Category Archives: review

Armored Trooper Votoms: Part 3

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In an interstellar war between the nations of Gilgamesh and Balarant, a woman designated “Proto-One” is the galaxy’s first Perfect Soldier. Genetically modified for battle and having her memories artificially placed to give her all of the necessary knowledge to be an efficient killer, she is highly prized as a military weapon and has been prepared for nearly every situation. However, her encounters with a stoic mercenary named Chirico Cuvie provide the biggest shock of her life: the emotion known as love.

Named “Fyana” by Chirico after an intense encounter in the anarchic city of Uoodo, they eventually escape the planet together at the end of the civil war in Kummen. There’s no time for a honeymoon however, as they are immediately abducted by an abandoned spaceship that seems hell-bent on reminding Chirico of his bloody past. Episodes 28-39 of Armored Trooper Votoms trace Chirico and Fyana’s lives as they both begin to figure out who they really are. We also get to see the other side of the war for the first time as the Balarant military makes its appearance.

I’ve criticized the romantic side of Votoms in my previous two reviews, but their time aboard the mysterious spaceship improves that aspect tremendously. You’re never really sure how they ended up in love, but now that they are, they love each other in a way that two soldiers unfamiliar with emotional response only can. The “Deadworld Sunsa” arc of Votoms is very different from the first half of the series, as it lets the viewer truly see for the first time the relationship dynamic between Chirico and Fyana. Previous mention is made of Chirico’s past as a “Red Shoulder,” but it is only now that we are given the knowledge that to be a Red Shoulder is to be a member of the most ruthlessly efficient and barbaric military group ever known. As both Chirico and Fyana are biological engines of death and destruction, it appears that their tacit understanding of each other despite barely knowing each other only brings them closer. Chirico is willing to fight to the death for Fyana and vice versa, and woe is the enemy who ends up in the targeting sights of either one.

The forced trip to Sunsa gives us the opportunity to see space battles in Votoms, and just as the tactics of warfare must change from city to jungle, so too must they be modified for a zero-gravity environment. Votoms isn’t exactly trying to be a 100% accurate depiction of inertia as it applies to fighting in space, but it does a good job of showing how both Chirico and Fyana must handle enemies that can come from any angle, and later battles on Sunsa show tremendous creativity without dispeling the realism that Votoms is known for.

Like the previous two arcs of Votoms, Deadworld Sunsa can be treated as a stand-alone series, but part 3 has far more connections to the underlying plot that drives the entire show. New characters introduced give the viewer a better understanding of the Perfect Soldier program and the nature of the Red Shoulder platoon. Old friends and enemies reappear, though not necessarily where you expect them. In every case, they impact Chirico and Fyana in myriad ways. By the end, the desire for the truth is what will compel you to keep watching.

East Coast Tokyo Baby Where You At: Hands-On with Tatsunoko vs Capcom

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Yesterday, thanks to a heads up from Sub, I got the opportunity to play Tatsunoko vs Capcom. Now, I’m nowhere near good at fighting games though I’ve played more than a few, so you won’t see any insightful comments on strategy and metagame and what-not.

Instead you’ll just see me talking about how awesome Gold Lightan is.

Ready for it?

Gold Lightan is very awesome.

I hear he’s not so good in actuality, but I really don’t care. Ryu threw his Shinku Hadoken at Gold Lightan and the Big G was all, “Whatever man,” and totally chopped him in the face. I also tried characters like Roll and Tekkaman (while narrating), and overall it’s exactly what I wanted out of TvC: A really faithful crossover.

Characters move how they should. When Casshern jumps back, he does the HIBIKE TATAKAE KUDAKE flip from the opening. Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick is animated with grace and glory. As per the theme song, both Gatchaman characters have the Science Ninja Phoenix for supers. Sadly, Casshern does not have access to Friender Jet.

I tried playing Marvel vs Capcom 2 in college just against the computer, and I couldn’t even get past the 4th opponent. The game was confusing beyond belief. While TvC is cut from the same cloth, it also doesn’t seem nearly as visually distracting which I can only put down as a positive.

All in all, a great time and a good game, especially when I pretend Gold Lightan is a giant golden Mario and stomp on people like they ain’t no thang.

