Genshiken OVA ep.01

March 3, 2007 | 10 Comments

OP Theme: 「青春として」- Seishun Toshite by MANZO - PSP version (16.3MB)

Well, here's an attempt by me to catch up with the OVAs. It's been a bit hard for me to do this due to the limited amount of time that I have for blogging these days. It doesn't help that my interest in anime is kind of going up and down in the past few months. Anyway, Genshiken is definitely one of those series where you have to see it first in order to be excited about it. Because everytime I imagine that I'd be watching an anime about a group of Otaku, the idea seems less entertaining than the actual episode itself. However, it is actually a lot more interesting once you sit down and watch the episode because the character's interaction and the things that they do within it are a lot more hilarious than the show's description. Unfortunately the animation and character design for this OVA are pretty bad. I can't remember who did the animation for the 1st season but I know it's a lot better than this.

The episode begins with Sasahara wondering whether they'll get new members. Madarame kind of doubts it since Saki scares everyone away from the club. Having said that, he feels that Saki has been a bit better lately. The two then talk about how Kugayama hasn't been coming lately because he's busy doing job hunting. Ohno and Tanaka was spotted going to Nippori. When Sasahara wonders how Madarame is going with his job hunting, Madarame realises that Kuchiki has been secretly peeping from the door. Kuchiki claims that he's been practicing playing beat-em-up video game so he now wants to put that practice by playing King of Fighters XI against Sasahara. Madarame wonders if Sasahara can defeat the guy but Sasahara only plans on stalling him until Kousaka comes and beat the crap out of Kuchiki. Much to their surprise, however, Kuchiki sucks at playing it. As it turns out Kuchiki was lying about practicing the game.

Saki and Kousaka then enter the room, surprised that "Kuchii" is inside. Kuchiki is happy to hear Saki calling him "Kuchii" because no one in the anime club would call him that. Kuchiki then rants about how happy he is that Saki is the only person who calls him that, which is why he wants to join Genshiken. Sasahara who is perceptive about this realises that Kuchiki simply wants to join Genshiken. Unfortunately Saki refuses the idea, causing Kuchiki to explode with anger. However, he immediately cools down after Saki gives him the icy glare of death. Eventually Kuchi starts speaking in normal voice, apologising to Saki and begging her to allow him to enter the club. Saki thinks he should have said right from the start since she doesn't really mind. Madarame is shocked about this and wonders if Saki has been a bit less nasty lately. Sasahara thinks that she just doesn't care anymore one way or the other.

Later on, Saki lightly exclaims that the weather is nice, prompting Madarame to say that as he thought, she loves Spring. Saki confirms this but wonders why Madarame suspected it in the first place. Madarame explains that the first kanji in Kasukabe -「春日部」is 「春」- Haru, which means Spring. Their conversation comes to a halt when Kasukabe hears some commotion and after checking the source, Madarame realises that it comes from the manga club's room. Suddenly, a girl squats on the window before jumping down to the ground, 2 levels down. The girl injured her hand but apart from that seems pretty okay. A few days later, the leader of the manga club, Takayanagi, explains that there was a situation between the girls from the manga club and a new girl. Because of this, he wonders if Genshiken would let the new girl join them. In response Sasahara wonders who was responsible for the incident.

Takayanagi admits that 90% it was the mistake of the new girl. Madarame is not impressed that Takayanagi is planning to pass over the problematic girl to Genshiken but Takayanagi claims that she's been wanting to join Genshiken. In addition to this, he thinks Genshiken guys always get along with one another. Madarame sweatdrops and admits that they have their own problem. Besides, he's worried that the female members of manga club will be angry at them. Takayanagi, however, assures Madarame not to worry about it since their female members already hate Genshiken girls. Ohno is shocked to hear this because while she can understand people hating Saki, she finds it hard to believe that someone hates her. Despite this, Saki suggests that they meet the new girl first. Because of this Takayanagi calls after the girl, who introduces herself as Otaku-hater Ogiue. She especially hates girl Otaku and wonders why they love Homo.

