GENSHIKEN 2
Way to make me hate anime fans...
Length: 13 episodes
Genre: Comedy
Watched: Entire series, subbed
After watching the first season of otaku-fest, I was impressed and excited, as there was a series that gave a portrayal of nerdiness with an understanding and a self-deprecating sense of humor. Finally, I saw myself and the people with whom I spent my time, and the humor had special meaning to its viewers, making it enjoyable to most people (except for one of my friends, who said he hated everybody in the series). So, how did they follow up this intimate, special comedy about nerds in their native culture? By having a largely humorless slice-of-life series with characters that I hate.
Plot summary: After the first year of Genshiken, Sasahara has been made the president. His attempts to branch out the activities of the club are meeting with difficulty, but the club maintains its size by gaining two new members to fill the empty slots. The seniors are working on getting their lives set up for after graduation, and even the juniors are having to start thinking about their futures. This makes the attempts to produce doujins for Comicon more difficult. Can Sasahara will have to work harder than ever to keep the club together while he keeps his own life together.
Artwork: There’s really nothing new about this series, with the artwork exactly the same. This can work to the series’ advantage, as the characters are recognizable, the artwork doesn’t take chances, and really, the series hasn’t ever been about its technical prowess. The new characters’ designs, however, are fairly distinct and separates them from non-club members and the old club members. Overall, it’s pretty all right.
Music: Nothing really special here, either. The music hasn’t improved or downgraded at all, the tracks are still suited for the scene during which they’re played. My major complaint is the opening theme, which in the original was an ode to geekiness, set to the otaku being otaku, has been replaced by generic J-pop set to random generic anime scenes. While I think it’s supposed to be tongue-in-cheek picking at generic J-pop openings, it’s just not as effective as they would have hoped (prepare to pick up on a common theme here).
Characters: Again, very little has changed here from the first season. Sasahara is still the leader who’s ambitious, but insecure in the role. He’s starting to think about the future, hoping to be able to keep his otaku life in real life. Madarame is still a socially awkward geek, although now, he’s trying to become comfortable with his real life non-otaku role. Kohsaka is still the oblivious, constantly upbeat gamer, trying to live the dream of ero-gamers the world over, becoming a programmer for an ero-game company. Kugayama is still the socially awkward artist who’s trying to get his life set up after school, while producing the doujins for the club. Tanaka is still the peacemaker of the group, making cosplay for Ohno to wear at the cons and functions, who’s too shy to tell his feelings to Ohno. Ohno is still the cosplayer of the group, who’s still too shy to tell her real feelings to Tanaka. There are two new club members, Chika Ogiue and Manabu Kuchiki. They were introduced during the three-episode OVA for the first season, as well as in the manga, and as such don’t get much introduction here. Hope you’re not expecting one. Ogiue is a socially inept girl who is the classic closet case. She denies fervently that she’s an otaku, all the while wondering how it feels living the otaku life. To make things worse for her, she’s a yaoi fan. Yes, for all the five females who have watched this series and complained that there aren’t any yaoi fans in the series, the creators have heard your muted pleas and given you representation. She tries very hard not to get drawn in, but often ends up including herself, either overtly or covertly. Kucchi is very possibly the most annoying character to inhabit an anime series since the English dub version of Aisha Clan-clan. He represents that one anime fan that we all know; the one who says things too loudly, begs for attention in horrible attempts at humor, and stands too close to you while he insists on quoting every line he knows from every series he’s ever seen that even remotely fits the topic of conversation. I hate him, in case you couldn’t figure out.
And this is the unfortunate truth about this series, in an attempt to move into new territory and cover new topics, they have introduced the characters that make anime fans look bad; the ones that really are so out of touch with reality that they don’t know how to interact with people in a meaningful manner. The same holds true for two characters that show up around the middle of the series, the AMERICAN anime fans. Note, I have to emphasize it because the series insists on doing so more than I have. Their mannerisms make me hate them, their personalities are loathsome, and they represent anime fans in America that just don’t get it. Now, I’m not saying that I’m perfect, but I would hope that I’m at least better than these clueless dolts that the producers of this series have insisted on introducing as their examples of quintessential American anime fans.
Plot: At the end of the first season, I was somewhat disappointed, as the writing seemed to be moving away from the light-hearted humor of the beginning of the series that drew me to it in the first place. The second season, unfortunately, continued the trend by showing the characters as they began to transition into life in mainstream society. Now, I’m all for slice-of-life series, but for a series that was a humorous romp through otaku-land to make a u-turn such as that into that sort of territory is somewhat disappointing. To add to this, their attempts at humor were few and far between, much of it more cringe-inducing than laugh-inducing (evidence: Kohsaka crossplaying, and Kasukabe finding out about it; secondary evidence: anything ever uttered by the thing they call Kuchiki).
Chicks!! While the first series more kept in poking fun at the characters for looking at the bodies of animated females, this time around, it was the series that was doing the showing off the animated female bodies. The second season features a larger amount of fanservice from Ohno and Kasukabe, as they have opened the Pandora’s Box about which they had given warning in the first season. However, one ray of hope lies in the fact that the major romantic involvement of the club leader, Ogiue, falls far short of the animated female ideal that every other series shows off in an orgy (sometimes literally) of skin, bikinis, and panty shots. Her personality is shy and reserved, which many people would find appealing, although her issues with her own identity as an otaku could be a drawback for many.
Overall: I was excited when I heard about the production of this series, although upon watching it, I was somewhat more reserved with my praise than the first time around. The slice-of-life focus change and the delving into topics with a much less witty sense of humor than was previously shown was a bit of a drawback for me, and the application of the new negative stereotypes, however, was not as enjoyable as they had clearly intended it to be. In all, this series gets points because it is still a fairly effective look at the otaku culture, but it loses points because I hate some of the characters and all that they stand for.
In a Nutshell:
+ Still Genshiken
+ Still shows affection for otakus
+ Still funny at times
-I hate Kuchiki
-I hate the American otaku
- Not *as* funny as the original
Final score: 7/10
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