げんしけん: 二代目Chapter 127 Manga Review
Genshiken Nidaime chapter 127 Manga Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kuchiki is not happy that the Genshiken group didn’t dress up for his graduation as they had done for Sasahara’s. However, he is happy they all showed up. He is gleeful that Madarame’s harem situation ended with no one for Madarame. Kuchiki becomes devastated when he learns the truth that Madarame and Sue are dating.

After a bit, Kuchiki declares that he wanted to be president of Genshiken. Rika is surprised that Kuchiki wasn’t a former president. After Ogiue brings Rika up to speed, Kuchiki pleads to be president for a day. Ogiue asks what he would do, but she shoots him down when he reveals he’d make the Kuchiki Harem. This causes Kuchiki to rant about Madarame dating Sue.

Ogiue shuts him down by telling him they have a gift for him in the club room. Once they get their, Kuchiki breaks down and cries after being given his gift and bouquets of flowers. This causes Kuchiki to give up on the request to be president for a day.

Ohno raises the question on who will be the new president. Since the club has no third year students, Ogiue feels Yajima should be president. Yajima isn’t sure about this. She concedes that Sue or Hato wouldn’t work, but Rika might, especially since she’s older. Ogiue counters by pointing out what Rika would do with the power of president. Rika agrees that she would abuse the power. As such, she says she’ll be a loyal second in command for Yajima. When Hata proclaims his support, Yajima caves and becomes president.

Time moves forward and a new school term begins for Genshiken.

Thoughts/Review:

And so Genshiken Nidaime comes to an end. I’m sad to see it go.

Kuchiki’s Last Hurrah

Kuchiki is a character I’ve never liked. However, Kio-sensei made him like this on purpose. When Genshiken started as a manga, none of the club members were seen as negative, otaku stereotypes. They may have had quirky aspects to them, especially the first club president and Madarame. However, they were folks that were easily relatable to.

With Kuchiki, Kio-sensei touched on the uglier side of fandom. I believe Kuchiki represents the kind of nasty otaku that general Japanese public believe otaku to be. Kuchiki is a social misfit, even among the Genshiken group. He is gross. He is weird. He doesn’t care what others think. Kuchiki is just going to do whatever he wants.

Kio-sensei didn’t make Kuchiki as nasty as he could have. I never got the feeling that Kio-sensei was attempting to write a political message with Genshiken or Genshiken Nidaime. His manga was simply to showcase different types of otaku. Kuchiki showcases the side of otaku that isn’t likable or lovable.

As such, Kuchiki sends Genshiken Nidaime off with his final bout of nastiness, starting with his desire for a harem and concluding with his rant against Madarame. However, that made the group sendoff of Kuchiki somewhat touching, even if he ultimately went back to his disgusting side. 😉

Ogiue

While Genshiken Nidaime chapter 127 was primarily a Kuchiki chapter, I’d have to say that Ogiue got a secondary focus. Unlike Kuchiki, I’ve liked Ogiue from the start, at least as best as I can remember. She was weird, but after she and Sasahara started dating, she really mellowed out. She became less of a hardcore otaku with her weirdness and became normal without giving up her BL otaku fandom.

As I watched her skillfully handle Kuchiki, who’s her senpai even though she’s his president, I couldn’t help but smile and think of how far she’s come as a character. To be honest, I wish we’d had more about her in Genshiken Nidaime. Instead, she was just relegated to a small, supporting role, which is unfortunate. But I digress.

Anyway, as I was saying, Ogiue was just awesome in how she handled Kuchiki. She thinks he’s gross and nasty, but she entertained his request to become president. She patiently allowed him to rant and rave, even though it annoyed her. Then she silenced him and did something unexpected by having arranged for Genshiken to give him a graduation present.

The icing on the cake is when she threw down the hammer to remind Kuchiki to return Sasahara’s H-doujinshi. I literally laughed out loud at that moment. It just goes to show how awesome Ogiue can be.

President Yajima

I don’t think I made any calls on it, but I know a lot of folks expected Yajima to be the next Genshiken president. It makes sense for her to be the next president. She’s the best choice for that role. She can control Rika. Hato adores her. Sue respects her. So it all works.

I loved that it was Hato’s remarks that convinced Yajima to go ahead and accept the role of president. Her first act is to have the group go out drinking. I hope we get an omake chapter in the final volume of the manga that depicts that. If Kio-sensei does so, it will nicely mirror Genshiken‘s end.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I really hope to be able to do a Final Thoughts review of Genshiken Nidaime. In the meantime, I’d like to say that I lament that the series hasn’t carried on. I would have enjoyed seeing Risa joining Genshiken and such, but alas, that’s not to be.

One last thing about Kuchiki. One of his oddities is using the “shi” honorific. Generally, this is used in formal situations such as speeches to address someone unknown. Because it isn’t often used in manga, translators usually go ahead and translate it. Here’ its “Mister” or “Miss.” As I think about it, Kuchiki is indicating that Ohno is like a stranger to him and Madarame getting a girlfriend makes Madarame a stranger to him. Just an interesting tidbit there. 🙂

In the end, Genshiken Nidaime chapter 127 ends the manga series by giving us a Kuchiki farewell story. Maybe one day, we’ll get a Genshiken Sandaime manga.