Saki tries to calm Ogiue down by telling her that there's no need for her to say that since she's an Otaku. In response Ogiue also calls Saki an Otaku, setting off the girl in the process. Saki immediately denies this and points out that she's only here because of her boyfriend. Ogiue is surprised to hear this so Saki asks Ohno to back her up. Instead of doing this, however, Ohno makes a large sweeping generalisation by claiming that there's no girls who doesn't like homos. Saki finally realises that it's this kind of situation that caused Ogiue to jump off the window the last time around. She then asks Ogiue to cut down with the talk because they can see that she's a complete Otaku. Saki also knows that Ogiue joins the club to make friends so she suggests that Ogiue start learning how to make friends. Kikuchi suggests that they forget about this by saying "Nothing" but Ogiue ends up telling everyone that Kikuchi is a weirdo.

Kikuchi is angry about this and is about to pounce on Ogiue. Ogiue, however, manages to hold herself quite well by giving Kikuchi a stare. Unfortunately, Kikuchi becomes violent and karate-chop Ogiue's head. Saki is angry to see Kikuchi laying a hand on a girl and decides to give the guy a taste of his own medicine by punching the guy into a wall. A few days later, Ogiue enters the club room only to find that no one is inside. Instead, however, she finds a lot of shounen-ai doujinshi scattered on top of the table. Unknown to her, Ohno has been watching her movements from a far. Madarame thinks that they're being too obvious but Ohno disagrees. Since Saki and Kousaka are out on a date, Kugayama is at a job interview, and Kuchiki is out at Akihabara, this is the perfect time for ambush. Meanwhile inside the Genshiken room, Ogiue tries to tidy up the area but as she does this, her eyes are drawn to a Slam Dunk doujinshi.

Just as Ogiue was about to reach for the doujinshi, however, Saki enters the room, surprised to see Ogiue all alone in the room. Ohno is not happy about this because she was going to get some good stuff from Ogiue. Plus, she wonders what happens to Saki's date with Kousaka. As it turns out, Kousaka wants to go Akihabara so Saki decides to go back here. She doesn't mind though since she had good lunch with Kousaka. Ogiue thinks it must be tough dating Otaku but Saki thinks this could happen whether the person is Otaku or not. Her interest, however, is quickly diverted to the stash of shounen-ai doujinshi in front of her and starts to flip it. After several pages, she realises what it's about and wonders if it belongs to Ogiue. Ogiue denies this so Saki concludes that these must be Ohno's collections. Having said that, she can't help but wonder why Ohno brought so many of them. Ogiue thinks Ohno simply tries to make her angry.

Meanwhile, Ohno wonders what the two could be talking about. Much to her surprise, her mobile suddenly plays Kujibiki Unbalance theme song. Upon picking up the phone, Ohno realises that Saki is the caller. Saki wants to know if it's okay for her to talk to Ohno and since Ohno has no excuse, she has no choice but to say yes. Saki immediately wonders where Ohno could be and after hesitating, Ohno claims that she's in the toilet. Saki then gets straight to the point and asks Ohno if the 'homo' doujinshi belongs to her. Ohno confirms this and Saki immediately ends the phone call right away. Ohno immediately thinks that she better go back to the Genshiken room or else Saki will suspect him. Meanwhile, Saki is busy reading one of the doujinshi and realises that it's actually based on foreign film which she's seen. The problem is it was just a normal movie so she can't believe that girls can make it into a situation like this.

