Using Hiroki Azuma's theory, this study examines the box-office failure of the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint film. The original self-reflexively presents a “self-terminating reader” for audiences as “postmodern animals,” but the film misreads this mediality and its game-like realism. The study also diagnoses the changing otaku condition in the age of generative AI, where even self-termination loses its agency.

Yun-hee Hwang is a PhD student in Film and Moving Image Theory at the Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science, Chung-Ang University. She conducts historical research on the period-specific aesthetic characteristics of Korean independent animation. Her interests include the self-reflexivity of media, with a particular focus on animation.