A scrappy living-room explainer on Japanese gay position slang that out-engaged the algorithm through sheer niche precision — this audience found exactly what it came for.
3.7% engagement on 23,489 views is strong for a 2020 educational video, and the top comment (26 likes) skips the lesson entirely to riff on 'neko' as a stray cat metaphor — the audience came to play.
The two-host casual debate format, where neither Andrew nor Meng claims authority, created a conversational gap that commenters rushed to fill with corrections, extensions, and personal disclosures.
Watch outA 2-like comment directly calls the hosts out for citing Wikipedia and guessing etymology — in a smaller comment section, that kind of credibility challenge carries more weight than it would at scale.
If a follow-up on sandoichi, 3P slang, and the lesbian community's parallel vocabulary (both already requested in comments) never materialized, what was the actual ceiling for this series?
Andrew and Meng, two English-speaking expats who have lived in Japan for eight and five years respectively, explain Japanese gay slang terms for sexual positions as used in the gay community and on dating apps. They cover the main terms for top, bottom, and versatile, discuss their likely etymologies (verbs, kanji shapes, English loanwords), and note distinctions between terms used in real-life gay culture versus those used in manga/boys' love fiction. They acknowledge uncertainty on some points and invite corrections from viewers.
Andrew and Meng, two English-speaking expats with 8 and 5 years in Japan respectively, walk through the gay community's position vocabulary: tachi (top), uke and neko (bottom), riba (vers), and the yori and bari modifiers that let men shade within those categories. The conversation turns on a genuine disagreement — whether neko or uke is the dominant term for bottom — with neither host winning, and both inviting the comment section to adjudicate. Kanji etymology and visual logic (deko/boko as convex/concave characters) give the lesson an unexpected layer of linguistic texture.
How this video's like-and-comment rate compares to this channel's running average.
Opening 15 seconds — the bit that decides whether a viewer keeps watching.
“[0:00] everyone should mark their positions on their apps if you don't leave any information on it, I will get very confused [0:09] I would always say I am 'Ukeyori', which is vers bottom. [0:15] which part is standing?
The in media res cold open creates mild curiosity and signals personality, but 'positions on apps' is too vague for cold viewers to immediately understand the topic — only 'Ukeyori' and 'vers bottom' at 0:09 anchor the subject. The video then spends nearly two minutes on background before the actual lesson begins, burning retention before the payoff arrives.
Three alternative openings, each in a different archetype. Each is under 40 words — completable in 15 seconds.
“I've spent 8 years in Japan and the one thing no textbook teaches you: gay men here call themselves cats — and the word for bottom literally comes from a verb meaning 'to stand.'”
WhyLeads with credibility (8 years), delivers a specific surprising fact (cats = bottom), and teases the etymology contradiction — two hooks in one sentence matching what drives 45% of comment engagement.
“I opened a Japanese gay dating app with zero vocab and embarrassed myself. After five years here, I finally know what tachi, neko, and riba actually mean — and the etymology is genuinely weird.”
WhyRelatable confusion-to-resolution arc; names the actual terms cold so search-intent viewers immediately know this is their video; 'genuinely weird' primes the curiosity that drives most of the substantive comment discussion.
“If you're gay in Japan or pursuing Japanese guys on apps, there are four words you need before you post a profile — and 'seme' isn't one of them.”
WhyDirectly targets the likely viewer, raises stakes (profile-level embarrassment), and subverts the yaoi-educated viewer's assumed vocabulary — mirroring the seme-is-wrong correction that generates visible debate in the comments.
The title accurately signals the content but strips out all the personality and surprise — comments show viewers loved the unexpected etymology (kanji shapes that look like anatomy, a cat metaphor for bottom), the candid personal disclosures, and the banter. A dry 'Lesson' framing undersells a video that is genuinely entertaining and dense with counterintuitive facts.
Show the kanji 凸 (top) and 凹 (bottom) side by side with a cat icon between them — the character shapes are the most surprising visual moment in the video and would make the thumbnail distinctive and searchable in a niche with few visually interesting competitors.
77 comments analysed and clustered into themes.
Viewers repeatedly called the video 'so informative' and praised the kanji visual breakdown — 'the graphics are so funny' appeared alongside genuine learning. The neko term sparked the most delight: 'sounds like someone who just shows up from time to time, gets food and attention then leaves; like a stray cat' became a meme in the thread. Andrew's reluctance to reveal his position before finally admitting 'ukeyori' was widely enjoyed as a running gag.
How the audience feels — a Net Sentiment mood score, how split the room is, and an early churn signal. All from the comments, not YouTube analytics.
Net Sentiment Score over 42 analysed comments; headline adjusted toward the channel norm (Bayesian, C=20). Polarization = normalised entropy. Comment-derived — not YouTube analytics.
