It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so allow me to give a quick refresher: I love otaku character’s in anime. Whether just for the sake of meta jokes, or deeper self/genre-referential commentary, I absolutely adore characters through which an author can show off their nerdy street-cred. These wonderful conduits for which to funnel greater contextual meaning always shoot to the top of my favorites list, but not for that reason alone. Put simply, I connect with them because they are like me, and when done really well, end up taking up quite a bit of my emotional real-estate. Like any other type of character, however, otakus can’t all be great. Some of them fucking suck. Some of them are just painful illustrations of the popular misconceptions of otaku culture, spouting Dragon Ball references in hopes that audiences might grow attached to this character because “they are like me”. Some otakus are Subaru from Re:Zero, and deserve nothing less than an endless loop of agonizing death. Anyway, I like thinking about otaku characters, and pointing out the one’s I love or hate. And today, I’ll be telling you all about an otaku I’ve come love way too much, from an anime that had no business being as fantastic as it was: Chiaki Hoshinomori from GAMERS! Continue reading →