げんしけん: 二代目Chapter 116 Manga Review
Genshiken Nidaime chapter 116 Manga Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Madarame gets paired with Yajima, Kuchiki gets paired with Sue again, and Rika gets paired with Hato, allowing them to discuss the situation of Yajima liking Hato. Now that Hato is aware of it, he doesn’t know what to do. Rika says that Yajima has been putting Hato’s feelings above her own since Hato likes Madarame. Rika encourages Hato just to carry on.

However, on the next pairing, Hato ends up with Yajima and panics while Sue ends up with Madarame. Madarame is surprised when Sue takes his hand, though she claims she’s doing it to purify her hand after having been paired with Kuchiki. As Sue and Madarame go off together, Rika informs Yajima that Hato knows her secret (Yajima likes Hato), causing Yajima to panic.

Meanwhile, Kuchiki has been paired up with Ogiue, and they discuss the Sue x Madarame pairing. Ogiue feels both should get laid and is surprised with Angela joins them and agrees. Even Keiko agrees with Ogiue’s thought, having looked at Sue and Madarame together and finding the pairing acceptable to her. Ogiue asks if there’s no chance of Madarame becoming her brother-in-law, to which Keiko says that sounds right.

With that, Rika decides that they’ll end this pairing business and have Madarame be with Hato next as the thought is that it is now down to Sue or Hato. However, Rika is wondering how things are going between Hato and Yajima.

Thoughts/Review:

Heh!heh!heh! Well, Kio-sensei certainly has stirred the pot a bit with this chapter.

It does appear that in this chapter, Keiko just decided, “That’s it, man. Game over, man. Game over!” That came as somewhat of a surprise to me since her motivation for letting Hato know of Yajima’s feelings was to sabotage Hato in the race. For her to then just give up after seeing Madarame with Sue seemed a bit odd to me.

I’ve long been a Sue x Madarame shipper (though I still think Saki will return to the story and eventually that’s where Madarame will end up), so seeing them together in this chapter was pretty sweet. (And no, Madarame never addressed Sue as “Miss Hopkins” for those wondering — it was “Sue-san” all along.) Madarame is clearly attracted to Sue, but he’s not really that comfortable with Sue, is he. 🙁  Even though next chapter seemingly will have more of the Hato x Yajima thread, I do hope that Sue and Madarame can get a bit closer and comfortable with each other.

I couldn’t help but be amused by Ogiue’s remark on how Sue and Madarame should sleep together (or at least, that’s how I read it). With Angela and Keiko seemingly agreeing to this, it wouldn’t surprise me if this comes to pass. I can see them (and Ohno) arranging for Sue and Madarame too hook up. While I don’t want to see that happening in the manga, I would be OK with it happening in the manga’s story (if that makes sense).

Speaking of Ogiue, seeing all of her facial reactions to various things that happened in the chapter amused me. In addition, it made me want to see the manga shift focus for a while on Ogiue’s and Sasahara’s relationship. I just think it would be nice to see them again as they’ve gotten older.

Then there was Ohno’s joking pass at Ogiue, which for me got the biggest laugh. At the same time, it did remind me of when Ogiue first joined Genshiken and how Ogiue and Ohno couldn’t stand each other. They eventually became friends, Ohno helped set Ogiue up with Sasahara, and now they are pretty good friends. Man, this chapter has really made me nostalgic for the original Genshiken. I may have to reread that sometime soon.

Finally, there’s Hato and Yajima, which apparently will be explored more next chapter. Based on events in Spotted Flower, whereby our unnamed Genshiken characters are seen a few years in the future, I’m hoping to see the Yajime x Hato ship finally set sail.

In the end, this chapter had humor and sweetness, with a mild air of nostalgia of the old Genshiken. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.