Kara Dennison
August 24, 2020 
When mixed media project 22/7 first launched, it brought lots of new talent into the public eye. But none rocketed up quite so fast as Sally Amaki, the Los Angeles born singer and actress who took on the role of Sakura Fujima. These days, Sally is running her own YouTube channel, showing fans how an idol lives day-to-day. And, as usual, the channel features her own brand of humor.
Sally Amaki’s channel launched on May 18, 2020 with four videos: a self-intro, a collaboration with fellow 22/7 member Ruri Umino, a makeup video, and an attrmpt at making some then-popular Dalgona coffee. Fans noticed quickly that Amaki’s subtitles weren’t always especially accurate — largely because she made no secret of the fact. As usual, her delivery style was multifaceted: friendly idol activities in Japanese, self-effacing and occasionally dark humor in English.
Sally uploads videos about once a week on her channel, and they’re actually a fascinating look at the life of an idol. Working on 22/7 means taking part in a lot of different activities, as it’s a mixed media venture: music videos, recording songs, voice acting for anime, and all the rehearsals that go into those. But she also takes us for walks around Japan, does more typical YouTuber stuff like morning routine videos, and occasionally tells personal stories… like the video where she makes soup in a Master Roshi hoodie while talking about the time she got heat stroke.
The launch of Sally Amaki’s YouTube channel does, as might be evident, coincide with the beginning of lockdown. That was the intent of the channel, and at the time of this writing it’s still up in the air whether the channel will stick around once people are out and about again. But it’s a welcome presence on the Internet in a time when both news and entertainment fare on the dire side.
It’s great to see Sally continuing to engage in all her idol activities, as well as taking on still more roles in anime like Pandora to Akubi and KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR. She’s living her best life, and she’s letting us all be a part of it with her.
