Uknighted Manganime Life is too short to watch bad anime

TITLE:
Genshiken
GENRE:
Otaku Fandom, Comedy
SERIES LENGTH:
TV series, 12 episodes, 25 minutes each.
INFO:
2004-10-22 Kids Station
ALSO RECCOMENDED:
Compic Party, Otaku no Video
RELATED TITLES:
Kujibiki Unbalance (OAV)
VIEWED: Full (12/12)

REVIEW

Genshiken is a show that many anime fans will feel at home with, and enjoy. While the Otaku comunity fairly different to the western one, there are many common elements to our culture. Where it differs perhaps, is the western culture doesn’t such a degree of hatred to anime (though i suspect this is mainly due to majorities ignorence to even the exsistance of anime).

Mention anime to a random person in New Zealand, and the responses are likely to be either “what” or “pokemon?”. As we see in this anime, there tends to be the heavy perception in Japan about anime fans being complete and utter geeks, nerds, failures of society, Otaku.

The story pretty much revolves around the characters doing anime related activities. They are out and about sometimes (pulling off the required beach episode tastefully and actually adding character depth), but most of the time is spent at the Club-rooms. During this series, Com-fest comes around 3 times (and a 4th at the end), a convention for Doushojin manga (usually consisting of ‘men’s interest’ manga’. Because of the slower paced surroundings, the anime focuses more on the human side of things, and show’s off it’s well fleshed out characters.

One of the core parts of this plot is the conflict between Saki, your average 20 something girl and her very attactive boyfriend but hopelessly otaku, Kosaka. When Kosaka joins Genshiken, his girlfriend gets dragged along screaming and kicking by her desire to spend more time with him. She has an extremely low opinion of otaku (apart from her boyfriend) and thinks the other club members are a mixture of creepy and pathetic - not her social peers by any means. Her gradual tolarence (but by no means acceptance) and her brief attempts to de-otaku-ize her boyfriend is a continuing thread throughout.

The anime isn’t just about them though, and throughout the series we get a feel for almost all the characters, beyond just being limited by the obvious stereotypes. While some of the characters don’t get much of a back story, you do get hints that they too have a deeper character, and that they have real pasts.

One of the most otaku-fied (no, that’s not really a word) club members starts getting affected by being around a female so much, and you can tell hes out of his depth. Her constant presence is very aluring, but he know’s that there is no chance of anything, so tries to act as usual. When you spend 3 hours tring to work up the courage to tell a pretty girl that she has a massive nose hair dnagling out, decide to jump on her and remove it and end up getting the smack down - it’s a pretty obvious (and rather saddening) that this person’s social skills are severly stunted.

This series speaks rather candidly about the usually ignored (but privately scorned) side of the otaku dojoushin buyer. In the first episode, a new member is uniquely hazed by leaving him alone in the club room. After the new member oogles at a female figurine pantsu (a figurine for chris’sakes) and then procedes to peruse the club’s ero (ie pornographic) doshoujin collection, he is spung by the rest of the members in the middle of his reading. The reason they say, is to force him to admit he is the same as them (presumably so they can act naturally around each other and not have to pretend to be pios). Right from there, it seems obvious where the series is going to go, yet surprisingly that is not the case. None of the female characters are really used as walking fanserviced props (I’ll just take a moment to headshot Tactical Roar) and even in the beach episode it’s not that prominent. About the only fanserivce in this show would be when they pan a manga that a character is reading (which usally contains fanservice or soft porn - but no actual nudity or sexual acts)

Where the audiance rating matters is for the candid talk about sexual problems (what do you do with an otaku who pauses in the middle of love making to watch an anime on tv?). Also masturbation is mentioned several times, and was given as a reason for why they needed to attend Com-fest to stock up on new material for the summer…

Genshiken is a solid anime, the characters are realistic, the plot pleasantly sedate and the humour amusing. About the only area i would critique it is with regard to the sexal content, it limits the audiance i could show/reccomend this too, and thats a shame. I do have to give them points for their subject content being something that is a realistic portrayal (of a subset of otaku) and a definate comendation for such a lifelike anime. Usually I’m the one screaming up at a movie “There’s no way that would happen like that in real life” but for this show i didn’t even think that once.

My rating is a 4/5, you may wish to drop a star if you’re not that much of an anime fan yet, or if you don’t like adult concepts in anime. I wish i could give it five stars, but at 12 episodes, it feels a little short, and needing of more content. - William

Recommended Audience:
No actual nudity, and very little fanserivce. However adult topics are discussed and sex is mentioned several times. I’d reccomend this show for those older then 16.