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.

]]> http://that.animeblogger.net/2007/12/29/genshiken-2-episode-12-final-episode-and-series-impressions/feed/ 18 http://that.animeblogger.net/2007/12/20/genshiken-2-episode-11-sign-this-porn-please/ http://that.animeblogger.net/2007/12/20/genshiken-2-episode-11-sign-this-porn-please/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:15:00 +0000 Calawain http://that.animeblogger.net/2007/12/20/genshiken-2-episode-11-sign-this-porn-please/ He stuck it in his what? Oh, Ogiue is a very dirty girl.

While Comic Fest has been done in a few other episodes, this one provides plenty of laughs and amusement as the two Aryan-looking otaku’s come and stir things up. Unfortunately, there is only one more episode left in the season for this show, but don’t despair, I’m sure it will be good as always.

Sasahara and Ogiue meet up outside of Comic Fest and prepare to spend the day selling her doujin, and she recalls the odd way Suzy stared her down yesterday. Meanwhile, Tanaka, Ohno, Angela, and Suzy are waiting outside in a different location amongst a mass of people. Of course, to Angela’s amusement, Suzy yells out an appropriate line from her catchphrase library and gets stares from everyone around. Inside, Ogiue takes a look at the final printed version of her work and tells Sasahara not to look at it or he will be cursed. When the first couple of customers come, Ogiue is expectedly frozen, leaving Sasahara to deal with the vendor work. Outside, Ohno and Angela cosplay as Yoko (I think) and some other character I can’t identify in some quite revealing outfits. Back inside, after the first sale Ogiue looks up with a lovestruck expression at Sasahara who looks genuinely happy for her. She panics and excuses herself to use the restroom. Other characters in attendance include some Manga Club members and Kousaka (he needs to go away already). Later, a couple of Ogiue’s friends from middle school find her and are quite surprised that she still draws manga.

She gives them a free copy and then has a mini-breakdown when they leave, although I really have little clue as to why aside from more embarrassment problems, maybe we will find out next week. Suzy also shows up to the booth and wants a copy of the doujin, and after some communication problems she understands Ogiue wants to give it to her for a gift and thanks her for it. Next to pay a visit is Madarame, who ditched the second half of work to come and check it out, but Ogiue also refuses to let him look at it. Suzy comes back and asks Ogiue to sign the doujin, opening to the hot mansecks part of it in front of everyone. After the even, they all get together and head to an onsen, when Suzy comes up to Ogiue in the bath and recites a line in the best tradition of Konata and Mayumi, afterwards following her around the bath and flashing her. They all meet outside and the girls discuss Ogiue’s book, and Angela’s favorite part is obviously the part when “Mugio splashes sperm onto Chihiro’s glasses.” Note- it looks like the word sperm was censored out in the Japanese subtitles, but she definitely said sperm in English, I guess it’s not as offensive in a foreign language? After it all, Angela and Suzy unfortunately have to go back to America, and in the epilogue Ohno and Yabusake spend some quality time getting hot and bothered reading Ogiue’s work.

Next Episode:

The next episode is the last, but aside from some shots of Sasahara doing some interviews I really have no idea what it’s going to be about. I am sad that it won’t be on after the next episode, and from what people have told me, there isn’t enough manga material left to make another season. C’est la vie…

Impressions:

Once again the girls from America certainly spice things up this episode. Suzy certainly grew on me this episode, as she was less annoying and a lot more endearing. She seemed to really appreciate being given the doujin for free and grew quite attached to Ogiue. I think the flat chest as a status symbol line was her way of trying to show camaraderie with Ogiue and to help her feel good about herself in the best way she knew how to. She seems to try her best to be friendly to the Genshiken members and especially Ogiue, despite the language barrier. She is also not ashamed of her hobbies and does not shy from anything graphic, I mean opening the doujin up right to the porn and asking Ogiue to sign it like that showed that she doesn’t really care if other people think she is odd. I like that type of character, as most characters in anime (for cultural reasons it seems) are always so concerned about what everyone thinks of them. It’s probably a stereotypical trait to assign to foreign (read American) characters, but it’s a trait that I don’t mind at all being associated with.

Angela had significantly less lines this episode than last, as the focus was more on Suzy and Ogiue x Sasa. However, she did manage the best line of the episode, the whole sperm on the glasses bit. I was pretty floored by that comment, and how it was censored out in the Japanese text but not in speech. Good stuff though.

