XXXIX: "Comic Party" series

This is another double post. Before I knew of Genshiken, there was one anime that tied in with the term otaku: Comic Party. The name of this was initially that of a romantic dating sim (to the eroge degree) for PC, but soon bridged onto gaming platforms: the Sega Dreamcast, and later the Playstation Portable. Before the game for PSP released in late 2005, there was an animated series, addressed by some as Comic Party TV. The character of interest is Kazuki Sendo, a typical student who is dragged into the world of doujinshi by his eccentric friend, Taishi. Being dragged to the Tokyo Big Sight, he is found in a comic convention, only to be dragged into the biggest one after it: the titular doujinshi convention, Comic Party. After acknowledging Kazuki's skills as an artist, Taishi tries to talk him into drawing his own doujin, much to dismay of Kaziki's childhood friend, Mizuki. Having bitterness against otaku (based on her views about them), she tries to talk Kazuki out of that possibility, though it serves little effect as Kazuki decides to start his own doujin work.

Throughout the series, plenty of characters are introduced, each with a similar tastes into doujin, and a part in Comic Party. The characters that Mizuki refers to as dirty, smelly otaku does appear every now and then as they serve that role, more so to cause trouble for the main cast. They all return in the follow up in 2005, Comic Party Revolution, with the addition of the hero manga-loving Subaru, among other characters (while Subaru is new in CP Revolution, she is seen somewhere before in the manga, while remaining absent from both the original game and the first anime.) Preceding CP Revolution are 4 added episodes to the original, known as Comic Party Special. Between Comic Party TV and Comic Party Revolution, cast switch ups were done. A few examples of these changes are Kazuki, Mizuki and Chisa Tsukamoto (though for the most part, nearly everyone got a new English voice in CP Revolution.) Here are a few examples:

• Kazuki Sendo -
  In CP, he is voiced by Samuel Grant Oscar Riegel, while Lerado Anzaldua covers his CP Revolution voice

• Mizuki Takase -
  Rachel Lillis voiced her in CP, while her CP Revolution voice was done by Luci Christian

• Chisa Tsukamoto -
  While voiced by Lisa Oritz in the CP dub, Kim-Ly Nguyen provided her CP Revolution voice

While the English voices were changed in it's entirety (for reccuring roles), the seiyuus that provided Japanese voices for the characters reprised their roles.
All and all, good, though it bothered me about the view of otaku shown in both series, though they are not the only ones to do so. Still a 7 of 10 is fine by me, as it hits pretty close to what I love about the anime/doujin worlds.