Garnt Maneetapho (born 31 May 1990), better known as Gigguk, is a Thai-British

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

er who is known for his comedic rants and reviews on

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, such as anime, manga, video games, computers or other highly enthusiastic hobbies. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. ...

culture. He is affiliated with the

Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

-backed agency

GeeXPlus , stylized as Book☆Walker and BOOK☆WALKER, is a Japanese e-book store that sells manga, light novels, and magazines from various publishers, as well as a few published by themselves. It is based in Chiyoda, Tokyo and was created by Kadokawa ...

Career

Maneetapho created his YouTube channel, then called "The Anime Zone", in 2006, using the online

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Gigguk," a

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

by which his family called him. In 2012, he created parodies of popular anime, starting with ''

Rebuild of Evangelion ''Rebuild of Evangelion'', known in Japan and on Amazon Prime Video as , is a Japanese animated film series and a reboot of the original ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' anime television series, produced by Studio Khara. Hideaki Anno serves as the ...

'' into the ''EvAbridged'' series. From 2012 to 2016 Maneetapho was a member of the ''PodTaku'' podcast alongside co-hosts Tristan Gallant (Arkada), Holden Bremley (HoldenReviews) and Jeanne (xDisturbedJeans). During 2017, Maneetapho retired the "Anime Zone" moniker for his channel, now just called "Gigguk". In February 2018, Maneetapho presented the Best Comedy award at the

2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards The 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards were held on February 24, 2018, honoring excellence in anime from 2017. The nominees were announced on January 18. Voting began on January 22, and was held in three separate rounds from January 22 to February 11. ...

, alongside YouTuber LilyPichu, at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In November 2019, Maneetapho, along with YouTuber Sydney Poniewaz (Sydsnap), moved to northwestern

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan to begin working as an influencer for GeeXPlus. The effort was to help promote/introduce anime and Japanese culture to the rest of the world through his content. In February 2020, Maneetapho joined alongside Connor Colquhoun (CDawgVA) and Joey Bizinger (The Anime Man) in creating and hosting a weekly audio and video podcast called '' Trash Taste'', where they discuss anime, manga, otaku culture, and their experiences while living in Japan. The first episode was released on 5 June 2020 with new episodes available on YouTube and major podcast platforms every Friday. In August 2020, Maneetapho participated in a chess tournament hosted by

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

for anime YouTubers. Reaching the finals, Maneetapho beat fellow ''Trash Taste'' co-host Connor Colquhoun. In July 2021, Maneetapho successfully defended his title in ''Tournament Arc 2'', hosted again by Chess.com.

Personal life

Maneetapho's parents are from Thailand, and he was born and raised in the United Kingdom. He is a practicing

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, and has served as a

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

twice in his life, once when he was a teenager and once as an adult. Maneetapho became engaged to fellow YouTuber Sydney Poniewaz on 12 April 2019. On 5 June 2022, they were married at a ceremony in the UK.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline
Gigguk on IMDb
Living people Alumni of the University of Bristol British expatriates in Japan English video bloggers English people of Thai descent Mass media people from Brighton YouTube channels YouTube channels launched in 2006 1990 births English Theravada Buddhists Surreal comedy YouTubers from Brighton and Hove