Urban-Legend YouTuber Milk Tea Nomitai Breaks the Rules in His Debut Novel Set in Shibuya

Shibuya is a city where the front and back are completely different

“When I think about it now, maybe all my years as a YouTuber were actually preparation for writing novels.”

Speaking in a calm, pleasantly paced voice is the urban-legend YouTuber known as “Mirukuti Nomitai.”

With over 600,000 subscribers and a total of 100 million video views, he built his popularity without ever showing his face—only through quiet narration, a true storyteller of the hidden side. Now, under the pen name Ryū Akari, he has released the full-length novel Shibuya Shinikyō (KADOKAWA).

Set in Shibuya—Tokyo’s world-famous youth district—the story blends the real world with other realms, weaving together SNS keywords like #disappearance and #amnesia, along with testimonies from missing youths, to unravel its mysteries. It’s a new-style mystery thriller.

“Shibuya is a massive city everyone knows, yet surprisingly few people understand its roots. How did it grow to this extent? What historical layers created the Shibuya we know today? On the surface it’s cutting-edge, but when you trace its terrain or the placement of its shrines, you discover old myths and legends still lingering. Even the slope angles, even the depth of its valleys have meaning. Every time I walk there, I feel it’s a place where the front and back sides are completely different. That duality always fascinated me, and I wanted to preserve it as a record.”

Whenever Akari talks about Shibuya’s hidden side, his gaze naturally returns to his own origin point—urban legends.

“I think the reason I got hooked on urban legends is partly because I was an only child. I spent a lot of time alone at home, just playing games and reading manga. I’ve always loved worlds with aliens and that kind of atmosphere. And ever since I was a kid, I used to think, ‘It would be so cool if secret societies actually existed.’

Life felt a little boring back then, so worlds with conspiracy-theory vibes were more exciting. Nowadays everyone knows about groups like the Illuminati, but back then they weren’t mainstream at all. I used to read occult threads on message boards nonstop. Looking back, I guess I was pretty precocious—I was researching all that stuff back in elementary school (laughs).”

I have zero desire to become famous

Although “Mirukuti Nomitai” is strongly associated with urban-legend YouTube content, his early uploads were something completely different.

“At first, I uploaded videos introducing the figurines I won at arcades. Back then, there were many YouTubers doing figure-review content, and I also introduced Dragon Ball and One Piece figures. When the view count passed 100, I’d think, ‘Yes!’ and be happy.

Then one day, on a whim, I uploaded a single video about urban legends. At the time, North Korea was firing missiles at Japan, so I talked about things like ‘How many seconds would it take to reach us?’ and ‘Where should we run?’ That video blew up.

But in my case, it wasn’t just a typical urban legend story—I researched the questionable parts myself, verified things, and talked from my own unique perspective. I think it got around 90,000 views. That’s when I realized there were many people who wanted this kind of content, and naturally the urban-legend ratio increased. From there, the talking about the hidden side style felt right for me, and my channel’s identity solidified.”

When asked about his unique style of never showing his face, Akari responded in his characteristic calm manner.

“I truly have zero desire to become famous. I don’t want attention for showing my face, or to be recognized on the street I have no such desire at all. If anything, I’m the type who feels uneasy when I stand out. Also, I believe that with urban legends, the storyteller is not the main character. If the face or personality of the storyteller stands out too much, it changes the atmosphere of the story. Sometimes it even makes the content feel shallow. So if my face appearing would only get in the way, it’s better not to show it. That’s how I ended up with my current style.”

For Akari, who has worked as a YouTuber, writing a novel was a major challenge.

“At first, I really didn’t know how to write. I wasn’t clear on the difference between first-person and third-person, and the rhythm of the text was all trial and error. I had read novels before, but reading them with the intent to write makes your perspective completely different. Also, I realized novels surprisingly have a lot of rules. Most people write while following those rules to some extent. I tried imitating them, but halfway through I thought, ‘Maybe it’s okay to break them a little.’ So there are some parts I deliberately broke. Since this is my first novel, I hope people will forgive me (laughs).”

In Shibuya Shinikyō, in addition to urban legends, the concept of an alternate world is also a core element of the story. However, incorporating that element came with a lot of inner conflict.

“At first, I thought, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t include another world.’ I felt like it might come across as cheap. Since it’s fundamentally a mystery, readers wouldn’t accept it if the resolution relied on supernatural phenomena, right? But when I read Mizuki Tsujimura’s The Solitary Castle in the Mirror (Poplar Publishing), I was shocked. Even though it’s set in the modern day, the idea of entering a mirror worked without feeling out of place, and I realized, ‘Oh, you can actually do something like this.’ A top author was layering fantasy onto the real world. Seeing that, I decided to incorporate it as a major element in my own work.”

When asked about the future, Akari spoke without hesitation.

“I want to write the next one too. But it’s not about increasing quantity—I want to make sure I grow with each book. With every work, I want to challenge an area I haven’t seen yet.

For example, curses tied to land, or the inheritance of memories. I’ve always been interested in themes that connect across time and place. When I wrote Shibuya Shinikyō, I had this sense that the land has memories, and that was incredibly fascinating.

I’ll of course continue YouTube. That’s my rice-work (editor’s note: work one does to make a living), part of my daily life. But writing novels is my life’s work. Even if it takes time, I want to continue as long as I can expand my own world. YouTube and novels may seem completely different, but in the sense of telling stories, they’re the same. While balancing these two, I want to see how far my expression can expand. I want to keep challenging that.”

To step into new territories, Mirukuti Nomitai / Ryū Akari will continue to challenge himself.

“Shibuya Shinikyō” (Ryū Akari, KADOKAWA)