As a reminder: Gold Lightan? Awesome.

I also played Arcana Heart for the first time. It’s going to be the start of another post, but not the kind you might expect.


A Compromise of Visual Design: Watching Minami-ke Okaeri Episode 1

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I normally don’t like to do  “episode 1 posts” of any series, but I felt that I needed to respond immediately to Minami-ke Okaeri while my reaction and feelings towards it and its visuals are still fresh in my mind.

The show is done by the same company that did Okawari (asread) as opposed to the first season (Doumu), which is generally considered the “worse” Minami-ke show, but I read that asread was bringing some of the original staff along to work on this new season. Whether that’s true or not, it’s clear that Minami-ke Okawari is trying to be more like Season 1.

The visuals end up being a mix of the two seasons, with what feels like an overall lower budget. That sounds like an insult, but it really isn’t. I have no proof, but seeing as almost everything is suffering these days I’m almost certain anime is getting less funding too. The show tries to adhere more to the visual style of Season 1 with its sparse shading, but the highly saturated colors resemble Okawari a lot more, especially in the backgrounds. More than the differences in style and animation, the color scheme was what I think really set apart the first two seasons.

Some of the animation does seem stiff and not up to the level of the stuff in Season 1, but I think that’s also because I’d gotten acclimated to Season 1’s style. Watching Season 1 after watching Okawari, it took time for my eyes to readjust, and now watching Okaeri after not having watched any Minami-ke for a while, it might be simply a case of my eyes needing to adjust once more.

Even if their attempt to mix the look of Season 1 and Okawari doesn’t succeed in the end, I’ll at least know that they tried.

If they give more Minami Touma scenes, then that’d also be just dandy.

And joy.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes in 50 Words

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This is a self-exercise to try and convey Legend of the Galactic Heroes in a few words. A later, more complete review may find itself here eventually.

In a war spanning the galaxy, two heroes emerge on opposing sides. The unorthodox Yang Wen-Li and equally brilliant Reinhard von Lohengramm must deal with not only the enemy light years away but also corruption at home. War, politics, philosophy, and love are intricately woven together in this epic tale.

Sing a New Song, a Song of Generations: Macross Frontier

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Note: While I’m not going to make it a requirement to read my previous episodes 1-13 review, I’d still recommend it before reading this one. There’s also minor spoilers for the other Macross series, but that’s kind of inevitable if you’re already watching Frontier.

Macross Frontier is the newest series in the Macross franchise, celebrating the 25th anniversary one of the most fondly remembered anime series ever. While not the first sequel to Macross, it is also the one that, for better or worse, tries the hardest to translate the emotions of the original Macross through the lens of today’s anime.

The original 1982 Super Dimensional Fortress Macross asked its audience many things. What are you willing to do for peace? What potential does humanity have for growth? What role does culture play in understanding one another? Taking place in a time when the world had just recently discovered peace after years of war and turmoil, the people of Earth are confronted by an alien race of giants whose only purpose in life is to wage war. Though these “Zentradi” were superior to the humans in nearly every way, the one area in which they had no knowledge turned out be both their downfall and their redemption: culture. Introducing the Zentradi to concepts such as love and sorrow through the emotional singing of pop idol Lynn Minmay, in time the Zentradi began to co-exist with humans. Thanks to technology that allowed the Zentradi to shrink to human size (a process called miclonization), some even married across species and bore offspring.

Nearly 50 years later, the two races have integrated to the point that it would not surprise a person if most of their friends were at least part-Zentradi. In that time, the people of Earth have begun to actively colonize outer space, discovered the dangers of artificial intelligence, and encountered a species that was more spirit than flesh. The Macross Frontier is the 25th colonial Macross-class ship, entrusted to venture through the galaxy to find a planet with a hospitable environment on which humans could live. Amidst its travels, the Macross Frontier is attacked by a race known as the Vajra. Unlike the Zentradi who battled with the human race nearly five decades earlier, the Vajra are inhuman, insect-like creatures, with an unreadable hive mind. Reasoning with them is not an option.

