‘Nande sonna ni homo ga suki na desu ka?’
‘Why do they all like gay characters so much?’
‘Homo ga kirai na joushi ka imasen!’
‘There are no girls who really dislike gays!’

Summary
It’s the beginning of Sasahara’s third year in university. Madarame and Sasahara discuss the possibility of any new members joining, recalling that Kasukabe scared all potential new members off the previous year. Kugayama is busy looking for a job, Ohno and Tanaka are shopping for cosplay material, and Kohsaka and Kasukabe just returned fom a date. Kuchiki shows up at the club room, and after some annoying rambling Kuchiki Joins Your Party… uh I mean Genshiken.

The club is just carrying on with their normal activities (i.e. doing nothing at all), when Kasukabe notices a commotion at the Manken (Manga club) club room across the courtyard. From the club room window a girl appears, and to everyone’s suprise she jumps out the first floor window.

Asking the Genshiken for a favour, Takayanagi from the Manken explains the earlier incident. It turns out that a new member got into a fight with some of the older members of the Manken, and the new member decides to throw herself out of the window as a result of that. Claiming that the Genshiken’s female members are already hated by the Manken female members, Takayanagi asks the Genshiken to take in Ogiue, the new member and the source of the trouble.

Ogiue introduces herself with some highly controversial statements, which includes but is not limited to the exchange found at the start of this article. Because of this her relationship with Ohno starts off strained, and Ohno sets her up with a special ‘test’.

Ogiue comes to the club room the next day to find the table filled with yaoi doujin, while Ohno, Tanaka, Madarame and Sasahara watches from the Children’s Literature Club across the courtyard. Just before Ogiue falls for the trap, Kusakabe returns from her date with Kohsaka. She calls Ohno to ask about the doujins, to which Ohno replies she’s at the toilet. To avoid looking suspicious, Ohno returns to the club room, and joins in Ogiue and Kasukabe’s conversation about yaoi doujin. It seems there’s a reason why Ogiue hates yaoi.

Kuchiki comes to the club room at the leasat oppurtune moment, and shows the Ohno and Kasukabe a photo, taken on his mobile phone, of Ogiue at a yaoi doujin event. Embarassed at being exposed, Ogiue tries to jump out Genshiken’s second floor window, but is stopped by Kasukabe.

Thoughts

Genshiken continues from its 12 episode with an episode 13 included on the new Kujian’s DVD. I’ve already read the manga up to its completion (albeit in raw), so it’s hard for me to make any objective commenst on the new character. Since the story follows the manga almost word for word, I also already know exactly what’s happening next, so I also can’t make any objective analysis on that front or about the jokes. So I’ll just comment on stuff that’s specific to the anime version, like the voice acting and the animation.

The first thing that should strike you when you watch this episode is that the OP animation is an awesome parody of the Kujian OP. The song is sang by Manzo, the same band that did the original Genshiken’s OP, but it’s a less up-beat tune that’s quite different from the original’s. Personally I don’t dislike the song, but it doesn’t suit the animation which, since it’s a parody of the Kujian OP, is more suited to a faster song.

The second thing you’ll notice, is that the quality of the animation and the characters in general haven’t improved much over the original Genshiken TV series. I’d even say it’s quite bad at times, not at all the quality level you’d expect from an OVA. The backgrounds are generally okay, although the shelves in the club room looks like they were populated with filtered photos of a real otaku’s room.

They replaced all the original Kujian images with images from the new Kujian. They even refer to it as the second season of Kujian. The music is serviceable, but never outstanding. I’m not sure if they’re using the same tracks from the original TV series or not, if someone remembers after watching the episode feel free to tell me.

The comedy is what you’d expect from Genshiken, a mixture of slapstick humour, situational comedy and wit.

Kuchii is annoying. I hated him in the manga, I hate him even more when I can hear his voice, but that means he’s successful as a character. It’s kind of funny that the version of ‘nothing’ that Kuchii says is funny is the correct way of pronouncing it in English.

Ogiue is a more complex character. Unlike Kuchiki’s one-dimensioned, supportive role, her purpose to the story is different. I’m partial to her because of the manga, but how much you’ll like her as a result of this episode alone is hard to say. Her introduction lines are absolutely awesome.

Ohno is awesome this episode. I love Kawasumi’s voice acting for her. Every line she says in the Children’s Literature club room are absolutely golden, especially her evil laugh and her conversation with Kasukabe over the phone. Ohno’s declaration that she reads bald doujin when *beeeeeeeeeep*ing is still hilarious, and her ‘Iiya, daihen’ is sweet as well.

Fans of the TV series can rejoice in a familiar ED sequence, where almost everything including the song stays the same. The only difference is that the Kujian being shown on the television is the new TV series version instead of the OVA that accompanied the Genshiken DVDs. Saori Atusmi’s Biidama was average for the TV series, it’s still average now.

So all up how’s episode 1 the Genshiken OVA? It’s pretty much exactly the same Genshiken that aired last year, warts and all, so if you liked the TV series, chances are you’ll love this episode too.

Final Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 Kohsaka will watch this episode while having sex with Saki.

Browse Timeline

• « Saint October Episode 1 - Worship Green-haired Kotono NOW!
• » “Kenichi wants some love love” - History’s strongest disciple Kenichi Episode 12

Comments (5)

Add a Comment