Yes, I take every opportunity to put Ogiue fanservice on the front page of this blog.

Ah the wonderful ride has finally come to a close for this season. This final episode is mostly focused on Sasahara and his struggles in getting a job once again. We don’t really get a final resolution to everything out there, but it was a good episode nonetheless. After the summary I have included the usual episode impression as well as a final series impression following that.

We open at the clubroom with Kuchiki being irritating and pissing Sasahara off to the point where he leaves, and while doing so hides from Ogiue. Apparently he is still pretty distraught over his lack of a job, and the next few scenes show him failing at a some more interviews. Afterwards he has a dream where he is being scolded by Ogiue and Kugayama over his lack of conviction and wakes up in his room full of trash bags. It seems he hasn’t been getting out that often. After a couple more failed interviews and some internet searches he goes to the clubroom with his new rebel look I suppose, sporting a beard. Kasukabe comes in and sees the decrepit state he is in and rips him a new one for being a pussy about the whole thing and wallowing in self-pity. What really stings Sasahara is when Ogiue voices her disappointment at his current state. Later that night he gets a call from Kugayama, who apparently is having trouble at his job but has started to draw again.

The combination of Kasukabe and Ogiue’s comments in the clubroom and the phone call from Kugayama give Sasahara the swift kick in the ass he needed, and he finds an ad in the paper looking for a manga editor with no experience required. It turns out its for some sort of editorial temp agency, and he has the first interview in which he really acts natural. It also helps that the interviewer is a pretty cool guy and doesn’t ask the typical mundane questions the other interviewers have. During the interview he remembers how much fun he had creating the doujinshi with Genshiken, even working through the difficulties. In the end the agency accepts him and he gets a job, and in his excitement he calls up Ogiue who was showering. He thanks her for her words and inspiration earlier and she asks him if he would look over her storyboard when he has a chance. Eventually everyone else either calls him to congratulate him or does it in person.

Episode Impressions:

I found this episode overall one of the weaker this season. It didn’t provide that much closure to the series, so I assume we will have more. That being said, even a weak episode for this show is good, and I still enjoyed watching it. Sasahara continued to break down, as his interviews seemed to get even worse than they were a couple of episodes ago. He appeared unmotivated and apathetic during those interviews, and had little chance at getting the job as a result. In addition it was pretty depressing watching him mope around his dark apartment illuminated only by his monitor and filled with trashbags. Then of course he decided to try and force everyone else to pity him by going to the Genshiken clubroom with his unshaven face and depressing self-pity. Fortunately Saki wasn’t going to have any of that bullshit and let him have it. Even that by itself wasn’t really enough, for me the biggest slap in the face was Ogiue expressing her disappointment. She didn’t yell it out or give a long speech, but you could see on Sasahara’s face how much that hit him.

The difference in the interview he had after that revealed the big change of heart he had. He was more natural and enthusiastic about the company, and lucky for him he was interviewed by a someone who understood him. It all turned out good in the end, he got the type of job that is great for entrance to a field. It’s hard to get permanent, full-time positions without any internships or experience here in the States, I assume it isn’t too different in Japan. So he has to do what all the rest of us have to do, some lame bitch work until you spend enough time to get noticed. To be honest it wasn’t much of an end, he got a job and yeah bam end of season 2. There are a couple of manga volumes left so hopefully this indicates more future material. As far as series endings go this was pretty weak.

Series Impressions:

In the end, I’m really glad I blogged this show. It didn’t seem to get that much blogging attention as aside from myself I think I only saw Hinano and Kurogane covering it. I feel that it was kind of unfortunate because Genshiken was one of the best this season and deserved more attention.

Overall the second season had a lot more humor I think than the first. The first focused a lot on introducing the otaku lifestyle to Sasahara, but since there wasn’t any of that left we got to see more episodes of just humor. The highlight episodes of the season for me were the yaoi parody (ep 5) and the first and second American otaku episodes (ep 10 and 11). I was falling-out-of-my-chair laughing throughout most of those three episodes. The over-the-top and ridiculous character portrayals, personality changes, and relationship drama in the yaoi episode may just edge out the American otaku episodes by a very thin hair for the best overall episode for the season, but it’s close. As for the other two episodes, Suzy and Angela really stole the show, shaking up the normal Genshiken routine in pretty comical ways.

Aside from the humor there were a handful of more dramatic episodes that provided character development, but I can’t say they were as enjoyable as the comedy episodes. The best and most obvious character development this season was Ogiue, but hers was done mostly through comedy. She was definitely my favorite character this season because aside from being incredibly moe, she progressed so much over these 12 episodes. In the beginning with her introduction in the OVAs and early in season 2 she seemed to be a hateful person who just could not accept her own desires. Fast forward to episode 11 and she is selling a yaoi doujinshi that she drew and edited herself at Comic Fest, something unthinkable in the beginning. Madarame would be a close second in character rankings for me as he was in the first season but didn’t quite make it. His character development was a bit weaker and probably because of his graduation got a lot less screentime in the second season.

I would hesitate to recommend the show unless you have seen the first season and the OVAs because it would be hard to appreciate a lot of the relationships and humor without them, so if you are interested I encourage you to pick up the first season DVDs and watch them. For those of you that have seen them this season is highly reccomended, as it will give you even more reason to love the characters. From what I’ve surmised from those that have read the manga this season ends somewhere near the end of volume 7, and there are 9 volumes. So one would assume that there are either some OVAs that cover parts of the material or another season to cover all of it bubbling in the future. I certainly hope so, and when I get some extra cash I think I’ll start collecting the manga for this now that volume 9 has been released in the states. Final Verdict- 9/10 for delicious comedy.

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