What They Say:
“The other side of the path. The promised place.”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Back when the manga series came out and the anime adaptation followed along with North American distribution, Genshilken was the kind of series that was definitely a whole lot of fun and most of its quirks still hold up on various viewings since then. The only thing that didn’t work for me was the spinoff series about the show within the show as it just drove me absolutely nuts. So with a new season of the show now kicking off, there’s plenty to be excited about as it continues on with what we’ve seen before and brings us back to familiar characters, locales and situations. Along with some new folks as well, which is definitely important considering those that graduated before and moved on, which was an important part of the series.
With Ogiue as the club president now, she’s doing her best to draw in new members, especially since she doesn’t want to disappoint Sasahara with the idea of an important club for him being shut down in some distant future. Thankfully, Ogiue has managed to gain two new members, girls at that, with Yoshitake and Yajima. Yoshitake is pretty outgoing and excited to be there and Yajima has a kind of restrained approach to things that has her seemingly like an elderly matron more than anything else. Kuchiki is just pleased by the progress overall since with Ogiue, Ohno and Sue, he’s surrounded by plenty of cute girls and gets plenty to look at. Ogiue knows his mindset well enough and it’s definitely amusing to see that he’s just showing it all so outwardly. What drives him over the edge is Hato, a very, very pretty young woman who in the eyes of many will be the type that doesn’t seem like she belongs there in a profiling kind of sense.
Though there’s plenty of new characters, we get some decent time with some of the past members as well, with a trip to Madarame’s as well as Ohno’s boyfriend showing up for a bit. And some really cute time with Sasahara who is a touch of a celebrity to some of them. When Saki and her boyfriend arrive, her appraisal of the situation is comical since she can’t believe there are so many otaku women there, which just makes you grin with her sharp way of putting it. The show doesn’t spend too much time with them though, providing it as a nice bridge with enough notice that we’ll be seeing them from time to time, and instead shifts to doing more with the new characters through the eyes of Ogiue and Ohno, which works very well. Throw in some sarcastic and snarky material from Sue with her weird outfit combinations at times and it blends the two generations pretty well while making clear where it’s focus really will be.
In Summary:
Genshiken Nidaime sets the stage well here with what it wants to do by introducing us to the setting and the core characters while also bridging well for the characters from the previous season. I don’t think it does a terribly great job of introducing things for new viewers, or returning viewers who have been out of it for several years, but as it progresses and settles into things and we get the character dynamics a bit more and latch on to the new characters in the setting, it eases pretty well. There’s a good bit to like here with what it does, but part of that is just nostalgia for what came before to some degree. Genshiken Nidaime is definitely well animated and a solid slice of life real world college show in a way with what it does, especially in the settings and backgrounds, and it has me curious if it will take some real chances this season or not.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
