げんしけん: 二代目Chapter 97 Manga Review
Genshiken Nidaime chapter 97 Manga Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

As Ohno, Ogiue, Rika, and Yajima sit in the Genshiken clubroom, Ohno realizes that this is the coming of age year for Rika. However, with Rika’s sister’s college exams coming up, and the fact that Rika didn’t want to see most of her old classmates, Rika did not attend the ceremony, nor wear a furisode. Ohno also realizes that Ogiue has also turned 20, but Ogiue cuts her off with a scary look and a negative remark on the subject.

Hato arrives from his new apartment as Hato-chan and notices the whiteboard has been erased. No one has seen Madarame in ages, so they don’t think he saw Rika’s list of reasons to not be with Madarame. Further, no one has seen Sue in a while.

Rika asks to come to Hato’s new place for a house warming party since they don’t have class the following day. Hato agrees, so they go to the new apartment, in which the building has only recently been constructed. At only 100 square feet, it is a tiny place, but Hato likes it. With that, the trio cook, eat, drink, and Hato even fixes Yajima up with one of his wigs.

Later, as Rika snoozes, Yajima and Hato talk. Yajima notes how much more girlish Hato has become, but Hato reminds her that when he’s not cross-dressing, he still acts like a guy. Their conversation leads to Hato revealing he’s not talked to Madarame in some time and is scared to meet him now.

Rika wakes and says this must be love. Rika ends up advising Hato to give up on Madarame if he’s scared to avoid hurting others.  She leaves an opening to try to set Hato up with Yajima, but Yajima doesn’t want to go down that path and forces Hato to call Madarame. Hato does and finds out that Madarame is ill. Hato is ready to go over, but Madarame says otherwise since it is late, but apparently agrees to a visit on the following day. Both Rika and Yajima react to this “nursed back to health” flag being raised by Madarame.

Hato asks Yajima and Rika to come with him to see Madarame, so they agree to do so, spending the night in the process.   Madarame doesn’t answer the door, so Hato uses his key to get in. Once Hato goes in, leaving Rika and Yajima outside, Rika asks Yajima if she thinks a relationship between Madarame and Hato would actually work out. Real life is not like BL, and since Madarame is a “butter side up” kind of guy, Hato has no chance.

While Yajima concedes the point, she doesn’t think Hato should just give up at this point. Rika points out the hurt that would likely result from this path. Further, should Hato be rejected and then can’t give up, Hato could break emotionally. Rika then remembers that Yajima is still interested in Hato, so there’s still a chance for a happy end for Hato.

When Madarame wakes up, he finds a note from Hato saying there’s curry in the freezer and jelly in the fridge for him to eat.

Meanwhile, the trio walk back to Hato’s new place, chatting along the way. Rika remembered that the apartment above Madarame’s place is vacant and had thought Hato might move there, something Hato insists he wouldn’t have done. As they come to Hato’s apartment building, they find a small moving truck with Sue at the back. The truck’s driver asks Sue to open up her apartment, which happens to be next door to Hato’s place.

Thoughts/Review:

You know, a 100 square foot place is just mind boggling to me. Yeah, I lived in tiny dorm rooms when I was in the military, but when I became a civilian, my first apartment was a 1-bedroom, 720 square feet place. I haven’t lived in anything smaller since. ^_^; Then again, I like having my space and not be packed into a shoe box.

This chapter returned the focus to the 1st year trio at the heart of the current Genshiken club and manga. I was thinking about how they easily carry a story now, unlike early in the manga when it seemed tough for them to do so. Well, that’s to be expected I guess as Kio-sensei continues to write for the characters.

Regardless, Rika has been the one character I just couldn’t stand. However, of late, her annoyance factor as a troublemaker has gone down somewhat.  That was very evident in this chapter, where despite her fujoshi fantasies and her love of stirring the pot to cause problems, she was able to take a mature, realistic look at Hato’s interest in Madarame and see that such a relationship is not possible. Indeed, she wants to make both of her friends happy by hooking Hato up with Yajima.

I think this is one of the things I like about Genshiken.  Being a manga, Kio-sensei could do pretty much anything he wanted and justify it within the scope of whatever story he’s taking. There would be nothing wrong with that. However, Kio-sensei has always tried to keep a certain level of reality in his stories, more so since things shifted to Genshiken Nidaime. That’s why even though he wanted to try to hook Madarame up with Saki, realistically, he could not pull that off based on the events that had happened to date in the manga.  (He carries out that fantasy in his Spotted Flower short manga.)

As Rika points out, in a BL title, even straight guys go “butter side down” (to borrow from Red Dwarf) for the story. Obviously, I don’t read BL, but it made me remember Cardcaptor Sakura (which I still have two omnibus volumes to review), where an adult male teacher becomes engaged to his fourth grade, female student. Obviously, in reality, such a thing could never happen, but in the scope of that manga, not only did it happen, but I imagine young girls reading this in Japan and getting warm fuzzies while thinking, “Oh, how wonderful! She’s going to marry Sensei!”

Rika is right by pointing out that Hato has no chance with Madarame. She’s also right in seeing that Yajima does have a chance with Hato because Hato does still have an interest in girls (based on his “reactions” to the standard, male, ero-doujinshi).  That doesn’t mean he will go for Yajima (he may like Yajima as a friend, but may not ever be attracted to Yajima), but in a realistic way, there is a chance.  And that’s what I like about Genshiken — the realism that is injected.

Moving on, I loved how Sue showed up to become Hato’s neighbor. We’d previously seen that Sue appeared to live a lonely life some distance from the campus.  So, just as Hato moved closer to the campus (and thus closer to Madarame), Sue did the same thing, going for the new, reasonably priced place near the campus and Madarame. While it is a coincidence, it works out from a believability aspect grounded in reality, based on what Hato and Sue wanted.  Regardless, I’m loving this because it should mean that Sue gets more screen time. ^_^

Speaking of empty apartments, does this mean that Keiko moves in above Madarame? How about Risa? ^_~

And speaking of Risa, the groundwork continues to be laid for her eventual acceptance into Shiiou University, which would lead to her becoming a new member of Genshiken. I’m really hoping for this to happen. ^_^

You know, as I think about it, Kio-sensei could continue this manga forever. He’s already proven that he can graduate old characters (with occasional cameos for some) and bring in new ones with new interests and the manga will keep on trucking.

So, this chapter ended up being rather good, more so because Rika’s character used common sense and looked at the situation realistically. I’m looking forward to seeing where things go.