He first began to upload videos in 2013, giving his thoughts on anime-related subjects, doing vlogs and music covers, the latter of which he ceased to do. Later on, he also began to do Let's Plays, starting off with his then relatively popular Corpse Party series. From 2016 onwards, most of his content is vlogs on anime-related topics and the occasional #AnswerMeSenpai or reaction to certain comments.
Joey's channel has a number of themed segments, including:
- #AnswerMeSenpai: A Q&A segment where he gives (mostly) sarcastic answers to questions asked from his Twitter and the comments on his videos with that hashtag. It started out as a regular segment but is now on indefinite hiatus.
- WTF Japan: Discussions on aspects of Japanese culture and media that are strange, confusing, and/or disturbing.
- Monthly Otaku Collection: Joey shows the various anime, manga, collectibles, and other otaku-related media he's encountered that month that he feels are worth informing his fanbase about. In 2021, he also started including a brief Q&A at the end of each of these videos, essentially replacing #AnswerMeSenpai.
- Let's Fight!: Joey collects unpopular or controversial opinions on anime and manga that are posted with the hashtag #LetsFight and says whether or not he agrees with the statement, elaborating his thoughts on each topic as it's discussed.
- [X] Anime Season: What Will I Be Watching?: Joey looks at a rundown of the anime that will be released for an upcoming season and gives brief thoughts on the titles that pique his interest.
- Japanese 101: Joey gives pointers on the Japanese language and language-centered parts of Japanese culture. On the "Japanese 101" playlist on his channel, he includes these videos and others outside the series that revolve around the Japanese language.
In mid-2020, he, Gigguk, and CDawgVA began a podcast called Trash Taste, where they discuss general topics about anime, manga, and life in Japan.
Aside from his YouTube
channel, he also has accounts on Twitter, Twitch, Instagram and MyAnimeList.
He also operates a second channel called Joey, where he discusses numerous subjects related to anime and manga, on top of more random stuff, and the Ikurru topic where he hosts the music he's released as Ikurru.
Games The Anime Man has played
The Anime Man provides examples of:
- Alter-Ego Acting: Seemingly somewhat aware of Joey's existence is Occidental Otaku and YouTube personality "VegetaReviews69".
- Art Evolution: His earlier videos were low-resolution, largely improvised and mostly filmed using ambient lighting. Further in his career, he got better equipment which made for higher audiovisual quality. The environment has gotten clearer lighting and he started using scripts.
- Artifact Title: Downplayed. Although Joey still talks about anime, in more recent years, he has largely broadened his focus into subjects outside of anime, such as manga, Japan and a variety of other otaku related subjects. He has lampshaded this a couple of times on Trash Taste.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When he covered the anime of SAO Alternative in "SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a HORRIBLE Sword Art Online Spin-off", one would think he'd bash it based on the title. Instead, he was pretty positive about it. What he meant was more that it was "horrible" as a SAO spin-off, since it's not like SAO at all.
- This is a common theme to the titles of the Let's Fight! videos, such as in "Fairy Tail Is Actually a GOOD Anime... LET'S FIGHT", where he reads a comment that makes the claim from the title. He then proceeds to give a negative critique of the series.
- When he covered the anime of SAO Alternative in "SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a HORRIBLE Sword Art Online Spin-off"
- Blatant Lies: Played for Laughs in his video "Why My 'Personality' Changes When Speaking Japanese.", which he does in regards to why he made some of his recent videos. Lampshades that it was this trope later on.Joey: [mentioning some recent videos]...that were TOTALLY not the result of me running out of ideas or anything.
- The Cameo: He voices a minor character in No Straight Roads who is very much based on him, and voices him in both English and Japanese.
- Capital Letters Are Magic: Some of his videos have titles like this.
- Catchphrase:
- Aside from his standard intro and outro, he constantly refers to his fans as "you lovely motherfuckers" in videos.
- His now-standard intro to the Let's Fight! videos.Unpopular opinions! You hate them, I debate them! [some brief commentary] So let's fight! *cue theme music*
- Crossover:
- Two of Joey's videos are crossovers with Kizuna AI.
- His "Real Vs Fake Anime Challenge" with Pewdiepie.
- He has a lot of crossovers with fellow anime-loving YouTubers like CDawgVA and Gigguk, which culminated to their own podcast, Trash Taste.
- On the reverse, Joey also appears as a guest on other YouTubers' channels, such as Eddie van der Meer.
- Two
- Deadpan Snarker: It's quite hard for him to make a video with no sarcasm at all. Exaggerated in #AnswerMeSenpai
- Exact Words: His "Real Vs Fake Anime Challenge" with Pewdiepie has Felix manage to trick him a few times with this kind of wording, by describing an anime as "A man killing anything with a single touch" (One-Punch Man. He never said what kind of touch) and going with a seemingly perfect description of Dragon Ball The Description in Question...which Joey got wrong because it was a description of Superman.
- Extreme Close-Up: Joey frequently does these on his face when he wants to make a sarcastic aside or a similar comment that he wants to emphasize. He also tends to add speedlines to these for extra oomph.
