げんしけん: 二代目

Kenji, Madarame, Rika, Yajima, Yukiji, Tanaka, Ohno, and Angela meet up for Winter Comifest. Upon hearing that Kenji has given up BL manga and doujinshi, Angela embraces him from behind. She notices Sue hiding nearby, so she goes over and embraces Sue from behind. Sue notices Madarame looking at them and blushes, breaking free from Angela and hiding herself again. Angela notices why Sue is acting this way and promises to behave herself during Comifest, but to herself, she says it will only be for the duration of Comifest.

Meanwhile, Ogiue, Yabusaki, and Naoko are set up at a coveted wall location for her current doujinshi. Ogiue is quite nervous since she increased the number of copies of her doujinshi to 1000 since they secured a wall spot, but a line quickly forms, causing the worry to switch to them getting in trouble with the Comifest people if their line interferes with other booths. Naoko has a solution and makes a sign for the person in the back of the line to hold so that there’s no confusion as to what the line is for.

Angela and Ohno do their normal cosplay activities while the others shop. Sue swings by Ogiue’s booth and is surprised to see the long line. Sue gets drafted by Ogiue to help keep copies coming from the boxes to the table. Sue is overcome with emotion at witnessing how far Ogiue has come.

Kenji, Yukiji, and Madarame meet up to divide the loot, which is geared toward a male audience. Kenji is tempted to check out the yaoi materials but resists. Instead, he follows the lead of other males around him who are reading their doujinshi purchases. Kenji does the same and is relieved to see he has a reaction to the materials. Kenji pays a visit to Ogiue’s booth to learn about her success.

At the end of the day, the group meets up where Ohno is pleased to hear of Ogiue’s success, wondering if this means Ogiue is becoming a major player (something Sue agrees with). Ogiue tries to lay the credit to her getting a wall slot and the series she parodied. Ohno suggests that this gives Ogiue the opportunity to cosplay with them, which Ogiue quickly rejects. Kenji notices how everyone is excitedly planning their activities for day 2 of Comifest but he’s not having any fun.

Day two comes and Rika notices that Yajima has purchased a ton of stuff. Rika realizes that Yajima has purchased a ton of stuff in case Kenji decides he does want it. which flusters Yajima. Elsewhere, Angela and Ohno continue cosplaying while Ogiue goes around with Sue on a massive buying spree.

One of the nice things about this new incarnation of Genshiken is that Kio-sensei no longer ties the manga’s chapter publication to the current month it was published, which is what happened during most of the original Genshiken. As such, we’ve had a nice buildup to Comifest and now, Comifest will be spread over multiple chapters.

Kenji’s reflection on not having fun at Comifest means he really wants to buy all the BL stuff.  That means he really didn’t want to give up the BL stuff despite what he’s said and done to date since his conversation with Sue. The question becomes, what will he end up doing?

Yajima buying all of this BL stuff for Kenji suggests she has some level of feelings for him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have spent her own hard earned money on materials that Kenji might not buy from her. There’s been this hinting that Yajima might have some sort of feelings for Kenji, but we’ll see where this goes.

I loved that Ogiue sold out her doujinshi so quickly. I think back to Sasahara’s first doujinshi, where he sold out but only sold a limited number of copies. Ogiue had only a few sales in her first attempt and didn’t even make it into the next Comifest. So it is awesome that she not only got a coveted wall spot, but sold a thousand copies.

The big surprise has been Angela behaving herself and not going after Madarame, which is what I had expected. However, I love that she’s now clued in on Sue’s apparent feelings for Madarame. Kio-sensei has been rather coy about how Sue feels for Madarame. I have long thought she does have feelings, but then Kio-sensei throws a curve and suggests that Sue’s blushing around Madarame is more about her trying to set Madarame up with Kenji. I’d like to see this explored rather than Kenji’s mess, but that’s just me.

Overall, a good chapter here.