- When you think
about the phrase "reality TV," you probably think of something like this. - I'm gonna be here forever. - You wanna get your (beep) beat, you'll get your (beep) beat. You can stay, get your (beep) beat, you can stay, get your (beep) beat-- - Okay. - You can stay and get your (beep) beat. - All right. - Plain and simple.
- Okay. - [Narrator] And when you hear the phrase Japanese Reality TV, you probably think of something like this. - [Television Narrator]
(speaking foreign language) (boing sound) (speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] But one of my
favorite media the past few years is a show that subverts both of these expectations simultaneously, a show called Terrace House. Now, if you haven't
heard of Terrace House, the premise is this. Basically, six Japanese strangers who are all roughly in their
early- to mid- to late-20s, move into a house together. And structurally I guess the closest Western analog to this show would be something like Jersey
Shore or Big Brother, but if you took all the screaming matches, and fistfights, and talking head segments and replaced them with passive aggressive messages written in ketchup on omelets, pillows that are thrown at
other members of the house with, like, a deeply romantic subtext, and a room full of commentators who comment on the show as you watch it, who I've affectionately grown to refer to as the peanut gallery. (group shouting in foreign language) - (speaking foreign language) (audience laughs) - (speaking foreign language) - (speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] If you can't
tell, this show is really, really, really different
from American reality TV, and that's why I love it. I think part of what
makes me so affectionate about Terrace House is
that, in terms of tone, it's about as far as you can get from typical, Western reality TV. Watching Terrace House is a
genuinely relaxing experience. It's beautifully shot,
thoughtfully scored and edited, gently paced, and literally
like 10 decibels quieter than its American counterparts. Now, that's not to say that there's not drama between the
housemates on the show, there is, but it's operating
on a very different level. It's operating with a degree
of subtlety and subtext that you just don't normally get from traditional reality TV. Which I understand could seem daunting to non-Japanese viewers who maybe lack the cultural context to understand the full significance of what
happens moment-to-moment, but, luckily there's that peanut gallery who chimes in a couple times per episode, commentate on what just happened, and sort of serve as an
incredibly helpful tool for coming to grips with this show. It's a little hard to explain exactly what makes
Terrace House so magical, and really the best way to understand it is to watch the show for yourself, and, like many Western Terrace House fans, the way that I was able
to do that was when the show debuted on
Netflix a few years back. See, after the major success of season one of Terrace House in Japan, Netflix stepped in and
offered to co-produce season two of the show. This was huge news for a lot of reasons, but perhaps the biggest
difference that this brought about was that those of us in the
West could watch Terrace House easily and legally, with
professionally-translated subtitles using your existing
American Netflix account. If it's not clear by now,
I love Terrace House a lot. So much, in fact, that
a couple years back, I even launched a Terrace House podcast called Terrace House Mafia
that was dedicated to discussing Boys and Girls in the City, which was the first
Netflix-produced season of the show, episode by episode. Now, tragically, this podcast
was produced using the now-defunct podcasting app called Bumpers, which means that all 15
episodes of this podcast are lost to time. I have no idea where they are, and, actually, quick side note, if anyone watching this video still has the mp3s for those episodes, please email us at
help@terracehousemafia.com. We would love to hunt
these old episodes down. All right, okay. Now, it had been awhile since I actually watched any Terrace House. There was a handful of
reportedly weaker seasons, plus a fire-induced move separated me from my Terrace House
Mafia cohost/roommate, so for a bunch of different reasons my relationship with this
show just sort of cooled off. But earlier this summer, a new season of Terrace House began, and, interestingly, this season, which is titled Tokyo 2019-2020, is widely considered the best season of Terrace House in years. It features a brand new house, a brand new cast of six new cast members, and a long-awaited return to Tokyo, which is where my personal favorite season of Terrace House took place. By all accounts, this new season of Terrace House is fantastic. It's fun, it's a wonderful return to form, and it is all available
right now on Netflix, complete with full English
language subtitles. It is a fantastic jumping-on point for new fans of the show, and I absolutely recommend you watch it. Except, you can't. (dramatic music) Now, why? Why can't you watch this show? What's going on here? So, as best I can tell, this all stems from Netflix's ongoing decade-long love affair with the idea of binge watching. So, basically Netflix's strategy for a long time now has amounted to dropping a huge batch of episodes, often a full season of television, all at the same time. It's been part of Netflix's DNA going back to the very beginning, and while it began as