Three people aboard the Macross Frontier hold special significance. One is Saotome Alto, a student and former actor whose feminine looks allowed him to pass for a female when performing. Due to the attack by the Vajra, he decides to become a pilot of a Valkyrie (the humanoid-into-jet transforming robot symbolic of the Macross franchse) to repel the threat. Another is Sheryl Nome, a famous pop idol originally from the Macross Galaxy colony who happens to be holding a concert when the Vajra invade. Stranded aboard the Frontier, Sheryl uses her talents to try and keep hope alive for the distraught inhabitants. Last is Ranka Lee, a girl with no memories of her childhood. Ranka is a huge fan of Sheryl, and is inspired by her to pursue a singing career of her own, though there may be more to Ranka’s singing than simply talent and enthusiasm. Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka all become friends but as time passes their feelings change, both towards each other and towards the battle against the Vajra.

Ranka’s older brother is a tough, no-nonsense Valkyrie pilot who tries to hide his job from Ranka to keep her from worrying. Alto’s fellow pilots include a mechanical wiz, Luca, and a ladies’ man, Michael, whose playboy tendencies infuriate his childhood friend, the Zentradi pilot Klan Klan. Klan Klan, herself a highly skilled pilot, suffers from the fact that miclonizing her also regresses her physical age, something which Michael pokes fun of her for mercilessly. Grace is Sheryl’s manager who also recognizes talent in Ranka. Nanase is Ranka’s friend and biggest supporter of her career, and also the target of Luca’s affection. These are among the many supporting characters of Macross Frontier. They intertwine with the primary characters and themes of the show while still making their personal stories feel important.

Macross Frontier’s character designs may lack the subtlety of Mikimoto’s (the original Macross character designer), but Ebata Risa and Takahashi Yuuichi clearly worked hard to tie visual design with personalit. They make it easy to recognize every character even if you barely remember them. I wouldn’t say they’re better than Mikimoto’s designs, but they at least reflect current concepts and conventions of character design without seeming stale in the process. The animation can go off-model every so often, but the same thing happens with pretty much every other Macross series. Macross Frontier also has some of the best use of CG ever in an anime TV series. Never before have 3-D graphics been so well-integrated into both the every-day environments as well as the epic, space-rending battles which so emphasize the significance and destruction of war.

Romance against the backdrop of war is the driving force behind the Macross franchise, and Macross Frontier is no exception, though it takes particular care to put everyone through periods of happiness followed by periods of duress, both mental and emotional, in order to reveal their true characters. How does humanity handle interacting with a race so unlike anything familiar that it is impossible to humanize them? How far can Alto run away from his past? How different are humans, really, from the Zentradi’s old ways? How does the confident Sheryl handle being shunted out of the public spotlight in favor of Ranka? Where do people stand in the struggle between freedom and security? Why does Ranka sing?

Whereas romance and war are the bones and muscles of Macross, music is the blood and nerves. Music is one of the most important aspects of the Macross franchise, so much so that Macross Frontier saw it fit to have two main characters as singers. Music is power. Music is what brought giants to their knees and peace after war, but Macross Frontier teaches us that even the benevolent power of music can be twisted in unexpected ways. The songs of Sheryl and Ranka perhaps say more about their characters than any lines of dialogue. Sheryl’s songs exude power and confidence with just a hint of vulnerability, while Ranka’s songs reflect the highs and lows of her emotions. Their songs are markedly different from the humble pop of Minmay, or the rocking ballads of Fire Bomber, toeing the line between human and inhuman, between authentic and manufactured, but ultimately leaving one with the sense that this is is new, that this is truly the music of 2047.

Macross Frontier is not just a modern Macross. It is not just a new Macross, nor is it simply the new Macross. From its music to its storytelling to its characters to its questions, Macross Frontier is New Macross. It is a series which carries on the francise’s 25-year-old spirit and accurately invokes this current age of anime and society.

He’s the Angry Video Game Otaku

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In a previous post I talked about how someone has had the courtesy of translating episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series into Japanese and uploading them to Nico Nico Douga for the Japanese to enjoy. It turns out someone else has been doing the same with James Rolfe‘s most well-known internet phenomenon, the Angry Video Game Nerd (formerly known as the Angry Nintendo Nerd).

