Get into Vtubers. You’ll have more content than you know what to do with. And they generally have clippers who regularly translate the most fun parts of their streams so it’s easier to get into even if you don’t start with good Japanese skills. Some also have live translators who translate as much as they can into chat.
There are a lot of Vtubers, but Hololive is probably the most well known. Most are Japanese, but there are also English and Indonesian ones, so there’s a nice amount of variety.
If you’re looking for Japanese ones that focus a lot on games, then I’d recommend:
Edit: in retrospect, Miko, Korone and Pekora aren’t perhaps the best for learning the language, as their speech patterns can be… “unique”. But then again, if you can learn to understand Miko, then you’ll probably learn to understand any Japanese person, even if they’re talking with a mouth full of mashed potatoes.
I know [stylishnoob4](https://www.twitch.tv/stylishnoob4) on Twitch is a popular Japanese Variety streamer, though I think he might be on break atm.
ハヤトの野望 (Hayato no Yabou) is a hilarious YouTuber that just plays broken games in broken ways. He reminds me of a Japanese GrayStillPlays if you ever watched that over the last 10 years.
chiiya_lemonpan is the funniest for Animal Crossing. My daughter likes her so much that she prefers her videos over the game
I wish Gamecenter CX was still on YouTube.
Nijisanji and Hololive
You can find someone who will most likely interact with you more directly if you look on Twitch Japanese language streams. “Discover” one that fits with what you like.
Once you get into these YouTubers, your algorithm might introduce more new ones to you. These are just some of the old ones I used to watch
Other than vtubers, Kurumi / くるみ on YouTube is a good one to try, she’s quite easy to understand. I’ve been subbed to her since not long after I started studying.
There’s also Core / こあ, aka the “Make Hamburger Country NiceNiceNiceNice” girl, over on Twitch. She has a lot of overseas fans so it’s easy to fit in there. Really nice girl. Should find her if you search core63_mc. I’m no good with Twitch.
Can’t link the channels cause I’m on my phone, but they should be easy to find.
It really depends on what kinda games do you like. For me I’m big on fighting games so my Youtube sub list has a lot of JP fighting games players (basically two birds with one stone, practice japanese and content I enjoy that I can learn some non-JP stuff too).
If you’re okay with vtubers, I like Pikamee a lot, she speaks both English and Japanese and often repeats what she just said in Japanese in English. That might not be necessary or useful if you’re looking for 100% Japanese stream but it’s great for people on a more beginner level
There’s kind of a mixture of people who do VODs and livestreams here, with a number of them having a bit of both.
[SANNINSHOW](https://www.youtube.com/c/sanninshow) – 3 guys who often play games together, but sometimes it’s only 1 or 2 of them. Games range from competitive multiplayer (Apex, Valorant) to party games to single player adventures.
[2Bro/兄者弟者](https://www.youtube.com/user/norunine) – A variety of games here and there, but also tons of Dead by Daylight. They also occasionally do podcasts.
[Korone](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAnqc_AY5_I3Px5dig3X1Q) – Likes retro games. Weird voice, but oddly easy to understand since she has a tendency to use short, simple sentences. This is nice because she’s also a weirdo who often says stuff that makes no sense, or kind of makes sense but not really.
[Botan](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUKD-uaobj9jiqB-VXt71mA) – Stellar at FPS games. Well known for being completely unphased by horror games and laughing like a maniac while playing Trials. She also has night vision goggles.
There’s also a lot of people to find for specific games if you’re into competitive stuff, you just gotta look for the game with Japanese search terms or know some of the people to look for. Myself, I’m a big fan of [Nage](https://www.twitch.tv/nage_pink) the Guilty Gear player.
Just go on twitch and search with the Japanese tag
I find vtubers to be extremely weird personally — no disrespect to anyone into them, but I just feel uncomfortable watching them and I’d rather watch a person being their actual selves.
Watched this guy play Skyrim. The series is gigantic and continues on YouTube, like 500 eps. I didn’t get that far but he’s chill – https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm28548739
25 comments
I like 2bro
https://youtube.com/c/anijyagame
Hololive?
I’m a big fan of [キヨ](https://youtube.com/user/KIYOisGOD)
Get into Vtubers. You’ll have more content than you know what to do with. And they generally have clippers who regularly translate the most fun parts of their streams so it’s easier to get into even if you don’t start with good Japanese skills. Some also have live translators who translate as much as they can into chat.
