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.
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Miwa Satoshi21 February 1999
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Skyrcket27 May 2000"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!
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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.
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TheExpatriate70026 January 2012I 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. -
dbborroughs28 December 2008Gainax poked fun at the fans of anime, (really the fans of anything) in their OTAKU NO VIDEO, which was I just picked up on DVD I watched the disc, subtitled and captioned to provided explanation of the anime/manga jokes and I am pleasantly surprised to find it very funny for all the right reasons. If you are into anything (from dolls to widgets to cars to trains to salt shakers) with any sort of passion, you'll know these people. And the deeper you're into the thing you love the odds are the more people like this you'll know. I know all of them and see myself in there too. Gainax is in there too, since they are the ones in the live action segments If you're a fan of anything and can be made fun of with out crying then get the video and watch it. Better if you watch it with several of you friends who are fans as well....
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dave13-130 April 2012This 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). -
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...
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Although there are four pages of extensive liner notes that explain every inside joke, reference, and parody, I feel that you have to have lived in Japan, with all these things going on around you, to truly appreciate this video. I didn't, so a lot of the jokes fell flat for me. The faux interviews were great--up there with Spinal Tap and Zelig--but the animated sequences weren't even up to par with Gainax' TV animation, and Otaku No Video is supposed to be an OAV (which usually garner a larger budget). Until the end, there really wasn't any animation that was striking--just reference, joke, look-alike, joke, joke, reference, and mainly to old television shows that I've never seen or didn't particularly care for.
Beyond that, I have absolutely no idea how much has been fictionalized in this dramatization of the creation of Studio Gainax, so I don't know what's ridiculous or what's real (i.e. (spoilers) did they really can him while he was on an extended business trip to China/did his ex-girlfriend really saddle up with his conniving boss to oust him?) -
fh14710 April 2024It'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.