げんしけん: 二代目Chapter 101 Manga Review
Genshiken Nidaime Chapter 101 Manga Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Madarame becomes worried because of his deeper involvement in trap games and doujinshi, and is further troubled by how he reacts to the chocolate that Hato gave him. As such, he decides to seek some advice.

In the Genshiken club room, Rika helps Yajima with her artwork by doing poses. Hata shows up with Sue close behind. Hato tells the others that he’s been working on a manga.

It is night at a restaurant, where Madarame waits for the arrival of Kugayama. When he arrives, Madarame doesn’t want to get to the heart of the discussion until they’ve gotten drunk. Once drunk, Madarame reveals how Hato is dressing as a girl again and gave him chocolates, which really made him happy, but a guy is a guy. Further, Hato has been doing things like cooking for Madarame and tending to him when he was sick.

Madarame goes on to reveal that he got chocolate from Sue, and even one from Angela, through Ohno. Because he can relate to Hato as a guy, despite how Hato looks like an attractive girl, Madarame thinks he understands Hato. However, when it comes to Sue and Angela, he doesn’t know how to relate to them. Because he’s a virgin (thus is scared), Madarame says he can’t follow Kugayama’s suggestion to just go for one of the girls.

Kugayama suggests going the prostitution route to see if that will help Madarame with his confidence. Madarame wonders if you go to a place like a soapland,  a “health” club, or a pink salon, will the girls really let you go all the way. Kugayama has an amazing amount of detailed knowledge on the subject, courtesy of the Internet, which he relays to Madarame. Madarame realizes that Kugayama wants to go to one, which Kugayama angrily says is correct.

Kugayama suggests they go to one of these places together, thus allowing him to lose his virginity while at the same time, Madarame loses his and destroys his harem. Madarame refuses, so Kugayama suggests a hostess club. He then remembers Keiko’s card, where she goes by the name of Kyouko, so he suggests going there now, as he has experience in these places from taking business guests there.

Thoughts/Review:

I have to say, this may have been the funniest Genshiken chapter ever. I laughed so hard at Kugayama’s and Madarame’s discussion.

But before I get started, hat’s off to Kio-sensei for bringing Kugayama into this chapter and making him a central character. In the original Genshiken, Kugayama was around, but never played a central role in any story. As the manga progressed, we saw less and less of him as he was job hunting, then scored a job. So it is nice to finally have a chapter (and then some) where Kugayama plays a central role in the story.

Now, onto the subject of Madarame and his harem. I think I understand him to a degree here (except for the trap games and such).  Going back to the original Genshiken, Madarame had a thing about not relating to women. He was just OK when dealing with Ohno and Ogiue, but he could not deal with Saki, even though he became very attracted to her.

With Sue and Angela, he can’t deal with them because he can’t understand their attraction to him, and he certainly can’t understand Angela’s aggressive moves on him.

With Hato, Madarame is able to compartmentalize things. Knowing Hato is a guy, Madarame has no trouble relating to him. When Hato dresses as a pretty girl, Madarame just does the “he’s a guy” thing, but since Madarame is attracted to girls and not guys, Hato dressing as a girl does cause him issues.

As to Kugayama’s suggestion about heading to a naughty place so that Madarame could lose his virginity and possibly gain confidence to go for Sue or Angela (or Keiko), I personally don’t think that would actually work as one is paying a girl for her fake attention and affection. In the end, as I see it, Madarame may get to have actual sex, but afterward, there’d still be that barrier of some real girl being actually interested in him without compensation.

Regardless, the conversation between Kugayama and Madarame was absolutely hysterical. Kugayama’s knowledge about the naughty places of Tokyo and Kio-sensei’s subsequent, constant “found this on the Internet” reminders added to the humor. I kept thinking that Kio-sensei doth protest too much. ^_~

As for the few pages dedicated to Rika, Yajima, and Hato, I’m not sure what it means that Hato is doing a manga, but I guess we’ll see soon enough.

Finally, Kio-sensei gives his second shout out to the Tenchi Muyo! franchise, this time citing it specifically by name. Being that I love the canon Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki series (and the canon spinoff-sequels), I enjoyed the shout out and the nod to the father of the modern harem genre.

In the end, a most enjoyable and hilarious chapter. Next up is a trip to see Keiko at her hostess club. I can’t wait to see that. ^_^