26:40 LOLOLOL Anno deciding to play the p*rvert might be the most Anno thing ever. Anyways, I really should rewatch this one. I remember seeing it back in the 90s, but I just didn't know enough about 80s anime/Japanese culture to get much out of it. And somehow I'd totally forgotten about the live-action segments?? I'd probably appreciate it a lot more now.
the young lady otaku walks the tightrope between "adorable girl" and "attractive woman" so well, that I wonder how many drafts she went through before production...
My theory and it is mine that the key divergent point between Western fandom and Japanese fandom, or otakudom, was that the money people in Japan were faster to monetize Japanese fandom. The Gundam movie event/matsuri is evidence of this. Western business people realized that there were lots of money to made from Western fans but they kept things on the down low. You didn't have massive semi-impromptu events in Times Square in New York were 20,000 Star Trek or Star Wars fans gathered and nerds were treated more suspiciously or corporations funding direct to home video movies with high production values for nerds like the OAV market. D&D was a major moral panic during the 1980s in the United States and didn't have much in the way of non-nerd defenders. This led to Western fandom being amateurish longer. Meanwhile, the well monetized Japanese fandom grew into something that Western nerds could only fantasize about.
Also in the early days of internet fandom both creators and copyright holders were very hostile to fan fiction and fanart. A lot of early fansites were sent C&Ds and DMCAs and forced to shut down and the few creators willing to tolerate fans, like Dragonriders of Pern's Anne McCaffrey, would only tolerate fanworks if you folllowed very strict rules. It wasn't until popular authors like JK Rowling embraced fandom that this began to change, and even then several Harry Potter fansites, especially slash focused ones, got DMCA'd by Warner Bros. anyway.
@@bluebaron6858 I don't see what this has to do with what they said or what you're trying to get at. I'm a fan of gatekeeping though, tourists are nothing but moral busybodies who want people to bend to their wills and are the new morality police/soccer moms.
Japan is always ahead of the curve. Otaku really were the people who held onto their childhood. That's why so many 90s anime had a ton of references to 70s anime. The western world didn't get people who never grew up until the 2000s.
@@lainiwakura1776 Such a bad take on a video that shows the harm of gatekeeping. Rewatch the section on women in the early otaku space and realize gatekeeping isn't just keeping it away from the "normals" its keeping it away from potential fans and assuming there's a "correct" way to consume in a piece of media. People like you make the space more awful for everyone else.
There are moments when works of art arise to show the world what fandom is all about and why it is needed. The strange part is sometimes it takes a while to take root in fertile soil that can be nurtured. Otaku no Video did in 1991 and 93 what took 60 years for western SF fandom in the states to accomplish with Galaxy Quest. And yet for some reason, both were slightly ignored by the non fans.
I recently picked up the Animego blu-ray for this late last year. It was an enjoyable mockumentary, but still very loving toward the history of Gainax, otakus, and anime, in general. Thanks for the video, as always. :) EDIT: 33:17 Just to add here, but if someone also wants a female fan POV and perspective of working with General Products/Gainax, the former head of General Products USA, Lea Hernandez, did a webcomic called, Bani Bani Girl, on the website, boingboing. She also talked about her time with Gainax on an episode of the Anime News Network podcast.
I met AnimEigo's founder, Robert Woodhead, at Anime Weekend Atlanta back in the 90's. He used to attend the anime convention circuit and would speak on panels and stuff but he would also open a booth in the dealer's room and sell AnimEigo VHS tapes at the AnimEigo booth personally. He would just hang out and chat with anime fans about anime and stuff while he was at the convention.
That's a weird statement considering the amount of derision the franchise, and mecha in general, gets from many modern anime fans. Mecha is quite far from its golden age in the 80s and 90s. Hardly any mecha anime is produced anymore, especially when you compare it to those previous eras, so younger fans are not exposed to it as much.
Well I can see VOTOMS inspired LEYNOS ASSAULT suits on the JAP Mega Drive which inspired the classic Assault Suits Valkyrie Cybernator in PAL for the classic snes console "exclusive". Thwen you had Leynos 3 as a saturn exclusive and a remake of the original on steam. VOTOMS is pretty neat not going to lie. Watching it on a free website lets leave it at that.
This is great!!! I've been a fan of Gundam since the early 90's and I never heard about the 20k gathering for Gundam! I can't believe you haven't reviewed this yet. Subarashii!
I first saw Otaku no Video because I mailed in a questionaire to AnimEigo and they had a regular drawing for a free VHS tape for people who answered the questionaire. They sent me a letter informing me I won the drawing and I could choose any video from their catalog so I picked Otaku no Video.
