July 24th, 2016 
AstroNerdBoy Spotted Flower Chapter 18.5 (Manga)
Spotted Flower manga chapter 18.5 review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
NOTE: For the purposes of this and future reviews, until the characters are given names, since these characters are obviously from Genshiken (or Genshiken Nidaime), I will call the “not-Saki” character !Saki, the “not Madarame” character !Madarame, and so forth for all other unnamed Genshiken characters.
!Hato and !Yajima are taking time off during the week to relax at an onsen, taking a bath together. They discuss how lucky they are to be able to do this in the middle of the week. They then discuss their upcoming manga projects. This causes !Hato to imagine a yaoi scenario of six brothers. Naturally, !Hato has to get this down that night, so while he creates a copy-bon, !Yajima heads to a single person bath.
Thoughts/Review:
It is always disappointing when we get these 2 page stories from Spotted Flower. I do find it amusing that Kio-sensei uses these to follow the relationship of !Hato and !Yajima.
Still, with only two pages of manga, there’s not a lot to discuss. Basically, he see that !Hato got the implants, which we were already told about.
!Hato and !Yajima are comfortable in a two person, mixed onsen tub. However, that too is not a surprise, considering it has been heavily implied that the two are in a sexual relationship.
I suppose that the real interest here stems mainly from Genshiken Nidaime 124. I say this because in that chapter, Yajima had a specific goal in mind that she had to achieve before she felt she could be in a relationship with Hato. Here, !Yajima talks to !Hato about manga as a partner. !Hato may be the manga-ka, but !Yajima is the power behind the throne, so to speak.
In the end, Spotted Flower chapter 18.5 is just another nice peek into the lives of !Yajima and !Hato.
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Well, a few minutes ago I commented on the last translated Nidaime chapter review that Kio Shimoku can possibly be on the making of a multiwork series, on the same universe, going bit by bit with every release of spotted flower. There I said that there are three storylines. But now I see these half chapters of spotted flower as a fourth one: The !Hato/!Yajima future spinoff (as every “#.5” release features and focus on them). It can be really similar as to what is unfolding on Nidaime: The original (!)Genshiken cast and the (!)Nidaime one as the simultaneous spinoff. There are parallelisms everywhere and I love it.
The change of pacing on Nidaime permits it. As you know, previously the time passed quickly in the original Genshiken. That time constrain limited the amount of detail that the mangaka could make on the relationship building, but the long time elapsed on the story solidified the relationships between the members (several years passed and they lived many conflicts and changes together, as every graduation moment serves as example).
On contrast, on Nidaime only a year has passed, and the author reflects that on how precarious some relations seems to be (I think we already commented on this some reviews ago). Maybe because of that these specials chapters of spotted flower originated. Maybe the mangaka wanted to slide a sneak peak on the future, covering that slow, but detailed building in the relationship of Hato and Yajima (and even Rika or Sue later?) with a complementary grow in bursts, using some very short chapters. All the while without confirming it as a proper sequel, it being “!Genshiken, the (not) later years” aka Spotted Flower. It leaves me with a smile when seeing that possibility.
I hope this turns to be canon. If not, spotted flower only can be an apology of sorts to the fans, as I thought at the time with the first chapters of this manga.
I’m saying all this without looking on nidaime 125 spoilers. I just can’t see that without translation haha.
Another good review by you, Astro. Looking forward for the next one.
Regarding Nidaime, unfortunately, the manga is ending with chapter 127 (I think…it might be 126). π I just learned about this. Really bummed out.
Oh… That is really bad. Man, very sad news…
I hoped for more… It can’t end like this!
Damn.
Yeah, I hear ya.
Well, there’s always the chance of Genshiken Sandaime happening eventually.
Heh. That’s true. Then again, we might get a manga about Madarame.
I will be sorry to see Genshiken Nidaime come to an end.
I always thought Spotted Flower was like a doujin for Kio.
I hope his next work builds on this because whether or not
the Genshiken crew we have know leaves, the circle room
and the concept are still there waiting for the next generation
of otaku.
Lots of hooks for future Genshiken with Rika and her
big sister. Or maybe we will just get doujin.
bliss
Heh. That’s an interesting way to put things. π I’m hoping that Spotted Flower becomes a full time manga. It’ll be difficult to a degree to do that without using names though.
I think it can be carried forward but we need the story between the end of Nidaime
and the beginning of Spotted Flower with the names. How did Saki lose Makoto?
(Maybe he died of overwork or was sent to the USA to work.) How are Ohno and
Tanaka doing? Did Risa ever get Hato into the shorts? Did Yajima have to beat
off Risa’s attack on the smoothest body ever? Will Yoshitake ever get the artists
to do a grand historical bl manga?
Well the unanswered questions just flooded my fingers suddenly.
And as I wrote in Usenet rec.arts.manga, how ill Shimoku Kio fill his family’s
rice cooker in the future. What new work can he have at hand?
bliss
Yeah, we’ll see what he’ll do from here. I’d love to have those answers. Maybe he’s just taking a short break.