What? Kousaka was the model for an eroge character?
What They Say:
After reflecting upon last year’s low freshman turnout, Chika Ogiue, the new president of Shiiou University’s “Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture” (aka Genshiken) seeks out new freshman members to join.
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Hato’s still worried about drawing a manga with Ogiue for the school festival, but all that worry goes away when he finds the game Kousaka was cosplaying and starts fantasizing. These are the types of fantasies that happened in the first series, only now it’s BL fantasies. But when Madarame comes home early, and Hato’s still changing, Madarame decides to take a walk around the block. But when Hato sticks around, the animation hilariously changes to a visual novel style where the dialogue is displayed in a text box and Madarame has options of “talk,” “confess love,” and “quit” when talking to Hato.
Strangely, talk goes to eroge when Hato and Madarame go back into the apartment. This time, Madarame is schooling Hato on the finer points of eroge while Hato’s trying to purge the BL thoughts from his mind to focus on the Madarame x Kousaka ship.
The conversation takes a different turn when Hato invites Madarame back to the club room. But Madarame’s been thinking about old timers that stick around their old school for too long, so he’s thinking of staying sparce at the school. This is a big step for Madarame, who’s arguably the biggest presence in Genshiken since the show’s inception. But he also gives Hato some good motivation, in saying that Hato should draw no matter what he’s drawing. It’s much like the writer’s argument that I hear in that if you want to be a writer, you should write every day, no matter how bad it is. Same goes for any artist.
In Summary:
I love the interplay between Madarame and Hato, but they seem to be taking center stage in a show that should have some more focus on the other characters. Little cameos from the previous Genshiken boys aside, Yajima and Yoshitake haven’t gotten much except for an episode and a half between the two. I suppose I might be jumping the gun, but in a 13 episode series where we’re eight episodes in, some of the others have to get their proper time in the spotlight.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24 in. Vizio 1080p HDTV, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
