げんしけん: 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Manga Chapter 64

Nakajima and her female friend from Ogiue’s past are at the booth where Sue and Yabusaki are selling doujinshi. While talking with Yabusaki, Nakajima is surprised to learn that Ogiue has progress to become successful enough to hire assistants and is even president of Genshiken. Nakajima comments on Ogiue’s absence from ComiFes the previous year. Yabusaki explains the reasons and lets it out that Ogiue’s is dating Sasahara. Nakajima claims to be worried about this and recounts Ogiue’s tragic tale from middle school regarding her first boyfriend, Makita.  The story starts to anger Sue, but she is thwarted from doing anything when Yabusaki interrupts, saying that this sounds like the Ogiue she used to know. To that end, Yabusaki mentions how the manga club’s initial encounter with Ogiue had her jumping out of a window.  As such, Yabusaki isn’t learning anything new about the kind of person Ogiue is.

Sue jumps in and reveals that she knows that Ogiue has drawn pornographic images about Sasahara and Madarame and that Ogiue showed them to Sasahara. Despite this, Sasahara and Ogiue continue to date and are a normal, romantic couple (raijuu). Hearing this seems to frustrate Nakajima a bit and she decides to leave. She doesn’t want to see Ogiue and says she probably won’t come to ComiFes the following year either. Ogiue is approaching, in glasses and a mask, but she doesn’t notice the departing Nakajima and friend though they did notice her.

Yabusaki notices that Ogiue is sick and running a fever and tells Sue to do what she has to do but not to tell Ogiue about Nakajima’s visit. Sue acknowledges and drags the sick Ogiue home, leaving everything to Yabusaki.

Meanwhile, Ohno has become worried about leaving Sue attending the booth with Yabusaki and leaves the cosplay area with Angela, only to find Sue has taken off. At the same time, Nakajima’s friend isn’t happy with Nakajima’s decision to not let Ogiue know that Makita is apparently doing well.

With the first day of ComiFes over, Genshiken walks away, Tanaka and Angela in tow, and Angela gives the implication that she wants to see Madarame. Yabusake and Naoko pay Ogiue a visit at her apartment, where Sue has put her to bed. They bring over the earnings as well as some doujinshi when Sasahara comes in. Sue strikes a threatening pose at Sasahara, but Ogiue kindly dismisses her, depressing Sue. As Sue, Naoko, and Yabusaki walk home, Yabusaki invites Sue over since Naoko bought a lot of stuff. Sue is touched by this and proclaims her love for Yabusaki by quoting a line from Ponyo Under the Sea.

Back at Ogiue’s place, she starts crying because of how she used Genshiken, but Sasahara is there to comfort her.

At Madarame’s apartment, he finds he isn’t that excited by ComiFes, which he finds strange considering how he used to act.

Wow, its been a while but well worth the wait as this was quite a good chapter.

Nakajima really is an ugly person. I’d guess that her reasons for showing up at ComiFes was to let Ogiue know about Makita, but as I see it, it wasn’t for Ogiue’s sake, but so that Nakajima had something further over on Ogiue. As such, its no wonder that she was not happy to learn that Ogiue was doing well and even had a boyfriend.  Her attempts to make Ogiue look bad by telling the story of when Ogiue tried to commit suicide failed and again, Nakajima is thwarted in her evil attempts. Still, she does appear aware of her spiteful nature and maybe we’ll have her and Ogiue encounter each other in the future and finally clear the air.

I found it interesting in how Yabusaki and Sue handled Nakajima and her story about Ogiue’s past. Sue was about to lose it and go off on Nakajima, but Yabusaki was the mature one here in managing to disarm Nakajima and in so doing, send Nakajima into a tailspin. Sue had calmed down by then so that when she stepped in, it was just the icing on the cake that made sure Nakajima crashed.  And here Ohno was worried about Sue. ^_~

I loved how Nakajima’s attempts at evil ended up forging the bonds of friendship between Yabusaki and Sue.  I remarked last chapter on how Sue loved to torment Yabusaki because Yabusaki didn’t know how to deal with this gaijin from America. After Nakajima’s visit, Yabusaki and Sue were on the same page when it came to getting the sick Ogiue home and in bed where she belonged, to say nothing of keeping Nakajima’s visit a secret. Yabusaki inviting Sue over at the end of the chapter was just a nice touch.  It will be interesting to see how their friendship develops.

I wish there’d been room for a little more between Ogiue and Sasahara. I’d like to see how their relationship continues to grow as a couple. Even with the little bit of time they received, it was clear that they do love each other and Sasahara is going to nurse Ogiue to health even though Sue had apparently wanted to do that.

Madarame’s discovering that he’s no longer excited by ComiFes is something I can relate to because it happens to most all of us as we get older. For example, this year will be the first year since 1989 where I have not gone to the theater to see a movie.  I had seen and loved all of the Harry Potter movies in the theater but this year, even though I had the time, I found I just had no desire to go.  I didn’t even think about StarFest this year either.  As I think about it, I wonder where the fire went, and while some of that fire’s extinguishment can be traced to my current job situation, I can’t lay 100% of it there. It just sorta happens, I guess.

Speaking of Madarame, it seems as if Angela does indeed have her eyes on him. There was a hint of that in the original run of Genshiken, but nothing too major. I’d like to see something happen there and see how Madarame deals with it.

So, a really good chapter here with more Sue goodness, but she’s not the chapter stealer.  Can’t wait to read more.