HighWire: [First Impression/Footnotes] Denpa Kyoushi/Otaku Representation in Anime

Okay, so there's a tough discussion coming up, and if you want a lighter post, you can back out now. For instance, there's a Valrave review somewhere on this blog that is basically just me shitting on the show for awhile, so if that sounds fun to you, go for it, because from here on out, there will be very few laughs. With that somewhat ominous preface out of the way, hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and welcome to a new First Impression(or Footnotes, depending on how you view it), one that is going to be a little bit different than usual. With that, let's begin.

As a person, one of the things I hate the most is when people talk about other people behind their backs. Actually, hate probably isn't a strong enough word, so let's go with this one: I loathe it, and whether that is just the way I am or because that hate ties into my deep seeded fear of how I don't know what others think of me, I'm not comfortable to say, because hey, I'm still young and stupid. I'm sorry if this is getting way too personal early on, but it kind of needs to be for the weight of this discussion, because otherwise, there would be basically no reason for me to do a First Impression on an anime as fundamentally unremarkable as Denpa Kyoushi. Most of all however, I hate when I do the exact things I hate that others do, which in this case, would be talking about my fellow otaku brethren behind their backs. Which I don't want to do, because, to put it bluntly, I love you all so much. I love your sh*t tastes in anime, your waifus, your fetishes, your creepy amalgamation of anime merchandise, your passionate love for the medium that can occasionally go overboard, the anime you love talking about, the anime you love tearing to shreds, your sharp wit, your strange charm, your surprising kindness, and everything in between. We anime fans are part of one extremely awesome, admittedly extremely weird community, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Which is why I need to call you guys, or maybe simply the industry, out on this part, because shows like Denpa Kyoushi... sort of need to stop.

I suppose I have a duty to exactly explain the plot of this anime, so let's go other this quickly, and explain what I experienced during this anime's first three episodes. This A-1 Pictures' animated comedy follows our main protagonist Kagami Junichirou, who as a teenager, was an absolute prodigy in the field of psychics as he published ground-breaking research. However once he graduated from high-school he promptly became disenchanted with psychics as a career path, and claiming to suffer from a rare sickness that prevents him from doing anything that he doesn't want to do, retreating instead into his house to become an anime-obsessed NEET who runs a successful anime blog(kind of like mine besides from that first adjective). And by the way, I just want to point out that the "NEET protagonist" trope was already basically deconstructed and perfected in Welcome to the NHK, like, nearly a decade before Denpa Kyoushi was released, but I digress.
Years later, his younger sister who is determined to make Junichirou do something worthwhile with his life, somehow manages to land Junichirou a job teaching physics at his old highschool. Junichirou goes begrudgingly, but finds that he actually doesn't completely hate teaching, and for his students, though they find his anime-inspired methods unorthodox, they quickly realize that he just might be the best teacher they've ever had. What a surprise.

Proudly embarking of a new mission.

I fully realize that this is all a little unfair of me. After all, this certain trend I'm about to criticize is by no means exclusive to Denpa Kyoushi, in fact, its been engraved in plenty of anime that I've praised. But I've got to address this at some point, so why not now?
The trend I've been talking about is the one that I've dubbed "otaku empowerment". This is a trend present in such shows like No Game No Life or to some extent GATE. It's when our main protagonist is either a hard-core otaku or NEET who is suddenly dragged into a dramatic or fantastic situation, and because of their life-style or love for anime, are inexplicably great at absolutely everything. Though their methods to solving may be unorthodox(that sound familiar?) by the end of the anime, they either have a small country of hot girls wavering on their every word, or in the case of No Game No Life, have basically taken over half of the known world. It's the constant emergence of shows like this that have begun to bother me, to the extent I'm basically giving up this First Impression and turning into a Footnotes just so I can talk about it. Because, those these kind of shows would seek to cast otakus in a positive light, they sort of do the opposite, making the whole affair appear as a wet-dream for immature, pretentious anime fans living in their parents basements who are living through these shows as a sort of way to get back at the world that rejected them. That bothers me because, here we go, big shocker, most anime fans aren't in fact basement-dwellers that use their weird Japanese obsession to fill their empty fucking lives. Of course those type of anime fans do exist somewhere, but in any medium, there's always a group of fans that take their love for it too far, it's why a whole generation of gamers have lost their lives playing World of Warcraft in the height of popularity for online MMO's.
Look, I'm not saying we can't celebrate anime and its fans as a whole in our own medium, but there's a better way than empowering otakus to achieve that. Shirobako, as I'm fond of saying, is an absolutely wonderful show, one that complete revolves around the anime creation process and history. So, what separates Shirobako from anime like Denpa Kyoushi or No Game No Life? All of them are celebrating anime and its fans to some extent, right? Here's the answer I've come to: if you really want to create an anime that revolves around the culture of the medium as a whole while still remaining tasteful, celebrate the people, not the anime.
What shows like Shirobako, and hell, even Outbreak Company or Orelmo(until that one turned into the exact thing is was initially parodying), from simply being pandering otaku-empowerment is that treat the people who love anime realistically. What these shows understand is that the fans of the medium are simply normal people, which seems obvious, until you reach this sort of disconnect between the average anime fan and the public. Though things here in the west have been getting better as anime like Attack on Titan(or hell, even One Punch Man) have brought the medium more into mainstream attention, that stigma still exists. Why many anime fans(including me) are hesitant to admitting their love for the medium at the thought of being labeled a "weirdo" or whatever. Perhaps that's where those "otaku-pandering" anime come from, they understand the stigma that revolves around anime, and they overcompensate by portraying anime fans as somehow superior to other people.

