ColumnAnime
Why the World Watches People Watching: Anime Reaction Videos, Explained
Reaction videos are such a fixture of English-language anime fandom that it's easy to forget how strange the format looks from outside: a face in the middle of the screen, the actual show tucked into a corner. I read these comment sections for work every night, and somewhere along the way I fell for the whole culture. Here's why people watch people watching, what actually happens in those comments, and how it compares with Japan's own way of watching together.