This month is filled with Kio reacting to lots more photo references used for the Genshiken anime!
Kio caught up on some anime. First was Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, which he enjoyed.
He also finished and enjoyed Iron Wok Jan!
Anime director Ikehata Takeshi has been posting the reference photos he used for Genshiken! Kio has been retweeting and reacting to them. Here is Chuo University.
Kio recalls demonstrating the “We are aliens” voice Madarame does (presumably to Ikehata and the anime staff).
The ceiling of Tokyo Big Sight. “Urgh, my head…”
Kio has drawn the Big Sight ceiling so many times that he developed a system for it. Eventually, he realized that the key to making it easy was to make white lines using the line tool, and then drawing the black borders using a pre-set auto action in Clip Studio Paint.
A comparison of his first and most recent drawings of the Big Sight ceiling.
The advantages of using auto actions can be seen in this close-up.
However, it seems Kio lost this auto action after switching to his new PC.
Fortunately, since he has so many drawings of Big Sight and its ceiling, he can use them for any future appearances in his manga. As for if/when, he’s being coy about that for the time being.
A photo of the Chuo University courtyard. Kio recalls that by this point, the sky bridge was already constructed.
Up until the very end, Kio never included that sky bridge in Genshiken.
Kio watched the 4th Girls und Panzer: Das Finale movie, and thought it was over much too soon. He found the way the Anglerfish Team got taken out early and the way everything escalates from that to be exciting.
The outside of Chuo University in 2003.
An increasingly busy day for Kio.
Clubrooms from Chuo University. For some reason, Kio comments with a quote (“Don’t call me in hiragana!”) and says that Dodge Danko was fun.
Kio drew this particular hallway numerous times.
Kio loved how sloppy it was with everything scattered about. He assumes that things are much neater and more organized now.
Kio recalls getting hit by his friend Geese Howard’s counters while in college.
In particular, Kio remembers using Duck King and having his Shoryuken-type attack countered.
Sistan helps Kio remember that the attack he’s thinking of his called Break Storm.
Kio informing someone that Geese’s Deadly Rave didn’t exist yet in Fatal Fury Special.
A close-up of a drawing detail for the cover of Spotted Flower Volume 9.
Kio enjoyed the heck out of the 5th and final Girls und Panzer: Das Finale movie. He compares it to seeing the title match in a boxing manga.
He got a preview copy of Souten Issue 1, the successor to Rakuen!
Kio also liked the 2026 Street Fighter movie, to the extent that he’s still thinking about it days later.
Surprised at the announcement of more Ghost in the Shell anime, Kio wonders what parts they’ll adapt from the manga.
Responding to the passing of the Chiba Tetsuya, artist of Ashita no Joe, Kio expresses his utmost respect and admiration for the legendary manga creator.
