げんしけん: 二代目Chapter 063
Genshiken Nidaime Manga Chapter 63

Yabusaki and Naoko are setting the booth up at ComiFest while waiting for Ogiue to show up. To Yabusaki’s horror, Sue shows up instead since Ogiue worked all night on a copy-bon and was getting some sleep.

Outside Tokyo Big Sight sitting in line in the heat are Ohno, Angela, Tanaka, Kuchiki, Hato, Yoshitake, and Yajima. Ohno asks Hato if he’s sure he wants to cosplay as a woman and Yajima again asks that he dress as a normal guy, especially now that they’ve all seen him as such. Hato wants them to forget that and that he’s going to visit the female-oriented circles as a girl. Angela decides to give Hato a check to see if he really is a man or not, leading to punishment from Ohno for that. With Angela cosplaying with Ohno, as usual, she’s expecting Sue to buy her stuff since she has the same tastes as Sue. Ohno asks Yoshitake and Yajima to cosplay on the 3rd day of ComiFest so she can see it as well.

Kuchiki talks with Tanaka about the freshmen, the event, and learns that Madarame and Kugayama are coming for Day 3.  Kuchiki says that the last time he’d talked with Madarame, Madarame didn’t say for sure that he was coming, leading Tanaka to wonder if he’d misheard Madarame.

As the doors open and the announcements are made, Sue points to a chair, expecting Yabusaki to sit, something Yabusaki has no intention of doing. Naoko decides to take the chair as their first customer arrives, hoping to meet “Ogino-sensei,” Ogiue’s pen name, since the customer liked the first part of her official manga in Afternoon (magazine).  Ogiue’s new doujinshi sells out in short order, leaving only Yabusaki’s stuff and possibly some older stuff of Ogiue’s (it isn’t clear what’s left). Naoko takes off, leaving a horrified Yabusaki and a smirking Sue to man the booth.

While Ohno and Angela cosplay outside and have their photos taken, Hato, Yajima, and Yoshitake split up to try to hit as many of the big circles as they can, buying five copies of the new stuff to split later. Hato is cosplaying as a female anime character and discovers how the line process works as the person at the end of the line holds a placard that says what line this is up high.  However, when Hato needs to go to the toilet, he discovers that because he doesn’t feel comfortable using a urinal while in female cosplay, he holds the sign for the line to take a crap.

Back at the booth, Ogiue’s junior high friend Nakajima pays the booth a visit, looking for Ogiue.

Before I read this chapter, I felt the need to re-read the entire nine volumes of Genshiken.  Mainly, I wanted to get back to when Ohno, Kuchiki, and Ogiue joined as well as Sue’s introduction to the series. I guess I wanted to follow their progress through the manga, even though the original series tried to be centered on Sasahara and Saki for the most part, though Madarame took up more of the center than Kio-sensei may have planned.  I mention this because now I have a fresh read of the first nine volumes and thus the stuff between Sue and Yabusaki become funnier.  In addition, the ending having Nakajima showing up has me rather excited and chomping at the bit to read the next chapter (which likely won’t happen until July). Man, I sure hope Kodansha Comics announces a license soon ’cause I do wants to buy this in English, I does. ^_^

I dub this chapter, “Sue win” because Sue is so awesome.  Indeed, this image sums up that win quite nicely.

Heh!heh!heh!  I know I’ve said this before, but Sue has become my favorite character in the new Genshiken.When she was introduced in the first series, I didn’t care for her that much but now, I just find her awesome beyond belief, so much so that when I reread the original manga, she was a lot better in hindsight than she had been. *lol*  The way she handles Yabusaki makes me laugh because clearly Sue is having a lot of fun at her expense. Well, that’s what Yabusaki gets for freaking out over the “gaijin” when they first met and pretty much still not knowing how to handle Sue in subsequent meetings.

Good to see Tanaka here in an extended cameo talking with Kuchiki.  Kuchiki actually comes off as a human being while he talked with Tanaka, which I liked. I also liked that Madarame and Kugayama are coming to Day 3, though no mention of Sasahara, which is kind of a bummer. Well, Sasakara and Tousaka probably couldn’t get away from work and so wouldn’t be able to attend. There are hints that maybe Madarame won’t come. I can’t see Madarame not coming though.  Kugayama skipping wouldn’t be a surprise because of work.

Hato’s toilet problems were amusing though I didn’t laugh.  One would think that he’d stop always dressing as a girl to avoid these kinds of problems, but I guess he’s decided it is a worse problem to be seen as a heterosexual male buying yaoi and shounen ai porn.

Anyway, with Ogiue shown to have gotten up and the manga ending with Nakajima’s scornful smirk, I’m going to guess they may have an encounter.  Actually, before that, I can see Yabusaki finally finding common ground with Sue in defending Ogiue should Nakajima decide to say something ugly about Ogiue. Both have a great deal of admiration and respect for Ogiue and though Yabusaki doesn’t like Sue and Sue loves tormenting Yabusaki, the two would seem to make a perfect pair to show support for Ogiue to Nakajima. We’ll see what happens (hopefully, sooner rather than later).

So, a good and fun ComiFest chapter with at least one more on the way.  Looking forward to it.