A bit of Ogiue x Sasa development, especially with that lovestruck stare she gave him when they sold the first copy of her doujin. She’s apparently got some issues, I assume traumatic past situation after watching her middle school friends show up. Sasahara and Ogiue seem to get along well through their conversations, it’s not like they sit there uncomfortably with nothing to talk about. I could use a bit less of the self-pity stuff Sasahara throws out there, but maybe it scores him points. I know their hookup is coming eventually, but I’m not sure how they are going to handle it in the last episode. I mean there has obviously been hints and discussion of it before, but a sudden hookup and happily ever after in one episode may feel kind of rushed. Perhaps a good way to handle it would be to at least give it a start with something dramatic or forceful and then follow up with a couple of OVAs like the first season. I’m looking forward to it either way, this season has been amazing so far, and I don’t expect them to do anything below those expectations to finish it off.

Without actually counting the seconds, I would say about half of this episode is in “English.” Or at least, the best English three seiyuu could manage, which wasn’t bad considering. As the episode’s title suggests, a couple of Ohno’s friend’s from the States come for a surprise visit and interaction with Genshiken.

The episode starts off with an awkward conversation between Sasahara, Ohno, and Ogiue about their plans for the upcoming Comic Fest, where they plan to sell Ogiue’s yaoi doujinshi. Ogiue is ahead of the game and has already sent out her manuscript to the printers and won’t let anyone else read it until it is in book form. She also tells Sasahara that he can never read it since a female wouldn’t want a man to read her yaoi, Ohno seemingly realizing she means she doesn’t want the guy she likes to read her dirty, dirty yaoi. Sasahara continues to belittle himself due to his depression over his inability to find a job, I guess going for the pity angle here. On their way home Ohno thinks on how lucky she was to have Tanaka, who wasn’t as weak as Sasahara when it came to women, and ponders whether or not the timing is right for Sasa x Ogiue. In the clubroom Madarame waits alone when a blonde girl shows up and starts speaking in English, and he freaks. It gets even worse when she goes over and glomp hugs him, eventually being saved when Ohno walks in and reprimands Angela. Another blonde girl comes in, this one much shorter and called Sue or Suzy, looking at Madarame staring at her and doing her best Asuka.

Ogiue and Sasahara also show up and are similarly accosted by her anime catchphrase library. When everything gets setttled, Ohno reveals that her two friends showed up at the airport all of a sudden, wanting to see Comic Fest. Ohno, Angela, and Suzy later go over to Tanaka’s, where Angela tries to convince him to make her a cosplay costume to wear to Comic Fest, and he agrees to try and see if it can be made in time. After a conversation with Ohno about how Japanese males would be intimidated by her forceful behavior, Angela tries a more subtle approach alone with Madarame at the clubroom. She invites him to read together with her, which turns out pretty pleasantly for the both of them for the most part. Although she can’t help herself in the end, and holds onto his hand while longingly looking into his eyes, but this time he is saved by the arrival of Kohsaka and Kasukabe, the latter of which speaks English. In the epilogue, Kuchiki is sneaking outside the clubroom and hears the girls talking in English and appears to get really excited and runs off, crashing into a wall outside.

Next Episode:

The next episode is another Comic Fest episode, although the second half of the preview shows Suzy chasing Ogiue around the bath and eventually flashing her a full frontal, haha.

Impressions:

I was half expecting a couple of American’s who sound like Kate from Sketchbook, but the two visiting otaku barely used any Japanese at all. There was a ton of English in this episode, and the seiyuu that did Angela actually did a pretty good job speaking English, even if she spoke it kinda slow. Ohno and Kasukabe’s VAs didn’t sound quite as good, with a much heavier Japanese accent on their English. The show obviously had someone with a decent grasp of English actually write the script, as there were no real glaring grammatical errors that plague much of the attempts in anime. The one weird part was pointed out by Hinano, where they kept using the word sensible instead of sensitive. I mean, both words would kinda work most of the time, but sensitive would fit better. And I don’t know what the on-screen kanji said so maybe it said sensitive. There were a couple of other odds and ends that didn’t quite match up, but once again, they were not too glaring. It was kind of awkward to listen to, although they did the best job of any anime I can remember of having decent grammar and well spoken English almost throughout.

The other thing I wanted to comment on about them was the fact that they are blonde and blue eyed. I don’t know where the Japanese get this impression of Americans, the blonde/blue eyed combination is a fairly small minority. Maybe they have to do that to give the characters a unique trait to separate them from the locals. I mean factually speaking dark hair colors like black and brown dominate American hair colors, but I suppose that wouldn’t make them look different enough to be foreign in an anime. If I remember my genetics from back in high school blue eyes and I think blonde hair are recessive genes. Their character types weren’t wildly out of place though, I know people that are aggressive and flirtatious, as well as pop culture addict irritating. So Angela’s character was fine with me, but Suzy was on the annoying side. That didn’t keep me from laughing when she said “anta baka” or “okaeri nasai, goushoujin-sama” in the middle of the street however.

