Kio recently had a talk at Umeda Lateral, an Osaka-based live music house and talk venue, to celebrate the release of his new artbook. Below are my notes from watching it. 

(Unfortunately, the VOD is no longer available. Also, screenshots are not allowed.)

There are three people: the host, Kio, and his editorial manager Moteki.

For the event, Kio drew special signboards featuring the Genshiken characters, one per character: Ogiue, Madarame, Sue, Ohno, and Saki.

As previously known, Kio has a very deep voice. 

Apparently, it’s normal for the hosts and speaker to drink on stage at this venue. Kio’s first order was draft beer.

He has been to Osaka before, for work and for sightseeing. Was on the train for 9 hours to get there.

The artbook was not his idea. It was Moteki’s, who brought it up because it’s Kio’s 30th anniversary. Kodansha wouldn’t do it themselves? Moteki actually reached out to him through Pixiv.

Kio wanted to reply, and he got motivated to actually make the book happen.

There were cases where Kio was looking through his old work and thought, “Did I draw this?”

Starting doing digital after Genshiken, starting with Jigopuri. At the time, he still scanned in his pencils, though.

Works prior to that transition were newly scanned for the artbook. He had a bit of experience doing it for the Shinsouban (the special edition that has new covers and changes the nine volumes of the original into five).

Kio admitted that he doesn’t actually remember much of his works before Genshiken. Moteki jokingly expresses concern that this pre-Genshiken period was eight years.

Moteki: Ogiue is a character who really takes the story places, but is there anyone from before Genshiken like that?

Kio: Nope, I don’t think so.

Kio actually doesn’t think Ogiue is that much of a driving force. Madarame was originally planned to be there from the start in some form.

Kio showed early concept notes about Genshiken. At the time, it was still written in kanji.

The original 3 characters were early versions of what would become Saki, Kohsaka, Madarame.

Saki (or her prototype) was the original protagonist. Prototype Kohsaka’s gender hadn’t been determined yet—the character was labeled “Hero (Heroine?)” One note mentions that he maybe looks like Squall from Final Fantasy VIII. 

The school setting was based on Chuo University, just like in the actual Genshiken.

Kio wanted to make the series focused on character gags.

Prototype Madarame looked very different. Labeled as the “Rival.” Second-Year, otaku. 

All the characters are listed with a specialized otaku genre. Proto-Kohsaka and Proto-Mada are both labeled as being into “everything.”

All the characters are labeled as virgins.

Prototype Kugayama was labeled as being a third-year, having a good personality, and also being a lolicon. Otaku genre: anime.

Another character with glasses specialized in games, and another shorter character has manga.

One unused design was a girl who was a second-year. She was a little unattractive, but with big boobs. (This might be the prototype for Ohno, but they look quite different.)

Kio does not actually particularly like kujibiki lotteries. But it is funny that Kujibiki becomes a plot device in Nidaime when all the girls are drawing straws for the order in which each girl has their date with Madarame.

Kio ordered octopus karaage next.

The first gunpla he built was probably the Guncannon. He built it right before the Gundam boom, when he was in elementary school. He has an older brother who was buying gunpla before him. Actually, it might not have been the Guncannon. Kio mentioned not having a good memory.

Did Kio have an inscrutable senpai like the original club chairman? He had senpai, but he wasn’t sure if they were quite like that. But Tanaka was based on someone Kio knew—a person who loved plastic model kits. 

Kio used to build a lot of gunpla and kits, and broke them at the joints all the time. But with more recent models, he remarked that they really don’t break easily. He also compared the old days of gunplay that used polycaps to the improvements of modern kits.

For the scene in Genshiken with the gunpla, Kio tried to break the hip joint of a real model for reference, but it wouldn’t snap. But he wanted to do the scene, so he had to force a break.

He checked with Bandai if showing a busted gunpla would be okay, and they said as long as the break was shown to be by accident and not on purpose, it was okay.

Kujibiki Unbalance was made to be an original parody series because getting permissions for actual things was difficult.

Host mentions that he wasn’t a pure otaku, and it’s because of Genshiken’s numerous reference lines that he got to be one. Chapter titles are references, and Kio had to constantly rack his brain for them. Kio does not consider himself a high-information-retention otaku.

He had a desire to draw and write about the old-style 90s-era otaku of his own generation. 

When Kio got Genshiken serialized, it made him feel like a real pro. When it got an anime he was ecstatic. “It felt like I had won at life.”

Kio was worried that if he tried to make a manga about the newest things, it would quickly feel dated, so that’s why the otaku stuff was more 1990s.

