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...the staff of Gainax have given us an interesting yet strange glimpse into a world that few have dared tread, the world of an Otaku.

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Otaku no Video

Review by Matthew Anderson

2 Episode OVA series

Company: AnimEigo

Running Time: 100 minutes

Region: 1

Rating: PG-13 (Language, Violence, Partial Nudity)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Kubo is your average Japanese college student. He is member of the Tennis Club, very popular with his class mates, and he has a beautiful girl. It would appear that he has everything going for him. That is until he meets his friend Tanaka.

It seems that Tanaka is part of a strange sub culture. A world inhabited by costume players, model makers, army fans, and anime and manga fans. They are called Otaku. What starts off as a fun way to deal with stress, Otakudom starts to take over his life. Now, he is starting to loose his girlfriend, his social standing, and even his health is starting to suffer. Will he reject his new found life, or will he become the Otaku of Otaku, the Otaking!

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: Video on this release is consistently well done. A vast improvement from the video release, the colors are richer, and the image sharper. The washed out look is because of the source, not the transfer.

AUDIO: With only one track, the Japanese 2.0 is decent. Since the original video was made in the early 1990's, there are not a lot of surround sound elements. The dialogue is pretty much center speaker based with minimal sound effects from the sides. The thing you notice the most is the constant droning sound during the interview segments. With the voice modulator, everything is picked up and distorted, resulting in the annoying sound.

EDITS: None what so ever. Everything has been left intact.

EXTRAS: A picture gallery, promotional clip, and information cards are the "official" extras. Other extras are the ability to watch the anime without the interview segments, and multiple angels on some segments.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Okada Toshio's screenplay (outlined by the Gainax staff), is an interesting look at the world of the otaku. With the plethora of "fan" movies (Trekkies, George Lucas in Love), this may appear nothing new. However, since this was made years before these films, it is totally original. Demonstrating a wide knowledge base, any hard core fan would have trouble finding any errors with their references to popular anime. While some of the situations are laughable, others are down right suspenseful.

ACTING: The Japanese cast does a fantastic job. With plenty of old school voice actors (including Kikuko Inoue of Oh My Goddess fame)each one plays their parts to the max. It is a shame that many new voice actors don't have the fire and power that these actors have.

Special recognition goes to the people playing the "Real Otaku". These men are very convincing, and I honestly believed that they were real yet scary fan boys.

FAN SERVICE: This movie is wall to wall fan service. While there is no nudity, there are so many references, it is impossible to list them all.

FINAL EXAM

Truly a joint effort, the staff of Gainax have given us an interesting yet strange glimpse into a world that few have dared tread, the world of an Otaku.

I was not sure of what to make of this series. I had seen part of it at various cons, and found it very strange. Thanks to AnimEigo, I was finally able to watch yet another masterpiece from the folks at Gainax.

Honestly, I did not think I was going to enjoy it. Perhaps I am afraid to acknowledge the fact that I am not that different to the people in this movie. Or maybe I didn't think it was going to be a funny as people had said. I was totally wrong.

I was totally hooked. I could not help but watch it from start to finish. Like a train wreck, I had to see what happened to Kubo as he began his decent into becoming a total social misfit. Even though I knew that his breakup with Ueno was coming, it was still heartbreaking.

With the second half, it was watching Kubo and Tanaka rise to the heights of Garage kit modeling, then fall into despair. While the situations get more and more strange as it progresses, you can not help but wonder how it is all going to end. Will Kubo make Otakuland, a place by otaku for otaku, or will he be forever doomed to be a lovable looser?

Along with the anime is a series of mock interviews with "real" otaku. Interviewing people from many different fandoms, you learn to understand what it means to be a real fan boy. Unfortunately, I really could do with out them. This is mainly because of the voice modulator they used hide the identities of the interviewees. After a while, the constant droning noise in the background got to me. Fortunately, you have the option of watching both Otaku no Videos without the interviews.

The majority of the hard core fans will delight in the multiple references to other anime peppered through out the two movies. Keep an eye out for a lot of Macross references.Otaku no Video is a pre requisite for anyone wanting to start a true anime collection, or who wants to understand what it means to love anime. This should be the very first DVD on your anime shelf.

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