The first 1/3 of the episode about Ogiue and Sasahara’s tensions is the most contributive plot wise, but it kinda gets buried by the overpowering Americans. The sexual tension between the two is pretty obvious, and Ohno is trying her best to moderate it, but hasn’t succeeded in working out a solution yet. It isn’t realistic to expect Sasahara to come out and ask her out at this point in time with his depression over the job situation, he is already shy as it is without that type of problem. I’m sure he feels that Ogiue doesn’t like him at all and that he is a worthless individual who can’t even find a job. However, I’m sure it will turn out well in the end, I don’t see Genshiken as the type of show that produces a lot of melodrama and a rejection ending. Now if only Kasukabe would dump that idiot Kousaka and get it on with Madarame we would have a perfect ending in the works….

And this week we are back to more melancholy topics, and sadly there is no Ogiue and Kuchiki cosplay to drool/laugh over. Poor Sasahara has been unable to get a job, and when you combine that with the fact that he’s falling for Ogiue who appears (in his mind) to have no interest in him at all you just feel sorry for the guy. Oh, and my buddy Madarame is back and makes an appearance, yay~!

The first scenes of the episode show Sasahara attending various interviews. He often talks down his own skills and motivation, saying that he was just a slacker through most of college and now is motivated to get a job. Next, we see a dream of Kasukabe where Kousaka tells her that he prefers 2D women for sexual and relationship purposes and that she is really unneeded. She later arrives in the clubroom, where they talk about the fact that Kousaka is trying to get a job at a game company, much to Kasukabe’s chagrin. Later, Ogiue arrives in a huff, angry at Ohno for including some of her older bald men doujin in with her recommendations for Ogiue to base her own doujin on. Afterwards, Kasukabe begins to realize the tension between Ogiue and Sasahara, later talking with Ohno about whether she though the two were interested in one another. Ohno isn’t so sure, believing that she prefers to just draw Sasahara and Madarame together in her yaoi. Kasukabe also laments to Ohno that she has reservations about Kousaka’s large amount of eroge playtime.

Kuchiki arrives on the scene, energetically raving about Genshiken going to some sort of summer/training camp, to which most of the club members reply that they are way too busy for that. Then, even he picks up on the Sasahara x Ogiue tension going on, asking her if she would be interested, to which she harshly replies that she would never date an otaku. Ouch. To interrupt the gloomy mood that sets in Kousaka arrives with a smile on his face to announce that he got a job with a game manufacturer. The problem for Kasukabe is that it’s a company that makes eroge and needs him to work long hours starting immediately, probably her worst nightmare. The rest of the episode consists of another interview for manga editing that Sasahara attends, where they first ask him to describe himself in three minutes. He replies by giving bad qualities about himself for some reason, and then later when they ask him about copyright issues with doujin he has no answer. The firm rejects him, and he goes home and plays some eroge, fantasizing about Ogiue.

Next Episode:

Looks like back to comedy next week, with a couple of otaku girls from the US who I assume are Ohno’s friends. One of them seems to take a liking to Madarame to hilarious effect. I wonder how they will voice them, while I find Kate from Sketchbook to be amusing (”desu karrrr”), it is a harsh portrayal of white people. Maybe they will go along the Patty-chan (Lucky Star) route of a more intelligent Western otaku, but I doubt it for small role characters that will probably appear in one or two episodes.

Impressions:

Well it certainly ended on a dark note, with Sasahara feeling depressed and fantasizing about Ogiue after getting completely rejected by another employer. They also used a different ED song that was much more somber than the normal one, which fits with the mood of the latter part of the episode. This is in stark contrast to last week’s episode which emphasized comedy. Overall I thought the episode was well done, it really underlined some of Sasahara’s problems. He is often relegated to the side in the show since he is kind of a neutral and uninteresting character at times, so it becomes something different when he has a large amount of primary screen time.

His job hunt gave me reminders of how awful it was last spring trying to get a summer internship. It took me a little over two months to secure a job that lasted ten weeks, so I feel his pain. However, he is partially to blame here as his interviewing skills are horrible, you don’t ever discuss your negative qualities unless you immediately thereafter talk about how you have fixed or overcame them. Saying that you were uninspired and a slacker is quick trip out the door, he needs better interview preparation. Furthermore, he went to apply at a job in manga editing and he had no opinion or anything to say at all about copyright issues? That’s very bad form, that’s a pretty obvious question in the field if you want to be employed there, having no answer is poor form. However, I don’t blame him completely, panel interviewing is pretty scary, I’m glad I’ve never had to do it. I really don’t think taking 3-4 people on the interviewer or interviewee side really helps the interview process. At least for legal jobs it really makes a difference to go one-on-one for an interview to find out whether or not they belong there.

