Genshiken 2, Episode 6- /blush

I would like to get this out of the way first, for 90 percent of this episode’s shots of Ogiue she is adorably and massively blushing, and for good reason. This week Ogiue attempts to clandestinely venture to the Comic Fest in order to purchase some delicious yaoi doujinshi, and much hilarity ensues. Will her attempts to avoid detection by the rest of Genshiken succeed? Will she find the titillating yaoi she so desperately desires? Read on to find out…

This episode opens with Madarame, Sasahara, Ogiue, and Ohno in the clubroom engaging in various activities. Madaramae and Sasahara are discussing interviews, and Madarame laments about a recent failed interview he went to. The moral of the story here is to not act too different from how you normally act. They move onto discussion of the upcoming Comic Fest and their plans for the event. Ohno decides to get Ogiue riled up and asks her if she is going on the first day to shop, which she vehemently denies, saying she doesn’t want to go shopping in such a den of lust. Well of course she goes in the end, otherwise there would be no point and much less humor right? She disguises herself in a ridiculous yet adorable looking getup that is supposed to hide her from the world so she can sneakily buy her yaoi. While waiting her turn to go inside she ridicules her fellow attendees, incredulous at how they can be so open with their shameful material. She is exasperated over the temperature, smell and the raw number of attendees, but finally makes her way inside.

She makes her primary purchases first and then heads off to her secondary choices, passing by members of the school’s Manga Society. One of the members, Yabusaki, discovers her buying multiple titles, much to her surprise. It’s at this point that the funny sequence of the episode begins, when Ogiue sees Tanaka, Sasahara and Kousaka chatting and decides to stand near them and listen in. They start discussing interesting games they’ve been playing lately, and Sasahara admits he really isn’t into anything too extreme like guro and rape like the rest of them. This is apparently due to a traumatizing encounter with the genre in middle school. They move that topic into quiet girls who turn out to be violent and murderous at the end, and Kousaka notes that it reminds her of Ogiue. After, they discuss how Ogiue has mellowed out to a degree, beginning to slowly accept the fact that she is like them, but not all the way. They note that without her the Genshiken-produced doujinshi would not have been possible, and that she seems interested in drawing her own manga.

Madarame, Kugayama, and Kuchiki eventually join them, excited about the purchases they’ve made, and discuss the events and things they’ve seen during their rounds. This prompts a discussion on which characters Ogiue reminds them of, as they imagine her in various scenes of a visual novel. After this conversation Sasahara notices Ogiue, not totally sure it’s her but giving her a suspicious look, so she attempts to flee. However, as she turns to flee her face collides with the approaching Ohno’s large rack, knocking her to the floor and spilling all her yaoi onto the floor for everyone to see. She freaks out and runs as fast as she can out of there, to everyone’s amusement. After the ED, everyone is back in the clubroom, where Ogiue stutters out a request for help because she wants to draw her own manga for the next Comic Fest.

Impressions:

As a message to all the yaoi fangirls from last week’s episode, there is no actual yaoi shown in this episode, however it central to the plot of the episode regardless. I’m pleased and amazed that yet again they have managed to fit in extended scenes either depicting sex or discussing/playing ero games, they certainly don’t hold back. I also loved the fact that we were able to see so much of Ogiue this episode, she hasn’t had an episode to herself really, and I enjoy her character tremendously. Aside from her tsundere tendencies, her character seems to be ripe for the most amount of character development for the rest of the series. She has a lot of room to grow and slowly accept her passions and fantasies, more so than any of the other characters. The way in which her and Ohno interact is also a source of enjoyment for me, it’s great to watch her display her emotions whenever they get into a fight. So far it seems like Ohno and Sasahara understand her the most, and they each have their own way of encouraging Ogiue to express herself. Ohno favors the more aggressive approach which often involves pissing Ogiue off, while Sasahara plays the nice guy and can relate to her struggle to accept herself and reach out to her fellow otaku, much like he did at the start of the first season.

The most hilarious part of the episode, as I pointed out earlier, was when Ogiue was listening in to the other Genshiken members talk about her and eventually gets caught. Personally, I’m in the same boat as Sasahara, while I’ve played a few ero games, it’s nothing too extreme, I’m also a bit too timid for anything too far out there. I also laughed a lot at the scene where they imagine Ogiue’s scenario in such a game, and the ero game masters pin her character archetype down, with Kuchiki going over the top as usual. Now speaking of Kuchiki, there was a line in there translated as “I am going through completely peeled back, I declare being peeled back for life!” I wouldn’t say I know much about Japanese circumcision practices, but if that line means what is suggested…haha wow. And then finally, in the epilogue when Ogiue is madly blushing and asking for help, that face is just adorable, doesn’t it make you say “awwwwww.”