げんしけん: 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Manga Chapter 75

The festival at Shiiou University is underway, with Sue tasked with advertising the Genshiken event of a cosplay photo shoot. Tanaka takes the photos with Kugayama helping. Ohno is excited since Saki is coming, but she can’t convince Ogiue to cosplay. Hata is in his Takeya Mikako disguise (his pen name). Yajima’s old high school friend, Mimasaka, stops by, though she is a bit shy. Rika decides to challenge Mimasaka’s idea that Yajima can draw well when two of Rika’s old frineds, Sawatari and Fukuda, stop by. Meanwhile, two weird looking girls are looking for Hato.

Back at the Genshiken room, Madarame stops by and is stunned to see everyone (sans Ogiue and Hato) in cosplay, including Mimasaka, Sawatari, and Fukuda.  Madarame swings by the table where Ogiue and Hato are to pick up a copy of Mebaetame. As he reads, Hato starts to worry about Saki stopping by since he knows Madarame is still in love with her.

Keiko stops by and loudly asks if Saki and Kousaka have shown up, something Madarame didn’t know. Keiko starts teasing Madarame, leading Hato to believe that Keiko knows the secret too. Keiko notices Hato’s glare at her and thinks that Madarame is dating “her.”  Madarame insists this is impossible and promises to explain why later. Keiko leaves for now as Hato wonders exactly whom all knows about Madarame and Saki.

Meanwhile, the two girls Konno and Fuji arrive at the Genshiken room where they notice Hato’s art and are surprised that it looks like “Kaminaga-senpai’s” art style. Hato is in a panic, but they don’t recognize him since he’s sounding female. The two girls examine the issue of Mebaetame as someone else enters, catching Kuchiki’s attention. He loudly addresses her as “Hato-chan,” as she looks just like Hato’s main female guise, but the girl turns puzzled as Hato panics again. Konno and Fuji show up and apparently recognize the girl as Kaminaga.

Bwah!ha!ha!ha!ha!  Sue tracking down Yabusaki twice in order to be fed takoyaki just cracked me up, more so after Yabusaki tried to hide but failed. Sue looked quite cute this outing, while still having certain Sue-esque elements.  Sue can come dangerously close to hijacking the manga, but Kio-sensei seems to have a good leash on her, though she still provided me with the only laughs of this chapter.

Yajima’s and Rika’s old high school friends are an odd assortment, but I suppose that’s not surprising since they are otaku. I did get a smile out of seeing them thrown into cosplay.  At first glance, Sawatari in cosplay looks a lot like Keiko. ^_^;  I wonder why they didn’t try to attend the same college?

I’ve no idea why Kio-sensei made the two girls (I assume they were both girls, but in this manga, you never know) who were looking for Hato, Konno and Fuji, look like poorly disguised aliens. *_*  Seriously, what was up with those weird eyes?

While on the subject of Konno and Fuji, it looks like we are about to get a lot deeper into Hato’s past.  With their actively looking for Hato, combined with this Kaminaga girl showing up, I’m actually looking forward to learning more.  Up until now, Hato had not been that interesting to me.  However, since we’d already learned that Hato based his artwork on a female senpai’s work, I find it very interesting that he makes his main “Hato-chan” look to be based on her as well.  It is also very creepy when you think about it. Right now, Hato is looking to be VERY psychologically disturbed. ^_^;;;  Even if this girl turns out to be his sister, it is still creepy.  I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

The other thing I’m looking forward to is Saki showing up.  I know she’s coming with Kousaka, but in the back of my mind, I start wondering if she and Kousaka might break up sometime down the road. I’m not sure why I have that feeling, especially since there’s nothing in the manga to back it up.

Anyway, Keiko showing up and teasing Madarame was amusing to me.  I guess Hato was crushed to learn that others besides him knew of Madarame’s secret love for Saki.  That in and of itself was kind of creepy.

From a plot standpoint, this chapter is the best one yet.  I’m hoping the payoff is as interesting as it seems it will be.