I've always felt conflicted about ever using the term otaku. Not because of the term's loaded meaning in Japanese, but because I've never been able to disassociate it from the worst kind of Western anime fan in the mid 2000s. The kind who would eviscerate anyone who didn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of every aspect of anime. God help you if you even insinuated that you liked a single dub. So it's been... interesting... seeing so many newer fans embrace the label wholeheartedly. Anyways, great video! Gainax is one of those studios where there always seems to be more to learn about.
@@lainiwakura1776 It's funny how within 15 or so years (at least, since I seriously got into anime/manga in 2008) how the term "weeaboo/weeb" went from derogatory (since it was interchanged with "Wapanese") to literally just being "someone into anime/Japanese culture" or just simply "someone into anime/manga" Even more funny since 15 years ago, my older brother and his friends would make fun of me for being into anime. They'd go "Oh haha, that's some baby shit" or "Ooooo~, you like hentai." Now, he has actively seen, like, 200+ episodes of One Piece and shows it to his kids.
@@j.2512 Oh good, we're blaming zoomers for everything now instead of millennials. That'll show the same old fucks who have run the world for forty years and counting! Keep running on that hamster wheel of manufactured outrage, eventually you'll find a way off!
39:39 first evangelion plugsuit? Your ending monologue is spot on and honestly reflects Yui’s speech about Evangelion how it will survive as long as the earth sun and moon exist; maybe Evangelion was an allegory for anime all along
I thought that was was a reference to the suit that Elektra wore in the final episode from Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water, which was another Gainax anime, though Evangelion actually started development as a sequel series to Nadia
RE Gainax starting out as an art class turned studio: as a former art student that sounds like the dream. i really enjoyed my time in art school and being around others who shared my passion for art, i felt a deep sense of belonging there. wish i could've been part of this great scene back in those day though. i love the art form of traditional animation.
Right there with you. I was an art major in college and was the Otaku outcast (in US in the early 2000's) whose focus was on anime, comic art, and animation, inspired heavily by some of these creators.
What annoys me is that all the criticism of Otaku culture ignore the all the other issues with Japanese culture. People don't obsess over escapist media without a reason. And its not because their losers.
Given the premise of this silly mocumentary OVA, I wasn’t expecting this video to cover a serial killer case from the late 1980’s for why it was made in the first place. It really puts things into context. Sheeesh.
When you see stuff like that, it really Reminds me of the Satanic Panic that we went through over here in the States. That guy was just one bad example. But it was enough to sour the whole egg.
@@danielramsey6141 those kind of moral panics tend to happen everywhere. Here in Latin America there were a couple of cases, one of the most memorable was in Mexico in the early 2000s when a TV show made an expose saying that many anime that were popular with kids had satanic influences, with most of the evidence about that being complete nonsense, like a former cult member saying that he joined a cult because they lured him with Pokémon merchandise, despite the fact that Pokémon didn't even existed in Japan when he joined the cult. And the weird thing was that that program aired on the same channel that broadcasted various popular anime, so basically the network was hurting itself
RU-vid needs a solid “Nadia Secret of Blue Water” review and I look forward to the day you drop an hour long banger retrospective on the legendary anime and give it the spotlight and background it deserves
I think it worth noting the fact that the head of GP America actually uses his English-language answers in the interview to rant about the poor treatment of him (and American fans in general) by Gainax in real life, while the Japanese "translation" is a completely unrelated script written by Gainax.
@@KaiserBeamz I don't know if this was mentioned in TJTheEmperor's video on Otaku no Video (which is a great video!) but while the staff were just simply adding funny subtitles to fit with the tone of the other mockumentary interviews, it deff' felt like a slap in the face knowing how GP/Gainax treated Lee and Craig.
I was going to bring that up. According to Zimmerit's Gainazine, in an interview with Pulp magazine, Hernandez talked about seeing both her and Shon Howell's (another leader of General Products USA) name used for the the pseudonym for one of the Otaku in the live action segments. Hernandez said, "We were very sincere, and we wanted the company to succeed, and you're just making fun of us."
Here to say that i haven't watched this video but it has successfully given me the push to rewatch Otaku No Video as I've been thinking about it for like 3 days now
Asa middle aged man who grew up watching anime in the 90's this makes me sad. Modern anime has no more soul like it used to. Anime was different and wildly differed in style. Not so much any more.
been meaning to look this one up! also people in power blaming pop culture stuff for people commiting unspeakable crimes?! some things never change, I guess.
I like how Tomino stepped in to placate the crowds. More creators should do that. Also, that Otaku Killer case... _Jesus Christ_ . This is why we can't have nice things! Stupid people ruining things like anime, DnD and Comic books piss me off.
