There have been many translations and transliterations of the title, and it’s all been a bit confusing, so I’m going to clear this up.
The title is “Shoron Genshiken: Hairu Ranto no Yabou”
Hairu Ranto is the name of a character in the novel. He is a young CEO who has transferred into Shiiou University for whatever reason. He has a sister, Hairu Anna.
So the actual title is “Genshiken the Light Novel: The Ambition of Hairu Ranto”
Got it? Good.
Let’s just say it’ll be something.
I’ve found that my mood and mental state affect how well I receive an anime. I don’t just mean that I like certain shows when I’m happy, and other shows more when I’m sad. What I mean is that I will sometimes notice flaws in animation or design that wouldn’t bother me at other times, or I will feel like something is terribly off about a show, like the pieces (characters, backgrounds, writing, music, etc) just aren’t fitting together properly. But then I will rewatch them, and the visuals will bother me less, and something may or may not click. For me, the most prominent example is Godannar, where upon watching the first episode for the first time, something about the animation was bothering me. It’s as if somehow I was unconsciously focusing on all the moments used to save money instead of concentrating on the high quality action parts. Thankfully, I watched it again and it’s become one of my favorite series.
If only I could figure out what conditions are best for which anime, I could devise some way to get the most of watching. Or I could do the opposite and purposely sabotage myself so I would hate anime forever.
Oh, and no matter the mood, I still think Rosario + Vampire is a bad show. But don’t let me stop you from enjoying it.
The setting is very unusual in regards to it not making complete sense given what we know of Genshiken.
Madarame is still chairman of Genshiken, so this story would be occurring prior to Ogiue arriving, except… Kuchiki is a member!
How can Kuchiki be a member of Genshiken during Madarame’s period as Chairman when he only joined officially after Madarame passed the position over to Sasahara? Unless this takes place in that brief period where Kuchiki tried to become a member but didn’t, I think we can safely say that this story does not take place in the manga or anime timelines.
At first I had a few hang ups about the new show, Spice and Wolf. It looked decent enough, but when people advertised its story and writing, all I saw for the first two episodes was “check out how awesome this wolf girl is, look at how awesome she is!”. While I thought the show was good, I wasn’t all that compelled to follow it.
After episodes 3 and 4 though, I feel the show has finally hit its stride. It has reached what I was hoping the show would be about: the down and dirty world of economics, like if Light, L, Lelouch, and CC were traveling salesmen.
I feel for your loneliness, Horo, I really do, but I hope to see a little less of that and more of the exciting and deceptive world of mink fur trading.
A glaring flaw, but I won’t hold it against them. It seems to take place prior to Ogiue appearing.
I purchased the book today, and while I’ve only read through the first chapter I can already tell that it’s going to be quite different from anything Genshiken-related that I’ve ever seen.
To give you an idea of just how different, the first chapter revolves around Kuchiki.
It’ s not typical for me to just use this blog for summarizing things, but I know that not a lot of people have access to it. I haven’t really had time to translate, so a brief summary will have to suffice.
The Drama CD is episode 8.5 of Genshiken 2, so fit it in there.
Sasahara gets a call, and it turns out to be his sister Keiko. Keiko says she’s staying over at his place. She comes over and then complains about how there’s nothing there and that it stinks, and then says she’s gonna go to the club room. When Sasahara asks why, Keiko says why not? She went to Comifest, she went to the beach with them, she’s like a half-member! Sasahara calls her an idiot.
At the club, Keiko encounters Ogiue and Kuchiki, who she’s meeting for the first time. Keiko thinks that Kuchiki is an annoying guy and that even though he’s thin, she thinks that he should be fat. Keiko is astounded by Ogiue, being the first complete fujoshi she’s ever met. Ogiue thinks to herself that Keiko’s make up and perfume are way too much. Ogiue and Keiko don’t get along all that well.
Madarame, Tanaka, and Kugayama come in. They begin talking about anime and being otaku in the workplace and what-not. Everyone is talking about how people try to change or hide themselves, but then Keiko says, “In the end they’re still otaku though.” Sasahara says that she’s the last person he wants to hear that from.
Keiko mentions that she’s been doing otaku things lately. She played “Dra Que V” (to which Sasahara responds, “That’s FIVE you idiot!”) and has even watched Gungal. Though when she mentions it’s G Gungal the members of Genshiken have to point out that it’s not like any of the other Gungal series. Keiko then mentions that she’s been to a butler cafe before, just for kicks. When she tries to remember how long it takes to get to the butler cafe, Ogiue cuts in and says it takes 90 minutes.
Keiko asks Ogiue if she’s been, and Ogiue, of course, denies it completely.
Ohno comes in and asks Keiko if she’s waiting for Kohsaka. Everyone thinks about how blunt that was. Keiko says yes, though. Keiko then wonders about being an otaku or going out with an otaku (Madarame calls this “Post-Densha), but Ohno replies that you can’t just suddenly become an otaku. It requires obsession, and you even have to decide how you’re going to become obsessed. Ohno is also subtlely trying to dissuade Keiko from trying it.
Saki and Kohsaka come in, and the reaction to Keiko is what you’d expect, with Saki asking why she’s even here and Kohsaka just saying hello. Keiko asks Saki what it’s like to go out with an otaku. Saki claims that they’re a normal couple. Completely normal. When asked where they’ve gone on dates, Kohsaka mentions Ikebukuro. While Saki points out all the very normal people things they do there, Kohsaka mentions all the otakustuff. Saki is defeated.
That night, Keiko sincerely asks if Sasahara has a girlfriend. Sasahara tells her to go to sleep.
————–
As to what I think of all this, I’m glad to see Keiko getting some focus even if it’s just in the form of a drama CD. I guess for some reason they couldn’t animate her, so they stuck with this method. She appears again in Drama CD 2 (which is actually the 3rd drama cd if you count the one that came with Genshiken manga volume 9). A nice story, with some nice Ogiue, as I love her interaction with Keiko, especially in the later parts of the manga.
I bought an Intuos3 9 x 12 Wacom Tablet. I think it’s actually bigger than my laptop’s monitor.
So to celebrate my new tablet…
…I’m going to need some practice
So I got my copy of Genshiken 2 Volume 2, and it comes with the long-awaited Drama CD, “Road to Ikebukuro.”
And a lot of it is in English.
Oh boy.
PS: Sue makes a Jagi reference. KUYASHII NO? KUYASHII NO?
OGIUE MANIAX 