"Please answer after the beeeeeep-u!!!"

December 17, 2017 8:35 PM

Four hardcore anime fans are forced to confront their own mortality at the worst convention ever. A series about emotional trauma, awkward situations and a terrible weekend at an anime convention. Facebook page.
posted by Lurch (17 comments total)

Just a note for those planning to watch this:

There's an overwrought joke about a white guy saying the n-word (and then spending time trying to dismiss it as "I meant the Korean word!!" only to use the r-word 5 seconds later), a couple of incidences of sexual harassment, self-harm, and the thing kind of starts with a car accident.

It's an interesting premise, though I do agree with one commenter who said that this was a lot of high production values for a series where the main gag is "omg look at these weebs". There's some attempt to make them sympathetic but it feels like it's not quite there yet.
posted by divabat at 10:04 PM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, that wa shit from the moment you saw the (was he supposed to be developmentally challenged or just standard nerd cliche) guy with the cat ears reading a fake manga.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:06 AM on December 18, 2017

I think the cat ears guy was wearing headphones and listening to jazz. I forced myself through the first episode but couldn't manage even trying to watch the rest.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:06 AM on December 18, 2017

It will make you hate people even more than you do already.
posted by Docrailgun at 2:22 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

I ... I feel like this is the time to point out that I once, er, staffed an anime convention (for several years) and still at nearly-fifty engage in weekly anime-watching with my IRC anime-watching group (currently doing Rurouni Kenshin). If for some reason you would like to see a fan parody recut (mostly Fushigi Yuugi) that explores the plot of "friends going to an anime convention" you might try This Is Otakudom.
posted by which_chick at 5:12 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

But I love all people.
posted by thelonius at 5:14 AM on December 18, 2017

I've been to a couple of anime/comic conventions and am good friends with people who are more regular con-goers, and am generally a nerd surrounded by nerds. So it's not like any of the references are necessarily foreign to me. I just can't tell if this is meant to be an affectionate parody or not, because it seems to be lacking some kind of nuance.
posted by divabat at 5:33 AM on December 18, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think it's meant to be a parody, but without enough self-awareness to seem loving to anyone outside of its narrow audience. To me (even as someone that went to a couple anime cons in my college days) it just seems to be a cautionary tale about terrible people.
posted by thedaniel at 5:54 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

I mean, for what it is, it kept my interest.

I actually found the characters to be pretty sympathetic, in the sense that you could see that they didn't want to be as mean or cringy as they were they just didn't know how to (or couldn't) get out of their own way.
posted by oddman at 6:51 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

it's an inside job. it's pretty juvenalian but it's made by nerds who know the world. I've met all of these people, mostly at cons.
posted by jb at 7:08 AM on December 18, 2017

I can barely watch this, because I’ve totally had friends like this when I was much younger, and I definitely see myself in Spencer so far (I’m just starting episode 3). I totally wore cat ears and obnoxious anime shirts to school in like 5th and 6th grade.

It reminds me of Anime Club a bit, although I like Anime Club a lot more (I feel like it’s the holy grail for me in terms of this subject matter).
posted by gucci mane at 8:18 AM on December 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Do white American otakus really address each other with -chan and -kun and whatnot?
posted by clockzero at 10:16 AM on December 18, 2017

clockzero: They did in the early 2000's, some of them, especially on internet forums and mailing lists. Perhaps it's changed since then... one can only hope.
posted by which_chick at 10:21 AM on December 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

I guess I don't get it. I watched it for a while, waiting for the joke - but it seems that the joke is just that these people are annoying and pathetic. I'm familiar with what they're drawing from, but the humor doesn't work on me.

I wonder if it's a disconnect between humor styles. I've never really been into cringe humor. I need there to be more ... something... other than just condensed and exaggerated stereotypes.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 11:57 AM on December 18, 2017

I've only been able to watch the first two episodes - but I don't think it's meant to be comedic. It is dark and exaggerated. But it feels like a drama, not comedy.

At least, I want to watch the next episodes and see what happens - which is more than I can say for 90% of commercial television.
posted by jb at 2:29 PM on December 18, 2017

Way more meanspirited towards it's characters, I thought.
posted by Catblack at 3:18 PM on December 18, 2017

Anime Crimes Division seems like another affectionate parody of otaku culture, but in a novel format and not nearly as meanspirited.
posted by divabat at 3:54 PM on December 22, 2017 [1 favorite]