May 9th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy げんしけん: 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Manga Chapter 59 Review
Madarame comes home to find that his room has been spotlessly cleaned up by Hato. Madarame doesn’t mind this but panics and checks for his treasure and is relieved to see that his collection of Saki photos are still there.
Coming to the Genshiken club room for lunch, Madarame plays a game and remembers the old days and how the club room’s atmosphere has changed. Sasahara’s sister Keiko stops by and for a moment, Madarame sees her as Saki. Keiko stopped by to check out the new club members since she’s still a Genshiken member. She lets Madarame know she works at a hostess club and gives her card so that Madarame can reserve her at some point.
Keiko remarks on how boring things are now that Kousaka and Saki aren’t there. Madarame mentions seeing them briefly at a party but when Keiko mentions that with Saki not stopping by the room, there’s no reason for Madarame to stop by, he has to challenge her on this. Keiko is initially amused at Madarame’s what she assumes is Madarame’s feigned ignorance but when she sees he’s serious, she gets annoyed. Keiko points out that it was obvious to her, Ohno, and Ogiue that Madarame was in love with Saki. Keiko figures Kousaka must have known as well and Saki probably did too.
Madarame is stunned and denies knowing what Keiko is taking about. She gets angry and as they argue, she grabs him by the tie when Sue walks in. Keiko has had enough and decides to leave but tells Madarame that he’s never had a broken heart which is why he can still hang out at the Genshiken club room. She tells him to face reality and leaves.
Sue eyes Madarame, who decides it is time to bail, and tells him that the way to move forward without getting a broken heart is to fall in love with someone else. She holds up a stack of yaoi manga/doujinshi but Madarame isn’t going down that path. Yoshitake and Yajima arrive to collect Sue and go with Hato to Ikebukuro. When Yoshitake mentions that Hato excitedly raced to Madarame’s place to change into female clothing, Madarame leaves and becomes very troubled as he rapidly walks away.
Later, Ohno and Ogiue talk about the first years on their trip when Ogiue gets a phone call. Ohno notices the soft smile on Ogiue’s face as she talks on the phone. When the call ends, Ogiue announces that her two-part one-shot story manga storyboard has been approved to be published. Ohno congratulates Ogiue and encourages her to tell Sasahara. Ogiue is embarrassed and sends a text to him but he immediately calls her back to congratulate her on the phone. As she talks, she realizes that the deadline for part two of her story is due during ComiFes and she has an entry in for that as well.
Madarame comes home a “Hato-chan” emerges still in female dress. Madarame asks if Hato would like to drink as he brought home some alcohol but Hato wants to get home and read the stuff he’d bought. After Hato leaves, Madarame finds himself bothered by the encounter since Hato looks so much like a very beautiful woman when he’s dressed up.
Meanwhile, Sue brings her stash to Ogiue’s house to read with her even though Sasahara is there.
Wow. Madarame and Keiko get the majority of the focus in this chapter and that’s so cool. ^_^ I like seeing how Keiko seems to have matured a bit although she’s still Keiko. Her confrontation of Madarame was interesting and unexpected. When I read Genshiken, I don’t think I had a clue that Madarame was even interested in Saki until later in the series when it was revealed that he’d used those S&M DVD’s to foil Saki from discovering that his true secret was his collection of photos of her when she cosplayed for the club. At the time, I recall being surprised by this revelation because I didn’t think Mararame was attracted to her. The story really hadn’t emphasized that IMO.
Anyway, having Keiko bring up how obvious is was to the others surprised me a bit until I remembered that it was Ohno who summoned Madarame in volume 9 and was apparently going to give him a stash of cosplay photos Tanaka took of Saki so that Saki could keep her promise with Ohno. However, even back then, the complete depth of Madarame’s feelings for Saki wasn’t clear to me until volume 9. So maybe Kio-sensei is having a little fun with the audience with Keiko’s remarks or maybe he’s saying that even if his story didn’t make it plain until volume 9 how much Madarame felt for Saki, it was clear to the others. Did that make sense? ^_^;
While still on the subject of Keiko and Madarame, I loved how Kio-sensei parodied himself and his infamous scene where Ogiue caught Sasahara holding Madarame’s tie and imagined a yaoi pairing between the two. Now, Keiko has her brother’s role and I loved it when Sue walked in on them. ^_^
Sue becomes a scene stealer for me. Man, I’ve really come to love her character.She’s smarter than she lets on but she couches it in her otaku anime/manga quoting. Her advice to Madarame was sound — find someone new. However, her suggestion of going for a guy by showing Madarame yaoi stuff was laugh out loud funny for me. That actually helped set up Madarame’s flustered behavior regarding the impossibly attractive Hato-chan. Now, Madarame might be questioning his own sexuality which is so wrong. He’s a 2D otaku with feelings for a girl he can never have. It would be neat to see him with another girl. I remember Angela being really flirty with him and she is a friend of Sue.
Its nice seeing Ogiue’s career moving forward. If Ogiue gets approved to sell a doujinshi at ComiFes and has her official manga, I’m guessing she’s going to have to put Sasahara to work. *lol*
That reminds me, Keiko implied that Ogiue and Sasahara were already married by referencing Ogiue as her sister-in-law. I don’t know if that means they are actually married or if they are simply engaged and thus Keiko sees Ogiue as a sister-in-law already. I hope Sasahara’s and Ogiue’s relationship is further explored as the series continues.
