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Was this series intended to function as a defense of otaku? To make them look good? Because I thought it made them look like self-absorbed jerks.

When the first episode opens, the protagonist has a quasi-girlfriend he seems to see a few times a week; we see them playing tennis, for instance. A while after the protagonist is turned into an otaku, we see her again, speaking to him in a café. She complains that he’s gotten a little fat, smells bad, and that she hasn’t seen him lately.

Even if we say that she shouldn’t be too hung-up on his appearance if she loves him (which I think is being too generous; who can honestly say they wouldn‘t mind a fit and athletic quasi-lover puffing up? Not to mention that it implies his lifestyle is becoming unhealthy), there’s no excuse for him to smell bad. Surely he knew ahead of time he was to meet here at the café, yet he couldn’t mange to bathe beforehand? Whether he failed to think of it or just didn’t care, the lack of respect is astonishing.

Yet the most serious of the three is the last, which segues to the end of the story. Even after hearing her complaints, he continues to do otaku stuff and only is inspired to call her after Minmay from the Macross movie reminds him of her (and I will say that being reminded of her by an idealized fictional representation is actually kind of sweet), only for another guy to answer the phone. He’s been dumped.

The thing is, I can’t tell whether the story admits that this is entirely his fault. Of course she got another guy after he ignored her so diligently. What did he expect? This isn’t about watching cartoons, or building plastic models, or dressing up in costumes, it’s about time; he spent all his time on himself, having fun, leaving her alone. There’s no reason why he couldn’t have spent some time with his new otaku friends while continuing to meet her needs. But his response is to proclaim his dedication to being an otaku, if memory serves (sorry; it‘s been a while since I saw this show). Isn’t that just making the problem worse?

This seems to be some sort of late ‘80’s (or “first generation“) otaku thing, where their concept of themselves was that they dedicated their lives and all their passion to the appreciation of their favored art and in the case of the protagonist and the founders of Gainax, moving into creating it themselves, which is why they miss out on conventional pleasures such as love. To me this reeks of arrogant self-absorption and seems more like an excuse for social ineptitude, it being important to note that otaku who became creators are a very tiny minority, even if you count non-professionals like those who create drawings or videos based on their favorite anime.

The strangeness continues in the second episode. The protagonist’s former quasi-girlfriend shows up as the smirking wife of the evil businessman trying to run the little otaku company out of business. Shed has no real effect on the narrative. Why is she here? Why is she depicted as holding a grudge against the protagonist, revealing in his apparent defeat? It smells rather like truly shocking self-absorption; “If she dumped me, she must be deliberately trying to cause me pain. She’s evil,” “I’m important enough for her to seek revenge against me years after we broke up.”

Then there’s the woman who works at his company and saves it through her artistic skills, creating a popular new character that drives sales to save the company. She is very clearly attracted to the protagonist, but the last we see of her is in a montage, drawing, the finale instead being given over to rather megalomaniacal fantasies of turning the whole world into otaku. Did the protagonist ignore her feelings as he ignored those of his last lady friend?

This work certainly gives off the air of a homage to otaku, yet the main character and symbolic representative of otaku is selfish and callous to the feelings of those around him, and so I am left baffled. Could the creators just be terribly out of touch?

This anime, is just a parody of every otaku that exist in Japan. In the animated version, you can see an optimistic style of life, but in the live-action version you see the REAL thing.

In Japan, being an otaku, means that you have no life and you are kinda disguisting for society. But outside Japan, otaku is just people that likes anime/manga stuff.

I found the live-action segments hilarious, 'cause many of the people interviewed are part of the GAINAX staff, and they exagerate the behavior of an actual otaku. So you can say that GAINAX is full of otaku, that hate other otakus...or something like that.