Ryan Kaji's parents Shion and Loann met as undergraduate students at
Texas Tech University. Loann's family
fled from Vietnam as refugees. She grew up in Houston and became a teacher. Shion had moved to the United States from Japan in high school and left Texas to get a master's in engineering at
Cornell University, returned soon after Ryan's birth, and completed his degree online. In 2017, Kaji's parents signed a deal with
PocketWatch, a startup children's media company that was founded in 2016 by
Albie Hecht and Chris Williams. PocketWatch does the
marketing and merchandise for Ryan's YouTube channels. In 2018, Ryan ToysReview, in cooperation with PocketWatch and
WildWorks, created an app called
Tag with Ryan, an endless runner game targeted towards children, for
iOS and
Android. In 2019, Ryan ToysReview and PocketWatch produced a 20-episode television series for preschoolers titled ''
Ryan's Mystery Playdate. On November 1, 2019, Outright Games released a video game titled Race with Ryan
, a racing game featuring Kaji and characters from the Ryan's World'' brand, for
PlayStation 4,
Xbox One,
Nintendo Switch and
Microsoft Windows. A hybrid live-action and animated series,
Super Spy Ryan, premiered November 27, 2020, on
Amazon Kids+. On December 4, 2020, Ryan's World announced the launch of an official game on the gaming platform
Roblox. On March 4, 2022, Outright Games released a second ''Ryan's World
licensed video game, Ryan's Rescue Squad'', an
action-adventure game for
PlayStation 4,
PlayStation 5,
Xbox One,
Xbox Series X/S,
Nintendo Switch,
Microsoft Windows, and
Stadia. On September 28, 2023, Sunlight Entertainment, a production company owned by Ryan's family, partnered up with
Toei Animation to create
Elemon, a
flash-animated anime-style series focused on teaching children about chemistry. ==Influence==