Finally, did I see a reference to Hoihoi-san in Madarame’s room? Looks like a Hoihoi-san figure on his shelf when he comes in. ^_^
So, a really enjoyable chapter that felt more like old-school Genshiken thanks to the newbies not being around (and now that I think of it, Kuchiki wasn’t around either).
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This is actually one of my favourite chapters in the series.
Madarame is a great character, so I really like how he’s continuing to be relevant and interesting in Nidaime. He’s always been the ‘black sheep’ type — while others have moved on and seem to be getting on with their life and enjoying new opportunities, he seems to be even more isolated and frustrated than before. The way the chapter opens is particularly telling — Madarame coming back from work to a completely empty room. Then we see him in the Genshiken room, alone once more, and he has a nostalgic flashback to the days when he was surrounded by friends. Even the comical way in which he mistakenly thinks Saki has entered the room is tinged with a sort of sadness. (This often captures his character as a whole — humour with something aching at its core.) The scene between him and Sasahara’s sister was surprisingly entertaining — she provides yet another direct contrast to him, in that the reader can see that she has physically matured as well as having found a job that she seems to enjoy. (Loved the little tribute with the tie-pulling.)
The most telling moment is when all of this desperation and loneliness builds up and climaxes in his sudden flirting with Hato. Even he can’t believe his own actions/words in the immediate aftermath. The chapter seems to indicate that we’ll be seeing development for Madarame and his unresolved feelings in the near future, so I look forward to that.
I’m really glad you’re blogging this and have a good discussion forum, ’cause something has been bugging me for a little while: It could easily just be me, but I wonder if Madarame and Sue might wind up together. IRL, I think such a pairing would either be an unmitigated disaster (>70%) or work astonishingly well (if they learn to complement each other)… but this isn’t IRL. (^_~)
I’m not especially a fan of the ‘ship… I just can’t seem to shake the feeling. Even with Sue holding up the yaoi doujinshi, to me her comment sounded dangerously close to an indirect confession. (And I get the feeling Kio-sensei really likes flipping our perceptions of her, the most obvious example being when Ogiue realized she knew Japanese much better than she was letting on.)
Also, I I liked the WTH? list of supplies she wanted to pick up at the convi – it was a nice twist on the expected “Can you two stay in that position for a moment?”
Madarame is a great character, so I really like how he’s continuing to be relevant and interesting in Nidaime.
Yeah, he is. I didn’t expect for him to be a major character though. I actually expected Sasahara to be more important since he’s involved with Ogiue and that Kio-sensei might explore manga editing more through him as well as “otaku love.” ^_^
He’s always been the ‘black sheep’ type — while others have moved on and seem to be getting on with their life and enjoying new opportunities, he seems to be even more isolated and frustrated than before.
Yeah, that’s true. When he was in college, even though he was pretty close with Tanaka and Kugayama, there was still an isolation there. I think back to when Ohno and Tanaka started going out. Tanaka didn’t tell Madarame but did tell Kugayama (IIRC). Madarame was rather hurt by that. So even when surrounded by people, Madarame has always been alone at some level.
The chapter seems to indicate that we’ll be seeing development for Madarame and his unresolved feelings in the near future, so I look forward to that.
I hope you are right. I can see Madarame as the kind of character who’d end up staying alone rather than risk heartache and hide in a fantasy.
It could easily just be me, but I wonder if Madarame and Sue might wind up together.
Hmmmm…I hadn’t considered this but looking back at the chapter…
I’m not especially a fan of the ‘ship… I just can’t seem to shake the feeling. Even with Sue holding up the yaoi doujinshi, to me her comment sounded dangerously close to an indirect confession.
Actually, now that you mention it, the yaoi doujinshi could be part of an indirect confession as well. After all, Ohno is a fujoshi and she’s involved with Tanaka. Ogiue is one as well and she’s involved with Sasahara. Heck, it was one of her yaoi manga with Sasahara as a model that caused them to consummate their relationship. So Sue could have been going that way. I kinda like this idea now. Thanks for putting it in my head. *lol*
Also, I I liked the WTH? list of supplies she wanted to pick up at the convi – it was a nice twist on the expected “Can you two stay in that position for a moment?”
I figure she’s quoting some anime or manga but if so, I don’t know which one. But yeah, it was a fun moment. ^_^
When I read Genshiken, I don’t think I had a clue that Madarame was even interested in Saki until later in the series…
Really? I always knew he has something towards Saki, in the group of boys he was always the most uncomfortable around her,& the one to act like a little kid towards his secret love.
But the solid proof of his feelings start on chapter 19 “Punishment” (according to mangafox anyway) page 23~24 where Saki show up as the President for the 1st time on the 2pgs splend-out. Look at the bottom left corner & tell me that aren’t how a person is love-strucked. (in manga-form anyway)
Back then, I guess I didn’t pay much attention to Madarame’s reaction because the whole club had a reaction. Now in hindsight, I can see that his is somewhat different.
The manga just got released (english translation) in norway, so I finished this volume last night. The second season is really good, and I enjoyed the first season asweel. One of my favorite series. However, I thought it was obvious from the start that he liked her. Wasn’t the nosehair situation pretty early? (the release dates are sometimes months apart so I don’t remember details right now)
I was oblivious to it for a while. I knew that Madarame saw her in a new light when Saki cosplayed, but I didn’t read anything into it more than, “Well, I guess she’s pretty hot after all.” The nose hair thing was in Saki’s second year of college, I think.