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.

10 Second Anime - Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 12

Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 12

Madarame has to take a little teasing over his feelings for Saki. Ohno worries about graduating and finding a job, and balancing that with her cosplay hobby. Tanaka makes a promise.

I think the better question about Madarame's crush on Saki would be: who didn't know? He takes the teasing with some dignity. Then his friends have to build his cosplay harem just for one picture. Too bad they were all characters from that yaoi-trap game that Kousaka's company published. Saki, ever-perceptive, thinks this might be Madarame's time to be popular with the ladies. We'll see, we'll see.

After the cultural festival is over, it's time for the seniors to get serious about graduation and employment, but Ohno doesn't seem to be making much progress on her final paper, and she doesn't have any job prospects yet. The fujoshi wonder if she can't make a living off cosplay, but she might turn into one of "those" cosplay girls who need to do sexier and sexier things for money. During a photo shoot with her boyfriend Tanaka, who makes all of her outfits, Ohno tries being a little sexier for her character, but ends up going too far. Oh, she's drunk, that's why. Yoshitake thought to loosen her up with a bit of sake, but she downed the whole bottle. Tanaka promises her that they have a future together. The other girls take that as a marriage proposal. Will she actually stay another year at college? Tanaka hopes not.

And as a bit of a cliffhanger for the next show, Madarame quit his job and makes Hato worry that he'll move away. Saki's warning rings in his ears, "you just might unlock the harem route."

Bonus gif - Drunk Yoshitake:

10 Second Anime - Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 11

Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 11

Madarame drama! Club reunion continues with Saki coming by and later Kousaka, and the Sasaharas. Madarame and Saki experience relief over formerly hidden feelings.

Hato had all the drama last week, so now it's time for Madarame. Other former Genshiken members are coming by the university exhibit, so in drops Saki, Madarame's big time crush. He's never said anything, since she's been going out with Kousaka even before they joined the club. After much teasing by Sasahara's little sister, especially over the cross-dressing Hato, it comes out that everyone knew about Madarame's unrequited feelings for Saki, except Madarame thought he had kept them secret. The whole club arranges for a meeting to get all the awkwardness out in the open, and it had to happen in the club room, where Madarame first realized he fell in love with Saki.

This show deals with a lot of inner fantasy and its appreciation, but it still treats people as if they're real. Finally telling your crush about your feelings after four years, and then being honestly rejected, is a huge relief. And Saki wasn't stupid either. She's known almost from the start about Madarame's feelings, but thought that hiding that knowledge, since Madarame couldn't bring it up because she was already in a relationship, was the better course. But she always felt like ignoring his feelings was hurting him too. So finally letting him know that she knew was also a big relief to her. This kind of stuff is way too real for an anime, because it's this crazy little stuff that seems crazy and little now, but in college, this was big, huge dramatic stuff. Now I'm feeling all nostalgic for those overwhelming feelings. Ah youth, where did it go?

10 Second Anime: Genshiken Nidaime Episode 10

Genshiken Nidaime Episode 10

BL drama in the art club from Hato's high school. Can of worms status: open. Sue has great eyelashes.

Wow, when a can of worms opens in Genshiken, a whole bunch of worms come out. Let's see if I can get this all out there. Hato was in the art club, but the older club member he had a crush on was way into Boy's Love artwork. He liked her drawing style, so was curious to see what it was all about, even though he was straight. After taking the BL artwork to the bathroom so he wouldn't be caught looking at it by the other girls in the art club, he comes back to the room, and the short girl looking for it, who had a crush on Hato too, misconstrues the circumstances, and rumors start spreading that he's gay. The older girl starts seeing Hato's older brother, which causes complicated feelings in poor Hato. After gaining an appreciation for BL artwork and artists, he feels better off cross-dressing to talk about this shared interest with other fujoshi so they don't get the wrong idea that he's gay too. And the short girl has been feeling responsible for the rough time Hato had during the last couple of years of high school. *Deep breath* And that's why Hato cross-dresses, and has an inner fujoshi.

Well, that's out of the way. One small scene to reinforce that Hato just appreciates the BL genre but is not gay, was how he and Oguie were both nodding their heads to the scenario laid out by Hato's future sister-in-law, even though he was one of the characters in the fantasy. He just did not take it personally, rather, he acknowledged the common plot devices used in BL.

