げんしけん 2 Episode 04

SPOILER Summary: As Ohno-san changes into a new costume that Tanaka has made her, Tanaka hearing the noises of her changing causes him to turn on the TV to block out the noise while this action by him bothers Ohno-san.

Sometime later, the two are out and about as class is canceled and run into Sasahara. They state they are heading to Akihabara and invite him but he declines. Returning to the Genshiken club room where Madarame and Ogiue are, Sasahara discusses this with Madarame as both think Tanaka and Ohno are a couple. Madarame steers the conversation to bring in ero games which embarrasses Sasahara a bit since Ogiue is there. In the end, Ogiue doesn’t believe Ohno-senpai and Tanaka-san are a couple.

Later when the full club meets (sans Tanaka and Ohno), Saki agrees the two aren’t a couple even though they are perfect for each other. After Kuchiki goes on a rant about girls, Saki says its better to let Ohno and Tanaka take it at their own pace. On cue, Tanaka and Ohno arrive and Kuchiki decides to come straight out and ask if the two are dating. This leads to a knee to his stomach by Saki. When Kuchiki asks about them doing it in cosplay, Ohno punches him in the gut, then realizing what she’s done, she makes a hasty retreat.

At class the next day, Ohno apologizes to Saki for her actions. The two discuss how from the outside, it appears that Ohno and Tanaka are a couple since they have the same love of cosplay and do things together. However nothing has happened and Saki figures that Ohno is a virgin, which she is. Ohno is glad that Saki figured this out since people often assume her to be experienced. Ohno is depressed about Tanaka’s not making a move on her and Saki tries to assure her it is likely because he’s scared. She encourages Ohno to be more aggressive and even try the cosplay route. Ohno doesn’t want to do that until Saki suggest the ero game route.

Ohno and Tanaka attend a street festival where Ohno is cosplaying. Afterward, Ohno is expecting some alone time with Tanaka but when she discovers that there’s a whole group going, she decides to just go home. Tanaka is depressed and at Kugayama’s place, they talk about the situation. Tanaka sees Ohno as out of his league but Kuyayama sees her as just another otaku. Their frank discussion doesn’t leave Tanaka feeling any better.

Ohno calls Tanaka and comes by for a visit. She decides that she wants to check out his ero games. He’s embarrassed by this but produces them for her. She checks them out and insists he play a game where one of the female characters is similar to her in appearance. He protests and tries to dissuade her by saying it will take at least 10-hours to do. She says they’ll do an all nighter if they have to. After some time when the game gets to the “good part,” Tanaka stops it, saying he can’t stand it any more.

Tanaka finally confesses he likes her which makes Ohno happy. However, he thinks that all he has to offer her is cosplay. If you took that away, he’d just be an ugly otaku. She assures him that there’s more to him than cosplay and that he’s given her confidence to cosplay and be herself when he made her a costume. She lists off the other good qualities about him and says that she’ll date him if he promises not to make costumes for anyone else without consulting her first. He’s still not confident, but she helps him by killing the lights and kissing him. She’s amazed that he’s so good but it is the first kiss for both. She tells him that she will even have cosplay sex with him should he want it.

At the next Genshiken gathering, Ohno cosplays as Cutie Tonko, the character from the ero game that she made Tanaka play. The guys are all amazed at this. Ogiue is not impressed but things grind to a halt when Kuchiki arrives also cosplaying the same character.

Thoughts: To be honest, I prefer the manga story where Ohno-san and Tanaka just fall into being a couple and others at Genshiken finds out about it a few months later by accident. That’s not to say that this story of their becoming a couple wasn’t sweet in its own way, just that I liked the manga way best. But, I’m not going to complain about this change to the manga story because I think the writers will use this as a stepping stone to Sasahara and Ogiue’s eventual pairing.