There are a lot of Vtubers, but Hololive is probably the most well known. Most are Japanese, but there are also English and Indonesian ones, so there’s a nice amount of variety.
If you’re looking for Japanese ones that focus a lot on games, then I’d recommend:
Miko – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-hM6YJuNYVAmUWxeIr9FeA
Korone – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAnqc_AY5_I3Px5dig3X1Q
Botan – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUKD-uaobj9jiqB-VXt71mA
Pekora – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1DCedRgGHBdm81E1llLhOQ
Edit: in retrospect, Miko, Korone and Pekora aren’t perhaps the best for learning the language, as their speech patterns can be… “unique”. But then again, if you can learn to understand Miko, then you’ll probably learn to understand any Japanese person, even if they’re talking with a mouth full of mashed potatoes.
the obvious choice would be the japanese vtubers
This one is my favorite:
https://www.twitch.tv/enjoyko_
I know [stylishnoob4](https://www.twitch.tv/stylishnoob4) on Twitch is a popular Japanese Variety streamer, though I think he might be on break atm.
ハヤトの野望 (Hayato no Yabou) is a hilarious YouTuber that just plays broken games in broken ways. He reminds me of a Japanese GrayStillPlays if you ever watched that over the last 10 years.
I like this one for her cute voice https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCa6tqURg-QBi5QObeLl-8Mw
I like [牛沢](https://youtu.be/75gr74VcP8o)
Daruma is God.
chaotic play + amazing skill + good voice.
https://www.twitch.tv/darumaisgod
Hanae Natsuki’s channel – he’s also a popular voice actor
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC3C3YOGFjn7Pq3lOCeUFHfg
chiiya_lemonpan is the funniest for Animal Crossing. My daughter likes her so much that she prefers her videos over the game
I wish Gamecenter CX was still on YouTube.
Nijisanji and Hololive
You can find someone who will most likely interact with you more directly if you look on Twitch Japanese language streams. “Discover” one that fits with what you like.
If you’re like me and prefer non-vtubers, then there’s [stylishnoob4](https://twitch.tv/stylishnoob4) and [しんじさん](https://twitch.tv/shinjifromjapanxd) on Twitch. しんじさん also had a [YouTube](https://youtube.com/channel/UCo9ioj4sW3BmxSDizpdT6Gw) channel.
On YouTube, there’s [jun channel](https://youtube.com/c/junchannel) and [もこう](https://youtube.com/user/mokoustream) who do variety games and they’re pretty funny. If you’re into high level Tetris/puyo [あめみや](https://youtube.com/channel/UCHog7L3CzsDg2GH9aza1bPg) is nice to watch
Once you get into these YouTubers, your algorithm might introduce more new ones to you. These are just some of the old ones I used to watch
Other than vtubers, Kurumi / くるみ on YouTube is a good one to try, she’s quite easy to understand. I’ve been subbed to her since not long after I started studying.
There’s also Core / こあ, aka the “Make Hamburger Country NiceNiceNiceNice” girl, over on Twitch. She has a lot of overseas fans so it’s easy to fit in there. Really nice girl. Should find her if you search core63_mc. I’m no good with Twitch.
Can’t link the channels cause I’m on my phone, but they should be easy to find.
It really depends on what kinda games do you like. For me I’m big on fighting games so my Youtube sub list has a lot of JP fighting games players (basically two birds with one stone, practice japanese and content I enjoy that I can learn some non-JP stuff too).
Here some more non-VTubers:
https://www.youtube.com/c/pockysweets
https://www.youtube.com/user/KIYOisGOD
I watch a lot of JP gamers and these are the ones I like.
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_wtqRHV2URvQvAMq6aMBzg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_wtqRHV2URvQvAMq6aMBzg) (タント君のゲームチャンネル)
[https://www.youtube.com/c/D%E3%82%B2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB](https://www.youtube.com/c/D%E3%82%B2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB) (Dゲイル)
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCypA9d0mrCoXJmoEDYXrZLw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCypA9d0mrCoXJmoEDYXrZLw) (いちごうのゲームビート)
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCancCKGDZHNTjp3dgr9fAMg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCancCKGDZHNTjp3dgr9fAMg) (Omi Games)
[https://www.youtube.com/c/%E3%81%8A%E3%82%84%E3%82%86%E3%81%B3](https://www.youtube.com/c/%E3%81%8A%E3%82%84%E3%82%86%E3%81%B3) (おやゆび)
[https://www.youtube.com/c/odesigame](https://www.youtube.com/c/odesigame)
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpS5-ljiW2v0TY3oCP-iCdQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpS5-ljiW2v0TY3oCP-iCdQ)
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ2i_2bp8a8ssUyB6rNvTUA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ2i_2bp8a8ssUyB6rNvTUA)
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZbhGPMn-2NEAy_UfiCSbTg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZbhGPMn-2NEAy_UfiCSbTg)
If you’re okay with vtubers, I like Pikamee a lot, she speaks both English and Japanese and often repeats what she just said in Japanese in English. That might not be necessary or useful if you’re looking for 100% Japanese stream but it’s great for people on a more beginner level
There’s kind of a mixture of people who do VODs and livestreams here, with a number of them having a bit of both.
