mitsuki lover wrote:One classic that I don't see mentioned yet is Kimagure Orange Road.
Kimagure Orange Road is an adolescent romance comedy combined with elements of fantasy.
YES. I'm really glad that KOR, as well as Maison Ikkoku, are actually mentioned in this thread. I've lost count the number of times I've made the remark "Why aren't Maison Ikkoku and Kimagure Orange Road mentioned?"
While series on the lists can be considered classics, I don't think
any of them can be consider "otaku".
My criteria for an "otaku series" is that
the anime involves or makes fun of anime fandom itself, in a sort of "in-joke style" that the non-otaku may have trouble understanding.
A good example would be
Lucky Star. If you're laughing at the main character because of the jokes on her anime/manga/game obsession, then you're indirectly laughing at
yourself. That's what those otaku series are designed to do.
Another one would be
Welcome to the NHK. Wow, look at the closet freak with anime everywhere and uh, naughty anime. When we laugh at the guy or pity him, we're really laughing at (and pitying) a segment of fandom. Not only that, we're witnessing a commentary on a whole segment of society.
If a series makes you kind of uncomfortable as a "fan" and at the same time make you laugh, it's a surefire sign that's it's an "otaku anime" because it's nose-pointing audience is the otaku audience.
Genshiken... another example. Notice the "freak indoctrination process" that new members are subjected to. The ritual is almost something like "yeah... you're not freak (otaku) enough right now, at least you don't admit it. But as soon as we're done with you you'll be just like the rest of us"
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya- Otaku series. Demands almost no explanation. Note the implication that each fan belong to their own little universe. In that story, each main character has their very own bizarre "world" that makes absolutely
no sense treated separately but makes
perfect sense when treated on their own (one is time traveling, one is uh, "divine", one is a BOT...) If that doesn't spell "fan interpretatiion of their own Mary-Sue version of their favorite anime/manga story" then nothing does.
There are some other "milder" series like
Comic Party that doesn't "rub it in" nearly as hard, but they're also otaku series.
Edit: Uh oh! I've totally forgotten the n-number of series like
Hayate the Combat Butler where there are
constantly gags about "this is an anime episode" and/or "this is not an anime episode" or "this is a dating sim plot" as in Hayate himself saying "could this mean that the plot is moving toward a [insert female character name here] ending?" and "I guess it's not moving toward that ending after all". Oh, and add the annoyingly hilarious narrator on top of that and you have an
Otaku series.