In that time, video tapes were still the standard, and official recordings of the anime were still done on tapes. He was okay with the work, but saw the struggles of the anime’s production in the anime, accepting that those are kind of inevitable.

The host asked about the OVA, believing that Kio wrote it himself, but Kio himself didn’t remember if that’s the case. He did work closely with Genshiken 2, as well as the original Kujibiki Unbalance anime.

Kio mentioned being involved with a scene involving Tanaka and Ohno, and the host instantly guessed correctly that it’s the spicy scene of them getting together. In response, Kio asked, “Why did you know what I was talking about?” It was later that he realized the scenes he drew for the fictional eroge Ohno made Tanaka play were just used straight-up in the anime. 

Kio showed his actual old notebooks.

“It’s not your dark history.”

Kio: But it is.

Kio loved Famicom Detective Club, and made his own story based on Famicom Detective Club II.

He wanted to make a manga of Ghibli’s Laputa in middle school, so he drew one. Here, he showed it to the audience, page by page. He even did the title logo. However, as he turned each page, he would have his eyes closed because he didn’t want to look at them.

(It actually looks really well drawn for a middle schooler.)

Kio actually wanted to change the story partway through in a way that would make it more interesting, but he couldn’t quite decide on where to take things after they get to the fortress, so he stopped drawing it.

Another notebook is filled with his attempts to draw like Miyazaki, clearly copying famous Nausicaa images. He also feels embarrassed about these.

He also showed that he made lots of drawings of Elpe Ple from Gundam ZZ.

He didn’t watch Gundam as it aired, but he did keep up with Dunbine and L-Gaim in elementary school (4th grade, 6th grade, thereabouts).

Also showed a piece of fanart for Metal Armor Dragonar in there, along with a drawing of the Queen Mansa from Gundam ZZ.

Because Kio was clearly into fantasy-like settings as a kid, the host asks if he ever wanted to make manga along those lines. Kio says that he actually worked on a real manuscript from high school to college. “Any plans to announce it?” “None.”

After the break, Kio got a lemon sour. Host a highball. Moteki got another draft beer.

Host talked about how some people considered Nidaime to be like a fan sequel. After the first series ended, everyone tried to imagine what would come next.

Kio got back to drawing Genshiken after doing the art for a budget edition box set of the anime (the ones with the white cases), which led to the one-shot, and then he was asked by Kodansha if he could come back for a short run, like a single volume. (Nidaime ended up running for 11.)

Kio hadn’t planned to resolve Madarame and Saki. Couldn’t it have just ended at the school culture festival?

The second half of the talk was Kio answering questions they had received from fans.

Will Spotted Flower get an anime?

Kio: That’s not up to me.

There are also challenges to getting a story like that made into anime. If he had to say whether he’d want one or not, he’d say yes.

What was a gathering spot for otaku in your days?

Kio was only in a circle for half a year. But there had to have been a place where people gathered to draw.

Kio was in the art club in high school, but it didn’t have an otaku feel. Same for middle school. But the otaku in middle school did meet up after school.

Kio actually bought his own Neo-Geo machine! They reminisced about the massive cartridges.

What works are you into recently?

Manga: A current work in Harta magazine by the author of Hinamatsuri, Ohtake Masao, called J⇔M.

Doesn’t watch dramas. Closest is taiga historical dramas like Kimi Hikaru e.

Couldn’t decide for anime or movies (mainly watches anime movies).

If you drew Genshiken now, what would the characters be into?

VTubers, not that he knows much about them.

Moteki mentioned that Kio must have done research about fujoshi circles and slang for Nidaime, but Kio said he was doing it since the first series. He got some things wrong, though. In college, Kio was surprised to discover fan-derivative works and 18+ doujinshi in college (much like Sasahara).

How did you decide who Madarame would end up with?

Kio didn’t even know who it would be as he was drawing it. He was thinking of having it conclude with Madarame alone, but he actually said to himself, “Are you really going to end it this way?” Even he as the author couldn’t accept that.

Moteki: When it comes to The Fifth-Year and Genshiken with Ogiue, these characters realized about the kind of people they are, and it helped them decide on their feelings. But Madarame even to the very end did not have that self-awareness.

Also, lots of people thought it’d be Sasahara’s sister, because she’s so similar to Saki.

Kio: Yeah, even now. When you mention it, that pairing could’ve worked. But I wasn’t thinking about Saki (or Keiko’s similarities to Saki).

Kio-sensei switched to tablet in Nidaime. How was it?

Actually, Kio switched during Jigopuri. Back then, he still drew the manuscripts on paper and scanned them in before doing digital drawing over them. Eventually, he switched to all digital.