Lots of Ogiue and Kuchiki this episode, as expected from last week’s preview. Ohno jumps headfirst into her chairmanship and attempts to convert Genshiken into her own cosplaying club, with mixed results. It’s all good though, because we got to see Ogiue cosplaying again, mmmmm.

It looks like Ogiue got her wish, because she received a letter in the mail saying that she was accepted for the upcoming Comic Fest. At the clubhouse, Ohno has set out cosplaying outfits for everyone to wear, she apparently is quite serious about turning Genshiken into the Cosplay Research Club with her newfound chairmanship. Ogiue asks her how she can go out wearing such embarrassing things, trying to subtly get some advice on how she should deal with her fujyoshi desires. Despite the words Ogiue receives from Ohno, she is still unsure of how to deal with her passion, which she finds distasteful. Ohno suggests that in order for her to get used to embarrassing situations she should cosplay, eventually convincing her to put on a tasty looking outfit. When Sasahara comes to the clubroom, she gets so embarrassed that she tries to run away, until she realizes that there a lot of people outside.

The second half of the episode deals with the freshman recruiting fair of sorts, where Ohno has set up a booth and some costumes to try and get people to join Genshiken. After Kuchiki acts like…well, Kuchiki, he is ordered to the clubroom where he seeks consolation from Kasukabe. At the same time Sasahara plays diplomat, trying to get Ogiue and Ohno to lighten up a bit and allow Kuchiki to come back to the booth. They eventually let Kuchiki back to man the booth table, and while reading some manga he notices a suspicious looking man by the costume rack, watching him as he takes one of the costumes and shoves it into a bag. He goes to confront him and he throws the costume at Kuchiki and walks away, right as Ohno walks up finds Kuchiki with the uniform. She starts accusing him and he panics, dropping his pants and putting on the costume, apparently not knowing how else to solve the situation. In the epilogue, the girls are a bit remorseful over the situation, realizing that Kuchiki was just trying to catch a thief, but also noting that they had no new recruits.

Next Episode:

Impressions:

Ogiue cosplayed in a very sexy outfit, and all was good in the world. Well, before that she had a revealing conversation with Ohno about her problems. I said it a couple of episodes ago, but it bears repeating, Ohno is a good influence on Ogiue. She really understands perfectly why Ogiue is acting embarrassed and hateful toward her passions and why she is doing it. Even if she has some side ulterior motives to try and get Ogiue to cosplay, she really does want to help Ogiue out, as her advice is pretty good. Ohno also seems to have recovered from her depression last episode over Tanaka, she has found new motivation in promoting cosplay.

I have to admit Kuchiki was pretty hilarious this episode, and I usually don’t enjoy his antics. He doesn’t know how to deal with uncomfortable situations in a normal way, and instead does the most inappropriate thing possible. I actually know some people like this in real life, but none of them are quite as entertaining. If any of them dropped their pants to put on a maid outfit I would be both amazed and amused. He did make an effort to be nice though once Kasukabe convinced him (she is also quite the diplomat eh?), calmly trying to help out the booth and eventually standing up to the costume thief. I don’t blame him for his response when he was wrongly accused either, considering his tendencies.

It’s only been one episode since the graduation and I already miss Madarame, he was my favorite male character on the show, sigh. With the way the epilogue was last week I was hoping to see more of him the rest of the season. Oh well, there’s always next week.

P.S. While writing this post I had the OP and ED to Ninomiya-kun on repeat, which over the past two days is a common occurrence. I really can’t explain why these two songs are so addicting.

A decidedly more melancholy episode than the previous two, this week focuses on the seniors in Genshiken graduating from the college they attend. Without much conflict or humor, it’s more of a look back on what has happened to each of them and what they plan on doing in the future, and who they will spend that time with.

In the clubroom Kugayama and Sasahara discuss the former’s plan for post-graduation. Kugayama has gotten a job with a manufacturer of sorts, looking to get into sales. Tanaka and Ohno join them, and Tanaka talks about his job, which happens to be fairly far away from where they are now, something that angers Ohno. Kasukabe walks in as well, and gets Ohno to reveal what’s really bothering her, the fact that she will graduate last out of everyone because of the credit loss involved in transferring from overseas. After the graduation ceremony for Tanaka, Kugayama, and Madarame, several of the members gather outside of the hall. Kasukabe notices her old arch nemesis from the student council, who apparently doesn’t have to get a job because she’s getting married, much to Kasukabe’s dismay. The rest of them discuss the recent release of a KU OVA and eventually take a picture of everyone.

