Gen Shi Ken
Genre: Otaku - Cosplay, anime, doujishi, fan peoples
Rating:
Meta-Plot:
Genshiken (the phonetic spelling of “The Society for the Study of Modern Culture”) is an otaku club. Basically, everyone there appreciates everything about manga, including doujinshi, cosplay and models/figurines/toys. Surprise, most of the males in the club like manga “porn” as well. Although you can’t tell, it’s mostly a story about one guy who is too shy to join, but then joins and in the end, becomes president of his club. Meanwhile, the girlfriend of a new member who HATES anything “otaku” starts hanging out with them, causing all sorts of trouble (as well as saving the club a few times).
My Reason for Four Stars:
Unlike Comic Party (another title I’ll review later), this anime is much more … generalized. It basically touches on all the otaku subjects. Even more important, the show was allowed to use actual anime and manga characters (there’s a huge bit about Gundam toys in the Model episode). So the entire thing is almost real. It feels like a show about a real club (it might actually be in Japan, I have no idea). People who understand otakus and the emotions behind being anime/manga fans can really get into this show.
Well-animated, with a very nice flow. Good comedy - you really get to like the characters. The one thing that really disappoints me about both the anime and the manga is that when it failed to have less than a spectacular turnout in fans and merchandice, they basically CANCELLED both. Which is too bad, because it’s good. (There are rumors of a second season/third printing coming in October of 2006, but I almost doubt it.) Almost as good as AzuManga Daoih.
Oh - as a sidenote, it has a female character named Saki who can’t stand anything Otaku related. The hilarity of every episode as she starts to convert is great.
