Anime-Gataris: The Complete Series

Spun off from short subjects shown in anime-heavy Japanese theaters, this daffy classroom farce essentially amounts to a self-referential, post-modern anime infomercial, but it is impossible to dislike. Japanese teen Minoa is haunted by childhood images she dimly remembers from an obscure TV cartoon. When she learns that fabulously rich and beautiful classmate Arisu is an anime buff, the pair start an odd-couple friendship (more a master-apprentice one) to revive an inactive school anime club and populate it with fellow obsessives—most of whom subject novice Minoa to intense anime binge-viewing, cosplay, convention-going, and hectoring anime 101 lectures (viewers will learn that "God rays" is the term for inexplicable beams of light that miraculously block full nudity). Meanwhile, mysterious opposition to the club comes from the highest levels in the school, and a running gag finds that even characters who seem indifferent or hostile to anime are secretly the most fanatical otaku purists. In the zany, apocalyptic closing episodes, reality is literally invaded by the universe of anime (which is certainly wish-fulfillment for the target audience). If cult immortality doesn’t await the series Anime-Gataris (literally "anime talk") it definitely should. Presenting all 12 episodes from 2017 in a dual-language Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, rated TV-PG, this is highly recommended. (C. Cassady)