Who actually showed up in the comments — psychographic, topical and language mix. Computed deterministically from 42 labeled root comments.
YouTube’s 2025 discovery shift now weights satisfaction signals — comment sentiment, tone, and depth. We can’t see the model, but we can estimate its inputs. Directional only.
Key transcript moments — tap a timestamp to jump to that point in the video.
Each comment theme mapped to the transcript moment that sparked it.
Andrew's upfront 'ukeyori' confession at the top (0:09), the kanji visual that 'looks like a dick' (1:31), and the drawn-out reluctance before finally disclosing his position (5:49) were the moments that generated the warmest and funniest comment responses.
The neko vs uke debate (1:39–3:17) sparked the most comment discussion; the 'riba from reversible' etymology (4:18) drew cross-cultural comparisons to Chinese 1/0/0.5 coding; the bari-tachi/bari-uke introduction (7:13) prompted viewers to name additional group-sex terms the hosts hadn't covered.
Severity × frequency — ranked. Each point has an evidence quote and a concrete before/after suggestion.
“sound is real bad. sad for a video with such an important word”↗ view
“And the compound ネコより (mostly bottom) is also commonly used.”↗ view
“What? No "sides"? No word for people who only are oral?”↗ view
“Two non-Japanese guys talking about Japanese gay slang and basically admitting they don't know what they are talking about... "I read about it on wiki years ago but I don't remember." I'll pass thx.”↗ view
“Do you know what difference between 絡みタチ & バックタチ ?”↗ view
“When I stayed in Fukuoka last year, people would usually use ネコ I don't remember ever hearing ウケ down there. So I think there is a regional difference as well.”↗ view
“I had always thought "tachi" was from 太刀.”↗ view
“opens vocabulary book Right, so what about "dom top"? And "power bottom"? (Asking for a friend)”↗ view
“In yaoi, I'll sometimes come across the word "seke" (combination of seme and uke) to describe a versatile character. Is this an actual term the gay community uses, or is like seme and used exclusively in yaoi?”↗ view
“so that means you are a pure top ( Power top, power bottom) — Nah, it doesnt have to be power. Pure top!”
“The talk about 凸 and 凹 and then the middle one not really represented visually through the character shape, its sorta similar to Chinese with 1 for top and 0 for bottom, but 0.5 for versa... :')”↗ view
“Are there any differences in terms used for top/bottom/vers in Japan's lesbian/queer community?”↗ view
“Another white obsessed asian I'll pass”↗ view
“neko has a really interesting background it's a huge Wikipedia article about it … yeah I haven't read it in a long time so I don't really remember”
“btw loved the inclusion of the music from a rick and morty episode!”↗ view
What a brand or agency would see evaluating this video — which sponsors to pitch, why, what to charge, and what's safe.
Audience shows strong learning-utility intent — multiple commenters explicitly say they'll 'copy and paste into apps' and one (@wanton0425) says he'll change his app username based on a term learned, which is direct purchase-adjacent behavior. ~14% of comments (6/42 surfaced) ask follow-up vocabulary questions ('sides?', 'oral?', 'dom top?', 'seke?', 'hai joō?'), signaling the audience treats this channel as a reference resource — high trust, mid-spend power. Ad tolerance reads neutral-positive; no anti-sponsor sentiment in the thread.
Pre-roll dedicated mention (15–30s) before the lesson begins — the audience is here for the vocabulary payoff and would tolerate an upfront 'today's video is brought to you by [app/learning brand]' better than a mid-roll that interrupts the term-by-term teaching
“Thinking of changing my app username to Bari Tachi. Hehehe..”— Direct intent to act on video learnings inside a dating app — exact behavior a dating-app sponsor pays for↗ view
“Yay so informative. I'm ready to go to Tokyo 💚”— Travel-trigger comment — eSIM/VPN/booking sponsors pay for this exact transition moment↗ view
“you can copy and paste into your apps.”— Creators themselves frame the video as utility for app use — sponsor read fits the same framing
“I have been in Japan for 15 years and in a relationship with same guy for 10... refreshing to see a channel that can speak about these issues openly”— Deep-trust loyalty signal — long-resident expat treating channel as authority validates premium niche-scarcity multiplier↗ view
Algorithm Signal is a proxy. YouTube’s satisfaction scores aren’t public. Directional, not predictive.
Unanswered questions and explicit requests from the comment thread — fuel for the next upload.
Three video ideas pulled directly from what the comments asked for.
