Joseph Tetsuro Bizinger, better known as The Anime Man or Joey, is an Australian YouTuber, musician, and podcast host of Japanese descent. He is widely recognized for his engaging videos and vlogs on Japanese popular culture, which he shares on his channels The Anime Man and Joey. Alongside fellow YouTubers Garnt Maneetapho (Gigguk) and Connor Colquhoun (CDawgVA), he co-founded and co-hosts the highly popular podcast channel Trash Taste, boasting over 1.35 million subscribers. In the past, he also hosted The Anime Show podcast with his girlfriend Akidearest. Additionally, Joey has made appearances on British YouTuber Chris Broad’s channel Abroad in Japan. As a talented musician, he has released albums, EPs, and singles under the stage name Ikurru Kamijou. Furthermore, Joey has lent his voice to various video games and television series as a voice actor.
Quick Facts
- Name: Joseph Tetsuro Bizinger
- Age: 29 Years
- Born Country: Australia
- Education: University Of Sydney
Rise to Stardom
Joey ‘The Anime Man’ began his journey by reviewing Japanese animation on a website as part of a school project. He later launched his YouTube channel on May 27, 2013, with his first video titled “Dubbed Anime Sucks!” As the popularity of anime grew, he continued to make review videos on his channel. However, he realized that he wasn’t very good at making actual reviews. This led him to switch to uploading let’s play videos of visual novels. One of his most memorable moments was when he gained a significant number of subscribers for his Corpse Party 2 playthroughs. He live-translated the dialogue into English at a time when there was no official English version of the game. However, he eventually felt that let’s play videos were overdone and problematic due to YouTube’s Community Guidelines.
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Joey’s channel reached a milestone of 100K subscribers in the first half of 2015. One of his videos, “7 Types of Anime Fans,” posted on June 17, 2015, went viral and doubled his fan base within a week. In February 2016, he created a second channel called Joey, primarily as a vlogging channel. However, his less-polished content of various types often ended up there. Originally, Joey had moved to Japan in May 2016 to work in information technology. But as his channel hit one million subscribers in January 2017, he decided to focus full-time on YouTube.
Other Ventures
Along with fellow YouTuber Akidearest, Joey hosted the weekly SBS podcast The Anime Show in 2017-18. The podcast discussed anime, manga, and otaku culture. In 2018, he did a cameo voice role in the video game Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol. 4 and narrated an episode of the Japanese digital manga series Pop Team Epic. He also appeared as a guest on four episodes of Chris Broad’s ‘Journey Across Japan’ series on his Abroad in Japan YouTube channel. They traveled together from Niigata to Itoigawa on a bike, documenting local life and participating in various challenges. Joey later returned to the follow-up series Escape to Fuji (2020) and The Lost Islands (2021) with Japanese musician and hairdresser Natsuki Aso. He even featured in the promotional single of The Lost Islands titled “Too Much Volcano!” which peaked at 65 on the UK downloads charts.
Joey began his musical career under the stage name ‘Ikurru Kamijou’ and released his debut studio album, A Picture Frame Full of Memories, on December 18, 2019. In 2020, he voiced the role of Music Elitist in the video game No Straight Roads. He also started hosting the weekly audio-and-video podcast Trash Taste alongside fellow YouTubers Gigguk and CDawgVA. The podcast focuses on anime, manga, otaku culture, and their experiences of living in Japan.
Family & Personal Life
Joey, whose full name is Joseph “Joey” Tetsuro Bizinger VI, was born on September 28, 1994, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. His mother is Japanese, while his Australian father has German and Hungarian descent. Although he was mostly raised in Australia, his mother spoke to him exclusively in Japanese to ensure he retained his Japanese heritage. She also introduced him to Japanese anime like ‘Doraemon’, ‘Sazae-san’, and ‘Pokémon’. Joey faced bullying as the only Asian kid in his year at St Paul’s Catholic College. However, he eventually embraced his dual ethnicities and shared his love for anime and video games with friends. He attended the University of Sydney and obtained his degree in Computer Design Technology in 2016.
Joey has been in a relationship with Akidearest, a fellow anime-focused YouTuber and cosplayer of Filipino-American descent, since July 2016. They both publicly confirmed their relationship in separate videos on their respective channels on November 4, 2016.