Meet Aoi Miyamori, protagonist of Shirobako. She's cute, irresistible, yet exceedingly human.

And that's why I love Shirobako, and anime like it; anime that focus on that human element of the fans who enjoy the medium. Because they show that no, we're not superior to others, nor are we less. We're just people. People who just happen to have a different passion than those who view anime from the outside. Just the same as any other passion. Yes, ours is a little weird, but so what? Tons of things in this world are weird. Weirdness is the spice of life. And in the words of the main protagonist from Orelmo(sort of), "just because anime fans are weird doesn't mean they're bad people". That's where I find comfort. Because yes, even though anime is weird, and takes it way too far much too often, I know the fans of this medium. Because I've talked with you, argued with you, laughed with you and so on. And because of that, I know how fantastic you all are. That's why, as I said in the beginning of this post, I love you all so much. We don't need anime that fill us with pointless ego, reassuring us that our weird obsession with Chinese cartoons make us better. Because we've got nothing to justify. Because we're normal people.
...Okay, besides from that tooth-brushing scene is Nisemonogatari. We sort of need of need to justify that. Oh also, Monster Musume may require a few explanations and apologies to the police. Don't forget to hide the tentacle hentai. Also you can't forget...

Ugh. I've never been so hesitant to push the publish button on a post. I've tried to be to fair in this, but I can't help but feel I said something wrong, or offended somebody, or tripped up somewhere, even if I don't know exactly where. I've never tried to criticize or justify the anime medium like this on my blog before, and since I'm still relatively new to the medium, there might be something fundamental about the culture of liking/justifying/disliking anime that I simply can't get me head around yet. I've tried to put down my thoughts as best as I can, and maybe those thoughts are wrong, and in which case, you are free to argue the point with me, whether that be on Hummingbird, Twitter, or right here on the blog. I'm always happy to talk about Chinese cartoons with you all. As for this post, it's getting a little lengthy, so let's start wrapping this up, shall we?
To summarize those paragraphs above, I'll just say this. We don't need shows that inflate our ego. Look, I'm not against an otaku using his knowledge of anime to take over the world or something(because to be honest, that sounds like a pretty hilarious idea for a show), but if animation studios feel that they need to represent otaku in their anime, I'd much rather our culture be represented as a group of quirky but normal people instead of a sleeping generation of basement-dwelling super-geniuses that are amazing at everything. That's not the truth. The truth is much simpler.
As for Denpa Kyoushi itself, disregarding all the otaku-empowered aspects, I'd say it's doing its job as a comedy. As of writing this concluding paragraph, I'm three episodes in, and since the show happens to be 2-cour, I'd totally be happy if Junichirou has a more psychological issue to why he boarded himself in a room for years on end besides from a made-up sickness and love for anime, though that seems unlikely for an anime this shallow. Because shockingly, anime usually isn't intrinsically tied with becoming a jobless leach on society. At least I don't think so. Give me a few years. We'll see where I end up. Goodbye for now guys.

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