Japanese gay slang part 2: group sex, kink roles, and dating app culture terms (sandoichi, sanpi, chambara, dom top equivalents)
Why does 'neko' mean bottom? — deep dive into the etymology, cat imagery, and generational shift from neko to uke
Japanese queer women's vocabulary — terms used in lesbian and bi women's communities in Japan
Gay slang comparison: Japan vs China vs English — how the same concepts get coded differently across cultures
Gay dating apps in Japan — how to actually write your profile, what the fields mean, and what signals are read positively or as red flags
Concrete, testable changes for the next upload. Each cites a timestamp, a comment quote, or a metric — and names what to watch.
Fix audio on next upload — invest in a lavalier mic and record both hosts on separate channels
Pre-research etymology before recording instead of speculating on camera
Add chapters retroactively to this video
Publish Part 2 covering sandoichi (3-way), sanpi (3P), chanbara, seke, sides, dom top, hai joō, neko-yori, 絡みタチ vs バックタチ
Cut a Short from the 5:44–6:30 personal-position reveal
Pin a comment glossary with the 7 terms + explicitly ask for regional variations
Make a dedicated 'Regional Japanese gay slang' video — Tokyo vs Osaka vs Fukuoka
Address the 'native speaker' credibility gap by co-hosting future videos with Japanese gay creators
Build a downloadable / pinned PDF glossary the audience can paste into apps
Add a 'sides' / oral-only / non-position-based identity video
Cover yaoi-vs-real-life vocabulary in a follow-up (seme/uke origin, why gay community doesn't use seme)
Title future vocab videos with an explicit position-format question hook (e.g. 'Are you Tachi, Uke, or Riba?')
Show kanji on-screen as text overlays when discussed (凸 凹 太刀)
Translate / subtitle into Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese
Build an 'app profile vocabulary' series across languages (Japanese done — Korean, Thai, Mandarin next)
Pitch Grindr/Blued/Hornet for sponsorship using this video as a deck — exact use-case for their product
Add an end-screen card to a 'Tokyo gay scene' or travel-themed video for the travel-curious audience
Reply in-thread to the etymology contributors (@persik_cereza, @ryuuakiyama3958, @mcuggetmeal) acknowledging their corrections
Address the 'cuteness' angle of Neko in a Short — it's the term commenters latched onto emotionally
Tighten the conversational format — hosts repeat each other and self-correct mid-stream (5:33 'that's why I got confused')
Capture a 'we were wrong / corrections' follow-up acknowledging @persik_cereza's Neko etymology + @ryuuakiyama3958's 太刀 theory
Use the description glossary the creators promised but apparently underdelivered on (described at 7:45)
Who to reply to first — ranked by impact, with a ready-to-send draft in your voice.
hello meng...you should also add to the list 1.)sandoichi....... サンドイッチ sandwich (bread)..... repairing to 3 person (orgy) one guy between of 2 guys 2.)or sanpi ..........3P (3 person) 3.)chambara ........チャンバラ repairing 2 person playing your banana's to chanbara (samurai/sword) and looks like luke vs vader in the movie return of the jedi no.1 & 2 words are very usefull not even to gay people but also in straight person too
Sandoichi is genuinely brilliant — a sandwich reference, I love it. We'll definitely cover these in a part 2, thank you for adding them!
I like the term Neko. Sounds like someone who just shows up from time to time, gets food and attention then leaves; like a stray cat XD
Honestly this is the most accurate description of neko I've ever heard and I wish we'd thought of it for the video 😂
this is an interesting video. I had never heard うけよりとかたちより。I have been in Japan for 15 years and in a relationship with same guy for 10. but not really open so it is refreshing to see a channel that can speak about these issues openly. thats for the info. and if I had to label myself it would be たち。でもたまに受けもできる。btw loved the inclusion of the music from a rick and morty episode!
15 years and still learning new vocabulary — that actually makes us feel so much better! Glad this felt like a safe space to talk about it, and yes that Rick and Morty track was perfect for the vibe 😄
In yaoi, I'll sometimes come across the word "seke" (combination of seme and uke) to describe a versatile character. Is this an actual term the gay community uses, or is like seme and used exclusively in yaoi?
Great question — from what we know, 'seke' stays firmly in yaoi/fanfic territory, kind of like seme. In real-life apps and conversation you'd just say riba or uke-yori. But we'd love to hear from anyone who's actually seen it used IRL!
One bit of info I can contribute: When I stayed in Fukuoka last year, people would usually use ネコ I don't remember ever hearing ウケ down there. So I think there is a regional difference as well.
This is so interesting — regional variation was something we wondered about and didn't have data on. Did neko feel completely equivalent to uke down there, or was there a slightly different nuance to it?
The word Neko (cat) is opposed to Tachi (standing). Neko refers to stay in the position on all fours, like a cat, as opposed to Tachi, standing, which refers to stand up one's whole body on their feet. Hence Neko means bottom and Tachi means top. And the compound ネコより (mostly bottom) is also commonly used.