**Non-Vtubers**:
[花江夏樹](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3C3YOGFjn7Pq3lOCeUFHfg/featured) – A popular voice actor plays games with his friends. A lot of party and horror games. They are generally pretty boisterous.
[心霊バスターズ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk4M1CEZhUREeDr-Buof_9Q/featured) – Pretty chill dude that does longplay serieses of mostly singleplayer games (Fallout, Dark Souls, etc.)
[SANNINSHOW](https://www.youtube.com/c/sanninshow) – 3 guys who often play games together, but sometimes it’s only 1 or 2 of them. Games range from competitive multiplayer (Apex, Valorant) to party games to single player adventures.
[2Bro/兄者弟者](https://www.youtube.com/user/norunine) – A variety of games here and there, but also tons of Dead by Daylight. They also occasionally do podcasts.
**Vtubers**:
[Okayu](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaTdHTWBGv3MKj3KVqJVCw) – Mellow voice, easy to listen to, and generally easy-going. She’s great during collaboration videos as she likes to prank other people or get them wound up.
[Korone](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAnqc_AY5_I3Px5dig3X1Q) – Likes retro games. Weird voice, but oddly easy to understand since she has a tendency to use short, simple sentences. This is nice because she’s also a weirdo who often says stuff that makes no sense, or kind of makes sense but not really.
[Pekora](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1DCedRgGHBdm81E1llLhOQ/featured) – Plays tons of Minecraft. She’s generally entertaining and leans into the whole “I’m an idol” thing hard, which is pretty funny.
[Suisei](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5CwaMl1eIgY8h02uZw7u8A/featured) – Unbelievably good at Tetris. Solid Apex player. Gets unreasonably excited about games that involve betraying or killing your friends. Also famously did extremely well in an Apex tournament with the other Hololivers [Towa](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1uv2Oq6kNxgATlCiez59hw) and [Aqua](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1opHUrw8rvnsadT-iGp7Cg), who by the way is an incredible Apex player.
[Botan](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUKD-uaobj9jiqB-VXt71mA) – Stellar at FPS games. Well known for being completely unphased by horror games and laughing like a maniac while playing Trials. She also has night vision goggles.
[Pikamee](https://www.youtube.com/c/%E5%A4%A9%E9%87%8E%E3%83%94%E3%82%AB%E3%83%9F%E3%82%A3Pikamee) – Almost 50/50 mix between English and Japanese, so it’s a great “paying half attention” stream as it’s impossible to get lost. She’s a super dork with generally positive energy all the time.
[Roberu](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCANDOlYTJT7N5jlRC3zfzVA/videos) – A true gentleman of [culture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLbs_3exU_s).
[Aruran](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKeAhJvy8zgXWbh9duVjIaQ/featured) – Cool guy oji-san. Plays a lot of Minecraft.
There’s also a lot of people to find for specific games if you’re into competitive stuff, you just gotta look for the game with Japanese search terms or know some of the people to look for. Myself, I’m a big fan of [Nage](https://www.twitch.tv/nage_pink) the Guilty Gear player.
Just go on twitch and search with the Japanese tag
I find vtubers to be extremely weird personally — no disrespect to anyone into them, but I just feel uncomfortable watching them and I’d rather watch a person being their actual selves.
I’ve enjoyed these people:
Currently watching this girl play Skyrim –
https://www.youtube.com/c/natti%E3%81%AA%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A1%E3%82%83%E3%82%93power
Watched this guy play Celeste –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY2d0h-h5j4
Watched this girl play Undertale –
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNqMsho5ksvZuSgonTFrSIQ/featured
She now uses this channel –
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7R336LboGGQQCqg0eS_o2Q
Watched this guy play Skyrim. The series is gigantic and continues on YouTube, like 500 eps. I didn’t get that far but he’s chill –
https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm28548739