げんしけん: 二代目

Madarame, Kenji, and Kuchiki are in the Genshiken club room discussing anime, much to the annoyance of Rika and Yajima. Ogiue comes in and is shocked to see Kenji not in drag. She’s further surprised when he says he’s given up dressing as a girl. Ogiue asks about his commitment to do some illustrations for her, but he assures her he’ll do it, even if he has to cross-dress again to get it done.

Rika asks if Ogiue will need assistants for the winter Comifest, like she did for the summer one. She says that won’t be necessary and later at her place, she sows off her latest purchase — a LCD monitor tablet. As such, Ogiue wants to try to do everything herself since these devices are supposed to be very helpful to manga-ka.

As Rika, Yajima, and Kenji walk home, they discuss this, leading Rika to probe on whether Kenji is planing to become a manga-ka. He says no.

At Yajima’s place, Rika asks why Yajima is not speaking to Kenji. She says his sudden decision to dress normally is like him asking not to be asked about the neck incident with Madarame, so Yajima is respecting that.

At Kenji’s place, he’s unable to draw as a guy, so he goes to his closet where he’d packed up all his female stuff. He puts on an outfit and is able to complete his work in rapid fashion. He ponders for a bit and wonders if it is the cross-dressing he wants to give up or the BL stuff.

Sometime later at the Genshiken club room, Madarame and Kuchiki discuss Kenji’s change and giving up something he clearly loved. That leads Kuchiki to ask why Madarame keeps coming to the club room, or why he quit his job. Madarame doesn’t want to discuss it and reminds Kuchiki that he will be able to attend all three days of Comifest to help with the purchases.

Ohno pops in, surprised that none of the girls are present. She finds out that Yajima, Rika, Kenji, and Yabusaki are cheering Ogiue on, since she’s having more trouble with the new pad than she’d thought. Kuchiki asks if Angela is coming, causing Madarame to break out in a sweat. At the airport, Sue is there to greet Angela, but gives a warning to Angela in her own, special way. Meanwhile, Keiko calls Ogiue wanting to know about attending Comifest.

When one truly gives something up, it is gone. When one has given something up but doesn’t really want to give it up, then it is easy to come up with excuses on why one MUST do the thing they’ve give up one more time. From there, it is a massive, downhill slide.

As such, I figure we’ll see Kenji in drag again. He’ll find excuses to do it, then he’ll adopt the F-I attitude and just do it.  As he thought to himself, is it the drag he wants to give up or the BL materials.

Angela’s return and Keiko’s sudden desire to come to Comifest means that a storm is brewing.  The one part I’m NOT looking forward to is Kenji’s role in this little drama. Were he not in the equation, I’d be looking forward to seeing Angela hit on Madarame and watching Keiko’s reaction to that. Sue’s warning not withstanding, I think Angela is going to try to score with Madarame again, since girls like a challenge and Madarame is a challenge, seeing as how he has resisted her.

I wonder if Kio-sensei was addressing fans of the original Genshiken by having Kuchiki, who got the most time in a chapter in a coon’s age,  join Madarame and Kenji for an anime discussion like they used to have back in the day.  It was almost as if Kio-sensei was saying, “We can never go back to those days.”

Finally, I was amused by Kio-sensei’s commentary on the changes in how manga is created these days. Digital drawing is how so many manga-ka are doing things today.  Eventually, no one will do it “old school” pen-and-paper style.

So an interesting chapter here. Let’s see what fun Kio-sensei has in store for us.