I'm Ending The Canipa Effect (kinda)

On January 7th, 2014 (Australia time), I started The Canipa Effect. Ten years later, I’m ending it. My life has changed a lot since I first started YouTube. In 2014, I was fresh out of high school and going into university. Today, I’m married and have a full-time job--to put it simply, I don’t have nearly as much time or hunger to work on videos.

 I’ve been aware that 2023 was the channel’s swan song for a while now. It started out as a hobby, then I was able to make enough money from sponsorships and Patreon to turn it into a feasible income when supplemented with freelance work, and then it became a hobby again in 2023. When working full-time, I’m currently only able to dedicate some weekends to creating new videos, which means that the time between me getting really excited about an idea and actually being able to release the video is a matter of months--enough time for the passion to fizzle out and for me to move onto being excited about something else. It also leaves me largely unsatisfied with the scripts. For instance, while I’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the Frieren video, that script was written in a single day, and I know I could’ve dived deeper given more time.

That said, I’m still immensely proud of The Canipa Effect. Not only have I made some videos that I think are genuinely interesting, but it’s lent me plenty of opportunities as well. When I moved to Japan for my now-wife's work, I never expected I’d end up meeting so many people, conducting so many interviews, and even visiting anime studios! There was absolutely no reason for anyone to give me the time of day, but I truly, truly appreciate it.

I really hope The Canipa Effect has given you something as well. Even if the information itself didn’t resonate with you, I hope an understanding of anime as a creation of passionate individuals stuck with you. Social media is overwhelmed with cynicism, pessimism, and conspiracy, but it’ll never be wrong to be patient and listen.

This isn’t it for me completely. I’ll still be on Twitter, and maybe I’ll even return to making videos someday. They might be about anime, or they might be about something totally different. Even in the lead-up to making this announcement, I’ve had about four video ideas that I’ve had to stop myself from going any further with. I’m now working as a localization editor (a field I entered back in 2021 and am truly grateful to everyone who made the career change possible for me), and I’ve gotten the chance to work on some incredible projects with even more incredible people. I can’t wait for you to see them.

To round up all my thank yous: Thank you to everyone who’s ever watched The Canipa Effect. I’ve enjoyed making these videos, but knowing others found value in them has always been an amazing feeling. Thank you to everyone who’s supported the channel on Patreon. I will be ending the Patreon today, but I am incredibly grateful to all of you for bearing with my lack of updates and giving me a reason to keep making videos, even when it would be a lot more sensible to stop. Thank you to everyone I’ve met thanks to this channel. I am a ridiculously socially anxious person. I find it very difficult to reach out, and if it wasn’t for all of you (including the woman I’m now married to!), I probably would’ve ended up on this journey alone. Thank you to penlum and U.N. Owen for editing the channel’s videos this last year. You’ve both done a brilliant job recreating the style of these videos, even if I basically ended up throwing you in at the deep end. I massively appreciate it.

Until next time!

Callum May

Formerly The Canipa Effect

NOTE: I'll be unpublishing this Patreon page in a week from now, since I can't seem to find a way to freeze payments indefinitely while still having the page open for people to see this post. I'll pause February payments just in case I forget.