This article is also available in Japanese: Read the Japanese version
akidearest is a YouTuber who started out with anime and cosplay and now shares her life in Japan in English.
In her videos and interviews, she goes by Aki.
One video introducing Vocaloid made her channel grow; she later moved to Japan, and she has kept filming the country as seen through a foreigner's eyes.
In this article, we look in turn at akidearest's path, her channel's numbers, her signature videos, how she came to move to Japan and her relationship with The Anime Man.
Figures such as subscriber and view counts in this article were measured by this site at about 9:44 a.m. Japan time on October 30, 2026.
What Kind of YouTuber Is akidearest?
The description on her own YouTube channel lists nothing but a contact for business inquiries.
What stands in for a self-introduction is a handful of interviews she has given.
In an interview Sakuraco published in June 2026, she said she “created the akidearest channel late 2014” and that it “became a full time job around the middle of 2015”.
Sakuraco is a Japanese snack subscription box that has advertised in her videos.
In an October 2020 interview with a South African news site, she also talked about her life before YouTube.
After earning a psychology degree, she was studying graphic design at a college in Las Vegas, and, as she put it, she was “really lost about where I was going in life and it really brought me to a dark place mentally”.
Making cosplay and anime videos, she recalled, was “a really good escape for me during my dark period”.
On her background, she told Sakuraco, “Growing up, I felt so connected visiting my family in the Philippines”.
In December 2021, the English-language magazine Metropolis introduced her as a “Filipino-American” who was “born in California”, while The Japan Times described her as “an American-born creator”.
We could not confirm her real name on her own channel or in anything she herself has said, so this article does not deal with it.
The Channel's Size and Upload Pace
As of October 30, 2026, the channel had 2.84 million subscribers and just over 635.32 million total views.
At the same point, YouTube showed 886 videos on the channel.
The oldest video still on the channel was “REACTION: DMMD Love Scene”, from December 2014.
Her busiest year for uploads was 2016, with 129 videos, and at least 40 have gone up every year since.
At the time of writing, 17 videos had been published in the last 90 days, and 82 in the past year.
Another thing that stands out lately is the growing number of short videos.
Of the 71 videos published from January 1 to October 29, 2026, 44 were 3 minutes or shorter.
In the Sakuraco interview, too, she said that “Short-form content has definitely been dominating more than long-form content”, and that as a result she has to “try harder on YouTube”.
It looks like a channel that keeps both short and long videos going.
The Vocaloid Video That Made the Channel Grow
Asked what made the channel take off, she gave a clear answer in a 2020 interview.
She uploaded “5 Songs That Will Change The Way You See Vocaloid” in 2016, and, in her words, “for whatever reason that caused the channel to blow up”.
Published in January 2016, this video had just over 7.24 million views at the time of writing.
In a later interview, she said so herself: “I started my channel with anime, gaming and otaku culture”.
Many of her early titles dealt with anime facial expressions, cosplay events and Vocaloid.
“So I Gave my Alexa a Pikachu Voice and it’s weird”, from December 2018, also had more than 14.6 million views at the time of writing, making it the channel's second-most-watched video.
It was probably a channel that found anime fans first.
“Japan's Most English” and Life in Japan
Today, akidearest's most-watched videos are the “This is Japan’s Most English” series, running since 2025.
When we counted the titles on October 30, 2026, there were 15 videos with this title, going back to February 2025.
Fourteen of them were short videos of about a minute, and the March 20, 2025, installment had just over 18.82 million views at the time of writing.
In September 2026, a longer, 13-minute version came out as well.
Its description reads: “Some of you may not know that Japan has its own english. But even english speakers will have a hard time understanding it.”
It seems to be a series that has fun with the slightly odd English you come across around town in Japan.
In a special-supplement feature in The Japan Times in August 2025, she said of her videos today, “it’s focused on my life here, and what it’s like being a foreigner in Japan”.
According to the article, companies regularly ask her to promote places far from Tokyo and Osaka, and she said, “I’m really happy that I’ve become a bridge for them.”
The article also notes how she picks her video titles: “If my mom can understand the title, then that’s what I go with”.
In the fall of 2026, she also published videos on tourists' manners and on an unsolved poisoning case in Japan.
You could say she came in through anime and has now moved on to talking about Japanese society and everyday life itself.
How She Came to Live in Japan
In the Sakuraco interview, she talks in detail about how she came to live in Japan.
“I have always loved Japanese and, more broadly, Asian culture since I was a kid”, she said, and even just a layover in Japan made her feel she was “in the right place”.
She looked back on going to Japanese school “because I needed to learn the language so I can live my life in Japan easier”, and said, “I think the concept of ‘空気を読む’ (reading the air) has been a language I’ve had to learn that is just as important as learning Japanese itself.”
As for the year she moved, Metropolis wrote in 2021 that she “set out for Japan in 2019”.
The Japan Times, on the other hand, wrote in 2025 of her “moving to Japan seven years ago”, and the two years don't match.
We found no statement of the year in her own words, so this site leaves the year of her move open.
She herself has made clear in interviews that she lives in Japan (2025) and that she moved there (2026).
Her 2026 videos also include a run of titles with “in Japan” in them, so she seems to still be based in Japan.
The Anime Man, and Her Wedding Announcement
Joey, the English-language anime YouTuber known as The Anime Man, appears often in akidearest's videos.
Videos with “ft. The Anime Man” in the title go back to February 2016.
In the Sakuraco interview, she revealed how it began: “I saw Joey playing a game I liked and thought he was funny and messaged him on Youtube DM’s”.
She went on: “We were friends for like a year or so and when we met in person, we got together. We were long distance for like 2 or so years before I moved to Japan.”
She also said, “He’s helped me the most in this journey.”
Joey is also one of the hosts of the podcast Trash Taste, which we cover in our Trash Taste article.
On May 12, 2025 (Japan time), her own channel published a video announcing her engagement, “WE'RE ENGAGED!”
Around the same time on the same day, Joey's personal channel also put out a video titled “I Proposed to my Girlfriend.”
And on October 30, 2026 (Japan time), akidearest's channel published a video announcing her wedding, “We finally got married!”
Its description was a single short line: “We finally did it :)”
This article was first written that same day.
In January 2026, her channel had also put out a video about looking for a wedding venue in Japan and another called “We’re having our wedding in Japan”.
Off Camera, “shy as hell”
In the December 2021 Metropolis interview, she also showed a side people might not expect.
“I’m shy as hell,” she said, calling herself an introvert: “I have very little confidence outside the camera.”
She said, “When you’re a YouTube personality, everyone wants to know your personal life. There was a time where it was really overwhelming”.
She also touched on a time when, while she was keeping a relationship private, it spread online in a way she hadn't expected.
Even so, she said, “I always make time for myself and my friends”, and “Social media shouldn’t dictate your happiness”; once you realize that, “you’ll be surprised how well your mental health will improve”.
In the Sakuraco interview, too, her advice to aspiring creators was: “Don’t put your self worth into your work. And don’t compare yourself.”
Perhaps that way of thinking is what sits behind her upbeat videos.
