- Taro Is Narrating is a Facebook page run by anonymous content creator Taro, who creates parody narration videos based on popular movies, anime, TV series, and other similar content.
It’s plenty obvious that the appetite for video content among Malaysians has grown proportionately to the growth of social media and video sites like Facebook and YouTube. With channels like Epicism, MGAG, and So, I’m Jenn all successfully grabbing the attention of netizens all over Malaysia, it’s no surprise that many others are also trying their hand at Internet stardom.
One such example is a 24-year-old Malaysian known only as Taro, a producer of parody content who refuses to reveal his identity and real name, following in the footsteps of other popular anonymous viral content creators such as Howtobasic and Ohmwrecker.
Taro, who works as a home tutor for primary school students, uses his free time to work on parody videos, which he posts up on his Facebook page “Taro Is Narrating“. After taking snippets from popular movies, viral videos, and TV series, Taro lays down humorous commentary and voice dubs to create narration videos with a distinctly crude Malaysian-Chinese flavour.
To understand just what I mean, check out this hilarious narration of Frozen.
Or this commentary on international football.
Something From Nothing
Taro explains that his journey in content creation was never something he’d planned to do from an early age. In fact, Taro who used to study Marketing and Event Management in college only began to take an interest in creating videos after getting inspired by the same type of content he himself would eventually create.
“I began creating videos in April 2018 after watching and being inspired by a Taiwanese YouTube narrator called AmoGood and after trying Adobe Premiere Pro,” he said.
Explaining the way he works, Taro said that he first chooses clips from his favourite childhood animes, movies, TV shows, or whatever he feels like working on, and takes it from there.
After he’s decided what to narrate for the week, he starts watching and take notes on the key storylines, then writes it all on Microsoft Word to create a script for his narrations. He then records his narrations on Audacity, imports them back into Premiere Pro, and proceeds to editing and subtitling.
“The most difficult thing about all this is having the determination to learn editing all by myself,” he said. “Having zero knowledge in multimedia, I stayed up doing all kinds of videos back then just to get used to the functions in editing.”
“Also my computer isn’t top-notch—it takes several minutes to process a single command,” he added. “So as a short-tempered person, it also trained my patience.”
Currently, aside from some advice about copyright issues from his buddies, Taro does all of this by himself—something he says he doesn’t mind as long as he gets to make his viewers happy.
“The best thing is when people who watch my videos drop me a message to tell me that I’ve brightened up their day, which is the main objective of creating these videos in the first place.”
Malaysian-Flavoured Taro
In terms of numbers, Taro’s following has now reached over the 30,000 mark on Facebook, an impressive number for a creator with less than half a year of experience under his belt. On why he started out on Facebook first, Taro explained that it was all down to what he felt was the best way to reach his preferred audience.
“They are mainly students or workers who are frequent social media users and understand the memes that I use in my videos,” he said. “I believe that my videos as well as the way I speak are all very Malaysian, which attracts their attention.”
“Also, Malaysians tend to stay on Facebook longer than on YouTube, which is why I first put up my videos on Facebook.”
But eventually, Taro does hope to start creating content on YouTube and possibly grow his viewerbase, with him ultimately also revealing his true identity.
“There’ll be a larger variety of videos coming out, and I’ll be creating a YouTube channel for that. After I do my face reveal, there will be more content such as music, talk shows, food, photos, and vlogs.”
“My ultimate ambition for Taro Is Narrating is to make everyone happy when they surf my page,” he added. “I also want to be a comedian, voice actor, as well as host in the future.”
As for others thinking about heading down the same path as him and the many other creators out there, Taro tells them to start somewhere, anywhere.
“Many want to create videos because they were first inspired by their idols,” he said. “But the most successful creator or influencer is someone who can turn their idols into their fans.”
“So if you don’t start, you’ll forever be just one of the million fans out there.”
- To check out Taro’s creations, visit his Facebook page.
Feature Image Credit: Taro Is Narrating