This actually makes so much more sense than anything we came up with on camera — the on-all-fours vs standing contrast is clean and logical. Thank you for digging that out!
Two non-Japanese guys talking about Japanese gay slang and basically admitting they don't know what they are talking about... If you had actually learned about your subject matter instead of "I guess..." "I think..." "Maybe it comes from this verb (but it doesn't)," then maybe the non-Japanese view could have worked here. Instead we got "I read about it on wiki years ago but I don't remember." I'll pass thx.
Totally fair — we probably should have been clearer that this was a 'two expats comparing notes' format, not a definitive guide. The hedging was honest, not lazy, but we get why that's frustrating. The comments have filled in a lot of the gaps we left, which is exactly what we were hoping for!
This is content I can get behind. .... The pun was unintentional. Now we need more. opens vocabulary book Right, so what about "dom top"? And "power bottom"? (Asking for a friend)
We actually covered bari-tachi and bari-uke at the end — that's basically your power top and power bottom! Your friend is all set 😄
Thank you again for the insights and apologies for necroposting. Are there any differences in terms used for top/bottom/vers in Japan's lesbian/queer community?
Never apologize for necroposting, the question is great! Honestly that's a whole separate video we haven't made yet — if you have any intel on it we'd love to hear it in the meantime.
Very useful information ❤ Do you know what difference between 絡みタチ & バックタチ ? Thx
Great additions to dig into! 絡みタチ is roughly someone who loves physical contact and intimacy during sex, while バックタチ refers specifically to preferring rear-entry positioning — so they describe style rather than just role. Happy to do a part 2 covering these!
Interesting. Is there a word for sides?
We honestly haven't come across a direct equivalent in Japanese gay slang — it might just get described contextually. Anyone in the comments know?
Informative! Thanks you two. And to Andrew, I don't care what position you are, I just gradually fall in love with you. It'd be great to find someone sentimental and enthusiastic like you. Much love from Saigon, Vietnam. 😉
Andrew is reading this and definitely blushing 😄 Much love back from Japan to Saigon!
Shareable social-proof quotes — ready for thumbnails, community posts, or a sponsor deck.
“I like the term Neko. Sounds like someone who just shows up from time to time, gets food and attention then leaves; like a stray cat XD”
“Very informative! Love the video, great job guys 💚”
“This sounds incredibly complicated...and very Japanese to create these categories.”
“Loved the video! The graphics are so funny!!!! Learned a lot!!!”
“This is content I can get behind.”
“Yay so informative. I'm ready to go to Tokyo 💚”
“This is a great video! I thought I knew something about this subject but you two clarified everything.”
“this is so informative, thank you for this💓”
Moments worth cutting into Shorts — each with a title and a ready hook line. Timestamps link to the video.
Verbatim — the 5 most representative comments from the thread.
I like the term Neko. Sounds like someone who just shows up from time to time, gets food and attention then leaves; like a stray cat XD
Very informative! Love the video, great job guys 💚
this is an interesting video. I had never heard うけよりとかたちより。I have been in Japan for 15 years and in a relationship with same guy for 10. but not really open so it is refreshing to see a channel that can speak about these issues openly. thats for the info. and if I had to label myself it would be たち。でもたまに受けもできる。btw loved the inclusion of the music from a rick and morty episode!
"Neko" is kinda cute, though...
hello meng...you should also add to the list 1.)sandoichi....... サンドイッチ sandwich (bread)..... repairing to 3 person (orgy) one guy between of 2 guys 2.)or sanpi ..........3P (3 person) 3.)chambara ........チャンバラ repairing 2 person playing your banana's to chanbara (samurai/sword) and looks like luke vs vader in the movie return of the jedi no.1 & 2 words are very usefull not even to gay people but also in straight person too
Top reply-magnet comments — where the real debate happened. 35 replies across 24 roots · max chain 4 deep · creator replied to 57%
Two non-Japanese guys talking about Japanese gay slang and basically admitting they don't know what they are talking about... If you had actually learned about your subject matter instead of "I guess..." "I think..." "Maybe it comes from this verb (but it doesn't)," then mayb…
neko being gay slang for bottom is really funny bc it feels a bit of a reference to "pussy/boy pussy" ?!?? i wonder what the connection is/route actually is?? (i mean jokingly i think in english speaking spaces in the west (idk if anywhere else but def north america!) they say…
I like the term Neko. Sounds like someone who just shows up from time to time, gets food and attention then leaves; like a stray cat XD
Very informative! Love the video, great job guys 💚
this is an interesting video. I had never heard うけよりとかたちより。I have been in Japan for 15 years and in a relationship with same guy for 10. but not really open so it is refreshing to see a channel that can speak about these issues openly. thats for the in…
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