[Book Review] My Dad is a YouTuber

When my daughter and I went to the library,
“Oh! This! The one everyone's talking about!”
my daughter exclaimed.
I looked, and saw a blue sky and a blue sea,
and the title, "My Dad is a YouTuber."

Just the word "YouTuber" tells you it represents the modern age.
And judging by the title, it looked like an easy read.
So I borrowed it, and sure enough, it was a breeze to read.

As a result, I finished it in one night.

But why a YouTuber?
Reading it, I found a father who overlaps with me.
The way he acts unlike a parent, chases only dreams,
and racks his brain for ideas to escape poverty,
it's just like my younger self lol.

His daughter, feeling anxious about such a father,
poured oil on the fire by saying,
“Then why don't you just become a YouTuber!”

Wondering if it's really that easy to become a YouTuber,
he starts filming videos, but it's not a world a beginner can easily succeed in.

But the father has a belief that if he hands out flyers, it will work!
So he makes his friends hand out flyers.
I don't think handing out flyers for a YouTube channel is going to work.

As it turns out, his daughter thinks the same thing,
and she consults with a young man she lives with.

“Why do you do things that are pointless?”

This is a question we encounter many times in our lives.
I myself have often thought things were pointless when I didn't get results.
But the young man says,

“Even if you know it's meaningless, it's important to actually try it.
Because there is meaning in failing.
There is nothing more useful than a failure you've experienced yourself.”

The moment I read that, the me inside my brain shouted, “Exactly!”
You never know until you try,
and even if you fail as a result, it will definitely become food for thought.

Failing is painful, but you can't move forward without knowing pain.
That's a good point!
Although, I've lived my life with that belief and I'm still poor lol.

While I think it's well-written,
the result was that despite boasting, “I'll get 10,000 views!” on his first post,
the view count was only 5.

He starts saying, “This is garbage! I quit!”
His daughter mocks him for being “fickle.”
To that, the young man says,

“You get bored because it's not what you really want to do.”
This is another phrase that hits home.

Some people try something, fail, and give up immediately,
or even without failing, they just go through the motions, feel like they've done it,
and stop there.

We tend to label such people as “fickle,”
but through this father who does everything half-heartedly,
the book says that if it's something you really want to do, you won't get bored.

That is certainly true.
Getting bored or giving up halfway
might just be a fleeting curiosity.
But if you encounter something that is truly meant for you,
the flow will change, and the way you approach it will likely change too.

Now, as for the father, he gets some harsh words from his daughter's friend,
which motivates him to work hard.
It seems he thought, “I can't end it just by being told off by a kid!”
One day, the father makes a video of a poem his daughter wrote at school.

Seeing that, his daughter gets furious and punches him.

This goes viral.
Thus, thinking, “This is the path I should take!”
he finds his direction and starts walking the path as a popular YouTuber.

Once he starts monetizing and gets his hands on a lot of money,
his actions become flashy,
buying a 10-million-yen car, which makes his daughter anxious again.
A father who wants to be famous and a daughter who can't understand him.

However, it was a story about the father's background and
the father's passionate love for his daughter.

I never imagined these two had gone through something like this!
It is a heavy past, but I want you to be surprised by picking up this book.

What was a bit disappointing was the ending.
As you read on, a few patterns of how it would likely end
come to mind, and it followed one of those patterns.
Even though the lives of the father and daughter were unexpected, the fact that the ending was formulaic
was a shame.
However, I think this is unavoidable.

Considering a clean landing, it was an ending that felt the most tidy.
And the final sentence.
I got goosebumps realizing it ended the same way
as a work I wrote myself.

Since it matches the thinking of a professional, as an amateur writer,
it was moving for me, but
if someone were to say that I should be moved by a different part,
I cannot deny that lol

Title: My Dad is a YouTuber
Author: Rintaro Hamaguchi
Publisher: Futabasha

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