げんしけん 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Episode 04 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

As Ohno picks up Angela from the airport, Sue, Hato, Yajima, and Rika are being paid by Ogiue as assistants so she can make her deadline for submitting her manga. Hato is uncomfortable in drag now that his beard is growing out. Rika suggests using cosplay outfits that Ohno had left, but all of Hato’s outfits are from trap characters. Since Yajima wears men’s clothing, Rika gets her to give them to Hato while a fuming Yajima wears cosplay along with Rika. Hato reveals his male side to the others, but Yajima can’t take it any more and strips him, putting him into one of the trap outfits. Rika gets Sue and Ogiue to cosplay as well. When Yabusaki shows up, she goes off on them for cosplaying rather than working on the manga.

At ComiFest, Ohno, Tanaka, Kuchiki, Rika, Yajima, Angela, and Hato wait outside while Sue stands in for the exhausted Ogiue at her booth along with Yabusaki and Naoko, causing Yabusaki to not be thrilled by this development, though Sue enjoys it. Because of Ogiue’s professional manga, her doujinshi does quite well, causing Yabusaki to suddenly realize she seems like she’s trying to use Ogiue’s coattails for easy sales of her own doujinshi. Naoko leaves them to do some shopping, causing Yabusaki to freak out while Sue relishes in Yabusaki’s discomfort. Elsewhere, Hato gets into female cosplay gear to by BL stuff, but becomes embarrassed when he has to go to the toilet and has to hold a sign marking the end of the line for it.

Back at the booth, Nakajima comes by to see Ogiue’s new work and buys five copies. Nakajima reveals she was a classmate of Ogiue’s back in junior high. When she learns that Ogiue is the president of Genshiken, she’s amused. Sue is not happy, sensing that Nakajima is trying to put Ogiue down. Indeed, Nakajima remarks on Ogiue having a boyfriend at her previous ComiFes outing, then expresses her “relief” that Ogiue hasn’t tried to kill herself. Sue fumes as Nakajima starts telling the tale of what happened to Ogiue years ago, but Yabusaki cuts Nakajima off, saying Ogiue is perfect for her job as president, an opinion backed by Sue, who cites Ogiue’s continuing relationship with Sasahara.

A seemingly disappointed Nakajima takes her leave, saying she won’t be staying for Ogiue to come by, nor will she come to another ComiFest. Ogiue appears behind her, completely unaware of Nakajima or her other former friend. Nakajima leaves, glancing back at Ogiue briefly. Ogiue is clearly sick, so Yabusaki has Sue take her back home. Meanwhile, Nakajima’s companion wonders why Nakajima didn’t speak to Ogiue. The irritated Nakajima doesn’t want to make Ogiue’s life any better by letting her know what happened with Makita. That night, Yabusaki, and Naoko bring the earnings to the sick Ogiue. Sasahara comes by, so Ogiue tells Sue she can go. Sue is depressed, but when Yabusaki invites her over to her place, Sue feels better.

Thoughts/Review:

This episode was adapted from chapters 62, 63, and 64 of the original manga.

One of the reasons I’ve been putting off watching more of this series is that it hurts my eyes when everyone refers to Hato as “her” and “she” in the official English subtitles when there’s no gender identity issue going on here. Egad. Words cannot express how thankful I am that Kodansha Comic’s didn’t go this idiotic route in the manga.

HATO IS NOT A FRACKING WOMAN SO STOP CALLING HIM “SHE” YOU BASTARDS!

*sigh*

Now that I’m in a foul mood, the stilted English used by the Japanese seiyuu for Angela and Ohno started off funny, but then started grating on my nerves. KOBAYASHI Misa, Angela’s seiyuu, does her best to speak the English words clearly, but it doesn’t sound natural at all. Ohno’s seiyuu, Yukana, tries, but her Engrish is not only unnatural, but her accent gets in the way as well.

I’m not going to go into whatever small things were added or removed from the original manga for this episode (and there were lots of little bits removed for whatever reasons). Instead, I’ll go into what did and didn’t work. On the “works” side, I thought that Yajima being forced into cosplay so that Hato could wear her clothing was much funnier in the anime.  Yajima’s stewing over the whole notion did make me laugh despite my eye’s being in massive pain.

On the “didn’t work” side, Rika getting Sue to cosplay was much funnier in the manga. The way Sue looked in the manga when she hissed at Rika for suggesting cosplay was funny. Here, it wasn’t. Further, Sue’s sudden interest in cosplay after hearing what Rika whispered to her works so well in the manga, but doesn’t work so well in the anime.

Sue’s teasing of Yabusaki works better in the manga because Kio-sensei draws Sue with that scene-stealing, devious smile. We really didn’t get that in this episode.

Overall, the manga’s version trumps what was displayed in this episode. Too many little things were cut, causing some context to be lost on top of the other stuff I’ve mentioned.