Speaking of plot devices: having Madarame and Sue try to eavesdrop was hilarious, especially how Madarame refused to move closer, and Sue couldn't budge him except for using her ultimate attack: a kiss on the cheek. This allows for the next cliffhanger: Madarame meeting his unrequited love for Saki. I'm smelling another can of worms...

10 Second Anime - Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 9

Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 9

The university cultural festival is here, and the Genshiken club is getting even old high school friends to cosplay. But isn't that Hato in the corner? Oh, no, it's not...

The preparations for the festival are almost complete, so it's hard for Sasahara and Oguie to get even a moment of personal time. Yoshitake's premise behind her and Yajima's manga for the festival magazine is overly detailed, but at least the overall work turned out alright. And just to remind us that the otaku girls really are fujoshi, Ogiue and Hato get overly excited about the exchange between the organizing committee members.

On the day of the festival, as Sue advertises the cosplay portion of Genshiken (and snagging free food from former manga club members), old high school friends and old club members stop by. Of course, the girls have to dress up. And while Hato has been sitting down selling the club's festival magazine, someone who looks very like Hato's long-haired version is admiring the posters. Is this the girl who knew Hato in high school and whom he modeled is cross-dressing after? Leave it to Kuchiki to open a big can of worms.

10 Second Anime - Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 8

Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 8

Even among fellow otaku, there's not a lot of cross-genre appreciation, especially between eroge fetishes. There is some agreement though: BL characters also end up pregnant in the true pair routes...

You want your justification that porno games are just fantasy? Yes, male characters end up pregnant in Japanese homoerotic manga and games. I did not know this. My mind has been blown wide open. This was just one thing I learned in a wide ranging conversation between Hato the cross-dresser and Madarame the salaryman, graduated member of Genshiken.

Hato's crossdressing seems more akin to possession than split personality, as the girl personality he takes on haunts him when he's dressed as a boy. Very like many of the stories in the fantasy genre of Japanese media, but then those haunting spirits are usually fairies, familiars, local deities, or magical creatures, not fujoshi (rotten girls).

I also like how Madarame goes into galge mode when he thinks he's talking to a pretty girl, and he has to keep reminding himself that Hato is a man, a man, remember he's a man!

10 Second Anime - Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 7

Genshiken Nidaime - Episode 7

Planning for the University Cultural Festival turns into a gabfest about love experiences, or lack thereof for the Modern Visual Culture club. Cosplay photo shoot or publish their own manga? Oh, manga it is.

Genshiken has to decide what to do for the University Cultural Festival, and already there's a split between the cosplayers and the manga fans. They did cosplay last year, and since Oguie is the president now, she really would rather do something manga related. But what? Yoshitake and Yajima figure they can team up, but they end up having "creative differences" over a Warring States Era themed high school festival manga. Then they discover that Hato has very different drawing styles depending on how he is dressed: hardcore homoerotic scenes when crossdressing and realistic backgrounds with "special" characters when dressed as a boy. Maybe Oguie and Hato can team up?

Oguie wants to try a high school romance story, so she asks the other girls if they've ever had any experiences like that. Well, these are otaku girls, so their history won't be typical. As they're try to drag out a juicy story from Hato, and things get really awkward, Kuchiki comes in and totally breaks the mood, after he tells his own high school love story, and forces Oguie to just do an anime style manga since no one had anything interesting, in a good way, to base their story on.

Yoshitake made a very sharp point about why women dress up: "You don't dress stylishly or put on makeup to impress guys. You do it to put other girls in their place!" Rar! Hiss!

10 Second Anime: Genshiken Nidaime Episode 6

Genshiken Nidaime Episode 6

The second generation of Genshiken admit they're rotten girls who like BL doujins. What a surprise...

The cross-dresser Hato is being self-conscious that he has thoughts of Madarame starring in a boys love manga. So, President Oguie decides to share her own doujin of Madarame and her boyfriend Sasahara to show Hato that she is not alone in having such thoughts among Otaku girls. Since gender-bending is also a big part of this season, Yoshitake brings her "big brother" to visit the club, but it's really her younger sister the high school basketball ace. And while the prank is being sorted out, Hato gets exposed in other ways in the shower. Yay?

All I can think of is Shakespeare's As You Like It and the phrase "hilarity ensues."