How does he end his videos?

The first thing I noticed is that in comparison to the rest of his video, the way he signs off is particularly  formal sounding. Not only that, instead of a quick “That’s it for today! See you next time and don’t forget to click and subscribe!” saying goodbye is a process. It’s a full fledged journey. It reminds me of trying to leave a house you’re a guest at and having to continue the goodbyes through several parts of the house before finally having the front door shut behind you.

It starts off with the hesitant transition って言う事で 。。。(te iu koto de… ),  which functions the same as the English, “that is to say…”  At this point, if we’re going with the leaving-guest analogy, he is standing up from the couch as if to signal that he should probably get going.

kon kai ha konna kanji de

[Well this time, on that note …]

he’s inching toward the living room door…

owarinishimasu

[I’d like to finish]

This concluding expression is capped off with a bow. Yet, the video is not actually over. In fact I would call this “sign-off”  his exit from the content portion of the video (the living room by my analogy’s standards) into the hallway of final formalities.  Next up: another thank you and another bow.

arigatou gozaimashita

[thank you very much]

At this point he’s already said three varieties of goodbye and I hope to see you again, and is loitering by the coat rack.

Next comes the subscribing blurb. Followed by, you guessed it, yet another bow.

chaneru toroku yoroshiku onegaiitashimasu!

[I’m thanking you in advance for your care in subscribing to my channel!] Or

[Subscribe to my channel please!]

Now he has his shoes and coat on, but only half of  his party is actually outside and they’re still shouting “We’ll be back soon!” and “We’ll have to do this more often!”

The last few words before YouTube shuts the front door on him and the video is over are sore de ha….  (whelp, anywho, on that note, etc) and a silent wave.

The end. The door is shut and he goes home.

There were a lot of good tidbits in there. The moment when he asks his audience to subscribe he uses the ultra formal yoroshiku onegaiitashimasu. I guess because asking us to subscribe to his channel is essentially asking us to do him a big favour he opts to be extra polite/ humble about it. It’s cool that you can get such a wide spectrum of formality and casualty in Japanese YouTube videos. We really only use polite language in English when we want something from someone or we’re asking permission for something.