- Fake Pregnancy: Gender reversed and Played for Laughs. In an #AnswerMeSenpai episode he is asked to call Aki (his girlfriend) and tell her that he is pregnant. After a Flat "What" she hangs up.
- Flipping the Bird: His mascot does this in a number of his video thumbnails, usually ones dealing with controversial topics or things that he's salty about.
- Halloween Episode:
- Alongside other YouTubers/vloggers, Joey visited haunted places in Japan.
- Other Halloween specials has Joey sharing real-life horror stories or horror manga to read for Halloween.
- Hidden Depths: He can play the guitar, as shown on his crossovers with Eddie van der Meer, such as this one. He also offhandedly mentions playing classical piano in the Sydney Opera House as a child.
- The Internet Is for Porn: While talking about a website where Japanese artists can draw whatever you want, Joey turned off the NSFW feature. He said that there was a ton of porn on the site, though, so much so that the video could have a second part because of it.
- Mascot: His channel's avatar is a white-haired bishounen guy wearing a cat mask on one side of his head. It's a reference to a favorite manga of his, Black Cat.
- MST: Joey, Noble, Aki, and Misty/Chronexia have done MST videos for Boku no Pico and its sequels.
- Otaku: Joey makes no bones about his love for anime, manga, figurines, and other facets of otaku culture. He does, however, occasionally note that despite the moniker, he's become much more focused on manga in the last few years, mainly due to simply not having the time to keep up with all the titles that are released every season.
- Product Placement: A number of Joey's videos have been sponsored, with the online manga site Bookwalker, the language teaching program Lingualift, and several mobile games like Honkai Impact 3rd being prominent plugs. He's also done a couple of collab videos with the hentai site Fakku, and sometimes plugs his merch at the start of videos.Rep that weeb shit, boiiiiii!
- Running Gag: The exaggerated headbanging and thrashing around Joey does before actually beginning to answer questions in #AnswerMeSenpai videos.
- Signing-Off Catchphrase: "Like and favorite if you enjoyed! Subscribe for more anime banter [and I'll see you in the next video of whatever I make]. Keep watching anime! Jaa ne!", usually spouted at breakneck pace. The bracketed part was used in his earlier videos.
- The Piano Player: Under the psuedonym Ikurru, Joey released an album of piano (mostly) instrumentals titled A Picture Frame Full Of Memories.
- Tranquil Fury: Joey was among the many content creators who sharply criticized Logan Paul's videos documenting he and his friends' Jerkass behavior in Japan, especially when they went into Aokigahara Forest and filmed a suicide victim's body. From that video, Joey, who was calm but extremely frustrated, told Logan how "it isn't hard for someone to turn off the camera just for a little bit," and eventually ending the video with:I think I speak on behalf of everybody in Japan in saying Logan, get the fuck out of my country.
- Who Wants to Be "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?":
- Parodied with "Who Wants To Be A Weeblionnaire?" in "CAN YOU BEAT THE IMPOSSIBLE ANIME QUIZ?? (ft. akidearest, Gigguk, CDawgVA, Sydsnap & Bakashift)", where Joey let other YouTubers (mentioned in the title) take an anime quiz with increasing difficulty. He promised that the person who would get all 15 questions correct would receive 10,000 yen (roughly 100 US dollars) out of his pocket, which of course didn't happen. During the video, one of them jokingly asks if they can get a Lifeline. The real kicker is that for every question they get wrong, they have to take a teaspoon full of a powder that "makes sour things sour". Three lemons contain four grams of that stuff. It has nothing to do with what they are parodying, but is noteworthy nonetheless. The video does include commercial breaks though (yes, Joey cuts to an ad for merchandise of his halfway through the video).
- He has since done the game "Man Vs. Weeb," where the top prize is now 50,000 yen (roughly 500 US dollars). To win it, a dart is thrown at the "Wheel of Money" while it spins, and the thin red sliver that "50,000 yen" is on must be hit with the dart. Otherwise, you win either 10,000 yen, 1,000 yen, 100 yen, 10 yen or as low as one yen. So far, only Chris Broad won the 50,000 yen.
- Parodied with "Who Wants To Be A Weeblionnaire?"
Tropes discussed in his videos:
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: In "Japanese Highschools vs Anime Highschools", Joey and Gaijin Goombah explain that student council members in anime are treated as the "Most Powerful Students in the School", but in real life, student council members are treated the same as any other student. He also notes that the "kouhai-senpai" hierarchy in schools may be the reason why this trope exists in anime.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Joey hates Google Translate, and he won't hesitate to call out people who send him #AnswerMeSenpai questions that have been obviously GT'd into Japanese. Aki pokes fun at him in one of her videos where she has a long text conversation with him where all her texts are first speech-to-texted through Google Translate to be converted to Japanese.
- Captain Obvious Reveal: One of the things he disliked about ERASED from episode 8 onward was that he could tell what the answer to the mystery was gonna be, next to the ending's Cuckold and structure. However, he liked the show up until that point.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Ichika from Infinite Stratos annoyed him because of this trait.If this motherfucker was any denser he'd be on the periodic table.
