KouichiTV
Kōichi Takahashi, better known as KouichiTV or Kouichi, is a Japanese YouTuber, filmmaker, and writer from Hokkaido Prefecture. He creates sketch comedy videos on YouTube which feature surreal humor and eccentric characters. Takahashi also produces horror films and won the Hokkaido Media Award at the 2018 for Saiaku na Ichinichi. His debut feature-length film, Captured!, is set to premiere in January 2026.
Life, career, and content
Kōichi Takahashi was born in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, on May 29, 1996. He created his YouTube channel, kouichitv, on July 3, 2012, while in his first year of high school. Takashi attended Sapporo University, where he studied cross-cultural communication. Although he described his initial earnings from YouTube as comparable to an allowance, his channel saw a rise in viewership towards the end of his studies; around the same time, he was invited into Uuum, a multi-channel network for content creators. Since the visual arts company at which he interned did not allow for side jobs, Takahashi decided to exclusively pursue YouTube.The videos on KouichiTV typically consists of short sketches with surreal comedy, and often feature eccentric characters in unusual situations. In a video from 2022, Takahashi played a video game NPC who gets increasingly irritated and confrontational as the player skips his dialogue. In another video from 2025, he portrayed a YouTuber who gives a room tour but with excessively bright lighting; although the viewer can not see because of the light, the YouTuber supposedly showcases luxury cars and meets with Elon Musk. Other videos are set within what-if scenarios, such as a world where rock paper scissors becomes the method of legal regulation. Takahashi has utilized elements of psychological horror and often includes pyscopathic characters within the sketches.
Filmmaking
Takahashi produced student films while attending Sapporo University. He created the short film Rifujin na Otoko, which was amongst three recipients at the 2017 Sapporo Film Contest by the Sapporo Film Commission. In 2018, he directed Saiku na Ichinichi, a comedic short film about a man who experiences his most unluckiest day after his fortune is read on television. The five-minute film won the Hokkaido Media Award at the.On October 31, 2021, Takahashi directed the short horror film Kienai, produced in partnership with Saitama Prefecture. The film, which was uploaded to the KouichiTV channel, was ranked by Gizmodo Japan Yatagai as one of the best horror videos on YouTube in 2023. In October 2025, Takahashi directed and wrote the 30-episode vertical video horror comedy series Bunny Kitchen for DMM TV's DMM Shorts. It follows a group of people who are trapped within a nighttime abandoned shopping mall and are chased by a man in a bunny mascot suit.
Takahashi's debut full-length horror film, Captured!, is set to premiere in Japanese theaters on January 16, 2026. The film will follow a third-year high school student, who is haunted by a masked "god" after a spirit was captured in the background of a viral vlog she posted to social media. According to, it is the first feature-length film directed by a Japanese YouTuber.