This was great, a really good look into not only this OVA, but the true beginnings of the otaku juggernaut (for better or worse). Glad I got the DVD from Right Stuf before they were absorbed into CrunchyRoll, now I really should give it a watch... Makes me wonder if we have anything akin to Otaku No Video for us Western fans of comics, sci-fi, fantasy, and the like. And if we don't, I daresay that if there ever is one made...it ought to be a Christopher Guest-helmed affair in the vein of 'Spinal Tap', 'A Mighty Wind', 'Best in Show', or 'Mascots'.
I think some Star Trek and Star Wars related films like Fanboys could the closest example of an American equivalent to Otaku no Video I'd say that the comic book The Eltingville Club and its animated pilot could also be considered as a dark version of Otaku no Video but for Western sci-fi/comic/pop culture fans
So many memories. I even used Fight! Otaking! As the entrance and victory theam song for my roleplaying professional wrestler, Stanley The Weeb. Yes, his gimmick was being a shameless otaku.
Always makes me happy when the fujoshi contribution to Gundam popularity is mentioned (and the vitriol against them from male otaku during the 80s is not surprising in the least 😒) It's very odd the OVA making a big deal on a woman designing a hot anime girl...when the creator of Lum is literally a woman.
Being an otaku is an honor that there is nothing wrong with being a fan of something, and sharing each other's interests. It is important to know that you can never make everything for everybody. The stuff can just happen to go into the mainstream and everyone liked it, while still making the stuff for the intended major crowd.
The discussion about how women & queer stories were treated in the otaku scene of the 80s really does feel like a particularly depressing "the more things change, the more things stay the same" example in "nerd" hobby circles.
0:29 -Too bad its Sunday..those streets would be full of local commuters any other day..Sorry..I had to. Maybe the commotion was in response to DBZ censorship?
Despite what certain members would claim, "nerd culture" is very based in capitalism. It is a celebration of it. Otaku are passionate and obsessed with commercial products. Anime is made to promote sponsors and sell merch. Video games, manga, figures and model kits are produced to make profit. Capitalism is the only system where such a subculture could exist. Yes it has its dark side. Corporations take advantage of easily manipulated otaku. Naive creators are squashed under the harsh reality of business. Creativity and originality are often disregarded in favour of rehashed trash. But fans don't have to go along with it. They can choose not to support bad practices and start something of their own just like Gainax did 40 years ago. This OVA is an interesting epitaph when you consider what happened to Gainax. They played the capitalism game, and played it very badly despite all their advantages.
I liked the first half of "Otaku no Video" 'cuz it was fun & perfectly captured the infectious sense of fun that characterized all fandom in the '80s, whether in Japan or America. The second half of the movie however...ehh...not so much. The whole 'story' of the second half, with the whole mega-corporate politics, and setting up factories in China & executives getting voted out of companies they founded, finally culminating in one of the dreariest, most depressing endings imaginable (involving a preachy message about 'global warming' and the supposed melting of the polar icecaps) ranged from boring & dull to off-putting (at least as far as I was concerned.) So the first half of the movie I'd recommend, the second half can easily be skipped.
I can't put into words how much I love this anime, how much I relate to its characters. I watch it regularly and I cry every time because it is about the happiest time in my life, the mid 80's when I discovered Anime as it entered its golden age. Otaku no video means everything to me.
Your vids are severily underwatched and I will never stop pushing them among all my collegues. This channel needs to stay alive! As for the anime itself - I first heard of it in the 90s, I was very intrigued, but with so limited options to find stuff back then, I slowly pushed it out of my memory. This is the first time I thought of it in like 25 years! I'll try to go and watch it now, thanks Kaiser!
I'd say it happened in all of Latin America in different periods, since the airing of Astro Boy and Speed Racer (or Meteoro as it's called in Spanish), the arrival of shows like Heidi, Candy Candy, Mazinger Z and Robotech in the early 80s and the biggest invasion in the 90s with shows like Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball and Pokémon And I'm just speaking from the Spanish-speaking America side, Brasil got many tokusatsu shows like National Kid, Kamen Rider Black, Jiraiya, Juspion and a couple of Super Sentai shows like Flashman
What an amazing video! Also i find it sadly ironic that you said animation studios' security was so lacking back in the day, but the Kyoto animation studio arson was committed recently because the arsonist just walked into the studio despite not having any key or identification.
otaku no video is the ova that inspired me to finally start my passion manga project. the two main characters meet at a promotional event similar to the gundam one and they fall in love ☺️ tiny detail but garage kits werent just one way to own figures that fizzled out over the years, they were literally the only way to have a figure of a character for a long time because mass producing pre assembled and painted figures outside of kids toys wasnt a thing yet. in fact im pretty sure otaku no video goes into this in a fair bit of detail lol
Sidenote about the channel in general: First I wanna say, I don't wanna be that guy, but I'm gonna be that guy. But the intro is too long!(And I am a millenial.) I am very intersted on the topic, but looking into older videos, that intro makes me skip and try to find where it stop. It's a 20 sec intro! This has improved since you now start the topic before the intro, but it's still a 20 second intro where most channels have dropped it altogether. Nice content, just consider reducing it, cuz it stops the flow of the content. Thanks for the videos and info!
