I’m sorry I said all those mean things to you. I thought you lost your way, but after watching episode 2 and 3, I realized that you were just holding back your true powers in order to give us a pleasant surprise. I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive my foolish impudence. I swear that you will forever remain awesome in my book from this day on.

Love,
DM

P.S. As part of my apology, I translated your awesomerific opening theme song, “disarm dreamer” by Aki Misato. Please see the attachments. (Virus-free I promise.)

Original Japanese lyrics are available in the lyrics section

It’s truly the most spectacular OP ever conceived by man.

Genshiken is a manga series about an anime/manga/game club in a Japanese university. The title is short for gendai shikaku bunka kenkyuukai, or “The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture”. Basically it’s an excuse for a bunch of otaku and fujoshi to have a room to hang out after school and make funny references to Gundam and ero-games.

The second season just started airing last night and I’ve got a few bones to pick…

Episode one of season two continues from where the first season and the ova series left off, right around volume six of the manga or so, exactly as I predicted just over an year ago. Maybe Kodansha stole my idea! Or not.

Actually, I’m not going to review this episode, I just want to rant a bit. But here’s a bunch of screen caps if you really want them:

Click to viewer larger version

…Moving on.

As a fan of the manga and the anime’s first season, I’m somewhat disappointed by the first episode of season two. It appears that the producers are not even trying anymore. There’s one Gundam joke and some references to doujin artists, but that’s about it for this entire episode in the comedy department. It’s like the series was robbed by the humour bandit and suddenly lost all the things that made it awesome.

Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Kyo-ani‘s animated otaku in-jokes encyclopaedia, but I recall the first season to be a whole lot more amusing than this sad mess.

Of course, unlike Lucky Star, Genshiken does have its serious moments and they are pretty good too. But so far season two is just…boring. It’s not funny, and it’s not much else. That and a complete lack of proper introduction means that the producers are not going to woo any newcomers to the franchise. Which I guess means that they are depending on loyal fans of the manga, ergo they don’t have to try too hard. That sucks.

TV-series lame-ified style

And what I really, really hope will not be an indication of future episodes: the Kujian scenes are done in the TV-series style instead of the much more distinct and stylish manga original that was used by the first season. For shame!

Original awesomerific style

Hell, even the new ending theme sounds like a cheap copy of “Biidama”, the ED to the first season. And did I mention that the new logo looks like some monkey took the brush tool in Illustrator and drew a “2” below the original logo by mouse?

I hope it gets better… :(

UPDATED: ZOMG. After watching episode 2, Genshiken is now officially awesome again. Yay!

However, because Media Factory is once again releasing the DVDs in sets of twos, the new 12-episode Kujian will come in only 3 DVD box sets, which means a total of just 3 episodes of Genshiken. (i.e. a complete reversal of the Genshiken DVD box sets)

This may or may not be a good thing. Here’s why…

The title of the first episode of the OVA is 「オタクが嫌いな荻上でãã€ or “The Ogiue who hates Otaku”. In the manga, Chika Ogiue was introduced near the end of the 4th volume. Genshiken has a total of 9 volumes, with the 9th and final volume coming out at the end of this year (楽しみ～). Going by the pace of the first TV series, covering the rest of Genshiken will require another 12-episode series (at the very least).

This looks quite impossible for a 3-episode OVA to accomplish. 90 minutes is just not enough to cover the remaining story, not unless the producers plan to totally butcher up the story and piss off the Chika fanboys out there. I don’t think they will do that — at least I hope not.

For those of you who do not follow the manga, here’s Chika:

Okay, she’s basically a fujoshi (aka Yaoi Fan Girl) who hates all otaku despite being one herself… She was kicked out by the Manga Society and forced into Genshiken. She spends her free time drawing yaoi doujinshi and hiding them from other people… Totally tsundere. She’s also, like, the best-est character in the second half of the series. :P

Anyway, as I was saying, I hope they are not planning to compress the rest of Genshiken into 3 measly 25-minute OVA episodes. And something tells me that they are not going to… (I call it my intuition but the doctor says it’s just a headache)

The original series took 12 episodes to cover almost 4 volumes. Assuming that they don’t plan to commit creative suicide, the upcoming 3 OVA episodes should only cover Vol.5, which begins with Chika’s introduction and ends off with Genshiken’s Comiket debut. Quite fitting for an OVA series I would say.

Now assuming my assumption is correct, that will leave us with the last 4 volumes, which will then make up another 12 episodes very nicely. Hmmm… do I smell Genshiken 2 coming our way next year?

I hope so. Haruhi-sama, please make it happen! :3

Let me tell you a story.

/me walks past the new releases.
Me: “ZOMG Honey & Clover final volume!”
*Honey & Clover Vol.10 get*
/me walks past the magazine shelf.
*Newtype October get*
/me walks to Japanese counter to place order.
Staff member A is busy attending to another customer (who, coincidentally, is from my school).
/me waits.
Staff member B: “Excuse me, are you Mr. (my name)?”
/me goes wtf?
Me: “Ermmm… yeah.”
Staff member B: “The book you ordered has arrived. Do you wish to collect it today?”
/me looks at the book. It’s Genshiken Vol.8.
Me: “Okay, sure.”
/me takes a few minutes to fish out the correct order slip from my wallet.
*Genshiken Vol.8 get*
Staff member A is done and I finally get to place my order.

You know you spend too much on manga when you have six Kinokuniya order slips in your wallet and the counter person knows you by name.

Anyway, I’m somewhat disappointed with Honey & Clover‘s ending. Somehow it lacked the impact that I expected. The ending is… unfulfilling-ly realstic. That’s how I would put it. The unrelated short story 「星のオペラ」 (The Stars’ Opera) that was included as the last chapter is quite good, though.