げんしけん 二代目
Genshiken Nidaime Episode 05 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The next day of ComiFest is here and Ohno is excited since Genshiken is doing a group cosplay event with the girls and Hato. Madarame is the last to arrive, joining Kugayama, Tanaka, and Kuchiki. Angela drags Ohno over to Madarame so she can hit on him with Ohno interpreting. All the way to Tokyo Big Sight, Angela flirts with Madarame, much to Sue’s annoyance and Hato’s worry. When they arrive, Hato bails on the cosplay event, citing Madarame’s hangover and the guy’s need for another buyer to get all of the porn doujinshi on their list. Ohno is disappointed, but agrees to this, so Hato loses the wig and the female voice.

While cosplaying, Ohno questions Angela on her sudden interest in Madarame. Angela cites Saki being around as her reason for not pursuing him at the last ComiFest, but now that Saki has graduated, Madarame needs a new love. Yajima wishes she had bailed like Hato did, but Rika says that Hato being a guy and buying guy doujinshi should be fine, something Yajima does agree with. Inside, Hato meets up with Madarame, where their discussions lead to Hato learning of the corporate booths on the second level of Tokyo Big Sight. Getting Kugayama to watch their loot, Madarame takes Hato up to the corporate level.

Arriving on the second level, they immediately encounter Kousaka in female cosplay as he’s advertising the latest (trap) porn game from the company he works for. Madarame sends Ohno a text and photo of Kousaka, causing Ohno to freak out since she desperately wants to see Kousaka in person, but can’t leave the group event. Madarame sends more photos at Ohno’s request while Hato is amazed at how good Kousaka is in drag, right down to not even needing to wear makeup. As such, he realizes Madarame can’t win against him (for Saki). Returning to the lower level, Madarame tells Hato that Kousaka is at another level when it comes to drag and can’t be beat. Hato dons his wig and with a female voice, says he could beat Kousaka.

Upon returning to the group, Angela, now in civies, starts hitting on Madarame. Hato intervenes, then goes off into BL pairings with Madarame and his friends, ending with Kousaka and Madarame. Since Angela is into that sort of thing, she agrees with Hato that Madarame is a sou-uke — the ultimate “bottom”. However, she says that’s one thing and takes Madarame’s hand to move it to her breast. Sue slaps the hand away, then proceeds to kick Angela’s butt. Angela says goodbye to Madarame as she and Ohno leave, Sue kicking her in the butt all the way. Madarame plays cool by what Hato had said, but in reality, he is horrified to know he’s seen as a sou-uke.

Thoughts/Review:

This episode was adapted from chapters 65 and 66 of the original manga.

The last episode cut out quite a few small things. This one inserted a number of 4-koma comic strips into the mix, which worked out nicely.  They didn’t add the comic strips regarding Angela’s long term strategy for Madarame, nor Sue’s anger at Angela making moves on Madarame.

One thing this episode struck me with is the odd relationship between Ohno and Sue and Angela and Sue. I think this has always been at the back of my mind, but I never focused on it until I watched this episode.

Ohno, Angela, and Sue were all supposed to be good friends back in the U.S.  Toward the end of the original Genshiken manga,  Angela and Sue started showing up to come to ComiFest, the joke being the question of Sue’s actual age (she’s a freshman in college, suggesting she may have been underaged when coming to ComiFest). Although they didn’t hang out together back then, I just chalked that up to Angela’s being into cosplay more, like Ohno, while Sue was more into the BL doujinshi.

I would have thought that with Angela’s return, she and Sue would be shown together catching up. Instead, Angela hangs out with Ohno when she’s not flirting with and hitting on Madarame.  Sue’s is mostly in the background, annoyed that Angela is aggressively pursuing Madarame. Their only interaction comes when Sue has had enough and “escorts” Angela out of the area and away from Madarame.

That in turn made me think of how Ohno and Sue aren’t close in Genshiken Nidaime. In my mind, they really should be since they’ve known each other for years from the States. Even when Sue, Angela, and Ohno are together, there’s no real sense of closeness like I think there should be among three longtime friends. The only time any closeness is seen is Sue’s weird way of indicating she’d cosplay a character for Ohno.  I suppose that the trio left together is an indication of their friendship as well, but as I said, it just doesn’t feel like they are that close.

One thing that was way funnier in the anime than the manga was Sue’s kicking Angela’s bottom as she said, “Yankee go home! Go to hell!” in English. Granted, Sue’s seiyuu hasn’t had much English to say, but what she got to say in this episode worked well.

Since Hato dressed as a guy for much of this episode, I wonder if those who seemed to think he’s a transgender type had their heads explode messily all over the computer, especially since Hato bought the typical doujinshi targeted at male audiences. Just a thought that crossed my head.

Beyond that, the episode reminded me of how weary I had become of Hato’s story in the manga and how that still isn’t resolved now (though there are two chapters that no one has unofficially translated, so I can’t see exactly how things have developed).

Update: This is the last episode I’m reviewing. I just can’t stand the absolute stupidity of the official translator of this using the “she” pronoun for Hato.  Even if someone says, “Hato-kun said such-and-such”, the translator will say, “She said such-and-such” because a man is clearly a woman just because he wears girls clothing to do the whole fujoshi/BL stuff.  *_* In episode six, even when Hato is dressed as a guy and shown with Madarame, the official translation call him “she”. The thing is, Hato doesn’t identify as female. He identifies as a HETEROSEXUAL MALE (though he’s no doubt bisexual but that’s another thing) SO WHY KEEP CALLING HIM “SHE” AND LOOK LIKE A COMPLETE JACKASS?