げんしけん: 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Chapter 85

Sue grabs Rika and Yajima and drags them to the Children’s Literary Club room across the courtyard from Genshiken’s clubroom for some annual spying. A little later, Kenji drops by, as Hato-chan, and finds Madarame in the club room alone. Yajima is worried about this, though the female literary club member that let them in says that Genshiken has always done this spying thing every year except the previous one.

While Sue uses powerful binoculars, she’s flanked by Yajima and Rika as they observe “Hato-chan” getting closer to Madarame. Kenji knows the RPG game Madarame is playing on his PSP, so Kenji says he’ll bring his copy over next time so they can co-op play, which is how the game is designed to be played.  Madarame is grateful, though he’s surprised that Kenji played video games. Kenji says he plays, but hasn’t bought anything recently since all his money has been going into his cross-dressing and BL stuff.

Across the way, the girls notice that “Hato-chan” is getting very close physically to Madarame and staring and the nape of his neck. As they watch, they are stunned to see “Hato-chan” getting so close to Madarame’s neck as if to kiss it. At that moment, Keiko bursts in.  She mistakes Kenji for a girl, since Kenji isn’t wearing his normal Hato-chan wig. Across the way, Yajima and Rika both feel like a bullet was dodged by Keiko’s interruption.

Kenji notices that Keiko doesn’t seem to like him and wonders how he can beat her. Then he wonders what he’d beat her at.  Meanwhile, Keiko is surprised to learn that Madarame quit his job, especially since Saki had told him not to do so. Madarame doesn’t want to talk further about it, but Keiko isn’t happy with that response. She then notices the game Madarame is playing and recognizes it, much to Madarame’s and Kenji’s surprise. Madarame actually gets a bit excited by this, but Keiko says she’s never played it, but one of her co-workers at the hostess club plays it with one of her customers. Keiko says she’d buy the game if Madarame drops by for a visit. Kenji warns against this, since he figures Keiko just wants Madarame’s money. Further, he’s unemployed.

Keiko ponders aloud about Madarame possibly wanting to be a failure in life. She then accurately points out that Madarame only got that job was because of Saki being there, on top of its close proximity to the school. Now that Saki has rejected him, Madarame has quit for the romantic reason of saying thanks to Saki for making him a normal person for so long. Thus, Madarame wants to put Saki on a pedestal while he puts himself down and becomes dirtied, something that doesn’t bother Keiko.  She then tells Madarame to come visit her at work.

Sue bursts in with loud flair, causing Rika and Yajima across the way to wonder when she’d left. When Madarame addresses Sue, she becomes embarrassed and can’t speak, hiding her face behind the binoculars. Madarame notices this and figures out that he’s been spied on. He looks across he way and motions for Rika and Yajima to come over. Once they do, he tells them that though he doesn’t have the high ground, since he used to do the spying back in the day, he wants them to stop, especially Sue.

With that, Madarame says the meeting is over and gets up to leave.  He tells Keiko he’ll never go to her establishment, though she keeps trying to entice him. At the same time, a highly embarrassed Kenji realizes that Sue, Rika, and Yajima were spying on him as he nearly did the unthinkable to Madarame. Kenji goes home and is followed by Sue, who pounds on his door until he answers.

Meanwhile, Rika and Yajima discuss things at a family restaurant.

Man, this Hato-chan thing is really getting out of hand for Kenji. I noticed that after Keiko walked in on him about to go for Madarame’s nape of the neck, Kenji blamed the the image of Kaminaga was above him in an odd sort of way, saying it was as if he were possessed. Kenji’s mental state is not a good one at present.  The fact that he then knows that Sue, Rika, and Yajima saw him is even more devastating. I wonder what Sue will say to him.

As to the spying bit, I did laugh as Sue took on Ohno’s role from when Ogiue joined Genshiken, complete with the face mask. The Genshiken spying on new members has always been about getting them to reveal their true selves. Back in the original Genshiken manga, it was to point out to Sasahara that though he might protest that he’s not an otaku, he was in fact an otaku.  In the case of Ogiue, it was to show that despite her slamming BL hentai doujinshi and manga, she was in fact into that stuff.  And finally, for Kenji, it was to show that he did have feelings for Madarame.

This brings me to Sue. I do love Sue as a character. When she was first introduced, I didn’t care for her, but she’s really the best part of the new Genshiken for me.

That being said, I’ve wondered for a while if Sue has feelings for Madarame. It is hard to actually nail her down on this. That’s because at times she blushes and gets embarrassed in front of Madarame, but at other times, such as this spying event, she’s not.  Indeed, one might say that she’s trying to help Kenji out so that he’ll go ahead and confess. If that’s true, then it throws into question the nature of her blushing all the time when he’s around, or doing other little things to suggest interest.

It is possible that she’s sexually attracted to him, since she’s seen enough drawn porn featuring Madarame, but doesn’t love him.  Thus, when she sees him, she remembers the porn stuff and blushes, but she wants Kenji to have a go.

Man, this can be a confusing mess, eh? ^_^;

That brings me to Keiko. Again, it has been speculated that she might have a thing for him.  While I’ve wanted Sue to hook up with Madarame, it is possible that Keiko is the one who knows him best. After all, I can never see Madarame getting his bread butter-side down, but if Sue is trying to get Kenji to confess to Madarame, doesn’t that suggest that she thinks Madarame might swing that way?

Keiko, on the other hand, is able to read Madarame like a book. Her ability to understand him is what I think interests her in him. I don’t think her insistence on Madarame coming by her hostess club to pay her a visit is just about scoring money off of him. I think she wants to get him in a controlled environment where she can try to get him to cut loose somewhat and make a further evaluation of him as a man and potential boyfriend. Heck, if she did start playing games with Madarame, they might find stuff in common.

In the end, a good chapter with interesting developments and some humor referencing the original Genshiken manga.