Genshiken - Season 1

 Anime Review by Ajitsuke

This is an incredibly refreshing series. I don't want to pore over this series like some fanboy but if you watch this, I almost guarantee that you'll love it. This, unlike many of the series I've seen, is a must see for every anime fan! In case you haven't heard of it, Genshiken is an anime about an anime-club and is, without a doubt, a slice of life anime in every sense of the genre. The title is a shortening of the club's official name, “Gendai Shikaku Bunka Kenkyukai” or "The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture." A 9-Volume manga at first, Genshiken has become a two-season long anime. This review will cover the first season only as the two seasons are able to stand alone for the most part.

The series opens with a scene from the anime-within-the-anime, “Kujibiki Unbalance.” This can be slightly confusing because if you're completely unfamiliar with Genshiken, you almost think that this is the real opening scene. Eventually, however, the camera pans out and you see the main character, Sasahara Kanji preparing for his first day at Suioh University. As it turns out, the first day also entails a huge student group fair where all of the various clubs set up booths to recruit new members. Sasahara wanders through feeling nothing less than overwhelmed. He finds two groups that peak his interest, The Manga Club and Genshiken. As he walks by the Genshiken table, we find out that Sasahara's favorite anime is, in fact, Kujibiki Unbalance and that his interest in the show seems to run parallel with that of the Genshiken members. After much reflection, Sasahara decides to check out the first meeting to see what the guys are all about.

Also at the activities fair is Kasukabe Saki, a beautiful freshman girl with a seething hatred of all things anime, video games and otaku-culture. She bumps into her male-equivalent, in terms of looks anyway, Kousaka Makoto, who turns out to be her childhood-friend! Much to her disappointment, this beautiful young man turns out to be just as big an otaku as the rest of the Genshiken members.

We eventually meet the other Genshiken members at the big meeting and find out that these are seasoned otaku with no qualms about their choice of lifestyle. The first season essentially deals with Sasahara coming to terms with being an otaku, Kasukabe trying to convert Kousaka from an otaku to the man she thinks he ought to be and the Genshiken dealing with every day otaku things like discrimination, conventions, budgeting their spending habits, competition with the manga club and the seemingly constant threat of being shut down by the student activity administrators. As a former student of a Japanese university, this series does a phenomenal job of representing university student life in Japan as well as various geography and events in Japan.

If any of my readers happen to be members of an anime club, you'll probably agree that at least one, if not all, of the members of Genshiken have a doppelganger in your club. I know that all of them are represented in our club. I happen to be our Sasahara... :-P

That being said, every one of the Genshiken characters is completely believable and relatable on some level.

As I mentioned before, Sasahara Kanji is the main character but it's difficult to distinguish who the main characters really are in this series, simply because everybody is so well developed. I may just be biased because he and I are so similar.

Not entirely comfortable with his “otaku-ness,” Sasahara has some difficulty letting himself fall in step with his fellow Genshiken members. Having never been to a convention, played an “adult” video game, bought doujinshi, figures or even a computer, he feels very inexperienced around the veteran otaku of Genshiken. As the series progresses, Sasahara really comes into his own and fully embraces the lifestyle of an otaku.

Kousaka Makoto is not a book to be judged by his cover. Bleached hair, fashionable clothes and an outgoing personality set him worlds apart from the other Genshiken members. But beneath all of that beats the geeky, sometimes perverted heart of one of the most hardcore otaku in the group. His outgoing nature allows him the self confidence to unveil recently purchased, full length wallscrolls of scantily clad video game heroines in the middle of a busy train station, an act that no other member would think of doing. Once he and Kasukabe are revealed to be dating, he is easily the odd one out in this group, but because the Genshiken members know his true self, he's just as warmly welcomed as anybody else.

Kasukabe Saki is a book to be judged by her cover. Up to the second on all of the latest fashions, full of hatred for otaku-culture and completely confused by Kousaka, she has no place in Genshiken. Anime fans, you may have some difficulty accepting Kasukabe at first because she's, you know, a bitch. But don't worry, you start to like her after a while. She's not as hard-hearted as she seems. After many embarrassments, she gets knocked down a few pegs and is a little more humane.

