Anime has started slowly and bit by bit to infiltrate the world. You can see it referenced in many places such as movies and news broadcasts. And nowhere is safe,…including Mexican soap operas? That’s right, there’s a novella that decided to deal with the subject of anime and otaku subculture. The show is the badly acted drama La Rosa de Guadalupe (the rose of Virgin Mary), which uses religious miracles as convenient plot device and has been accused by viewers for using horrible stereotypes. The particular aspect of otakus they focus on is cosplay, in an episode titled “Cosplay: Salvemos el mundo”(translated into cosplay: save the world). And you’re about to find out why this episode has had Mexican otaku madder than wasabi covered jalapeños.
We start off this adventure by the appearance of two teenage otaku going to high school in costumes. The male of the duo (dressed in a manner similar to Goku) whines that that they should have waited until after school and at their cosplay meeting to dress up.The female of the pair reassures that they are not in costumes but in their regular clothes (so yeah, the whole premise of the episode is that cosplayers dress like this in their daily lives, instead of just conventions and gatherings)
She refers to him as Hiroshi San: gladiator of the zodiac (because it’s the best way to avoid a law suit), and refers to herself as Nomiko Moon: From genesis (whatever the hell that means).Despite finding out that her name is actually Perla, the actress is actually credited as playing “Nomiko Moon” in the opening credits.
Looks like the name "Perla" even offends the director.
After their self introduction , Nomiko Moon proclaims that they will save the world with cosplay(I assume from boredom), and then proceeds to do martial art poses. All of a sudden they are approached by a classmate who proclaims that she will save the world by getting rid of these “freaks”(the freaks being said in English, because you want your insults to be in style).
I assume she also understands "your being a bitch" in english too.
After a small scuffle between the two girls(luckily for our heroes, the villains also don’t know how to fight), we are at her home with Nomiko’s mother. A little banter about how she should behave normally. Of course followed by Nomiko’s usual retort of actually being a warrior out to save earth and refusal to be called Perla. We hear this conversation constantly throughout the show, so let’s just humor them and pretend it doesn’t get repetitive and old…yeah, it’s hard to do.
Don't try episode criticism,young lady!
While playing at home with her cosplaying friend, her cousin asks both of them why they cosplay. And she responds by saying she likes the world of fantasy. Then she elaborates that “Perla” has been alone ever since her dad left, but “Nomiko Moon” is never alone. The bad part isn’t the fact that the show uses this hokey excuse for her problems, it’s the fact she refers to her world as a fantasy during this moment! For somebody in denial and out of touch with reality, you fail to keep your story straight, young lady.
The pity train stopped long ago at Contradictory-ville.
Will Namiko Moon keep her story straight? Find out next time in part two of this review(yes, this crap actually takes two reviews).