Anime: Genshiken 42wl

This one ranks up with Excel Saga and Cromartie High in of laugh-out-loud funny. The basic story is about an anime and manga club called "The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture" also known as "Genshiken". That's about it really, the series follows the club and their various outings.

What makes this series hilarious is it's ruthless mockery of anime and manga fans, in how weird and perverse they are. One classic moment is in episode 2, where one of the goes on a big dramatic spiel to explain to an outsider ("commoners" as the club calls them) that anime porn isn't so weird. Whether or not said character is in a position to make this claim when he only has anime porn while the others in the club also have the regular kind remains to be seen.

Another source of the funny comes from the "childhood friend character" (as the club would call her) of one of the . She's madly in love with this guy, but at the same time, she hates otaku ("fanboys" in Japanese). Just her luck that this guy is one of the biggest otaku ever, as proved when he turns down her offer of "doing something after this" to go to Akibahara (a district in Tokyo full of games, anime and manga) to line-up for the midnight sale of a new game. Or maybe he's just oblivious to her advances. And so begins her attempts to convert him back from the dark side of otakuisum.

Granted, this series is really only going to appeal to anime and manga fans who don't mind being poked fun at. A strong knowledge of Japanese otaku culture (doujinshi, H-games, manga VS anime, the various districts of Tokyo, voice actors ect) would certainly help you to enjoy this series too.

im writing this review out of my devotion to the series,period.

genshiken,and i thought i will never find another series to interest me.i have been asking for recommendations alot lately and none of them really worked.i picked this,and i had my eyes on it for quiet along time.this is by all aspect a masterpiece that needs to be given its well deserved place.

Animation 10:
i have no complaint whatsoever about the animation.in fact characters are very very well done,with all the human's details.Most of the characters are literally beautiful and for me it was a real treat to my eyes to watch Madarame,Kasukabe,Katigawa...etc

Sound 9:
the opening and ending theme are AWESOME.its very rare for an anime to get them both right.i gave it a 9 because the sound in the episodes are not frequent,but it just suits the whole series right.

Story 10:
the story is really magnificent.no super powers,no slow,unmotivating,tacky slice of life stuff.the story progresses nicely with alot of events and really funny parts.the story is original,i just dont know how to put it in words,but the way they move from funny to otakuness to tragic is just superb.it brings the psychological element at the right times,with a great coming of age feel.

Character development 10:
Kasukabe,Ohno,Madarame, are all great in this.you would never guess what happened with these characters,specially Madarame and Kasukabe.

Value 10:
this is indeed a valuable one.the fact that i finished it in around a week is just something totally new and remarkable for me.i fall in love with the characters and the overall theme of this series.

Enjoyment 10:
i have not enjoyed something like this for a quiet along time.i really looked forward to watch more and more,thankfully there are sequels for it that im definitely going to watch.

one last thing: those rating are based on my own enjoyment of this series.

Animation
All in all, the visuals are basically the bare minimum that the series needs to get across its point. I'd say more, but there isn't really anything else to note besides the fact that nothing really gets in the way of what the anime is trying to do.

Sound
Madarabe's seiyuu steals the show here, with a hilarious performance that manages to be funny in and of itself. The rest of the characters' voices are decent, and the music is never bad.

Overall
Genshiken is funny. The End.

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Seriously, though, this is usually the only thing in comedies that matters. In anime like Dragon Half, Golden Boy or Fumoffu, there really isn't any point other than the sheer quality of the gags. Watching any of those series for anything but laughs is about as productive as using a condom as a water balloon. Sure, you might be able to do it, but you're missing the point entirely.

This isn't really the case, however, with Genshiken. Even though the show is a comedy, the creators are sure to also include some fairly interesting insight into true otaku culture (not the wannabe stuff found in the US). The look into what actually makes these dysfunctional folk function is so intimate, honest and perceptive that only an insider could have ever made it.

None of the otaku in the show are really developed fully as individuals, but as a group they become a living, breathing, and believable portrait of what has become Japan's most defining subculture. In the end, the collective actions are filled with flavor and are the true heart of the show.

Saki, the other major character in the show, acts as a tool to draw out the inherent humor in this brutal honesty. The simple juxtaposition of a relatively mainstream and normal character with the rest of the cast is all that is needed to allow for a good deal of the humor.

When the jokes are handed out, the style is decidedly unique from most comedies that I've seen; whereas most non-ecchi gag series merely try to be as wacky as they can be (FLCL, Hare and Guu, Excel Saga), Genshiken relies primarily on understatement and subtlety. Many of the funniest parts are in the long silences following something extremely awkward, and there are numerous running undercurrents of humor that are never explicated to the point of eliciting a laugh. Some might take issue with this style, but the approach was more than satisfactory for me.

After all is said and done, this is a surprisingly intelligent comedy that manages to be both interesting and likeable. Oh yeah, and Genshiken is funny. The End.

When I first started watching Genshiken, I really didn't know what to expect, but after tearing through all of the episodes, I have to say that I thought that it was excellent and absolutely worth giving a try.

Story
There's nothing truly "amazing" or "inspirational" that goes on here; rather, it's merely a collection of tales about the life of a group of hardcore otakus (anime fanatics). That said, the way in which they put together their experiences and the way in which slowly but surely the group is able to develop chemistry was very well done.

Also, I have to give points because there really didn't seem to be any wasted space in here (which is often a problem in a series of any size). Everything honestly worked well together, and I really can't complain about any of the episodes.