It is also decided that Sasahara will be passing chairmanship of Genshiken to Ohno next year, who has a plan to turn it into the Cosplay Research Society. The second half of the episode is the graduation party, in which just about everyone gets drunk, especially Ohno, who keeps throwing down the brewskies. Madarame reminisces about his best memory of Genshiken, which is obviously when Kasukabe was cosplaying as the President from KU. The next topic of conversation is a figure that Tanaka is working on, complete with lingerie that apparently he based on some of Ohno’s. He lets Kasukabe handle it for a bit, but after she gives it back he drops it and breaks it. They then find out that Madarame actually did get a job, but it’s only a few minutes away from school, so they make fun of him for being one of those types that doesn’t get away and grow up. After the party they go outside and everyone says their goodbyes, as Madarame sadly watches Kasukabe walk away. In the epilogue Kasukabe walks into the clubroom to find Madarame there eating, as if nothing had changed.

Next Episode:

The next episode looks pretty Kuchiki and Ogiue centered. I find Kuchiki pretty annoying, although he always does say what’s on his perverted mind. But I love Ogiue so more shows with her are always good in my book.

Impressions:

As I said before, there wasn’t that much humor in this episode, but that’s alright. For a graduation episode it was well done, and had a good combination of reminiscence and looking toward the future. I also appreciated the fact that they did not rely too much on recycled shots from previous episodes, only really doing the one when Kasukabe cosplayed. While it didn’t quite have the punch of a series ending goodbye episode, it managed to close out Tanaka and Kugayama to a degree. I assume we will be seeing more of Madarame because of the epilogue and the fact that his job is close by, but that’s really a good thing since he is one of my favorite characters. I feel a bit sad for him though since he really was attracted to Kasukabe but she was so far out of his reach because of his looks and overtly otaku nature, he’s not pretty boy and normal on the outside like Kousaka. It would have been nice if something could have happened, but the drama it would have caused since she was already dating Kousaka would not have been very Genshiken-like. Save the dramatic love triangles and conflicts for a different series, there are plenty of them out there.

The other relationship drama was how Tanaka and Ohno are going to work things out, but to be honest that relationship really isn’t that interesting to me personally. I never felt a deep connection between myself and those two characters like I have for others. I have always really connected with Sasahara, Ogiue, and Madarame in different ways. I especially connected with Ogiue and Sasahara because I’ve been a shy type who has been a bit ashamed of some of my hobbies over the years in the world of geekdom. So I hope that the rest of the show has a good amount of focus on those characters. Aside from that, I hope that Tanaka and Ohno either end up working on something thats doable without drama, or they just don’t bring up the relationship much in the rest of the series. Although it seems like some cosplay action is due sometime soon, and cosplaying Kasukabe and Ogiue are quite delicious, so that will be something to look forward to. I have not read the manga, so it’s all surprises upcoming for me.

I would like to get this out of the way first, for 90 percent of this episode’s shots of Ogiue she is adorably and massively blushing, and for good reason. This week Ogiue attempts to clandestinely venture to the Comic Fest in order to purchase some delicious yaoi doujinshi, and much hilarity ensues. Will her attempts to avoid detection by the rest of Genshiken succeed? Will she find the titillating yaoi she so desperately desires? Read on to find out…

This episode opens with Madarame, Sasahara, Ogiue, and Ohno in the clubroom engaging in various activities. Madaramae and Sasahara are discussing interviews, and Madarame laments about a recent failed interview he went to. The moral of the story here is to not act too different from how you normally act. They move onto discussion of the upcoming Comic Fest and their plans for the event. Ohno decides to get Ogiue riled up and asks her if she is going on the first day to shop, which she vehemently denies, saying she doesn’t want to go shopping in such a den of lust. Well of course she goes in the end, otherwise there would be no point and much less humor right? She disguises herself in a ridiculous yet adorable looking getup that is supposed to hide her from the world so she can sneakily buy her yaoi. While waiting her turn to go inside she ridicules her fellow attendees, incredulous at how they can be so open with their shameful material. She is exasperated over the temperature, smell and the raw number of attendees, but finally makes her way inside.

She makes her primary purchases first and then heads off to her secondary choices, passing by members of the school’s Manga Society. One of the members, Yabusaki, discovers her buying multiple titles, much to her surprise. It’s at this point that the funny sequence of the episode begins, when Ogiue sees Tanaka, Sasahara and Kousaka chatting and decides to stand near them and listen in. They start discussing interesting games they’ve been playing lately, and Sasahara admits he really isn’t into anything too extreme like guro and rape like the rest of them. This is apparently due to a traumatizing encounter with the genre in middle school. They move that topic into quiet girls who turn out to be violent and murderous at the end, and Kousaka notes that it reminds her of Ogiue. After, they discuss how Ogiue has mellowed out to a degree, beginning to slowly accept the fact that she is like them, but not all the way. They note that without her the Genshiken-produced doujinshi would not have been possible, and that she seems interested in drawing her own manga.

