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shoujoboy's Genshiken Tv Review

Genshiken tv Review

A tongue-in-cheek introspective on otaku culture, Genshiken tells the story of a group of friends and their club at school, the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture (abbreviated Genshiken). Represented in the group are just about all of the anime fan archetypes, with social pariahs, hentai and ecchi fans, a model enthusiast, a cosplayer, a gamer, a pervert, and one Saki Kasukabe, an attractive and sophisticated girl who is conspicuous in her normality who views otaku culture with equal measures of bewilderment and disgust and simply cannot why her boyfriend loves anime so much.

Credits: shinsengumi

Story & Characters

The show that reminds you why you are an anime fan or proves to you finally that you are. This show takes a poke at every last one of us out there and makes you laugh at yourself. This is a show about a group of high school kids that have a school club named Genshiken, a club of social outcasts (save two members) that are in one word, otaku. They each have the thing that they obsess over the most, whether it be doujinshi, bishoujo games, anime or even cosplay. Unlike its otaku bashing predecessor (in a good way of course) Comic Party, Genshiken actually takes fans of all kinds of Japanese pop culture and gives them a swift kick in the pants. The thing that made this show stand out as the phenom it is, is they put in one character, Saki Kasukabe, in the mix that totally hates and misunderstands otaku. So instead of just showing the hijinks of a bunch of otaku, it takes the time to explain the obsession to the outsider. This allows for the viewer to relive what exactly got them into a certain aspect of otaku culture, and reaffirms why they are still in it. You might see figurines that you own (I did), you might be a fan of the video games they play like Guilty Gear or Puyo Pop Fever (again me), you may play bishoujo games and will do everything in the world to argue its not "porn" (sweet Jesus thats me again). Whatever it is you are into that even puts you on this website to begin with will end up a subject on this show.

Rating: 9

Art

The artwork in this show is fantastic in its creativity. While some people may look at some of the character designs in this show and scoff, it really fits the tone of this show perfectly. Saki and Kohsaka are your beautiful people. Saki being the one that hates otaku and would much prefer to live a normal life, and Kohsaka would be her otaku boyfriend who acts normally and would be considered cool by most who just happens to have nerdy hobbies. Then Kanako who is the cosplay freak who looks very unkept but cosplay really brings out her beauty. All the other character animations fit the personality type even if they aren't shiny.
There are other things that really help this show stand out in the animation department. The doujinshi, manga, bishoujo games and even the anime within the anime, Kujibiki Unbalance, all have their own charm and accuracy. You would swear they had thousands of animators of all genres making this show.

Rating: 10

Sound

Sound is an overall mixed bag. The vocal portions of the OST are average in my opinion. While the opening and closing songs aren't all that bad and fit the show quite nicely overall, they aren't songs you'll likely have on your playlists any time soon. Even the opening song to the spinoff Kujibiki Unbalance isn't anything all that fantastic. It's one of those high pitched, chipper songs on par with something from Galaxy Angel. The BGM in the show is quite fantastic. That's not because its an amazing composition a la Yuki Kajiura style, but it is a great tone setter for the show. It is all sometimes quirky, laid back and mischivious music that brings out the character interaction perfectly. You likely won't want to buy any of the music on CD, but you'll like the way it fits the show.
On the voice acting end of the spectrum, its about as spot on as you can get. You could swear that the voices cast for this show are legitamate otaku. From the excitement of the newest episode of Kujiun coming on TV, to the disspointment and anguish over losing one of your prized Gundam models, all the voices hit the spot dead on. Madarame's explaination of hentai to Saki remains one of the funniest and well acted scenes in anime. As for the performance that stood out, that would go to Ayako Kawasumi as Kanako Ohno. While her parts were small, they were always the best acted scenes. Quiet and refined until the word cosplay was mentioned, then it was on from there.

Rating: 7

Presentation

Presentation of this show was spot on for everything it set out to accomplish. While Comic Party mostly left me out to dry since its main topic was doujinshi, Genshiken managed to hit upon all aspects of otakudom. A lot of the jokes on this show hit so close to home, I found myself not only laughing at the antics on the television, but laughing at myself as I found them to describe me oh so well. Character interaction is what made this show stand out as you get to see all types of otaku live out their lives together, and explain to a non-otaku why it is they are who they are. For those who are just what you would call "average anime fans" this show might not appeal too much. But for those who can look around their room and see the $200 resin statue of their favorite character, this show is going to be a blast from beginning to end.

Like the tagline says: "It's funny because its true, and it hurts because it's true".

Rating: 9

Final Verdict

8.8333 (very good)

Reviewed by shoujoboy, Jan 14, 2006

Comments

  1. exentric Jan 15, 2006

    a good review. describes genshiken quite well. ^_^
    one mistake though, they're not high school students, they're college students and yes they're in college. ^_^'

  2. shinsengumi Retired Moderator Jan 15, 2006

    Finally, another Genshiken review, and a well-written one to boot! It looks like you reached a lot of the same conclusions as I did in my review, so I'll just leave my stamp of approval and leave it at that. Keep up the good work!

  3. cyd84 Jan 15, 2006

    Great review...really hits on all the reasons why Genshiken is funny and realistic

    I would disagree on the music part though...I actually find the songs very amusing and fun to listen to...but that may be because they remind me of the series :)

  4. almina Jan 20, 2006

    That's a great review. Genshiken isn't the kind of anime that can be viewed by everyone except if you want to convince your parents or friends that are not interested by that you are really weird.

    I like this anime, it's nearly a kind of private joke.

  5. wald89 May 27, 2006

    You hit the nail whit the hammer. Exelent review

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