If you’ve ever wondered how your anime-watching friends live and think, or if you yourself are part of anime-fandom, you need to see this.
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"Otaku no Video" is a combination documentary and reflection upon anime fan culture. Without going into great detail, an otaku is a fanatic for some particular topic, in this case anime. The parallels between this feature and "Trekkies" would be hard to avoid, but "Otaku no Video" is so much more. Although mostly a two part humorous look at a group of animation fans ("Otaku no Video 1982" and "Otaku no Video 1985"), the animation is intercut with live action interviews with real otaku, as well as polls on various topics. If you´ve ever wondered how your anime-watching friends live and think, or if you yourself are part of anime-fandom, you need to see this.
AnimEigo put a great feature into this DVD—you can choose to watch it as it was originally released, or you can watch all of the animated portions and interview portions separately. I chose to watch it the first time in its original presentation.
The story opens with the main character, Kubo, enjoying the basic college freshman life. He´s a member of the school´s tennis club, he has a pretty girlfriend, and he seems to be adjusting well. Kubo´s perfect world starts to end when he gets stuck in an elevator with a bunch of anime/science fiction/you name it otaku. Surprised, Kubo recognizes their leader, a guy he knew in high school named Tanaka. Some time later, at the college´s May Festival (a festival thrown by all the student groups on campus), Kubo sees Tanaka and his friends again. This time, the otaku are selling their fanzine in their own booth while dressed as some of their favorite characters.
After another live action interview, the focus goes back to Kubo. By now, he´s spent some time with Tanaka and his friends, one of whom prophetically tells Kubo that "If you stay once, you can never get out." At this point, we see the start of Kubo´s nightmarish decent into ink and cels. He quits the school tennis team, as it´s cutting into his valuable otaku time. He loses his girlfriend. He has trouble finding a job. And all because Kubo loves anime and science fiction more than anything else in life. By the end of the first half, Kubo vows to never stop, not until the world bows to him as the Otaking!
The second half of the DVD mirrors the rise of a real anime studio, Gainax (who made "Otaku no Video", as well as "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "His and Her Circumstances", among others). Kubo and Tanaka make their own company, which we follow all the way up to the year 2035. I suppose as a testament to the power this story had over me, or perhaps to the high quality Gainax tends to put into everything they do, I found that the ending was surprisingly poignant. I won´t give it away, except to say that I think that it in so many ways captures the hopes and dreams of every anime otaku perfectly.
As an added bonus, there was some footage in the "1982" half from the opening animation of Daicon IV, a convention that was held in Japan. The animation was created by the group of friends who would go on to found studio Gainax. It´s an essential piece of anime history, although nearly impossible to find today as it was only released once on laserdisc many years ago. The central character of the animation, a bunny girl, is specifically who Misty May in "Otaku no Video" is supposed to look like.
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