Madarame, Kugayama, and Kuchiki eventually join them, excited about the purchases they’ve made, and discuss the events and things they’ve seen during their rounds. This prompts a discussion on which characters Ogiue reminds them of, as they imagine her in various scenes of a visual novel. After this conversation Sasahara notices Ogiue, not totally sure it’s her but giving her a suspicious look, so she attempts to flee. However, as she turns to flee her face collides with the approaching Ohno’s large rack, knocking her to the floor and spilling all her yaoi onto the floor for everyone to see. She freaks out and runs as fast as she can out of there, to everyone’s amusement. After the ED, everyone is back in the clubroom, where Ogiue stutters out a request for help because she wants to draw her own manga for the next Comic Fest.

Impressions:

As a message to all the yaoi fangirls from last week’s episode, there is no actual yaoi shown in this episode, however it central to the plot of the episode regardless. I’m pleased and amazed that yet again they have managed to fit in extended scenes either depicting sex or discussing/playing ero games, they certainly don’t hold back. I also loved the fact that we were able to see so much of Ogiue this episode, she hasn’t had an episode to herself really, and I enjoy her character tremendously. Aside from her tsundere tendencies, her character seems to be ripe for the most amount of character development for the rest of the series. She has a lot of room to grow and slowly accept her passions and fantasies, more so than any of the other characters. The way in which her and Ohno interact is also a source of enjoyment for me, it’s great to watch her display her emotions whenever they get into a fight. So far it seems like Ohno and Sasahara understand her the most, and they each have their own way of encouraging Ogiue to express herself. Ohno favors the more aggressive approach which often involves pissing Ogiue off, while Sasahara plays the nice guy and can relate to her struggle to accept herself and reach out to her fellow otaku, much like he did at the start of the first season.

The most hilarious part of the episode, as I pointed out earlier, was when Ogiue was listening in to the other Genshiken members talk about her and eventually gets caught. Personally, I’m in the same boat as Sasahara, while I’ve played a few ero games, it’s nothing too extreme, I’m also a bit too timid for anything too far out there. I also laughed a lot at the scene where they imagine Ogiue’s scenario in such a game, and the ero game masters pin her character archetype down, with Kuchiki going over the top as usual. Now speaking of Kuchiki, there was a line in there translated as “I am going through completely peeled back, I declare being peeled back for life!” I wouldn’t say I know much about Japanese circumcision practices, but if that line means what is suggested…haha wow. And then finally, in the epilogue when Ogiue is madly blushing and asking for help, that face is just adorable, doesn’t it make you say “awwwwww.”

A disclaimer, the following post contains screencaps from a yaoi parody episode. Yes, that means there is a screenshot of two men kissing, if that offends you (and if you are an anime fan and reading this blog it really shouldn’t) do not read ahead. With that aside, this episode is made of win, as Oguie’s fujyoshi tendencies explode into hilarity.

This deliciousness of an episode starts off with Madarame and Sasahara in the club room discussing the senior year job search. Madarame is in a cheap, off-the-rack suit and is fretting over what to include in the hobby section of his resume. He wonders if lolita, forehead-fetishist, or tsunderes are appropriate hobbies to include, and unfortunately they aren’t because I am a tsundere hobbyist. His suit is complimented by a necktie that Tanaka made for him, and he invites Sasahara to pull on his necktie. He obliges as Oguie walks in, and her yaoi wheels start turning and won’t stop until the end of the episode. After the two guys leave the clubhouse her creative imagination starts up, first off deciding that Madarame must be the submissive one (uke) and we transition into her imagination world. In addition to the upcoming personality changes from the real world, the art style changes significantly, making them all “prettier” would be the term I could best describe it as. In the imagination scene Sasahara takes on the dominant role (seme) and pulls hard on Madarame’s necktie in an exaggerated version of what actually happened.

Her imagination then transitions to their early history, including how they met and Sasahara joining Genshiken. After their meeting, Sasahara says he was struck by the thunderbolt of love. Eventually she moves them to Madarame’s house which here is spacious and luxurious looking (in comparison to his actual small hole of an apartment) where Sasahara asks him if he likes to be owned by someone he loves, grabs him forcefully, and kisses him. Oguie’s wild imagination is interrupted by the arrival of Kugayama and Kuchiki, the latter greeting her with an excited “nyoro~n!” After some idle conversation about the job search the good stuff starts up again. This time she imagines hookups between Madarame and Kuchiki (who is a naive submissive type to Madarame) and Kugayama (who is now a hard-bodied muscle man who is Madarame’s seme). However, Oguie decides neither of these pairings is very good and asserts that Sasahara is the best fit for Madarame.

