Jakob Dawson

**Jakob James "Jake" Dawson** is a Canadian producer, writer, filmmaker, and YouTuber. An open fan of many pop culture topics, Jakob is best known for his Pikmin content, Monster Hunter content, and custom LEGO builds. He created the plush series Twig & Pik-pik, which ran for 10 years from 2011 to 2021, and its various spin-off shows.

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Jakob became a fan of the Pikmin and Monster Hunter video game franchises in his youth. Having come up with ideas for his own Pikmin plush shows since 2008, Jakob began his plush career in 2011 with the Pikmin plush series Twig & Pik-pik, which he made with his sister Olivia, and continued the series until its conclusion in 2021. During this time, he also released several other Pikmin plush shows, including The Steve Saga, Search for Mother, Starlight Platinum and Pikmin Plush: The World. He also made several gaming livestreams, and began making Monster Hunter content in 2018.

Jakob also collaborated with several other content creators he was close friends with, including Christopher Barrell (Harvestmoon8109) and Peter Tagg (KirbyBulborb). He studied film production in university, and after graduating, built NERV Productions with Olivia. Jakob began his career as a fan of the Pikmin series, though his interest in the series faded over time due to being disappointed with Pikmin 3 and Hey! Pikmin.

After it became increasingly difficult for Jakob to produce Twig & Pik-pik episodes as they pushed his abilities as a single filmmaker, Jakob ended the series in October 2021 and went on hiatus from making Pikmin content. He spent the remainder of 2021 and all of 2022 focused his attention on his Monster Hunter content and custom LEGO builds, as well as his work with NERV Productions. In 2023, Jakob's love of the Pikmin series was revived by Pikmin 4, which made him return to the Pikmin community and announce he was working on a new Pikmin plush series titled Pikmin: The New World.

## History

### Early life

Jakob Dawson was born in Vancouver, Canada on May 26th 1997, a year before his sister Olivia was born. In the 1990s, Jakob and Olivia's great-grandfather was working with Konami to make a golf arcade game that functioned exactly the same as Wii Sports Golf. Although the project fell apart, it became the reason why Japan became so intertwined in Jakob and Olivia's lives. At an early age, Jakob became a huge fan of the Pikmin video game franchise, and also became a fan of Sailor Moon and its character Minako Aino. Later he became a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion and other works by Hideaki Anno, as well as the BIONICLE and Star Wars franchises. Jakob has been a fan of the Monster Hunter franchise since 2010, with his favourite game in the series being Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and most nostalgic being Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Jakob started work on his own Pikmin shows (then referred to as "Project Pikmin") in 2008. All of these shows were planned as sequels to the first two Pikmin games. He originally intended The World to be his main Pikmin plush series. Around this time, Jakob became a fan of the Pikmin plush show Pikmin Adventures*,* and became friends with the show's creator; Christopher Barrell (Harvestmoon8109).

### Career

Jakob made his YouTube account on January 8th 2011, and uploaded the first episode of Twig & Pik-pik the same day. Twig & Pik-pik, which also featured Olivia, was inspired by the works of Lionpikmin and Harvestmoon8109, and went on to become one of the most popular and most influential Pikmin plush shows of all time. In addition to the main series, Jakob also made a spin-off series Twig & Pik-pik: The Show, which featured bonus episodes separate to the ones in the main series, which had four seasons. Jakob began his career as a fan of the Pikmin series, though his interest in the series faded over time due to being disappointed with Pikmin 3 and Hey! Pikmin. After the release of the first Twig & Pik-pik movie, Jakob began adding drama to his series due to not seeing it used that often in plush videos. The forth, fifth and sixth seasons of Twig & Pik-pik were more darker in tone than the first three, and the characters also acted a lot more mature. A major influence throughout these seasons and the second Twig & Pik-pik movie was Neon Genesis Evangelion and other works by Hideaki Anno, which was viewed as controversial by some Twig & Pik-pik fans. Jakob defended his decision to reference Evangelion and other anime by making a video where he stated that his series always had anime references, citing Tamama's role in the early seasons and the first movie as evidence of this. Adventure Time was also a major influence on Twig & Pik-pik during production of its fourth season and the second season of Twig & Pik-pik: The Show.

From 2016 to 2018, Jakob made a third series of Twig & Pik-pik: The Show, and also made a fourth series which began in March 2020. On October 15th 2021, Jakob released A Thousand Final Dreams, the final episode of Twig & Pik-pik: The Show Season 4, and the final episode of Twig & Pik-pik as a whole. In a pinned comment, Jakob explained that he had roughly 30 episodes left to produce to finish Twig & Pik-pik, with A Thousand Final Dreams being a collection of the key shots from each episode. He said that it became increasingly difficult to produce the episodes as they pushed the limits of his abilities as a single filmmaker, and that the released video was not how he wanted the story to be presented, but stated "it was either this or nothing at all." He thanked his fans supporting him throughout his career, and stated he was thankful to have met many talented people. He spent the remainder of 2021 and all of 2022 focused his attention on his Monster Hunter content and custom LEGO builds, as well as his work with NERV Productions.

In 2023, Jakob's love of the Pikmin series was revived by Pikmin 4, which made him return to the Pikmin community. In a YouTube video he released in November 2023, Jakob revealed that a new Pikmin Plush series is in the works, titled Pikmin: The New World. The series will involve two custom made light blue and brown Pikmin, and will be "something that is very authentically Pikmin, while also being new". Jakob explained that Twig & Pik-pik would not return, and that although the characters Twig and Pik-pik might make a cameo appearance in his new series, he wouldn't revive the Twig & Pik-pik series as it had finished.

## Influence on the Kirby Bulborb Cinematic Universe

Jakob's series Twig & Pik-pik was one of the first influences on the Kirby Bulborb Cinematic Universe, and one of several plush shows that inspired Peter Tagg to create his own plush videos. In particular, it influenced Peter to add non-Pikmin characters into his plush videos, such as Tamama. Three crossovers between Twig & Pik-pik and Trooper Village Stories occurred in episodes 4, 7, and 8 of Trooper Village Stories, with a portal that connects to Pikstreet Avenue, a Pikmin town in Twig & Pik-pik where Twig, Thorn, Egde, and Pik-pik live. Later on, Kirby Bulborb became friends with Twig in Jakob's christmas specials and assisted him and his friends throughout the Steve Saga. After Jakob finished the Twig & Pik-pik series in October 2021, Peter released a tribute video to Twig & Pik-pik.