- Culture Clash: His "10 Things You Shouldn't Do In Japan" video, which explains mannerisms or actions that aren't socially acceptable in Japan depending on the situation, such as yawning in a business-related conversation.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Invoked in this video, where he talks about a Japanese woman who stabbed someone "out of love" and lambastes people posting celebratory comments as if she was an actual yandere.
- Engrish:
- One whole video focusing on the problems the Japanese language has with differentiating between L and R in English.
- Invoked in a couple of videos. One revolves around wasei-eigo and has his friend and fellow YouTuber Gaijin Goombah trying to guess what borrowed English terms mean. Another is more straightforward as Joey has Aki and CDawgVA try to guess the Engrish translations on signs and placards.
- One whole video
- Fan Disservice: Doubly discussed in this WTF Japan installment, revolving around an eroge that not only features Brother–Sister Incest but whose central plot point is that said sister has a raging case of hemorrhoids.
- Fanservice: This video, where Joey talks about what anime fanservice tends to get right and wrong.
- Gag Sub: Played with. Three videos are read-throughs of hentai manga which have had their dialogue rewritten into, respectively, Australian English (including the accent and tons of slang), Shakespearean, and meme-speak.
- Gorn: One of Joey's WTF Japan videos is about his being utterly incredulous that a live-action adaptation of the infamously horrific ero-guro manga Mai-chan's Daily Life had been made.
- Haiku: Two videos have focused on fan-submitted haikus about anime. Not only does he give props to the good submissions, he calls out parts of his fanbase for not knowing how to properly construct a haiku.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: In "Do I Hate Being Half-Japanese Living in Japan?", he notes that while he has received some racial discrimination due to being only half-Japanese, it's mainly from older Japanese citizens, and he usually shuts them up pretty quickly by speaking in fluent Japanese to them. He has felt some existential angst about the situation, but overall is proud to be a "hafu" and doesn't let the issues it sometimes causes get to him.
- Kitschy Themed Restaurant: Joey's done a couple of videos revolving around the Japanese equivalent, as it's commonplace for restaurants and cafes themed around memes and what's hot in pop culture to show up. One of his WTF Japan videos is based on a cafe themed on the viral "Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen" song, and he got hammered at a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure-themed bar.
- Language Equals Thought: Discussed in "Why My 'Personality' Changes When Speaking Japanese." after he got comments saying that he seemed a different person when speaking Japanese. Having thought about it, he realised that, while his personality doesn't change, he physically can't be sarcastic in Japanese, a character trait that is a major staple of his personality and English-spoken content. The reason being, according to him, that there is no sarcasm in Japanese.It is practically impossible for you to achieve sarcasm in Japanese, as you would in English. And by that I don't mean it's completely obsolete. I mean that the values of sarcasm in English completely differ to that in Japanese.
- Most Writers Are Male: Discussed in response to the Crunchyroll controversy around them promoting a show called High Guardian Spice (based on a web comic made in Tumblr) they were making by claiming the crew of the show is diverse, yet most of them were white women and there was only one male in their promotional video. Joey's point was that the anime industry and community seem to be averting this trope, although it can't be said for sure that females are the majority. To support this, he mentioned a number of prolific female writers and directors in the anime and manga industry, and pointed out the size of niches in the community surrounding it. Therefore, it annoyed him that most people involved in or talking about the Crunchyroll controversy didn't seem to realise that the diversity problem in the industry doesn't really exist.
- Nightmare Fuel: Joey loves horror manga and anime, and specifically invokes the trope in this Monthly Otaku Collection video when talking about Jinmen, referring to the hideous imagery on the cover of the first volume.[...] it's only just now that I decided, 'You know what, I'm gonna give this a go' because when I looked at the cover of this first volume, I just thought 'Wow...that is nightmare fuel.' But again, there's something about me, my boys, that you need to understand. When it comes to manga, especially horror manga...I love my nightmare fuel.
- Quirky Work: His WTF Japan video series is partly based on the weird or disturbing stuff exclusive to, or created from Japan, regardless of how niche or popular they are in the culture.
- Reaction Video: Joey generally dislikes them, and as an extension, YouTube channels that rely on them. He's made bluntly disparaging comments in #AnswerMeSenpai videos about them, and in the WTF Japan video about Redo of Healer and it getting an anime adaptation, he dropped this gem:Wait a minute...why am I even comparing Berserk to Redo of a Healer? That's like comparing reaction channels to...good content.
- School Clubs Are Serious Business: As Joey and Gaijin Goombah note, there are no real life school clubs that deal with the supernatural. Thus, if the SOS Brigade from Haruhi Suzumiya would be attempted, it would be rejected quickly because teachers are critical for the formation of clubs.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Invoked in "Hilarious and Cringey Anime Poems" when a poem about Hideyoshi from Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts comes up.The weirdest boners were made when you watch Hideyoshi in the skimpiest outfits...it's just like "My body's confuuuused".
- You Keep Using That Word: He made "What exactly is a 'Weeaboo'?" to shed some light on the term after hearing people use it for just liking anime or something like that, while it actually refers to more extreme cases.