Shon Howell would later be known as a cartoonist online under the name King Cheetah. Sadly, he passed away a few years back. I still have his artwork from his DeviantArt days.
Beautiful! Your research was very thorough, and the edition and script were spot on. This video filled me with nostalgia and made me remember past times and friends now long gone. Thanks for sharing.
Is Gainax still around? If so, I'm surprised. How? They haven't made anime, unless it's EVA related. By the way, "Gurren Lagann" and "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt" were bought by Studio Trigger. They announced they're making a PSG season 2.
If I'm not mistaken, I think Gainax is involved in the production of a new Grendizer anime series, which I think is being financed by a Saudi Arabian company (because Grendizer is incredibly popular in the Middle East). But I also heard that there's another company that spun-off from Gainax called Gaina (yes, without the X) and they were developing a new anime based on a Leiji Matsumoto manga, but the project was announced years ago, and since then Leiji has passed away I also remember a weird announcement about Gainax entering into the tomato growing business...
@@pablocasas5906 I see. So they're still around. I asked because I've been hearing they were struggling (not sure if that's the right word to describe), a bit of financial problems... Anyways, good for them.
@@VBrancoPT There was also a scandal a few years ago where they had to replace the board of directors because the representative director of the company was sentenced to prison for sexual abuse if I'm not mistaken.
Its such a shame that one of the most influential anime studios of all time is now not just a shadow of its former self, but also a corpse that rottens for each year before finally becoming into a skeleton
Amen, my brothers and sisters in otaku-dom! Amen indeed!.. Also the fusion of one of my most favorite anime-studios (GAINAX) and one of the greatest japanese character designer (Kenichi Sonoda-sama) just gives me the chills..!!!
My main takeaway is that the arc of Otakudom is just the story of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer; outcast and mistreated until proven useful to the powers that be :)
I thought the end of Otaku No Video was a dying by brain hypoxia hallucination as the two protagonist, now old men, decided to commit suicide by the despair of finding themselves in such dystopian world.
Is there an anime from the 80s or 90s that Anno wasn't involved with somehow? I remember renting this when I was first getting into anime in the mid 90s and was extremely confused by it. But when I watched it later, It made waaaaay more sense.
This was one of those titles i always heard about growing up but never actually saw, might have to check it out now though. Seems like the weeb version of Spinal Tap 😂 thanks for the history!
Damn, that ending speech is exactly what the world needs to hear right now in light of all the AI garbage going on. Another banger video, thanks so much for uploading.
I’m sure you may have answered this before but what is the song in your intro? Great vid I’ll deffo try deal out otaku no video I haven’t seen it yet, I love the style nice mix of kenichi sonoda and Gainax’s style
I found the original dub/sub US DVD release of this about a year ago in a dump bin for a dollar, the live parts even having cared about this stuff for decades confused me a bit, but do I ever love the animation parts of the movie. This is a solid breakdown that really gets it to make more sense, it clicked. How the hell you don't have more subs is shocking given the constant churn of quality content.
This, Zimmerit's Daicon Film Appleseed video, and Lady Emily's recent out of nowhere obsession with Gundam is signaling to me that 2024 could be a special year for the Daicon era of anime. This is also my new all-time favorite Kyoto video since project Ako hands down. The anime century is literally one of my personal quintessential special interest I'm estatic to finally have that time period with all its detail in visual audio form that ppl my age can more easily absorb than a twitter thread. One day I hope to make a tribute love letter Otaku no video sequel reminiscing on Albator, Club Dorothée, Les Bebes Zappeurs, Grendizer, Adnan Wa Lina, the Cartoon Fantasy Organization, Harmony gold, Carl Macek, Robotech, Akira, Streamline Pictures, The Transformers Movie, Manga Entertainment, and capping off with either the US première of Pokemon the First movie or continuing with more episodes with a mini arc on the evangelical hatemonger Pokemon satanic/Haram bans. Idk lol I'm self indulging hard rn hhhhhhhh.
