10 Second Anime - Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 13 [END]

Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 13 [END]

Hato has been avoiding the Genshiken club, and even its members lately. Sue takes action: field trip! Issues get resolved. Plans are made for next year. The End.

Sue is much more than the American mascot of the club. She also seems to be the animating spirit. After Hato got worried about Madarame quitting his job and just bumming around, which got jumbled up with his other conversations about recent graduates shouldn't really live so close to campus so they can move on to the next chapter of their lives, he now appears to think that he should give up his weird hobbies sooner than later. Sue doesn't know what's wrong, but she knows how to fix it: club field trip. She knows this is how Ohgi worked out her issues with Sasahara before they started dating, because she was embarrassed that she had drawn many, many, um, many pictures of him with the other guys in the club in Boys' Love manner. See? She fits right in with the other girls as a fujoshi. Sue wasn't in the club at the time, so it's a bit of a mystery how she knows about certain conversations, but it was enough to spur Ohgi into agreeing to the trip before anyone starts asking what Sue is quoting.

Yoshitake picked out the historical town of Yamanashi, mainly for its role in the Feudal Warring States period of Japan. She got to play tour guide, while injecting her fujoshi fantasies of the historical figures. Ah well, what do you expect? The hot springs hotel looks nice, but Kuchiki seems lost without wifi. I know that feel.

Madarame finally listens to Hato about his misgivings over his hobbies, with Sue running interference with Kuchiki, so they can have an actual adult conversation. The animation looked like it was referencing an aberrant titan from Attack on Titan before Sue went all Chun Li on him 2D fighter style. Madarame offers some veteran otaku advice to Hato. His hobbies are just that, his hobbies. He's an otaku, own it. That's different from hating your job and wanting to move further away from campus because it doesn't feel like you've made a clean break from college life. Feeling more confident, Hato rejoins the others, and even starts making plans for the next art book edition for the school festival.

Back at the club room after the trip, Hato comes in to the other girls looking at pictures from their trip, and the season ends.

I was a fan of the previous seasons of Genshiken, so I came prepared to like the characters in the slice-of-life show about an otaku club at college. No disappointments here, the visual gags and reactions were up to par, and exploring the outsider feelings associated with a Japanese subculture that isn't regarded that well was the same as before. Where the writing excels is the personality traits of each of the characters were always present, not just a featured bit in one episode, then only to be reference superficially with throwaway gags. This way I was always looking forward to what was going to happen next, even if they were just sitting around a table talking to each other. Well done. I'll miss these guys until the next time.