And just like with Yugioh Abridged, the fun comes from seeing how the Nico Nico Douga viewers respond to it (they love it), as well as seeing how his very American style of talking translates to a language which just doesn’t have the slang and syntax that English does. So how do you translate James’ expletive-ridden mouth into a language which simply doesn’t have the same take and history in regards to verbal obscenities? The answer is that you don’t.

Whoever the translator is, he’s opted for the spirit and not the letter. “Fuck” gets frequently translated to “kuso.” When there’s a long string of curses, the goal of the translation usually seems to be to convey his anger and not necessarily his exact language and often doesn’t even try to match the number of swears. And in some cases, certain puns or instances of wordplay don’t get translated at all to keep the subtitles simple and easy to read.

So sit back and take it up the ass in a foreign language, courtesy of Nico Nico Douga and Cinemassacre.

Planes that Never Land: The Sky Crawlers

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Oshii Mamoru, director of Ghost in the Shell and its sequel, is very well known in both the American anime fandom and the American artist’s community for his striking visuals, attention to environment and detail, and philosophy-charged narratives. With that in mind, I attended the US premiere showing of Oshii’s latest movie, The Sky Crawlers, adapted from a novel by Mori Hiroshi. Even if it didn’t turn out to be a good movie, I at least knew that I was in for something interesting. In recent years, the declining birthrate has beeen a major issue in Japanese society, and a lot of the suspects fingered have to do with the idea that the youth of japan is having a difficult time accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. The Sky Crawlers, being a movie about literally eternal youths,  seeks to address this topic.

The Sky Crawlers is set in the middle of a long war where battles are mainly fought up in the sky by small groups of planes. Kildren, humans who cannot age past a certain point, are a common sight on the battlefield. Kannami Yuuichi, a skilled pilot called into a small base in the middle of nowhere as a replacement, is himself a kildren. Upon arriving, Kannami is initially struck by a strange sense of déjà vu, especially around the female base commander and fellow kildren Kusanagi Suito, but is quickly drawn into the daily routine of a war with no end in sight, unsure of where life will take those who refuse to grow up.

Whatever the intended message is, the delivery used in Sky Crawlers is very unusual. Yes, there are characters. Yes, there is a plot that I’ve described to you. How much they actually matter to the movie as a whole, however, is something I am unable to determine, at least not without a second viewing. Major plot points are delivered quickly and casually, with no clear distinction that they’ve just occurred, and overall the purpose of the movie seems to go beyond telling a story about people doing things to achieve a goal. Whether it’s fighting, talking, relaxing, or having sex, the events in the movie and the elements of the story all intentionally blend together into a disorienting haze, like trying to recall what you ate or what you wore exactly ten years ago.

On a visual level, the movie is as expected of Oshii, who places a strong emphasis on environmental shots. Like his more recent works, Oshii continues to push the incorporation of 3-D and 2-D animation, and though the difference is glaring at first, your eyes will eventually adjust to it and treat it as being a natural part of the movie. The Sky Crawlers also does a very good job of making the viewer lose all sense of proportion. A seemingly endless sky separates one base from another, and for all the advanced technology incorporated into the planes, when they disappear into the clouds they might as well not exist.

I came into The Sky Crawlers expecting at least something interesting, but what the movie did was destroy my sense of distinction between interest and boredom. I kept watching, unable to tell if I was being entertained or if my mind was drifting away. My memories of this movie are blurry at best, and I can’t help but feel that this was the intention all along.

Giving Shounen Jump Fans the Bird

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Weekly Shounen Jump is celebrating its unbelievable 40th anniversary, and as part of the festivities Shounen Jump has all-new episodes of three of its series. By downloading their own proprietary media player, you can actually watch these episodes subtitled for free until January 2009. One of the titles is One Piece, another is Letter Bee (which I know nothing about). I’ll get to One Piece and Letter Bee’s exclusive episodes another time; this is all about perennial favorite Dragon Ball.

Akira Toriyama’s most famous work is by far the most popular Shounen Jump properties of all time, its worldwide success is rivaled by few other. This is made all the more impressive by the fact that there hasn’t been any new Dragon Ball anime for a long, long time. Even in America the final episodes of GT aired years ago. But some would argue that at some point the Dragon Ball series took a bit of a detour and lost some of its original spirit. Among these critics might be Toriyama himself as this new Dragon Ball anime special feels very much like a return to form, and it’s written by Toriyama too. “Yo! The Return of Son-Goku and Friends!!!” is like a combination of everything that made Dragon Ball popular throughout its incarnations rolled into one.