She returns to MadaramexSasahara and decides that Sasahara needs to be more forceful, switching to a scene at a fountain where Sasahara asserts himself in an even more dominant fashion. Back in the real world, Oguie sees Oguie and Tanaka together and decides to see if she can fit them into her fantasies. In the yaoi world, Sasahara finds Madarame in bed with a slimmed down and taller Tanaka and becomes extremely distraught. Tanaka claims that he is only engaged to Ohno as a camouflage for his real love of Madarame’s man meat. As Oguie is drawing these scenes, Kasukabe walks into the clubroom and surprises her, spotting her drawings of Sasahara and misinterpreting it completely, assuming she’s attracted to Sasahara. She gets the idea to try and slyly get Sasahara and Oguie to spend time alone together, as Oguie tries to tell her that she has the wrong impression. However, she can’t bring herself to tell Kasukabe that what she is drawing is BL, so she continues back in the clubroom, trying to get Sasahara to be Oguie’s vendor at Comi-Fes.

Back to Oguie’s head, she attempts to insert Kasukabe and Kousaka, making the latter end up rejecting the distraught Sasahara because he has lost his pride. Instead Kousaka goes to Kasukabe and has a hot makeout session to satisfy him. Later, emo Sasahara is walking in the rain at night when he wanders in front of an oncoming truck. Madarame arrives in the nick of time to push him out of the way and save his life. They go back to Madarame’s place for some lovin, where for the first time Madarame starts to take the lead in their man sex. However, Sasahara remembers his cajones and reasserts his dominance, accompanied by lots of moaning. The next day in the real world, Oguie decides to show Kasukabe her drawings in order to set the record straight. However, she misinterprets it again, figuring that since she drew both Madaramae and Sasahara that she likes them both.

Next Episode:

The next episode looks to be about Oguie’s attempted clandestine trip to Comi-Fes and looks to be another good one. Man, this show is like Doujin Work sometimes, but without you know, being terrible.

Impressions:

First off I apologize if I got any of the terms wrong. I have had little to zero exposure to the yaoi community or shows, and so I just relied on DB’s explanation and use of terms, which seemed right to me. Despite being relatively unfamiliar with the content being parodied, this was a hilarious episode that took all of the characters and put them through an exaggerated yaoi filter. I think anyone, regardless of experience, can appreciate the episode on its face. I have always liked well done episodes of any type of show where the characters are put in a totally different world, maybe it’s due to all of those holodeck episodes on the many many episodes of the various Star Trek series I’ve seen. The characters here went through massive transformations, highlighted by Madarame who turns into a massively submissive man who lives in an elegant, wine-filled apartment. The other most noticeable transformations were in the appearances of most of the characters. Turning the shy and fat Kugayama into a muscle-clad seme who pours champagne over a kneeling Madarame was so over the top that I couldn’t stop laughing.

The non-imagined portions of the episode had their moments, although they were nowhere near as funny as the rest of the episode. However, I will first point out that I also wish I could put tsundere as a hobby on my resume, the MTL in front of my posting name was not invented by Impz without reason. In fact, right now I am finishing up my resume to start applying for my summer job. It is a silly system for law students that we have to apply so early, and I already know a couple of law review types that already have jobs lined up from big firms in Manhattan, damn them. Moving on to the rest of the side stuff, first off any “nyoro~n” insertions are welcome, as who doesn’t love Tsuruya-san? The other main real world scenes involved Kasukabe misinterpreting Oguie’s drawings, which I only found mildly amusing. The best parts of this episode were definitely conjured from Oguie’s mind.

Well I’ve decided that the second show I wanted to blog here at T.H.A.T. was Genshiken, whose first season is one of my all-time favorites. But hoooo-boy was this quite the episode to start blogging. The episode title is “Are They Going Out?” and it’s quite appropriate when considering Tanaka and Ohno. And so this episode aims at resolving that question and what the future of the two will be.

So will they get it over with and make out? Will there be a season full of awkwardness between them? Will Tanaka make a costume for some other girl and piss her off leading to mass drama? Is this really Genshiken?

The episode opens with Tanaka and Ohno working on cosplay material as Tanaka finishes sewing up the latest outfit. Ohno goes into the other room to change and both get that funny feeling inside, so much that Tanaka has to turn the TV on to calm himself down. Later on they run into Sasahara at the station when Tanaka invites him to come along for some cosplay shopping which he turns down, noticing the situation. The scene shifts to the clubroom where Sasahara and Madarame discuss the prospective couple with Oguie listening in. After a discussion on the status of the large breasted ero game market, Madarame notes that Ohno doesn’t cosplay as any characters from ero games.

