We’ve seen before that working in animation in Japan isn’t exactly the most lucrative or enjoyable career, but that won’t stop the legions of fans out there who are determined to share their art with the world. Even if they aren’t Japanese.

YouTube user azuresakuga is a non-Japanese otaku with a passion for animating. He’s spent the last year working on a short animation of his own, combining all of his favorite anime characters into one all-star marathon. Ever since he shared it with the world, Japanese otaku have been praising it all over, and once you see it too, you’ll probably do the same.

We’re not 100-percent sure on azuresakuga’s country of origin (though the signs seem to point to South Korea), but there’s no denying his love for anime and skill in creating it as well. When he released his fan video, titled Keypler’s World, on Niconico, he wrote this message along with it (in Japanese):

“Hello, Azure here. The project I’ve spent an entire year on is finally complete. I started on March 13, 2014 when the YouTube drawing contest was announced. Myself and all other contributors to this are not professionals in any way, we’re just amateurs. Even though we had no idea what we were doing at times, we somehow finally managed to complete it. My goal with the piece was to animate some of my favorite characters as I remember them. * I just want to respond to some comments. The animation was not drawn by tracing. You can watch the video that explains how it was created here. Also, thank you everyone! I can’t believe this has gotten over 10,000 views. I’m in shock….”

All right, enough chit-chat. Watch Keypler’s World here, or scroll down for some highlights.

▼ The video starts right off with the action. Reimu, a Toho character, comes leaping right at the screen.

▼ And then just casually blows up a spaceship. All right, I’m sold.

▼ It’s a fanboy overload! Alphonse and Edward Elric dropping down right in the middle of a fight between Soul Eater’s Maka Albarn and Akiyuki’s Xam’d form?! Gah, it’s too much!

▼ Speaking of fan overload, next up we get Digimon…

▼ Versus Pokémon. I think every 25- to 35-year-old’s dream just came true.

▼ An epic showdown between magical girls: Madoka and Nanoha. Whose kawaii will reign supreme?

▼ And then we begin arguably the best part of the short: the removing of glasses.

▼ Oh yeah! Take ’em off!

▼ Why do they look so cool when they take off their glasses and I always end up getting them caught on my ear or nose or something? It’s not fair.

▼ And a final shot of one of the characters looking at us, reflected in the lenses of the glasses, symbolically asking us to reflect upon what we have just witnessed.

Or just a cool ending shot. That’s good too.

The short film clocks in at only about a minute long, but keeping in mind that the people who made this are complete amateurs and just made it in their free time, it’s still an incredible achievement. The unrefined details and simple backgrounds are also reminders that this was not created by a professional studio, but if anything they just add to the experience of truly enjoying something made by fans for fans.

What do you think of the video? Did you recognize any characters we missed or wish they’d include some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments section, and if you like what you’ve seen then be sure to give Azure a shout-out on his channel, either on YouTube or Niconico. With any luck maybe we’ll get another video next year.

Source: YouTube (azuresakuga) via My Game News Flash

Featured/top image: YouTube (azuresakuga)