The story is about Mr. Satan opening up a new hotel to celebrate his victory over Majin Boo and inviting Goku and Friends over for a sumptuous banquet. Some new characters show up, stuff blows up and things get eaten. Really, the story is just a flimsy excuse to get everyone together and for chaos to happen, and it’s the type of chaos which combines the fighting of Z with the humor of the original. Kamesennin is back to wearing his old turtle shell and making lewd comments towards Chi-chi, Goku powers up to Super Saiyan just because, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance but not really. It’s just a single-episode adventure dedicated to the fans and it really shows.

The most notable addition is the introduction of Vegeta’s little brother, Tarble. I’ll let the pun sink in for a second before I move on.

Man, Toriyama.

Tarble would be a spoiler except he’s right there on the front page and in the character descriptions, so he’s fair game. Tarble was sent away long ago by King Vegeta because Tarble lacked any sort of fighting prowess. Having avoided much of the events of Dragon Ball, Tarble even still has his tail. With the existence of Tarble now revealed, it just makes me think that every time Vegeta said something like “WE ARE THE LAST SAIYANS IN THE UNIVERSE KAKARROT!” he was murmuring under his breath, “exceptforthatotheronehrmrmrmr.”  Well Dragon Ball was never super big on maintaining canon anyway so it’s no big deal. It’s just another way of humanizing Vegeta just a little because you’d have expected him to fly over to Tarble at some point and punch him in the face for being so weak. Then again, Vegeta might respect the fact that Tarble tries to fight even when he sucks at it. I’m thinking too much about this, but how could I not when I now know that Vegeta is also Reinhard Von Lohengramm?

If you’re a Dragon Ball fan, I really don’t have to tell you to go watch this, but go watch this. If you’re not a fan of Dragon Ball, or you’re the kind who complains about powering up taking too long, keep in mind that this is just one 20-something minute episode and there’s no time to waste on powering up excessively and standing around. There isn’t even an deserted area in the middle of nowhere to fight and blow things up in! There’s only Mr. Satan’s hotel.

Poor, poor Mr. Satan.

Teaching Japanese People French Profanities: La Sommelière Volume 2

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You know a woman is passionate when she eats dirt for fun.

With her soil-sampling quirks and love for wine La Sommelière Itsuki Cana continues to adjust to life in Tokyo. Last volume found our intrepid wine-serving heroine working at L’espoir, which is a French restaurant and certainly not some kind of creepy boat. Naturally, Cana is still helping others work through their respective problems by conveying messages via wine where words simply fail.

I should point out two mistakes I made in the previous review, and you just saw one of them. I had previously spelled her name as “Itsuki Kana” thinking that “Kana” written in katakana was just them being cute. But no, Ms. Itsuki actually has a foreign name, and it’s a reference to the place where Jesus turned water into wine. The next mistake is that I didn’t say where she was from, and the answer is France. Cana is Half-French, Half-Japanese with a biblical name.

Volume 2 of La Sommelière expands greatly upon the supporting characters, comprised primarily of Cana’s fellow staff members at L’espoir. In one chapter, Cana finds herself acting as a mediator between the restaurant’s chef and her estranged mother. In another chapter, an innocent lie forces the waitress Minami into assuming the role of Sommelière, with Cana there for backup. New characters are also introduced, namely THE MOST RENOWNED WINE TASTER IN JAPAN MINOSHIMA RYOUICHI. Not only is he THE MOST RENOWNED WINE TASTER IN JAPAN but there’s some antagonism between him and L’espoir’s supervisor, and on top of that Minoshima has a connection to Cana’s past.

Volume 2 also begins the trend of having special bonus chapters in each volume showing what Cana’s life was like in France.

