Art of Otaku no Video
/Otaku no Video is an animation/live action movie produced by Gainax and directed by Takeshi Mori in 1991. The anime spoofs on the life and culture of otaku, individuals with obsessive interests in media, particularly anime and manga, as well as the history of Gainax, its creators. A controversial and humorous part of Otaku no Video was the inclusion of live-action documentary excerpts, titled "A Portrait of an Otaku". In these segments, the documentary crew would interview an anonymous otaku, typically ashamed at being a fan and whose face are censored with a mosaic and have their voices digitally masked. The mock documentary segments serve as a counterpoint to the anime: while the anime emphasises the camaraderie, creativity, and dreams of mainstream acceptance of otaku, the mock interviews exaggerate its negative qualities. The subjects run the gamut of the otaku subculture: the interviews cover a cosplayer who now works as a computer programmer and outright denies his cosplay days, even when presented with photographic evidence, but keeps his Char Aznable helmet in his desk drawer, an air-soft otaku, a garage kit otaku, and a shut-in who video records television programs for trade, but has not actually watched anything he's recorded. The pictures on this page are a collection of artworks created for this series.
THE STORY
Ken Kubo is an average guy who lives with his girlfriend Yoshiko. He's an enthusiastic member of his college's tennis team until he's introduced by his former friend Tanaka to a club of otakus: a female illustrator, an information geek, a martial artist, and a weapons collector. Kubo soon joins them; and when Yoshiko abandons him, makes the wish to become the supreme enthusiast, under the name of "Otaking"...
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