げんしけん: 二代目Chapter 120 Manga Review
Genshiken Nidaime chapter 120 Manga Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Following Ogiue’s advice, Madarame goes after Hato. The two have a very deep discussion on their situation. Madarame has an understanding of things from Hato’s perspective and Hato’s BL fantasies. Hato is very surprised by Madarame’s direct discussion, which Madarame attributes to Ogiue chastising him.

After Madarame finishes, Hato admits that as a fudanshi, he’s not ready to discuss certain things. However, he does admit to thinking of how both Mada x Hato and Hato x Mado might work. Hato admits that somewhere along the way, he became unable to separate fantasy from reality. However, he’s been able to merge all of his feelings together and promises not to run away if Madarame chooses him.

As their conversation wraps up, the group accidentally reveals itself nearby. Madarame suggests that he and Hato continue their date. The group discusses the situation with Rika thinking Hato is in. Ogiue thinks Sue has a chance. Keiko wonders Madarame would get along with the harem in bed, which Rika says they can’t have the harem try that out. Besides, Rika thinks that Angela would win that easily, but Keiko thinks she would win since she’s the only Japanese girl in the group.

Thoughts/Review:

I have to admit that I’ve grown weary of the harem story. Normally, I love harem tales, but because this harem tale is actually a continuation of Hato exploring his sexuality, something I wearied of long ago, it pretty much killed the harem stuff for me.

Of course, this harem situation is being done from a more realistic perspective and not a comedic one, like all of the other harem titles I’ve read or watched. That too adds a drag factor the the harem story and one I didn’t expect.

Anyway, Hato’s and Madarame’s discussion simply paves the way for Kio-sensei to have Madarame go to the “dark side” if he chooses. I really hope this is not the path the manga story goes down. While I have personally shipped Madarame x Sue, another part of me would really love to see Saki come back into play, as I’ve stated before. This is because Kio-sensei could then have Madarame hook up with Saki and make Spotted Flower canon.

Why would I want Spotted Flower to be canon? Simply put, when a manga title ends, we might get an aftermath chapter, giving us a glimpse into what becomes of characters after a time. In the case of School Rumble, School Rumble Z gave us a few chapters depicting in a single volume to show us what happened. With Spotted Flower, we have seen what becomes of Saki and Madarame with looks at some of the other characters from time to time. Were that to be established as canon, it would be a rather unique event with manga titles.

Back to the chapter at hand, while most of it seemed to be setting up Madarame choosing Hato, in the end, Kio-sensei decides to open things back up a little by having Ogiue suddenly thinking Sue has a chance (after forcing Madarame to go after Hato), and Keiko introduces the sex element to bring herself and Angela back into things.

In the end, this chapter wasn’t my thing as I’m ready for the harem stuff to be over. We’ll see where Kio-sensei ultimately takes things.