Gainax always manages to surprise me, and as usual this is a pleasant surprise. What we have here is a premise that no other studio could possibly duplicate: going into the "secret lives" of the otaku. A "documentary", if you will. Not just anime otaku, though. Military/gun otaku, doll kit otaku, cosplay otaku, and others.

Also included in this two-episoder are several "live action" interviews of people that are supposedly otaku. The way these are presented though are just so... bizarre that I often found myself fast-forwarding through them in order to preserve my sanity. Most of them are pretty bleh, except for the interview with the American. Listening to the american and watching the subtitles that appear saying something COMPLETELY different had me in laughing so hard.

Most of the humor of Otaku no Video is really aimed at people that lived and breathed anime during the 80s. As such, I didn't really understand all of the fads and stuff that they're making jokes at, but what I did understand I found very funny. There is also a lot of cosplay going on, and much of it is of things like Urusei Yatsura, early Macross and Gundam, and other things.