げんしけん: 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Manga Chapter 61 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

At the school’s cafeteria, Ogiue and Sue sit with Yabusaki and her friend from the manga club and discuss Ogiue’s manga and doujinshi. Ogiue reveals that she’s paying the 1st year students as proper assistants just like any real manga-ka would. Yabusaki frustrated that Ogiue may be taking on too much though Ogiue assures her that with the summer vacation coming up, she’ll have plenty of time to draw both her doujinshi and her manga.

Meanwhile, Hato-kun comes to Madarame’s apartment and ponders possibly leaving his giant bag of makeup and such there just so he won’t have to lug it around. As he enters, a nude, fully female “Hato-chan” floats above him and is amused by the situation in a shounen-ai way.  Hato-kun turns on the A/C as “Hato-chan” continues to observe and reflect on the situation through shounen-ai eyes.  She gets especially excited when Hato-kun decides to take a shower because of the heat.  Her excitement over the “Hato x Mada” scenario grows as Hato-kun uses Madarame’s bed and falls asleep.

When Hato-kun wakes up, he’s embarrassed to see Madarame is waking him up.  He tries to flee but Madarame stops him and invites him to have dinner and cooks for him.  This take on Madarame had not entered Hato-kun’s head and so he’s not sure what to do or what Madarame is thinking.  He allows his imagination go wild at the thought of Madarame “attacking” him sexually.

Madarame asks if he can address Hato as “Hato-kun” since this is the first time he’s seen Hato as a guy.  Madarame says he wishes he could have gotten to know Hato better since he’s one of the few guys there.  Hato understands and reminds Madarame that he’s a “girl” in the club room too, even showing off his female voice and the amount of practice it took to accomplish this voice. As they continue to talk, Hato realizes that Madarame is treating him like a regular guy.

The conversation goes to Yajima’s strong desire to have Hato dress as a male.  With that, he strongly assures Madarame that he’s not gay. Hato is surprised by Madarame’s non-reaction and when asked, Madarame says that he just assumed that Hato’s cross-dressing and reading shounen-ai porn were just hobbies and not a reflection of his sexual orientation. Hato demands to know if Madarame is planning on doing terrible things to him, which has Madarame confused. On further discussion, Madarame assures Hato that he wasn’t thinking anything weird.

Afterward, Hato cleans the dishes as Madarame has fallen asleep on his bed.  “Hato-chan” re-appears and encouraged Hato-kun to take advantage of the situation and kiss Madarame. Hato-kun isn’t interested since he’s not gay despite his love of shounen-ai materials. As Hato-kun starts to leave, he accidentally hits Madarame’s shelf and discovers Madarame’s treasure — the large stash of photos of Saki in cosplay.  “Hato-chan” finds this to be pitiful and moe but Hato-kun isn’t interested and leaves, telling his alter-ego that she doesn’t understand the mysteries of a man’s heart.

Meanwhile, Ogiue goes nuts on her Haregan doujinshi.

Thoughts/Review:

I got a good laugh at how Hato caused some problems based on the incorrect honorific usage by Ogiue when she was yacking with Yabusaki.  I can understand why no one from Genshiken has told her about the cross-dressing Hato.  Since Hato is a guy, he would normally be addressed as “Hato-kun.”  Since everyone has seen Hato as a girl, he’s thought of as “Hato-chan.”  I guess Ogiue is going to have to remember to address Hato as “Hato-san” from here on out.

Yajima noted last chapter that Sue spends a lot of time with Ogiue.  I hadn’t really thought about it since Sue is not being shown to be clinging to Ogiue as she was during her first trip to Japan when she spent the night with Ogiue before they went to the shrine for New Year’s.  Sue is shown in chapter 61 to be with Ogiue in the cafeteria and I couldn’t help but think of Yajima’s words.  I’m not finding this odd because I think that Ogiue and Sue are actually pretty good friends. After all, Sue is a huge fan of Ogiue’s doujinshi work and when Ogiue thought Sue could not understand Japanese, she opened up to Sue as she brushed Sue’s hair.  So it makes sense that they’d have a certain closeness and I look forward to their friendship growing.

The chapter was heavily dedicated to Hato and as a result, Madarame.  Kio-sensei is giving us a glimpse into Hato’s mind by having this “Hato-chan” persona outside Hato-kun’s body, nude, and all female.  Having the “Hato-chan” persona like this (which I gather Kio-sensei borrows as a concept from Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei and Tonari no 801-chan) works quite well.  Having “Hato-chan” clearly female makes it easier for the straight males to look and fantasize I guess, but for me, it shows that Hato is looking at things like a fujoshi.  This was mentioned last chapter and now more completely explored.

The other thing revealed here is that Hato is not homosexual despite his “Hato x Madarame” fantasies and thoughts.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure how Kio-sensei would go.  I did think that there was an above-average chance that Hato would be gay and if they had a Hato x Madarame romance, I would not have been happy.  There too, Kio-sensei reassures his audience by having Hato find Madarame’s pictures as a cosplaying Saki and so now he knows whom Madarame loves.

Speaking of those photos, I guess I need to go back and look at the old manga because I was thinking Madarame only had a few pictures, not a ton.  Its possible that Ohno eventually did get him those pictures since she had previously attempted to show him (possibly with the intent of having him buy them).  Still, it is nice how Kio-sensei is making sure everyone knows he’s not going to upset the apple cart.  ^_^

So, this was a fun and interesting chapter with some minor advancement in the storyline regarding Ogiue’s manga and doujinshi and some character work on Hato with Madarame in support.