Madarame Harunobu is widely regarded as the “most moe character in Genshiken.” A militant otaku, he seems to be the polar opposite of Kasukabe, a fact all but proven through their constant bickering throughout the show. He is not only perfectly comfortable with his otaku lifestyle, but tends to look at “normals” the way they look at him, with disgust and confusion. He also harbors an unspoken crush on Kasukabe which is the result of many uncomfortable moments.

Tanaka Soichiro is the cosplay guru of Genshiken. He can tell a girl's measurements just by looking at them and is capable of making just about any costume you could want. He also has a keen eye for photography, well-known in the convention world for snapping shots of cosplayers and giving them prints at the following convention. He gets along best with Ohno, an avid cosplayer who takes her hobby very seriously.

Kanako Ohno is the only other female member of Genshiken but, much to Kasukabe's complete shock, joined of her own free will! An interesting fact we learn about Ohno is that she tends to like older, bald men. A bit ashamed of her fetish at first, she has no problems busting out erotic doujinshi in the middle of a meeting later on. Generally very shy, Ohno becomes an entirely different person when she cosplays.

Finally, Kugayama Mitsunori, the gentle giant of Genshiken. Very little is known about Kugayama because he speaks the least out of all of the members. When he actually does open his mouth, he generally stutters and mumbles. Eventually, we find out that he aspires to be a manga artist and actually has a lot of drawing talent.

Again, if these characters' profiles sound familiar to you and you haven't seen the series, that just speaks to how well they're developed throughout the series. And these are just the main characters! There are tons of side characters that are just as believable as the principals. (That's another word for main characters, not a school administrator. Read a book, people.)

As a method of jogging my mind and getting into Genshiken mode, I've been listening to the soundtrack of this series while writing. I average about 15-20 minutes a page on these reviews so that puts me at about 30-40 minutes of music from this series and I've yet to hear all of them so far. There are a ton of background songs to go with just about every mood in the series and, being a “slice-of-life” series, there are lots of moods flying around at any given time. And all of it is pretty good. Even the music for “Kujibiki Unbalance” is pretty good. And that's only recently become a stand-alone series. Most notable, of course, are the opening themes for both series. Very, very catchy tunes and great “walking around” music. The music goes well with the series and it's actually a soundtrack worth having.

The animation in this series is pretty good. To put it into perspective, it's not the most beautiful, artfully done series of all time. BUT. It doesn't have to be. The most attention seems to be given to backgrounds and clothing. Random boxes have visible, legible writing on them, posters and signs are all legible and clothing is very realistic. This is hard to describe unless you've been in Japan to see what people wear. If you have been, you'll swear you've seen some of the clothes in real life somewhere before. That's the kind of attention to detail that this series has. Otherwise, it's like most high-end anime.

Genshiken is a great, laid-back series. It's true to life with richly developed characters with whom audiences can really relate. The plot isn't a wild quest for vengeance against some ancient demon god that killed your family, also a damsel in distress is there and you have magic powers and a wacky sidekick and even though you pretend to hate him, you find yourself glad he's there and, oh yeah, whenever you come against an enemy, your rage gives you power and for some reason you die all the time but your love for that damsel in distress and memories of loved ones somehow bring you back from the brink to save the day and then you get lowered into a vat of molten metal while giving the thumbs up to Edward Furlong or anything like that. It's just pleasant to watch. Something about the series just makes you feel happy and relaxed. And the best part about it is that the English dub is actually good! So you can just have this on in the background while you do other things and you still get that relaxed feeling coupled with a sense of accomplishment. Also, since the 9 volumes of manga are spread out over two seasons, nothing is left out! You can watch the series and know just as much of what's going on as someone who read it and vice-versa. Since I have literally no complaints about this series, in any of its forms, manga, subbed anime or dubbed anime, this is one of the very few series that has earned a perfect 10/10.