TamashiiHiroka is a female YouTube video blogger. Her videos focus mainly on Pokemon, however, she has been known to discuss other topics including general gaming and feminism. She joined YouTube in October 2008 and, as of February 2015, she has uploaded over 100 videos, amassed over 500,000 subscribers, and has garnered more than 42 million total video views.
Video Style & History
TamashiiHiroka began her YouTube venture in 2008, where she would upload videos about “hacking” popular Pokémon games – primarily Pokémon FireRed Version. These hacks would feature modified maps and NPC’s to make for intriguing game play that would not regularly be seen in a commercially released title.
According to TamashiiHiroka, while pursuing a partnership with YouTube, she was required to remove all videos containing game footage, in accordance with the YouTube Partnership Program’s strict rules (this is not to be confused with the current partnership program that utilizes Google AdSense). It was because of this that TamashiiHiroka began to release more videos pertaining to the Pokémon game subject itself, instead of the games themselves. The earliest of these videos included “Pokémon Green Myths,” “Why Ash is Still 10,” and “Pokémon Creepypastas: White Hand, Buried Alive, and Gary’s Raticate.” Each of these videos garnered over 400,000 views, making them some of her most popular at the time.
In 2012, TamashiiHiroka changed the format of her videos once again, which catered more to the gaming community on a whole, while still mostly but not primarily focusing on Pokémon. She maintained this format until 2014, where she once again changed her primary focus to Pokémon.
With her return to the channel’s original subject matter, TamashiiHiroka implemented more video blog-type videos than she normally did. In these videos, precise editing still exists, but the product does not reflect the typical highly-produced videos that feature various clips as well as live commentary. These videos have been highly acclaimed by her recent as well as long-standing followers.
Personal life
The thumbnail to TamashiiHiroka's revealing "Draw My Life" video, which is no longer available to the public for view.
According to her video "Draw My Life," TamashiiHiroka grew up in Oregon, but later moved to Nevada. Her parents divorced when she was young, which she has said did not affect her greatly. In the same video, she mentions having a fear of natural disasters (stemming from a past experience with Oregon's Scotts Mills Earthquake of 1993).
In 2013, TamashiiHiroka revealed that she was a victim of sibling abuse. She describes her sister as an emotionally troubled teenager who would often be violent with her and her mother. According to TamashiiHiroka, her sister was sent to live away from home to settle her anger issues.
TamashiiHiroka revealed that she was underweight and somewhat sickly in middle school, due to certain conditions and medications.
TamashiiHiroka has spoken about her struggles with clinical anxiety, which she has said is relatively severe. In "Tamashii Answers Your Questions 2014," she speaks about her anxiety and how she receives counseling to help manage it.
Tamashii dated a man named Justin for some time. In 2013, she stated in a video that they live together. It is understood that they are no longer together.
She is currently dating Chaz, who has appeared in many of her videos.
Identity & Real Name
Amongst her fans, TamashiiHiroka's identities have been a topic of debate. TamashiiHiroka calls herself (and presumably prefers to be called) by the first three syllables of her YouTube identity "Tamashii," which she admittedly had been mispronouncing since she had made her account in 2008. Starting some time in 2012, TamashiiHiroka began pronouncing her identity differently; her original pronunciation was tom-osh-ee, but the proper pronunciation in Japanese-American colloquialism is tah-muh-shee.
TamashiiHiroka's real first name and last name was a topic discussed by many of her fans, as she never even so much as hinted at what her real name might be. In earlier videos, fans have claimed that various images in her room (where her videos were primarily filmed) repeated the name Samantha, leading most to believe that her first name was Samantha. In similar fashion, some fans would locate images with other various names including Veronica, Stacey, and Isabella. The scrutiny regarding her name evolved into discussions in which people claimed to know her in person, and thus knew her identity, which lead to TamashiiHiroka finally clarifying that she would not release her real name, in the interest of continuing a running joke.
On February 27, 2013, TamashiiHiroka posted to her Facebook Page, saying that one of the over 170 named characters in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness had a name similar to hers. This has led most to believe that her name is Emily (or variant), due to a character in the game being named Emili (this would justify the use of the term "similar" if her real name was in fact Emily). This belief is further strengthened by the fact that her alter-ego Limey can be rearranged to spell Emily, and also the fact that the ROM hacking tools downloaded from her site (which was zipped and uploaded) show the file paths, and thus revealing her Windows username as Emily.
External links
- TamashiiHiroka on Youtube.
- Tamashiihiroka on Wikipedia