Character
Now THIS is where the series really shines. While the first character you meet never really has much of a personality (in itself a mockery of far too many series), the show quickly shifts focus to the much more entertaining characters, especially the incredibly otaku Harunobo and the "I hate all otakus and otakuness" Saki.

Saki is my personal favorite, a girl who can never escape the fact that she is dating an otaku and slowly but surely gets drawn into the lifestyle of Genshiken, still fighting against it but nonetheless finding herself fitting in with the otakus. The constant conflict of her love and hate relationship with Genshiken is the engine which drives most of the series, and it works fabulously.

The rest of the cast do a solid job of fitting in as well, each presenting a facet of otaku life, from the personality-less newbie to the shy one to the cosplay fanatics (one a guy who always makes costumes and eventually a girl who loves to cosplay more than anything else).

Animation
Come on, this was made at the very end of 2004. We can expect just a touch better. No, it wasn't bad by any means, but there just didn't seem to be anything that stood out, and there were plenty of bits where the level of detail was very weak.

Sound
The OP's were very nice (actually, I thought that somehow I had ed the wrong thing after watching the first episode's OP, though of course I figured it out soon enough). The Kujikiri Unbalance OP was decent, and it definitely captured the spirit of what they were trying to spoof.

The actual Genshiken OP was even better, capturing the silly energy that the entire show had. The ED was all right, nothing overly special, but it didn't detract either.

The voice acting was very solid. Harunobo's voice especially captured the WAY over the top personality of his character.

Value
There were a lot of fun moments that I enjoyed flipping back to. That said, the impact of everything goes down appreciably the second time you watch it. There are a few "I can't believe they did that" moments throughout the series; after you see it once, suddenly you CAN believe they did that, and it just doesn't work quite as well.

Enjoyment
This was a fantastic series to watch; it was a great time throughout. Do yourself a favor and put this one right at the top of your list, whether you are an anime veteran or you are still a newbie in need of the sort of molding that only the guys from the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture can provide.

Genshiken is in fact one of my favorite anime of 2004-2005. The characters, which are great, all have extremely unique personalities and are all very unforgetable.

(Ahem) Now, the animation (as I'm sure you've heard in various other reviews) could be called many different names, mediocre, terrible, or just downright bad. For a 2004 anime, they could have used alot more of the world's advanced technolegy or for God's sake, get a new frickin' person to draw the characters! I can draw better than this crap! In some sense they looked so deformed, you would want to cover your eyes or skip the scene. But for me, the animation possibly matched the overall mood of Genshiken. Silly, simple, yet hilarious at the same time.

The sound in this anime isn't that great when referring to the opening and ending. The lack of background music also contributed to my disliking, but the voice acting is excellent. I watched the whole series over fansub, so of course the voice acting was great seeing it in their original Japanese voices. Very talented voice acting, all of the voices matched perfectly. You can almost tell what kind of character each of them are just by hearing it.

You don't exactly need to know much about anime to watch Genshiken if you watch it over fansub, but if this is the first anime you're going to watch, I suggest watching another one simply because this is a 'slice of life' anime, ones that most would consider boring. I've seen alot of anime and know about cosplay and doujin and stuff, but that didn't contribute to my liking of Genshiken.

Too many people have said the characters are too good looking to be Otakus, which isn't exactly true considering the fact that I am one, and I'm not fat or ugly so...

Genshiken is indeed hilarious. Few animes have succeeded in making me laugh, rather they were meant to be funny or not. But this one, I must say, has made me laugh the most. The nose hair episode had me roaring with laughter...
Genshiken definitly isn't for everyone, but for me, it was a great treat. (And if you care at all I watched the whole series in 2 days)

Animation:

This series is a comedy, it features all the required mimics and gestures required, nothing seems missing.

Sound:

Voice actors did an outstanding job at this one, it's hilarious beyond words just to hear Sasahara and Madarame fighting it out in Guilty Gear. Voice acting reuires a ten but lack of memorable themes along with OP and ED made me drop one point. Every once in a while some very fitting theme comes by like where the episode name is displayed but not enough. Still, I wouldn't exchange the voices of Madarame and Ohno with any songs.

Story:

I haven't laughed so hard since.. since.. I can't . Love Hina and Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu came to my mind but both of them still require over-exaggeration to reach success. In Genshiken's case however, the humour is the contrast of the very real people living, breathing in this world and can be observed by anyone with ease. There are many hilarious moments in this one, but the more you're knowledgeable in anime, games and fantasy literature, the more joy you'll get. Brilliant humor is somewhat offset by the main story (one may think it's not there anyway) which ends abruptly.

Character:

I'm ashamed to it that Madarame reminds me so much of myself. (though I'm quite a bit more handsome :P ) And all other characters remind me of the people I know of, Genshiken features an extremely strong cast of characters which aren't artificial one bit. No cliches, no unnecessary dumbasses being thrown in the lot so that the story can make progress. Everyone is as much as it gets close to real here.

Value:

I've gone over and over this one quite a bit and still review many episode from start to finish, every time starting just with the intention of catching a clever remark and seeing I've spent 20 minutes. If I don't give this a 10 then I don't know what I can give it to.

Enjoyment:

Enjoyment is one word to summarize what this series is all about. Brilliant humour with realistic characters, I was just disappointed by the fact that it didn't last longer. The humour makes me laugh and think at the same time which can be hardly said for any humorous content in any popular culture story, including and excluding anime.

Bottom Line:

If you can consider youself somewhat of an otaku, just watch Genshiken and see how life itself is intertwined with humor. The series just picks the parts concerning animes of that and provides just the right material for an anime like this.