just a side effect of Netflix filling up their back catalog with preexisting shows like
The Office or Friends, it actually became
something that Netflix has intentionally carried forward with their brand new original Netflix productions. Now, you might notice that Netflix has recently began distancing themself from the actual term "binge watching". If you look at the
official Netflix Twitter, they only used the term
one time this year, compared to dozens and dozens
of uses in 2018 and 2017. In fact, Netflix has actually begun instructing actors on Netflix shows to completely strip the word
"binge" from their vocabulary. Here's actor Guy Pierce
on The Empire Podcast. - [Interviewer] I don't think
Netflix like the term "binge" - [Guy] They don't. When we did the promotion
for this in the States, we were strictly sort
of instructed beforehand not to talk about binge watching. (laughs) So, but now I've made
an issue out of it, so-- - [Interviewer] Well,
what's the terminology-- - [Guy] I don't know,
actually, I'm not sure. - [Narrator] Now the funny thing is, as much as Netflix has publicly tried to move away from
the term "binge watching", binge watching is still clearly their preferred way for viewers
to consume Netflix content. With very few exceptions, Netflix still continues to drop all of their content in enormous,
multi-episode batches, but, strangely enough,
there's one region where Netflix does not unilaterally enforce their binge watching rule,
and that happens to be Japan. See, for whatever reason, in
Japan Netflix appears to be totally fine with releasing their shows the old fashioned way, week-by-week, with one new episode every seven days until the season ends, they're actually doing it
right now with Terrace House, the show I've been telling you about, there are currently nine whole
episodes of Terrace House available on Netflix Japan, with new episodes being added every week, and, again, these are episodes
with full English subtitles, totally ready for you to watch. And yet, in America, when you
login to your Netflix account and navigate to the page for the brand new season of
Terrace House, nothing. It is completely blank,
no episodes, no artwork, not even a release date
to look forward to. (dramatic music) (electronic music) Now, to be clear, this
is not the first time Netflix has pulled this weird maneuver of forced binge watching in certain regions. While working on this video, I was reminded of another major example where this came to my attention, which was the bizarre way they handled licensing the anime Little
Witch Academia a few years back. Now, if you're not familiar with it, Little Witch Academia
is an anime franchise from beloved anime studio Studio Trigger, who you might know from shows like Kill la Kill or Darling and the Franxx. Now, initially, Little
Witch Academia began as just this really excellent short film, it's one that I've been
extolling the virtues of since I first saw it in 2014, it beautifully blends this, like, sort of traditional
animation cartoony-ness with all the stuff that's charming about-- I don't know. Watch my old videos if you wanna hear me talk about how good it is. But that first movie was so successful that it actually spawned a sequel funded by a Kickstarter campaign
that Studio Trigger did, and then eventually in 2016, Trigger announced that they would be creating a full-fledged 25-episode Little Witch Academia TV series, which was a huge deal for fans of the movies and of the
studio, including me. Which is why it was so frustrating when it came to light
that Little Witch Academia had been licensed not by
Crunchy Roll or Funimation, but by Netflix. This revelation was scary to fans because immediately we
began to fear the worst. See, anime fans in the West have gotten really used to watching new anime one episode at a time, in real time, released with full professional English subtitles at the same day it releases in Japan. It's called "simulcasting", and it's something that
Crunchy Roll began doing over a decade ago in 2008. And over the years,
simulcasting has absolutely become the norm for
releasing anime in the West. It's just the way things are, it's what fans expect
when shows get licensed, which is what made it
so frustrating in 2017 when Netflix licensed
Little Witch Academia, announced that they had acquired the rights to the show in the West, aired it week-to-week in Japan, and then just sat on the
English release for six months. No release date, nothing. Like, keep in mind, for this
entire six month period, new episodes of Little Witch Academia were airing in Japan every single week on Netflix and on television. So, because we live in right
now and not, like, 1991, of course the same day that
episodes would air in Japan, you would see those episodes
plastered all over the internet in the form of screenshots on Twitter, or animated gif sets on Tumblr, these things were everywhere if you were even remotely tapped into the fandom for this animation studio. Which, as you might expect, was really really frustrating
