Otaku no video

I loved this anime! It's so hilarous and dead on in its presentation of anime fans and nerds in general. The anime is basically about this tennis jock who gives up his beautiful girlfriend and jock's life to be an anime nerd. The presentation of the "Otaku" in the film was very eeriely similar to how nerds behave here. I laughed hysterically...

I had Otaku No Video out of the library for a full three weeks before getting around to watching it. I had been put off by its reputation as a film with in jokes only truly understood by hard core anime fans.

When I finally watched it, I found I had been mistaken. Although it has many in jokes, they do not spoil the fun of the movie. The true appeal of Otaku no Video is its loving yet still hilarious depiction of otaku. It explores virtually aspect of fandom, making it look fun even as it mocks it. It's enough to make you go on eBay or JBox and try to find a garage kit!

Also, the film actually makes you care about its characters. Kubo and Tanaka are genuinely sympathetic, even to a non-otaku. Yes, they are socially awkward and obsessive, but the movie deals with this issue pretty well. For example, Kobu is shown to have been an obsessive tennis player before he was an otaku. As he asks at one point, why is playing tennis constantly fine while watching anime obsessively is bad?

This is definitely a must for any anime fan, or any rabid genre fan for that matter.

A video made by otaku, for otaku, about otaku. This is what Gainax set out to do in 1991, and it not only succeeds, but is the funniest (yet hilariously true) view of the obsessive fanatic I have seen! Any seasoned fan of anime will be brought to a smile by the tongue-in-cheek look in the mirror that Gainax has produced. From the joys of cosplay and the endless nights of watching tapes...garage kits and the industry in-jokes...cel thieves, magical girls...it's all here, folks! And the fake live-action otaku interviews are simply priceless. Watch...and learn. Maybe someday you too will aspire to be...the Otaking.

This grab bag video features a fictional (and animated) story line of how some college anime fans came together, lost their other friends, flunked out, started an animation studio, got rich and eventually got to live out their futuristic sci-fi dreams. Actually this part was a thinly fictionalized and slightly idealized re-telling of how the real life GAINAX company came about.

What makes it special, though, are its hilarious (live) 'documentary' interviews with anime fans which play like outtakes from some Japanese version of Slackers. Strictly for fans of the genre, - non-fans of anime will be confused and likely bored by all of the inside jokes and cryptic references, and even devoted anime fans might need to glance at liner notes from time to time - but this is a clever and entertaining exercise intended for insiders. Recommended if you are already an 'otaku'(obsessed fan).

"Otaku No Video" is to anime fans what "Trekkies" is to "Star Trek" fans. When you're watching this thing it's hard not to find yourself nodding "Yeah, that's me" or "I remember when that happened to me." ONV is something that anime fans can rally around and say with pride/shame "This is who we are!" The boys at Gainax were just brilliant with this. Not only are there more cameos and references to the world of anime/manga than even a Otaking can count, but they story is filled with characters that are just like people most anime fans know. And the interviews with "real" otaku are just a riot. And the thing that makes them funny is that you know that there really are guys like that out there. So otaku of the world take pride. Our mission to Otakunize the world has only just started!