Logan Paul's Return to Vlogging After 'Suicide Forest' Controversy Met with Applause and Minor Skepticism

In a seven-minute clip titled "Suicide: Be Here Tomorrow," the YouTuber reflects on what he learned from the backlash he received, meets with a suicide survivor and pledges to donate $1 million to prevention organizations.

Already a popular vlogger, Paul attracted national attention earlier this month for all the wrong reasons, after posting a 15-minute clip showing him and his friends walking through Aokigahara, a forest located at the base of Mount Fuji known to be a frequent site of suicides. The footage showed the group coming across the corpse of an unidentified man and included several close-ups of his body with only his face blurred out. One of the members of the group was heard saying he didn't "feel good," which elicited the following reply from Paul: "What, you never stand next to a dead guy?" Paul then proceeded to laugh.

"I know I've made mistakes, I know I've let people down. But what happens when you're given an opportunity to make a difference in the world?" said Paul in his new video. "It's time to learn from the past as I get better and grow as a human being. I'm here to have a hard conversation so those who are suffering can have easier ones."

"I think as a society, as human beings, we just have to be more compassionate and that includes me too," he added. "That's something I'm learning along this journey."

The clip also showed him speaking with Kevin Hines -- who at 19 jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and survived -- and the director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Dr. John Draper.

"I'm humbled and thankful to say this is just the beginning," he added in closing. Just a couple hours after posting, the video already has almost 500k views.

Most of the reaction so far has been largely positive for Paul, with his fans and others in the YouTube community praising him for the clip in both the comments and on Twitter:

A few were skeptical, however, including Feast of Fiction host Jimmy Wong:

Here's a sampling of those who doubted Paul's motives or just weren't on board with the video:

Drama Alert's Daniel Keem also posted a popular post, asking what people thought about the clip. At the time of this publishing, the results were almost split right down the middle.