Genshiken
Synopsis
Sasahara is a freshman at Shiiou University. During a club forum, taking interest in both Anime and Manga, he stumbles upon the Genshiken Club, a club dedicated to the study of modern visual culture.
Soon after joining Genshiken, he discovers that the people in the club are nothing more than otakus and lolicons obsessed with doujinshi. How does Sasahara fit into this group of people? More importantly, what is this club all about despite the given title?
Review
The Film Club, Key Club, Anime Club, Karate Club along with dozens of clubs were offered to me in high school. But despite the diversity of my school, I have never encountered the name of a Genshiken Club. After, I started to take interest in what this club is all about.
Surprisingly, as it turned out, there was almost nothing regarding the purpose of this club as shown in the anime; instead what we see is a group of people who socialize about their passions with each other without a fear of being seen as a stigma to Japanese society: being an Otaku.
First of all, I would like to say that despite my love for Anime (and maybe some Manga), I am not an Otaku (despite my hate of that word being used), and can no way be compared to some of the people portayed in the anime. If my hand breaks, I would either scream or go to the hospital in pain rather than continue to wait in line for a few magazines. If someone broke my Gundam model (if I ever decide to even watch one let alone build one), I would probably build another one. If my… oh you get the idea. My point is that I don’t know how accurate the description of the anime is or even how realistic the portrayal of the characters are. It is hard for me to approach the identity of each character due to too biasness. I’m pretty sure there are different levels of fanatics out there (and that I am no where on that level). But what I get out of this is Genshiken’s attempt to re-discover the sub-culture of Japan, to slowly work it’s way into publicity that is rarely seen. To take a peek at this area that is un-discovered and shunned by many people, Genshiken challenges people to view this type of people with more acceptance.
Kohsaka is an Otaku in the anime and is a member of Genshiken. In addition to that, there is a girl named Saki who likes him. As the anime progresses, we see how Saki opposes the Genshiken club as a whole but ultimately finds the people of the club acceptable. What it takes to be an Otaku is out of my imagination and I know nothing other than the fact that there criticized. Genshiken tries to shatter the stereotype of these people as being unsociable, disliked, and friendless.
All of the characters in Genshiken were enjoyable to watch. From the doujin-fanatic Madarame, to the almost all Otaku hating Saki, to Sasahara who is in the midst of discovering his passion for the ‘visual culture of Japan’. In the end, each character did not feel strange to me nor did they feel too unique to me. Instead, I am able to relate to each character’s feelings and understand the actions and responses they up forth. If you try and look for something unique in the characters, you will find it. But if you look outside the unexpected, you will see that these people are…well… just people with a love for something.
In addition, the animation and music were both well done. Character designs were interesting and made to stereotype what Otakus would look like. But as we see, Kohsaka looks ‘ordinary’ and even has a girlfriend. Furthermore, the soundtrack is great. I especially liked the opening theme also.
The Breakdown
All in all, Genshiken is a great anime that goes over an area of Japan’s sub-culture that is rarely explored and greatly discriminated against. I feel like hugging an Otaku…*looks around….hugs self*… j/k