I Like What I Like

This is the story of a twenty-something office lady who is a toku ota (tokusatsu otaku) and has a strong love for the lead character in the currently airing children's sentai show, Jyushouwan. Forced to hide her hobbies from her co-workers out of fear of embarrassment, Kano Nakamura spends most of her free time catching up on the tokusatsu on her DVR - and all of her money on tokusatsu DVDs.

With the the addition of some new friends found in unlikely places, Kano grows more comfortable in her decisions and where her life is. Even if that means standing up to the monster she calls "mother."

As a fellow tokusatsu otaku, the scenarios in this show are super relatable and not done in a way that makes fun at their expense. From having to quickly cover up almost having your hobby outed to a non-fan, incorporating sly fandom references into your attire to attract fellow fans, or even mothers who don't understand why their children watched shows targeted for the other gender and then never grew out of them.

The variety of fans seen in this show is also super impressive. You of course have your current target demographic and your adults who look fondly at their childhood shows through nostalgic eyes. But then it just snowballs into girls who want boy toys, thirty-something women who start questioning their fandom life choices, men who like magical girls, women who don't really care about tokusatsu but just want to watch an actor's early roles, closet j-pop fans, non-closeted j-pop fans, mothers who try and understand their kid's "weird" interests, and also just a variety of both supportive and unsupportive friends and family members.

Sure, it's only seven episodes, but I still highly recommend this show to anyone who has ever been in any sort of fandom. Or even if you haven't. It might surprise you.

9/10