In Highest Praise

"We make these things so we can film them," Kevin says. Everything ends up as a prop for a future movie. They dream of making a live action film.

Bobby has also salvaged some other things. In his living room, a tall rickety towerlike structure made of plywood stands from the floor to the ceiling. Precariously topping it is a heavy industrial projector, and from it, the ending credits of a movie flicker onto his wall. This he hauled from the trash bin of some chemical company.

"I might bolt it to the ceiling," Bobby says.

His best find, though, might be the satellite dish he dragged from somewhere. Now he can get The X-Files first thing on Friday mornings when the station sends the feed over -- without commercials, he says proudly.

Bobby recently got a girlfriend (shattering all stereotypes of anime geeks, Kevin jokes). He met her on the Internet. She has no idea how much time he actually spends making parodies. His parents tell him to stop watching cartoons and get a better job.

But Bobby has found something in making parodies that he can't get anywhere else.

"We're not into it for any material gain. We're into it for attention. We're all desperate for attention, so we'll do anything."

Requests for his tapes have come from as far as Russia and Australia.

"I don't even watch anime anymore," he says. "I don't have time for it."