Ogiue thinks that it's because those girls have perverted minds. Upon hearing this, Saki tells Ogiue that male Otaku usually buys porn doujinshi with a particular intention so she wonders if female Otaku also read them to *bleep* *bleep*. An embarassed Ogiue immediately denies that she knows any of these things. Saki simply laughs it off and points out that for Ougie to hate them that much, it must means that she has at least read one. Otherwise, how would she knows that she hates it? Because of this Ogiue has no choice but to admit that she's read one when she was five years old because a friend showed it to her. Meanwhile, Ohno is frustrated that she can't hear a thing that the two talk about and therefore she wonders if there is any way she can listen to their conversation. Eventually Ohno decides to go back since her attempt at ambush has failed. Having said that, she asks the guys to wait a while before they come back.

Back inside the Genshiken room, Saki asks Ogiue what she likes so Ogiue tells her that she likes games. Saki realises that although many non-Otaku people play games, she never know female gamers. Right at this point, Ohno returns to the room so Saki wonders if she was constipated. Ohno is embarrassed to hear this and asks Saki not to talk like that but Saki thinks there's no problem since there are only girls in the room. All of a sudden the room turns cold when Ohno and Ogiue notice each other. Saki tries to break the ice by saying that the reason Ogiue hates shounen-ai doujinshi is because she was traumatised as a child. Upon hearing this Ogiue asks Saki not to say it since she doesn't want Ohno to hear it. Not wanting to be outdone, Ohno tells Saki that she doesn't want to know. Ohno thinks it's unbelievable that Ogiue was traumatised after reading doujinshi in the 5th grade since in America, some kids already *bleep* at that age.

Ohno believes that once you read it once, you'll get into it. In response, Ogiue accuses Ohno for forcing her opinion on others. Not wanting to be outdone, Ohno thinks Ogiue tries to shift the topic. Plus, Ogiue is now an Otaku so surely she can't be that traumatised. Ogiue finally can't take it anymore so she picks up the Slam Dunk doujinshi and tells Ohno that she's the only one who *bleeps* at a thing like this. In response Ohno picks up, a doujinshi featuring two ugly guys and tells Ogiue that she *bleeps* at this kind of thing. -_-;; Poor Saki who gets caught in the middle hopes that someone will come and save her but much to her disappointment, it's Kikuchi who comes. Much to Ogiue's embarassment, Kikuchi reveals that he has pictures of her lining up for Scram Dunk Mitsugi Rei's book events. In the aftermath, an embarrassed Ogiue claims that her brother likes basketball and when she realises that this is one lame excuse, she tries to jump from the window again. Thankfully Saki manages to restrain her in time.

ED Theme: 「びいだま」- Biidama by Atsumi Saori - PSP version (16.3MB)

Impression:

First thing first, was that Madarao imitating Satou from NHK ni Youkoso!! in the opening? I just thought that scene where Madarao holds a gun look a bit familiar. Moving along, even after all of these times, I have never been bothered to play The King of Fighter video game. Come to think of it, it's been a while since I last play any kind of beat-em-up video game. It's not that I hate the genre it's just that I usually get bored with the game after a few tries. I think the lack of plot contributes a little bit to this. As a result, I usually prefer the action/horror games since they tend to have something resembling plot, no matter how thin this plot can be. This leads me to Kuchiki, who pretends to play the game so he can join the club. I feel horrible for saying this but I often wonder where do you draw the line between feeling sorry for excluding someone like him and not wanting to ruin your perfectly formed group by adding someone like him?

Despite the lousy animation, there are some good lines in this episode. I can't help but laughing out loud after hearing Ohno's rebuttal to Ogiue's introduction. It was also amusing to see the part where Ohno spreads all sorts of shounen-ai doujinshi across the table. Apart from the Slam/Scram Dunk one, I can see one inspired by xxxHOLiC and one from Full Metal Alchemist. Saki talking about how she find it hard to believe that girls can slash characters from normal movie made me laugh so much because I have female friends who slash characters from TV series like Heroes. Moving along, I also like the part where Ogiue was revealed to be closet shounen-ai fan. It must have been highly embarrassing to be caught on camera like that though. Her "my brother likes basketball" comment was one of the lamest excuse I've heard. Well, it's not like she can come up with any excuse that will clear her name off this.

© memento 2003