Is there something you feel about the Otaku of the 2010s and 2020s?

Based on what he sees with his daughter and her classmates, it’s almost like there’s not really a distinction between otaku and non-otaku. 

Host: Even gyaru are into Frieren.

Kio: Maybe there’s no need for a series like Genshiken anymore.

Kio wanted to do Nidaime as a series where there were more members of the club who were like Ogiue and Ohno along with one new male character. However, he actually thought up a version with a more typically masculine guy, but thought it felt a little too normal. 

Host: It’s like the barrier between otaku and non-otaku is gone.

What’s important to remember while making works?

Kio: I can’t really think of anything. Maybe, if you think of it too much like work, you’ll lose what makes it unique. Don’t try too hard to make a “manga-like manga.” Don’t focus on how things are supposed to go at the expense of making it interesting.

Genshiken wasn’t intended to capture the zeitgeist, but it ended up doing so.

Did you see the online reaction to Genshiken or the doujinshi during serialization?

Kio did not look at comments. The people at Kodansha looked at it though. 

Kio bought all the doujinshi of Genshiken he saw. Didn’t have any problems with any content, knowing that it’s up to the doujin creators. He might occasionally check out the website of one of the artists. 

He got some of them for the Genshiken 8.5 doujin project.

What was it like working for Afternoon?

Thought of Shounen Sunday first for Kodansha, but Kio remembers Parasyte being a big title. Minor no Pride, Major no something (a cooking manga).

In response to Ogiue is drawing for Afternoon in the manga: “It’s meta.”

What do you think of making H-manga?

Kio always wants to do it. He’s working on Part 2 of his doujinshi project, and the manuscript has gotten to 134 pages. 

Moteki: What was the reaction to you announcing an 18+ doujinshi? Was it like, “Here we go!!!”

Not a particularly strong response, but when Kio posted it on Fanza (an adult site), some people who were fans asked him if it’s okay to do this at his age (he’s 50).

Can you do a live drawing?

He was unsure of his live drawing ability. Before the talk, Kio ended up putting a lot of time into the five signboard drawings at the talk, as well as the 30 that were included in specific copies of the artbook.

Host and Moteki tried to convince him, but no go.

Will there be more Genshiken merch?

It’s not up to him.

A lot of questions about how Kio decided who Madarame would be with, actually.

Are there any characters who acted in ways you didn’t intend?

All of them.

During the nose hair chapter (with Saki and Madarame), Kio planned to have a story about that, but went at it by thinking “What would the characters do in this situation?”

Before a manuscript, he’ll draw freely. For Genshiken, it’s like the ideas would just readily come. When drawing the characters, he would think about how they would behave. He compares figuring character’s lines to taking a dust cloth and wringing it tightly until the exact words drip out. 

Moteki: In terms of characters moving on their own, Ogiue is a well-known example, right?

Kio had considered sticking her with Kuchiki as a kind of “mutually cringe couple.”

Kio is unsure of what he needs to do in serializations. With one-shots, in contrast, it’s harder to play around. He’s still not sure what to do.

At first, Kio didn’t use any assistants. But that’s when he was young. Now he’s 50 and he can’t do the same anymore.

Weekly serialization is the “territory of monsters.” Knowing what weeklies are like, he understands the need for assistants there. But if someone came to him asking if he could do one, he’d consider it and try to figure out a way it could work.

Kio worked as Takano Fumiko-sensei’s assistant, but for only one day.

What otaku works or genres have you been into recently?

He watched some of Usada Pekora playing Elden Ring. He’d have her on as background noise while working on manga.

He also listens to music while thinking up ideas and working on manga. When he’s doing tasks with not a lot of information, he uses ambient noise. When doing the initial drawings, he listens to stuff like J-Pop. After that, more editorial/critical Youtube channels. 

What have you enjoyed recently?

Kio has a hard time thinking of anything, but he did travel to Gunma recently. He went to Ninja Gakkai, a ninja education camp.

Among your works, are there any scenes that stick out most in your memory?

The first thing that came to mind is the nose hair story, particularly when Madarame leaves the clubroom and is looking back at it from the outside across the courtyard, and you can see the light in the clubroom still on.

Moteki: Which character is your type?

Ohno, in terms of sexiness. The scene when she first appears in a mask is an example of her heroine appeal. Though Kio’s been told that the shifting heroine focus for Genshiken is unusual: from Saki to Ohno to Ogiue.

“How did you think of a plot like that?” 

“I didn’t.”

Moteki likes Saki best. So does the host.

The signboards got raffled off at the end!