tips.
- Flipping the Bird: Ami, having lived in Britain for a significant portion of her life, uses the popular British two-fingered variant, complete with raspberry, to taunt Kylo Ren in "Star Wars: Ami Awakens II".
- Fun with Subtitles: In "Bored in Lockdown", Ami is stuck indoors with nothing to do (along with most of the rest of the country, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic), so bored she's just making silly noises with her mouth. Without much to actually subtitle, the subtitles themselves start commenting on her mental state ("She's losing it!"), apologising for the content ("Enjoying the subs? They're a desperate attempt to make this video more interesting."), and getting distracted during a lonely walk in the park ("Ohh! Seagull!").
- Kayfabe: All of Ami's vlogs portray her as a real person, and both she and her guests never acknowledge that she is an animated character. The illusion is so thoroughly maintained that she even makes behind-the-scenes videos showing how she inserts herself into other movies - by filming herself against green-screen rigs. The closest she has ever got to acknowledging her status as a 3D animated character is in a makeup tutorial video that's actually a stripped-down 3D texturing tutorial. She says it's "perfect for anyone with a digital complexion".
- Late to the Punchline: Throughout "A Robot Made My Coffee", Ami complains that the robotic barista, which has the name "Sawyer" printed on it,note keeps referring to itself as "Tom". It's only in the final seconds of the video that she gets the reference to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
- Must Have Caffeine: Ami is a bit of a coffee-hound; her title sequence shows her collecting a cup of takeaway coffee, and in her first video she is delighted to discover a Starbucks has opened near her flat. The pinnacle of her coffee addiction has to be "Waking Bad", where she dreams of herself as Breaking Bad's Gus Fring threatening Walter for failing to bring her the double-shot vanilla latte she ordered.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Many videos have Ami interacting with real people, and even with characters in movies and TV shows, thanks to some clever editing and visual effects.
- Rule of Three: Ami trying to pick out her Halloween look:Ami: [a single scar drawn on one cheek] Hmm... too subtle.Ami: [as a Droog] Too subtle?Ami: [in a fully-articulated Xenomorph costume with moving mouth] Too subtle.
- Running Gag: Both literal and figurative in "Tom Cruise Ruined My Vlog!", where Ami tries to take her viewers on a tour of the Tate Modern gallery, only for Tom Cruise to keep running through the shot and bumping her.Ami: [Every time it happens] Damn you, Tom Cruise!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In "Star Trek: The Transfer of Power, Captain Picard beams over an iPhone charger for Ami to use on her Android phone. When Ami calls him out on this, Picard cuts off communication and warps out. It takes Ami a few seconds to realize this.
- Shout-Out:
- In "True Lies About London", Ami tells us that the Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) is where the internet is located because it has to be high up to get good reception; this is identical to the joke Moss and Roy play on Jen in an episode of The IT Crowd.
- In Cheap Halloween, Ami tries different makeup effects for her Halloween costume. She starts with The Dark Knight's Joker, which she rejects for being too obvious, then goes through Darth Maul, Neytiri, The Other Mother, a Droog, a Xenomorph and the Hulk, before finally settling on Kayako from Ju-On: The Grudge.
- "Cheap Halloween 2" goes through Billy the Puppet, Shaun Riley, Jack Skellington, RoboCop, Predator's optical camouflage, a badly-drawn Creeper, Gus Fring (complete with box-cutter), and Meg Griffin.
- "Tom Cruise Ruined My Vlog!" has a bevy of movie and TV references:
- The video borrows footage from Mission: Impossible – Fallout to make out that Ami is visiting the Tate Modern art gallery at the same time as the events in the movie that also take place there.
- Inside, Ami becomes transfixed by a color-changing light sculpture and says "All glory to the Hypnotoad!", complete with Hypnotoad sound effect.
- Ami suggests one sculpture, an angular abstract human form, is "Optimus Prime's granddad", and another, made of twisted metal beams, was "tragically crushed by Magneto".
- At the end, Ami gets tired of Tom Cruise interrupting her vlog and calls on Henry Cavill to come and deal with him, telling him he should come right away instead of taking the time to shave his moustache, suggesting it's Ami's fault Cavill's moustache had to be digitally removed from Justice League (2017) reshoots. "Thanks," she says, "you're super!".
- Stealth Pun: In her makeup tutorial video, Ami recommends "preparing your skin for UV" - in a real makeup tutorial this would refer to protection from ultra-violet rays, but as Ami is a 3D model, she is referring to the UV co-ordinate system used for texture-mapping in 3D software.
- The Unreveal: The video "What I Really Look Like" has Ami teasing the audience that she will reveal her real face, only to appear without her makeup (a less-flattering face texture with patchier skin, and no eyeliner or lipstick).
