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...

It's so interesting looking at this time capsule of otaku world, that no longer existing.

And the scenes of them taking the piss out of them, so with portrait of utako episodes. It get me the feeling of catching a Predator it's kind of weird and cool.

The OVA has an insane pace because of the bubble economy, it's just going full speed over to nerd them otakudam all the different ways making a company losing a company friendship merchandise ,fictional women, real women who draw like a machine.

It's interesting that four years later they release evangelion and become one of most important anime of all time

And I would recommended as a school assignment to understand old school anime fans and where we come from.

Some reflections about the Otaku culture (which is far more accepted and mainstream today than before) have aged from the period in which this was made, some are still appliable in fields not connected to the manga/anime subculture alone and some are surprisingly prescient, in particular the attempt by some vinyl figure producer to flood the (fake) otaku/geek/n3rd culture with BILLIONS of samey crap presented as "statuines" or "collectibles". If you're into anime/manga/Otaku stuff, give it a try.

"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!

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.