August Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all well and enjoying your summer if it is summer where you live. I certainly am -- I'm writing this on the train back from a trip to Scotland, and I'm off to Ireland this weekend. Otherwise, I've been spending a lot of time out and about doing all sorts. I moved back to London a few months ago in the run-up to starting my job, which I finally did almost a month ago now. It's all going really well. When I haven't been at work, I've been flat-hunting, when I haven't been doing that, I've been working on the video, and when I haven't been doing that, I've been out enjoying the city and catching up with friends and family. It's been a very, very, very busy past month, but in a good way. Which leads me into the bulk of this update.

First of all, the video. The response to the Gou/Sotsu video has been *incredible*. It's by far my best-performing video on release ever -- the views are over double that of the previous holder of that title right now, How Higurashi Scares Us. More importantly, though, a ridiculous number of people have expressed how much they enjoyed it. The support has been absolutely overwhelming in the best way. First and foremost to you all, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your patience, encouragement, kindness and support not only while I worked on this video but just generally since starting my channel almost three years ago now. 

It’s going to be a little while until my next upload. Needless to say, I've gone through a lot of life changes recently. I'm loving my job, which I'm thankful enables me to use a lot of what I learnt from my studies as well as to learn a whole lot more -- but purely by virtue of the field I'm in, it's extremely draining and stressful. I'm taking care of myself, though. I've wanted to move back to London forever and am making the most of being close to a lot of people I haven't been able to spend much time with over the last few years. I've also found and am going to be moving into a new home before the end of the month. I'm taking life one day at a time -- it's all I can do with how much is happening, but I'm enjoying that, too.

I originally made my channel just a little before both Gou/Sotsu being announced and the pandemic, and it was a bit of a perfect storm. Many more people were becoming interested in Higurashi, as well as looking for entertainment to fill their time with more generally, and I had more time to create. I’ve poured my heart and soul into my channel over these last three years and it has allowed me to maintain some semblance of sanity and stability through often uncertain and stressful times. As the state of things globally made spending time with others and many of my hobbies difficult or impossible, I instead filled that time with making videos. I’ve loved it and am really proud of what I’ve achieved. At the same time, life slowly becoming more normal again has equally coincided with the culmination of this huge project and the need to once again shift gears.

I’m not going anywhere! It’s because I want making videos to be a long-term thing for me that I also want to be mindful of burnout. In more practical terms, I’ve continually promised (and really want) to make videos on Umineko, but I need to reread it first. It's something I'm determined to do this year, but frankly speaking, with the pace of things right now, it's going to take a long, long time. So: for now, I’m going to focus on recuperating from the Gou/Sotsu video, adjusting to and enjoying all the changes that have taken place, and getting some Umineko in here and there when I can. I have plenty of other video ideas I’m excited to get around to as well (including one more possible Higu video for now), but for the first time since making my channel, I’m not going to start thinking about what that video will be or when it will be out just yet. Whatever the case, I know that the experiences I have offline are integral to my channel, too. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the future holds, both for the channel, and for life in general.

For some more more concrete updates: no media roundup post for last month because I literally did not have time for anything (maybe I'll shift these to being quarterly?), also no podcast -- this wasn't the plan, but I genuinely have not had a spare moment, and can only apologise. I'll be shifting into doing podcasts immediately (relatively speaking) post-video release soon, as I'm almost all the way through my backlog, with this month's being the first trial of that with the Gou/Sotsu video podcast. I'll probably be recording that next week while I'm on holiday, and am still collecting questions for it here. This particular podcast will be available to all patrons.

And I think that's it for now! I will of course chat some more about the Gou/Sotsu video and post-release reflections in the podcast. Otherwise, I'll be back next with who knows what!

Thanks for everything guys. Take care!

P.S. Scotland pics!