The artwork in Volume 2 is consistent with Volume 1, emphasizing the beauty of people and wine of all shapes and sizes. Minami the waitress is drawn particularly well here; with a drunken Minami looking incredibly cute. Cana meanwhile is as gorgeous as ever, with stylish new outfits in addition to her already snazzy Sommelière uniform. Panel flow puts great emphasis on the emotions and wine, and adds to the romanticism of the whole situation. There’s only one small nitpick with the art, and it has to do with one particular image where it looks like Cana’s head was cut out and the body drawn awkwardly around it. It’s only because the rest of the art is of such nice quality that this error stands out.

Volume 2 of La Sommelière is really more of the same as in Volume 1, but that’s exactly its selling point. It’s a romantic portrayal of a girl from two different cultures who brings love and understanding to those around her through the power and majesty of wine. Characters old and new bring with them ideas as to what it means to enjoy and recommend wine, and the volume even ends on an interesting note that leads directly into Volume 3.

Merde!

One Year Later, A Genshiken Review

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It might seem a bit too dramatic for me to say that Genshiken changed my life, but as I look at the influence that Genshiken has had upon me, including but not limited to the very existence of this blog, I have to say it isn’t an exaggeration. To celebrate the one year anniversary of Ogiue Maniax, I have decided to review Genshiken, by Kio Shimoku.

Before we begin, I will warn that this is in no way an objective review. Rather, it may be the most biased thing you will ever read.

Genshiken: The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture centers around a student club at the fictional Shiiou University (located in Tokyo) . This club, the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture (or Gendai Shikaku Kenkyuukai) is a gathering of nerds dedicated to the unification of gaming, anime, and manga clubs. At least, that was the original intent.

Along the way ambition was replaced by laziness and Genshiken has simply become a place for its members to hang out. As new members join and older members graduate and leave, so with them go old and new ideas as to what the club should be, leaving behind small legacies and transforming Genshiken’s very identity.

The main character of Genshiken is Sasahara Kanji, a young Japanese student who at the beginning has just started his life as a freshman at Shiiou University. Sasahara is what can be described as an unrealized otaku, someone who fits the category but doesn’t seem to be aware of that fact. It is through Sasahara’s eyes, inexperienced in the ways of fandom, that the story unfolds. Looking for a club to participate in, Sasahara tentatively decides to check out Genshiken. Though he is originally put off a little by its members and their rampant geekery, Sasahara eventually becomes more comfortable with himself and the other club members.

The most prominent member of Genshiken is a lanky, bespectacled upperclassman named Madarame Harunobu. The spitting image of otaku,  Madarame’s spending habits follow the philosophy of “don’t look at the price tags,” a philosophy which increasingly digs into his food budget. He even at one point gives an impassioned speech about how being attracted to drawings is only natural for human beings and that those who deny that are only fooling themselves. Taking over as chairman of Genshiken part-way into the story, it is Madarame who nurtures Sasahara’s realization into a true otaku more than anyone else. Madarame is still a dork with all the awkwardness one would expect though. For all of his posturing, Madarame is still an introvert by nature and vulnerable to little things like public displays of affection.

While Madarame is one main driving force in Genshiken, the other is a girl named Kasukabe Saki. A freshman like Sasahara, Saki is a fashionable sort, very keen on maintaining her own looks. Intelligent, confident, beautiful, Saki is many things, but otaku isn’t one of them. Eager to break up Genshiken, Saki only hangs around with the club due to her boyfriend, Kousaka Makoto, whose good looks and strong fashion sense belie the fact that he is an otaku on par with Madarame. Kousaka is not afraid to simply have (anime) porn lying around his apartment when Saki visits.

Other members include the big-busted cosplayer with a geriatric fetish Ohno, the stuttering heavy-set amateur artist Kugayama, the craft-loving Tanaka, and others. There are many characters in Genshiken and pretty much all of them are worth your time and admiration. Though I’ve given them rather brief descriptions, they are not the entirety of their characters. Almost none of the characters in Genshiken are flat, and the few who are still provide plenty of entertainment.

The first half of Genshiken concerns itself with the world of otaku through the eyes of otaku, and does so with a surprising amount of realism. When I first showed my friends in college Genshiken, they could not help but point out moments that mirrored their own lives. When I showed it to another friend, he had to stop reading because Tanaka scrutinizing over how to bend the joints of a model kit reminded him too much of himself. The club’s initiation ritual involves gauging a potential member’s fondness for erotic doujinshi (the greater the better). It’s a humble, self-deprecating, yet optimistic look at otaku.

