げんしけん: 二代目Chapter 74
Genshiken Nidaime Manga Chapter 74

Sasahara reads over Ogiue’s story, which is a side story for her “Moon Glasses” professional manga. Ogiue remarks on needed to check Hato’s art, thus meaning she’d be alone with him either at his apartment or hers. Sasahara is fine with that, but Ogiue doesn’t like that response since Hato is a guy, despite his crossdressing, and Sasahara is supposed to be her boyfriend. He becomes somewhat forceful in asking her to sit next to him, but her phone goes off before they can proceed, leading to Sue dropping by with Hato.

Sometime later at the club room, Yajima and Rika tell Ogiue their story. Hato comes by, revealing some yaoi images he’s drawn of Ogiue’s characters, which causes her quietly react to it. Rika attempts her own brand of “helpfulness” to get Hato to draw normally, but it isn’t helpful, leading Yajima to drag her out of the club room.  Oguie has Hato do character sheets, where Hato reveals that his art style is from a female, fujoshi senpai in high school, thus he feels like he’s plagiarizing her. Ogiue realizes that Hato may have had feelings for her, and decides to stop him from revealing more. She tells Hato that his skills are his own, and that she felt his skills were superior to her own. She reckons that Hato can’t draw properly dressed as a guy because he’s holding himself back, while being dressed as a girl, he draws as he wants, with a skill that is his.

Hato successfully draws a page without porn, and Ogiue is proud of what she’s accomplished. However, a knock on the door leads to a visit from two guys from the Circle Activities Club, one of whom has a thing for the female version of Hato, whom he knows by her fake registered name of TAKEYA Mikako. After telling Ogiue that they will need to know the details of the exhibit that Genshiken will do, the one guy hits on “Takeya-san.” His companion attempts to restrain him, and their banter causes Ogiue and Hato to react.  When they leave, Hato has already rough-sketched a homo-erotic image of the two.

Sometime later, messages are sent out stating that Mebaetame will be out for the campus festival. Madarame seems happy by this news.  Ohno and Tanaka discuss the campus festival when Saki calls Ohno, telling her that she and Kousaka will be attending the festival. However, Saki hangs up on Ohno when Ohno mentions bringing some cosplay outfits for Saki.  Sasahara tells Ogiue that he’s not sure if he can make it or not.

While this was mainly a Hato and Ogiue chapter, the various cameos by former Genshiken members was very welcome.

Sasahara and Ogiue still have an awkward relationship. She still calls him, “Sasahara-san” rather than his given name, “Kanji.”  Granted, “Sasahara-san” is a step up from “Sasahara-senpai,” but in my mind, it still shows a distance between her and him.  Then again, Sasahara addresses Ogiue as “Ogiue-san,” not as her given name, “Chika.”  Heck, “Chika-san” and “Kanji-san” would show them to be closer as a couple than they are now.  Before anyone points it out, I know that Tanaka and Ohno were addressing each other as “Tanaka-san” and “Ohno-san,” but they’ve never seemed awkward.

Speaking of Tanaka and Ohno, I laughed at Ohno’s reaction to getting a call from Saki. Heck, I knew it was Saki calling just from the look on her face. Leave it to Ohno to try to get Saki to cosplay again. *lol*

As to Saki, she seems to have a more mature look now. I’m glad that she and Kousaka are coming to the festival. If Tanaka joins Ohno, which I believe he will, that will be sweet.  Madarame will probably come and hopefully Sasahara will too.  That just leaves Kugayama.  Honestly, it would rule if they all got together.

I liked how Ogiue coached Hato to try to get him over his mental blocks on manga drawing.  Kio-sensei keeps dribbling out bits and pieces of Hato’s past, but it still isn’t gripping me that much.  Dragging it out isn’t helping.

Now that Hato has been seen by that one guy in short hair, he’s going to have to remember to wear that wig now, lest it be revealed that he’s wearing a wig.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Hato’s secret is eventually revealed, leading to some kind of drama on how Genshiken handles it as well as the school.

For me, this was an OK chapter with pluses for the original Genshiken cameos.