Otaku

Genshiken (Season 1)

Palm Studio

Dir. Takashi Ikehata (ep. dir. for Girls und Panzer, Strawberry Marshmallow, Inuyasha)

Wri. Michiko Yokote (5 ep. only) (Ah! My Goddess: The Movie, Rurouni Kenshin, Red Data Girl)

Mus. Masanori Takumi (Claymore, Koi Kaze, Witchblade)

SUMMARY

Genshiken follows the story of university freshman Kanji Sasahara. After perusing the various booths at the annual club rush, Sasahara settles on the club known as “gendai ni okeru shikaku wo chuushin to shita bunka no kenkyuu,” or rather “The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture.” This turns out to be an all encompassing otaku club, which is exactly what he wanted. Manga, anime, video games, cosplay, plastic models; you name it, Genshiken has its geeky toes dipped in it.

REVIEW

It’s not the prettiest thing to come out of the industry, but as a character piece, it doesn’t really need to be. The most visual impressive sequences are that of the imaginary-at-the-time anime “Kujibiki Unbalance,” which is a favorite among Genshiken’s members. The show has a nice visual style that isn’t too overblown. It really feels like it could make an easy and natural transition to the live-action medium.

For what one could certainly call an “otaku” show, the pandering and fan service is almost non-existent. The largely episodic stories feel all at once like an introspective on otaku culture and a celebration of what sets it apart and brings its participants together. In as much as the the Jackass franchise isn’t really about pranks and stunts but rather about camaraderie and friendship, so is Genshiken. To examine what brings people together is to examine people themselves, and Genshiken does this quite lovingly.

Like I mentioned before, the show is very episodic. Relationships progress serially, but events are mostly unconnected episode-to-episode. This works well for the different corners of fandom that the show attempts to tackle with each installment, but does little to encourage the viewer to watch more. I often felt satisfied watching a single episode and doing something else for awhile. It’s very pleasant viewing experience, but not terribly engaging.

The music is cute and never inappropriate, but doesn’t set itself apart in any particular way. The opening theme, however, has become one of my favorite anime openings of all time.

At the core of this show’s success are its characters. Truly loving portraits of believable archetypes among otaku – not terribly flattering, but never mean-spirited. Just honest, perhaps. Among the characters is a woman unlike any I had seen in anime prior to watching Genshiken, nor have I seen since. Her name is Saki Kasukabe (played with deft cynicism by Satsuki Yukino). She’s a smoking, drinking, fiercely independent upperclassman who starts dating Genshiken’s resident pretty-boy game wizard Makoto Kousaka, a choice she has no qualms about admitting were for his looks alone. She has no interest in anything otaku related and struggles for much of the series trying to understand why this hobby is so important to her boyfriend and his club mates. It’s a relationship that never feels forced or unearned, but rather real and unflinching; two people sitting in a room discussing whether they’re going to have sex later – one of them playing a video game, the other smoking a cigarette. If anything negative could be said about their relationship, its that Kousaka never does much of anything but play games, while Kasukabe is constantly trying to figure him and this whole “otaku” thing out. Kasukabe eventually comes around, but she’s never meant to be the syphon for a quote-unquote “normal” audience. A series like The Big Bang Theory never seems to be on the side of the outcasts. For a show that’s told from the perspective of geeks, the brunt of its humor is at the expense of those giving us perspective. The “normies” in the show provide the audience with a relatable escape from all the sci-fi references and indignant, glasses-pushing, academic one-upsmanship. Genshiken deserves huge points for making Kasukabe exactly what she is to the rest of the characters: an outsider.

All things considered, Genshiken is something special that we doesn’t get enough of these days. It’s a nice, well-meaning, thematically consistent piece about camaraderie on the outskirts of pop culture. Recommended to anyone who has ever called themselves a geek or any variation thereof.

4 glasses pushes out of 5.

[starrater]