If Genshiken stayed in this comfort zone, resigned to being about “those wacky otaku,” it would have still been very good. Genshiken goes further however by giving real, almost tangible development to its characters. Sasahara goes from being an amateur otaku to a cornerstone of the club, eventually becoming Genshiken’s chairman. He spearheads the initiative to create an actual Genshiken doujin circle. Ohno, once shy and hesitant to reveal her “preferences” to even fellow anime fans, slowly becomes a mother figure, confident and firm in her own otakuhood. Saki, initially antagonistic towards Genshiken, becomes a good friend and member of the club, gradually melting away the societal barriers that separate otaku and non-otaku. She still isn’t an otaku though.

More than a comedy, more than a story about otaku, Genshiken is about the individuals in the Modern Visual Culture Society and how they transform each other’s lives. This is no more evident than in the character of Ogiue Chika. Born in the Tohoku region of Japan, she is the catalyst which elevates the story of Genshiken from memorable to life-changing. I talked before about Genshiken’s first half. The introduction of Ogiue is the start of the second.

Ogiue is a quiet, yet abrasive girl who badmouths otaku at any given opportunity. Unable to co-exist with the female members of the Manga Society, Ogiue is moved into Genshiken with volatile results. Her unsociable personality however turns out to be a defense mechanism of the highest order, as Ogiue Chika is a fujoshi with crippling self-hatred. Sasahara may have simply been an unawakened otaku, but Ogiue is an otaku in denial. She draws doujinshi in her spare time, fantasizes about male Genshiken members giving each other some intensely x-rated favors, and attends events celebrating these acts with regularity, but is loathe to admit to these activities. One might ask, “If she hates being an otaku so much, why would she join clubs or do anything which would give her away?” and the answer is simply that Ogiue cannot help it. “How does one become an otaku” is a constant theme throughout Genshiken’s story, and the answer is that you don’t, you just realize it one day. Having discovered yaoi as early as 5th grade, Ogiue exists at the point of no return, and it is Ogiue’s rocky path to self-acceptance which leads Genshiken to its finale. Through Ogiue, what was once a story of people with unique hobbies enjoying each other’s company transforms into a very personal look at what it means to face reality without letting go of yourself.

The Genshiken manga and anime differ in a number of ways, but the stories are overall similar. The anime adds a few extra scenes, gets rid of some others, and rearranges elements of the story or puts them on drama cds. The anime adaptation’s voice cast is stellar. Kawasumi Ayako (Lafiel, Crest of the Stars) as Ohno, Seki Tomokazu (Chiaki, Nodame Cantabile) as Tanaka, Hiyama Nobuyuki (Guy, Gaogaigar) as Madarame, and Mizuhashi Kaori (Miyako, Hidamari Sketch) are among the many who put forth an incredible effort in Genshiken. A lot of them use voices very different from the ones they’re famous for, showing both their talent and their desire to make Genshiken enjoyable. Mizuhashi’s Ogiue has to be heard; her constant inner conflict comes through in every one of her lines. Of note is the fact that between Genshiken season 1, the Genshiken OVA, and Genshiken 2, the visual style changes drastically due to animation studios and even character designers switching.

The anime is good, but in the end I prefer the manga and would recommend it over the anime if only for the fact that as of this post the anime has still not completed the full story of Genshiken. Also, the art is a joy to look at and the panels flow well into each other. The style evolves tremendously over the course of nine volumes, with 1 and 9 looking almost nothing alike. One stylistic element that remains intact through the manga are the detailed backgrounds, something the anime doesn’t do nearly as well with more and more CG shortcuts being taken with every sequel. Ogiue is also at her most striking and beautiful in the manga, with eyes that can render Ogiue Maniax bloggers powerless.

Genshiken is like a best friend. It knows me well and points out my flaws, flaws which I may at first deny. It gives me confidence and inspiration, and it has helped me learn a lot about who I am, what I stand for, and how I should approach life. And among the many characters in Genshiken who have taught me these lessons, Ogiue is the most important of all.