Hiroshi Sato, an animator and another Gainax member, plays the garage kit otaku using the pseudonym "Sato Hiroshi".The Occidental Otaku, "Shon Hernandez," is played by Craig York, and the character's name is a combination of Shon Howell and Lea Hernandez, who-together with York-were the core of General Products USA, a western branch of Gainax's merchandising enterprise in the early 1990s.Hideaki Anno plays the part of the H-Game otaku who is obsessed with Noriko from GunBuster.Creator Cameo: All of the otaku interviewed in Portrait of an Otaku are believed to be members and associates of Studio Gainax:.
Once he becomes exposed to Tanaka's world, though, there's no going back for him. Converted Fanboy: Kubo was actually a typical college student, a member of his university's tennis club and kinda reluctant to get into anime at first.Others have tried to shed this image by getting "respectable" jobs, and become defensive when confronted with evidence of their otaku pasts. Basement-Dweller: Some of the otaku in the live-action segments are depicted as comedic, socially awkward losers who live in tiny apartments cluttered with merchandise and have no lives outside of their hobbies.By con tradition, it is both the first and last video shown every year. This is the OVA from which Otakon, a prolific North American anime convention, takes its name. Otaku No Video shows both sides, but in the end, comes down on the side of otaku pride.Įither way, be advised that calling yourself an "otaku" in front of Japanese people is likely to result in spit takes or worse. However, this has been reversing itself in the past few years (see here ). Despite the occasional tongue-in-cheek approach, the story is surprisingly serious, and many believe that it is a fictionalized autobiography of the key members of Gainax. The animation is high-quality, and the sharp-eyed fan can spot literally dozens, maybe hundreds, of references to almost every pre-1980s anime, with a handful of early 80s shows. The show itself has been dubbed by many as the "Bible of Otaku", explaining many strange concepts to anime fans who are just starting to test the waters while entertaining dedicated otaku with many Shout Outs. Interspersed among the animated footage is a live-action mockumentary, Portrait of an Otaku, in which several different types of Otaku (Sci-Fi, anime, model guns, garage kits, etc.) are interviewed about their lifestyles. He eventually becomes just as obsessed as the others, and-after being dumped by his girlfriend Ueno-sets his sights on becoming the ultimate fan: the OtaKing!ĭespite the rather warped-sounding premise, this is actually a youth drama, which ends with what is either a world-changing epiphany or an uplifting Dream Sequence. Otaku no Video is a legendary 1991 Studio Gainax two-episode OVA telling the story of Kubo, a college student in 1982 who is drawn into a group of otaku (people with obsessive hobbies such as anime) by his old high school buddy Tanaka.