to Western fans of the show who had no way to legally access it. Now, of course there are
plenty of illegal ways to access season one of
Little Witch Academia, which is not surprising, right? Like, there might not be
any group of people on Earth more comfortable with, and experienced in, pirating things than anime fans, because that's kind of
what being an anime fan was for at least a decade. A combination of anime
being really hard to access, and a lack of professional translation, meant that fans had to kind of step up and provide that for each other. So, predictably, as soon as it was taken away for a modern show, it began showing up on, you know, pirate anime sites with full, really well made fan subs. The show was there, waiting to watch, and while the rest of the internet was celebrating how
excellent this TV show was, Netflix in America continued
to pretend it didn't exist. (dramatic music) This put fans of Little Witch Academia, myself included, in this
really uncomfortable position where they had to choose between two kinda crappy choices. You could either sit around like good little customers and patiently wait while you have the entire show spoiled for
you on the internet, or you could just pirate the show, and watch it in real
time with everyone else. Now, as somebody who hasn't
pirated anime in years, I think that this situation is a little more nuanced ethically
than you might think at first. This situation kind of raised a really interesting dilemma, I think. Assuming I'm a paying Netflix
subscriber, which I am, is it ethically justifiable to pirate Little Witch Academia? I mean, think about it. Like, Netflix is already getting my 10 bucks or whatever per month, they'll keep getting my money
before, during, and after whenever they get around
the airing the show, and there was literally no other way to give Netflix more money for this show that I was looking forward to. So, I had to ask myself like, as long as I kept my
Netflix subscription going, what real difference does it make to their bottom line if
I watch the show "early"? And if you think that's not okay, then what if I pinky-promise to watch the show again when
it comes out on Netflix to boost the streaming numbers of it. Or, what if I promise to
import the Blu Rays from Japan? Like, is that enough? I guess the real question here is how much bending over backwards should fans of a show
really be asked to do to make an enormous corporation happy, especially when the corporation is behaving in a way that violates a literal decade of precedent on how to handle bringing shows to America. And just to be clear here, these are not rhetorical questions. I actually do want to hear
from you guys in the comments about what you think, 'cause I'm still, two, three years later working through my feelings about the
way Netflix handled this. Anyways, eventually
Netflix did get around to releasing Little Witch Academia, and they did a full six months later, after the entire 25-episode show had already finished
its entire run in Japan, and then, as if that wasn't enough, adding insult to injury, when they did release it, they only released the first
12 episodes out of the 25, and then sat on the
second half of the season for another three months. All of that to say this: Netflix, or at least Netflix
America, loves binge watching. A lot. They worship at the
idol of binge watching. Now that in and of itself isn't a problem, but it becomes a problem when you start hoarding media that exists already. Terrace House is an
amazing example of this. The show is finished, ready to watch, airing week-to-week in Japan
with full English subtitles, and it's sort of insane for Netflix to expect Terrace House fans to just sit on their hands and
wait patiently for them to get around to releasing the show, when we know that they exist. This decision by Netflix
is predicated on this idea that you can land lock media. And that's a dumb,
outdated, antiquated idea. It's an idea that I
actually thought we had all collectively left behind, and it's also an idea
that other industries have spent the past decade abandoning. Like, look at video games, for example. Last decade, if you
walked into a game store, virtually every game system you could buy was region-locked. The only way to play Japanese 3DS games was with a Japanese 3DS, the only way to play an
American XBOX 360 game was with an American XBOX 360, etc. etc. Game Cube, XBOX, PlayStation Two, the Wii, for a long time every game console was just universally region-locked, and that's just the way things were. And then, suddenly, it wasn't anymore. There was a shift. And now, in 2019, the PS4, the XBOX One, the Nintendo Switch, every major platform holder has pivoted to making all of their
hardware 100% region-free, allowing users to easily import
games from other countries, and even buy them digitally. And honestly, that just makes more sense. I mean, the fact of the matter is, we live in a hugely interconnected world, more so than ever before, and arbitrarily locking
off content for any reason, especially if it's just to satisfy some bizarre corporate need for people to binge watch your content, feels like an insane step backwards. All of this reflection left
me in a tricky position. The question remained, what
do I do about Terrace House? I desperately wanted to watch
