The cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion as depicted on the Japanese "Genesis" (volume) 14 LD and VHS cover. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Apparently I'm late to the party, but this came out last year. The creators of this music video are also intimately connected to such projects as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, et. al., and those influences are readily apparent to those familiar with those shows.
The superficial interpretation floating around the interwebz by non-anime fans is that this is a cautionary moral slam of otaku culture and a warning of falling prey to its excesses, etc. Even some anime fans are suggesting this interpretation. I am here to humbly submit this view is...incorrect.
To my eyes, this music video was made BY otaku, FOR otaku, and is a deliberately OVER-THE-TOP satire of the critiques of anime/manga otaku culture by hostile outsiders; it is the anime-manga 21st century equivalent of riffing on such hysterical reactionary views found in early films like Reefer Madness. It plays with popular anime tropes and is nightmarishly hilarious, on purpose. I could not stop laughing my ass off watching this music video, but it's because I'm an avid anime fan and the actual intended audience for this. This is a middle finger to all the grouchy old Miyazakis bitching about otakus. It takes all the hysterical, hostile reactions to anime/manga otaku life and condenses it into one provocative music video that is totally played for laughs. If you don't get that, the joke's totally on you. Is it lewd? F*ck yes it's lewd. But it's also hysterically funny.
It is NOT the simple moralistic scolding tale that so many superficial reviewers are saying it is. Reality check: if an otaku already has a hot girlfriend like the ostensible protagonist in this video, he's not going to abandon that girlfriend for his anime waifu. It just doesn't happen. The reason some otaku get so obsessed with their 2D anime waifus is they are sh*t out of luck when it comes to finding a real girlfriend to love them who shares their weird interests. Some people's "real lives" suck, simply put, and there's nothing wrong with using anime & manga for a little escapist fun, to get away from the drudgery, boredom, or even downright awfulness of their real lives. I freely admit there have been times where I cared much more deeply about the lives of fictional anime characters than I did about many of the human beings in my workplace or my social circles at the time, especially early on in the heavy growth phase of my fandom, circa 2008-09, when I watched some form of anime nearly every day each evening.
This music video is a private message from otaku, to otaku, told with a nod & a wink and a laugh. As usual, the rest of the world just doesn't "get it". *Sigh*
*Otaku Bro-Fist*
Ganbare, my homies, Ganbare!
