Otaku No Video...
Leave it to AnimEigo to have released one of the rare gems in anime, Otaku no Video...
Otaku No Video features a mix of live-action and animation that tells of the rise and fall and rise of a world-dominating animation empire. There are a number of "interviews" with fans and fanatics of various sorts throughout. My favorite interview is with in American describing his fascination with Lum (from Urusei Yatsura) - his actual dialogue and the translation don't exactly match. There's also a surprise ending. In addition, there are so many references to various anime that neither I nor the good folks at AnimEigo could identify them all. I used to have the subtitled VHS version. I enjoyed it and still think fondly of it, so, after some consideration, I decided to repurchase it on DVD. I gave Otaku No Video a 3 out of 5.
According to the liner notes for Otaku no Video...A true treat for true fans of any genre, Otaku no Video ("Fan's Video") is an outrageous mockumentary that combines the superb animation' that made Gainax one of Japan's best-loved animation studios with truly strange interviews with "real fans." The result is a thinly fictionalized history of Gainax that segues into a truly strange SF adventure. Sit back and enjoy as a small band of Otaku (fans) set out to "Otakunize" the human race! AnimEigo's special presentation of Otaku no Video contains both episodes: Otaku no Video 1982 and More Otaku no Video 1985.
"Otaku no Video" (lit. "Your video") is a phrase that was overused among videophiles. Since they overused the word "otaku" (a very formal, unusual way of saying "you," or "your house," normally used by housewives) so much, they were dubbed (by the media, perhaps) "Otaku-zoku" ("Otaku-tribe") then later just "Otaku," which in this context is roughly equivalent in English to "maniac" or "hardcore fan." Thus, the title has another meaning--"Otaku's video" or "Maniac's video."
Unluckily, most Japanese have heard of the term "Otaku" because of Miyazaki Tsutomu, a serial killer of children, who was also a pornographic video collector, so "Otaku" had, for a long time, a gruesome connotation attached to it. Eventually the word did become much lighter in concept. The word has since migrated to the U.S., where its meaning is much more restricted; an American Otaku is specifically a dedicated fan of Japanese Animation.
In Japan, one can be an Otaku of any genre, as the "Portrait of an Otaku" segments, and some of the specialties of the characters themselves, demonstrate. There is in fact a TV quiz show called "Cult Q" which is basically a show for Otakus of all kinds--whether they are experts of tropical fish or ingredient labels of over-the-counter drugs!
"Grand Prix/GP" is a takeoff on "General Products," Gainax's failed late-1980's merchandising venture. By the same token, "Giant X/GX" is actually Gainax (say "Giant X" fast enough and it comes out "Gainax"). The "GP" offices in the 1991 segments of both videos are drawn directly from Gainax's business offices in Kichijooji, Tokyo. The character of Tanaka is based, physically as well as in personality, on Okada Toshio. All of which should serve to indicate just how closely Gainax identifies with "Otaku no Video".
Otaku No Video features a mix of live-action and animation that tells of the rise and fall and rise of a world-dominating animation empire. There are a number of "interviews" with fans and fanatics of various sorts throughout. My favorite interview is with in American describing his fascination with Lum (from Urusei Yatsura) - his actual dialogue and the translation don't exactly match. There's also a surprise ending. In addition, there are so many references to various anime that neither I nor the good folks at AnimEigo could identify them all. I used to have the subtitled VHS version. I enjoyed it and still think fondly of it, so, after some consideration, I decided to repurchase it on DVD. I gave Otaku No Video a 3 out of 5.