the new season of the show, but I also didn't want
to resort to piracy, and there was only one place on Earth the show was available to watch legally, and that was Japan. Having run out of options, and desperate for some sort of resolution, I knew what I had to do. So I boo-- (coughs) Sorry, so I teamed up with
NordVPN in search of answers. See, in addition to the normal
benefits of using a VPN, anonymous web surfing,
keeping your location private, NordVPN offers another crucial feature, the ability to connect to the internet through any of their 5000-plus servers located all over the world. NordVPN has servers in over 60 countries, and, crucially, one of those countries is a little island nation known as Japan. Now what this means is that at any time, you can open up NordVPN
and in a matter of seconds, virtually transport
your computer to Japan, saving you thousands of
dollars on plane tickets. And here's the really magical part. By combining NordVPN with
your existing Netflix account, the one you probably already have, you can trick Netflix into letting you watch shows from other regions, including this entire
season of Terrace House. All without having to jump
through any additional hoops. It is a shockingly painless process, and if you wanna try it for yourself, just go to nordVPN.org/terrace, or click the link in the description to get 75% off of their three-year plan, and use the coupon code "terrace" to get one full month free. Now, while researching this video, I actually stumbled across
NordVPN organically, after seeing them
recommended over and over by users of the Terrace House sub-reddit, who all found themselves in the same predicament I did, many of whom had actually tried other VPNs to watch Terrace House and had issues with them
before settling on this one. And I can only speak
to my experience here, but in my experience it has been, actually, totally painless to do this. I'm not exaggerating when I say the entire setup process for this, from installing the software to connecting to a Japanese server took me, like, 35 seconds, and NordVPN's servers are actually so fast that there have been multiple times while working on this video where I realized I was connected to the Japan server without even
realizing the VPN was on. And the best part is, it is
totally risk-free to try, so if somehow this doesn't work for you, NordVPN offers a full
30-day money-back guarantee. So if you'd like to try this out yourself and support my YouTube
channel in the process, you can head to nordVPN.org/terrace, that's nordVPN.org, not .com, /terrace for 75% off a three-year
plan for 2.99 a month, and one month free. Now, if you made it
this far into the video, thank you, because this is something I'm legitimately excited about, and there's actually one final piece of this story that I
have not told you yet, and it's the part I'm the
most excited to share. See, getting access to this new season of Terrace House early and watching it with a friend of mine reminded me just how much I really do love this show. I've seen the new episodes
of this new season, and they are legitimately some of the best Terrace House
episodes I've ever seen, and this whole process has kind of reinvigorated my love of Terrace House, and it's also reinvigorated my desire to discuss Terrace House with somebody. That's why I'm thrilled to announce that as of today, I'm reviving
my Terrace House podcast, Terrace House Mafia, this
time with a brand new cohost, my friend Noel who you're
going to meet right now. - Hi, I'm Noel, I'm from Hawaii, I'm Japanese, Irish, and Mexican, I lived in Japan for, like, three years and then again for half a year recently, and I never, I don't ever get into shows, because I'm too lazy
to be watching things, but I love the monotony of everyday life. And also it feels like
I have Japanese friends, which I don't have many in America. And it helps me not forget Japanese, so. Yeah, it helps me to be a
normal Japanese person (laughs). Yeah. - [Narrator] On this show, we'll be going episode-by-episode
through the new season of Terrace House, Tokyo 2019-2020, and right now the only way you'll be able to watch along with us is by using a service like NordVPN. Again, nordvpn.org/terrace,
coupon code "terrace". (laughs) We've legitimately had a ton of fun making the first few episodes, and we hope you enjoy listening to it. Oh, and one last request,
that podcast feed sat there dormant for years
with dead links to episodes, so our iTunes rating
really, really took a blow as a result of that, so if you don't mind listening to the show, and if you like it, rating it five stars on iTunes, it would really help us out. So that's the journey that I've been on over the past couple of weeks, figuring out how to watch Terrace House's new season legitimately, or at least semi-legitimately. Thank you for watching,
and for real, sincerely, please give Terrace House a shot. It is legitimately one of
my favorite shows ever, and there's nothing else
on Earth quite like it. Thanks and I will see you next time. (mellow music) (laughs maniacally)
The funny thing is that all sitting on a license does is require people to either use international VPNs or download illegally in order to watch the shows. Similar thing happens when licenses expire.