げんしけん 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Episode 01 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ogiue is laying down the law to Ohno and Kuchiki on recruiting new members to Genshiken since their previous years have been failures. Sue bursts in wearing a cosplay outfit, causing Ohno to point out that they did score one new member. So, for this years recruitment drive, Ogiue decides to draw a large image on a white board.  As a result, they get two female potential recruits named Yajima and Rika while Sue thwarts Kuchiki’s attempt to come out in female cosplay.  During the first meeting with Yajima and Rika in attendance, Kuchiki is happy to have a harem. Rika indicates her interest in Ogiue’s art was due to the fujoshi elements she saw therein, causing Ogiue to realize she should have expected this.

A girl named Hato enters and asks to sit in on the meeting. Hato is cool with the fujoshi talk, so it continues. Kuchiki has an odd reaction to such a beautiful girl in their midst, and on a whim, pulls at Hato’s hair, revealing that Hato is a guy in drag. Hato despairs over this, but Ogiue comes over and readily welcomes him, cross dressing and all. However, Ogiue is very eager to get Hato into specialized cosplay. Sue heads to Madarame’s apartment and when Ogiue calls her cell, she has Madarame answer. Madarame comes to the Genshiken welcome party, along with Tanaka, but they can’t figure out which new member is a guy.

The party moves to Ogiue’s apartment, where her boyfriend and manga editor Sasahara can’t figure out which new member is a guy. Saki and Kousaka arrive at the party where Saki immediately spots Hato as a guy in drag. At the next Genshiken meeting, Hato hasn’t arrived and Kuchiki isn’t there, so the group discusses the situation. Kuchiki shows up, revealing he’s going to hunt for Hato’s changing spot. Ogiue gets talked into calling Hato to confirm his changing location is at home. However, she discovers he lied when she heads to the bathroom and finds him emerging as a girl.

Hato runs away, chased by Ogiue, straight at Kuchiki. Kuchiki launches himself at him, but Hato uses judo to slam him to the ground. Returning to the club room, a meeting is held to discuss what Hato did, where it is pointed out that a guy using the girl’s bathroom is a crime.  As the Genshiken members wonder where Hato can change that’s close by, Sue says she knows a place. She leads them to Madarame’s apartment.  He gets talked into agreeing to this, even giving Hato a spare key. Rika is happy for Hato getting the key while Yajima wonders if this circle is going to be OK.

Thoughts/Review:

For those interested, this episode was adapted from Genshiken (Nidaime) chapters 56 and 57 (volume 8 or 1, depending on how you look at it).

Interestingly enough, I didn’t spot any significant changes from the original manga story, so kudos to Production I.G for that. I hope this is how the rest of the series is, especially since previous anime production companies made stupid changes and drops to the story.

I have to say that I was disappointed that we didn’t get the former seiyuu to return to their parts for this series. I remember Kio-sensei mentioning that he had attended a casting session (or sessions), so maybe the shift to Production I.G caused it so that they either couldn’t use the original seiyuu, or maybe they just wanted a clean break.  I think Madarame is going to be the hardest character for me to get used to as far as voice is concerned.

As far as character designs go, I’m glad that these character designs are the closest to the manga of any of the previous anime adaptations. So that is a big plus for me.

One thing I’m a bit less than happy about is what I saw for the official translation of the episode. I’m glad all of the honorifics are there, as they should be, but for whatever reason, Hato kept being referred to as “she,” even after it was revealed that Hato is a guy.  As such, the constant referring to a guy as “she” when they are speaking of Hato as a guy makes no sense. Indeed, for me, it kills the whole issue of Hato being a cross dresser.  After all, a girl cannot cross dress as a girl.  *_*  Kodansha’s manga translation uses “he” and that works perfectly. Hopefully, future episode translations will correct this grievous error.

Another thing I wasn’t too keen on was the translating of “fujoshi”. Yeah, I know it means “rotten girl”, but this is an otaku-based anime. Again, Kodansha properly uses the otaku terms, including fujoshi.  If there’s fear over folks not knowing the term, I would have gone with “fujoshi (rotten girl)” in the subtitles and moved on. However, I suspect that the overwhelming majority of those watching this will know the term “fujoshi” quite well.

Since I’ve already commented on the story from my manga chapter reviews, I’m not going to go into great depth there. However, it is nice to go back and see the origins of this new Genshiken club, especially considering where things are today in the manga. It is nice seeing the old Genshiken crew for their cameos.

Sue doesn’t come off quite as awesome in the anime as she does in the manga. That said, she still is awesome. ^_^

How much I talk about future episode stories will depend on time and my mood.  For now, I’ll close this by saying that I’m impressed with Production I.G for getting Genshiken Nidaime off to a good start.