Swan, Prominent Japan Vlogger, Passes On

I was a causal viewer of Roger Swan’s movie reviews, but my surprise at his sudden passing pales in comparison to the outpouring of shock and grief that I have seen around the YouTube community in the last week or so. To be honest, I don’t have the chops to eulogize him properly. I just didn’t know him well enough, which I regret. But here are some things I want to share with you.

There was a touching video made quite quickly by Tokyo Cooney. You can see that here. There were many other video tributes as well.

And there was a really powerful tribute by Kevin at the blog Dogen, where Swan contributed articles. He says:

If you’ve ever seen the Truman show, then you may be able to understand Rodger’s existence, and its importance to everyone that knew him. He was that normal guy that was on video–all the time. He was that normal guy that everyone watched grow up. We saw him turn from a boy into a man. We saw him grow! And those of us who began watching, be it out of friendship or even a sympathetic curiosity, we all became hooked and hypnotized by Rodger’s complete lack of ego.

Please see the whole post here.

As I was a fan of the horror movie channel he put out, I offer his last video in that vein as a small tribute to a truly interesting vlogger’s memory.

I identified with Swan, as we both shared interests in Japanese novels, movies and culture. His death is a grim reminder of my own mortality, and I think the best thing I can do to honor him is to live my life to the fullest. For I’d like to think he died feeling quite content with all that he had done. Would that we all could heed such a lesson.

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