げんしけん: 二代目/Genshiken Nidaime

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*SPOILERS!!!*

Highlights from this volume start with Ogiue hiring most of Genshiken to act as her assistants. Kenji has issues being dressed as a girl while his stubble is growing, leading to cosplay, courtesy of the stuff Ohno left. At ComiFes, Sue sits in for the exhausted Ogiue, causing Yabusaki some issues.  Two of Ogiue’s friends from college drop by, leading Sue and Yabusaki to team up when Nakajima tries to make Ogiue look bad because of what happened in middle school. The sick Ogiue shows up and is escorted out by Sue.

For the following ComiFes day, Madarame manages to show up along with other former members. Since Madarame is hung over, Kenji abandons the girl look to help the guys buy porn doujinshi. Kenji is introduced to Tousaka, who’s manning a company booth and who’s dressed as a trap. Later when Angela continues pressing forward with her advances on Madarame, Kenji tries to intervene by saying Madarame is a sou-uke character. Although Angela agrees, she’s not going to stop and it takes Sue to keep Angela from proceeding any further. Madarame is horrified, but later at the club room, the girls apologize to him and explain how they see him. When Kuchiki decides to sexually assault Madarame, Sue punches him and Kenji renders him unconscious, allowing Madarame to flee.

Rereading this volume, I paused to reflect on how far Ogiue has come since she first joined Genshiken. Back then, she was so angst-filled and resentful. Now, she’s nothing of the sort. She’s a decent president for Genshiken. She’s a good manga-ka. She has a boyfriend.  What I can’t figure out is why Nakajima resents Ogiue so much for this. She’s always tried to view herself as superior to Ogiue and then lord that over her.  I know that it was stated that Nakajima wouldn’t be returning to ComiFes ever again, but I still would like to see the last pieces of this part of Ogiue’s life told, including Nakajima’s continuing resentment.

Sue was awesome in this volume. It is amazing how she went from a somewhat annoying character in her introduction to the franchise to being a scene stealer and the best character in Genshiken Nidaime.  I still chuckle at how she took delight in tormenting Yabusaki some, but then in the end, they became friends.  Sue just got to shine from trying to keep the others in line while helping Ogiue (but failing because she discovered what cosplay outfit Ohno left for her) to going after Angela for her nonstop push to entice Madarame, to her clocking Kuchiki to keep him from snogging Madarame. Sue is just pure awesomeness and Kio-sensei knows this, based on some of the omake images he included of her. ^_^

Speaking of Angela, I did get a chuckle out of her long term strategy for Madarame. Even if she failed to entice him this time, she’d plant an idea in his head that he’d need to “meditate” to, which would then be transmuted into thinking he loved Angela. At that time, if she made a move, he’d be willing to accept it (though she’d have to lead him every step of the way, as I see it). As I’ve said before, I can totally understand Madarame’s feelings about Angela’s coming onto him. After all, he knows he’s an otaku, so why would some hot American babe want anything to do with him?

Finally, there’s Kenji’s ongoing “ugh” story. Seriously, I’m so tired of his story because it just keeps dragging on and on. Granted, at volume 2, it hasn’t hit that point, but I’m fairly current with Japan and so I am tired of it.  Rereading things just made me even more weary of the whole thing. 🙁

On the Kodansha side of things, the Japanese honorifics appear to be intact and the usual extras are here. I am VERY thankful that the adaptation uses the proper “he” pronoun for Kenji (Hato).  If they hadn’t, I would have dropped this in a flash, much like I did the anime version.

Overall, I did enjoy this volume, though the trip to ComiFes did make me miss some of the elements that the original Genshiken had which are lost in this new Genshiken.