They opine that Tanaka and Ohno must be going out after all of this, but Oguie finally speaks up and says that she doesn’t believe so. Kousaka and Kasukabe join them in the club room later, and she agrees with Oguie’s feminine instincts on the couple situation. When the discussed duo finally come in, Kuchiki drops the question “are you going out?” and Kasukabe proceeds to beat the crap out of him and Ohno eventually adds a shot of her own after he adds on some retarded but damn hilarious comments. Before the start of class Kasukabe and Ohno have a woman to woman chat and Kasukabe encourages her to make a move on Tanaka while cosplaying an ero game character. There are then a couple of different scenes with Oguie, Madarame, and Sasahara commenting on what’s been happening.

We eventually get to Tanaka hanging out with Kugayama, the most unlikely source of relationship advice. He tells Tanaka that he should just be a man and get it over with, while Tanaka laments that he’s just a loser Otaku with nothing else to offer but cosplaying. Kugayama says he’s just being a chicken. While walking home Tanaka gets a call from Ohno and they get together at Tanaka’s house. Ohno asks him if he plays ero games and if she can see the covers of some of the newest ones, and Tanaka meekly agrees. When she finds one with a character that looks like her she declares she wants to cosplay as her and insists he play the game in front of her. He understandably is both surprised and mortified and the prospect of playing an ero game with her, but she convinces him to do it.

After some time playing it they get to an h-scene and Tanaka finally can’t do it anymore. He tells her that he really likes her, but he doesn’t have the confidence to go out with her because he thinks after offering her cosplay that’s all he has. Ohno responds by saying that he’s crazy, she likes him for more than just his cosplay assistance and says that she will go out with him if he won’t make anyone else costumes without asking her first. He quietly agrees with her, and she then proceeds to give him “confidence,” which entails turning off the light and starting a hot makeout session. She tells him that if he needs more confidence she is always willing to have sex with him while cosplaying (no I’m not making that up) and they shift the scene away, with some auditory suggestions that they proceeded to do the deed. The epilogue shows Ohno cosplaying as the aforementioned ero game character, to the surprise of the rest of the clubroom when Kuchiki walks into the room with the same costume, to everyone’s amusement.

Next Episode:

Not totally sure what’s going on for the next episode, looks like some yaoi so maybe it’s an Oguie episode. The next episode is titled “Madarame Full Uke,” and uke is the submissive partner in a relationship according to DB, so who the hell knows. Guess we will have to watch and find out~

Impressions:

I really enjoyed this episode, despite the fact that it was short on comedy and more focused on development. The first season of Genshiken was heavy on introducing the characters and providing insight into otaku culture through mostly humor. The shift in the second season toward less comedy and more development is fine with me, as this season so far has brought more depth to the characters and how they relate to one another. If I want more pure comedy I can always put in my DVDs of the first season. And after the first season and OVAs the characters we’re kind of at an impasse development wise, so something new had to come along.

Now Ohno has not been my favorite character in Genshiken, mainly because of her jealousy streak everytime Tanaka makes a costume for someone else. I mean, I kind of understand that she wants him for herself but that’s gone a little too far in the past. However, the two characters are pretty much ordained to be a couple from the start, their interests and personalities match extremely well. So in the end I’m satisfied that they finally got it over with, so to speak. That being said I was surprised at how few punches they pulled in describing first off how little experience either had with relationships, apparently neither of them had even kissed anyone before. In addition, Tanaka admitted that he had been imagining or practicing scenarios in his head modeled on his experiences in ero games for when he finally had a chance to act on them. They didn’t portray it in a funny light like “haha what losers,” instead portraying the situation realistically, as I’m sure there are people out there like Tanaka who really don’t know what else to do. I will admit the makeout scene was pretty hot, and the transition from their moaning/grunting to Sasahara’s emphatic drinking of his tea made me laugh. It was quite the impressive end to the episode.

However! Despite all of that seriousness and relationship material there was some funny to be had! Kuchiki being an ass and asking the obvious questions bluntly like how is there no way you guys aren’t banging all night while cosplaying was pretty hilarious. The other funny scene was when Ohno was forcing Tanaka to play an ero game with her. I felt for the man, the amount of awkwardness I would feel playing an ero game with a girl I liked would be astronomical. In the end she makes it up to him though. I mean, if I had a dime for every time an attractive, big breasted girl said she would have sex with me while cosplaying I’d have…..nothing, and that makes me sad.