You’re worthless Sasahara, but I’ll let you put it in this time…
And this week we are back to more melancholy topics, and sadly there is no Ogiue and Kuchiki cosplay to drool/laugh over. Poor Sasahara has been unable to get a job, and when you combine that with the fact that he’s falling for Ogiue who appears (in his mind) to have no interest in him at all you just feel sorry for the guy. Oh, and my buddy Madarame is back and makes an appearance, yay~!
The first scenes of the episode show Sasahara attending various interviews. He often talks down his own skills and motivation, saying that he was just a slacker through most of college and now is motivated to get a job. Next, we see a dream of Kasukabe where Kousaka tells her that he prefers 2D women for sexual and relationship purposes and that she is really unneeded. She later arrives in the clubroom, where they talk about the fact that Kousaka is trying to get a job at a game company, much to Kasukabe’s chagrin. Later, Ogiue arrives in a huff, angry at Ohno for including some of her older bald men doujin in with her recommendations for Ogiue to base her own doujin on. Afterwards, Kasukabe begins to realize the tension between Ogiue and Sasahara, later talking with Ohno about whether she though the two were interested in one another. Ohno isn’t so sure, believing that she prefers to just draw Sasahara and Madarame together in her yaoi. Kasukabe also laments to Ohno that she has reservations about Kousaka’s large amount of eroge playtime.
Kuchiki arrives on the scene, energetically raving about Genshiken going to some sort of summer/training camp, to which most of the club members reply that they are way too busy for that. Then, even he picks up on the Sasahara x Ogiue tension going on, asking her if she would be interested, to which she harshly replies that she would never date an otaku. Ouch. To interrupt the gloomy mood that sets in Kousaka arrives with a smile on his face to announce that he got a job with a game manufacturer. The problem for Kasukabe is that it’s a company that makes eroge and needs him to work long hours starting immediately, probably her worst nightmare. The rest of the episode consists of another interview for manga editing that Sasahara attends, where they first ask him to describe himself in three minutes. He replies by giving bad qualities about himself for some reason, and then later when they ask him about copyright issues with doujin he has no answer. The firm rejects him, and he goes home and plays some eroge, fantasizing about Ogiue.
Next Episode:
Looks like back to comedy next week, with a couple of otaku girls from the US who I assume are Ohno’s friends. One of them seems to take a liking to Madarame to hilarious effect. I wonder how they will voice them, while I find Kate from Sketchbook to be amusing (“desu karrrr”), it is a harsh portrayal of white people. Maybe they will go along the Patty-chan (Lucky Star) route of a more intelligent Western otaku, but I doubt it for small role characters that will probably appear in one or two episodes.
Impressions:
Well it certainly ended on a dark note, with Sasahara feeling depressed and fantasizing about Ogiue after getting completely rejected by another employer. They also used a different ED song that was much more somber than the normal one, which fits with the mood of the latter part of the episode. This is in stark contrast to last week’s episode which emphasized comedy. Overall I thought the episode was well done, it really underlined some of Sasahara’s problems. He is often relegated to the side in the show since he is kind of a neutral and uninteresting character at times, so it becomes something different when he has a large amount of primary screen time.
His job hunt gave me reminders of how awful it was last spring trying to get a summer internship. It took me a little over two months to secure a job that lasted ten weeks, so I feel his pain. However, he is partially to blame here as his interviewing skills are horrible, you don’t ever discuss your negative qualities unless you immediately thereafter talk about how you have fixed or overcame them. Saying that you were uninspired and a slacker is quick trip out the door, he needs better interview preparation. Furthermore, he went to apply at a job in manga editing and he had no opinion or anything to say at all about copyright issues? That’s very bad form, that’s a pretty obvious question in the field if you want to be employed there, having no answer is poor form. However, I don’t blame him completely, panel interviewing is pretty scary, I’m glad I’ve never had to do it. I really don’t think taking 3-4 people on the interviewer or interviewee side really helps the interview process. At least for legal jobs it really makes a difference to go one-on-one for an interview to find out whether or not they belong there.
11 Comments
Rearrange the words in the article’s title and that first picture becomes a lot funnier.
“..you don’t ever discuss your negative qualities unless you immediately thereafter talk about how you have fixed or overcame them.”
I’m thinking that was intention, but the interviewer cut him off..
Excellent episode but painful to watch
@0rion
Hmmm indeed, I didn’t really pick that up and I consider myself pretty perverted.
@Daniel
Well he had a whole 3 minutes to talk about himself, he shouldn’t be talking bad things about himself for 3 minutes. You should definitely never start off with bad things, the only time it should ever be mentioned is if the interviewer asks you “what are your weaknesses?” and then you say something small and overshadow it with good.
@Solidus
Indeed, but that’s what makes this show good, it doesn’t repeat the same type of show over and over again but it maintains its quality.
wow, hentai! XD~
Well, I finally watched the episode and I was somewhat shocked at the lack of ability to communicate for a job. As much as panel judges are scary (I have been through with a bundle of nerves), telling everyone how awful you are at the start is a suicide move. You should always be very thick skinned yet somewhat realistic in a job search.
However, it seems that there’s a bit of romance between the Sasa and Ogiue camp. That, i do not mind at all, go the two of them! Sasa fantasizing about Ogiue is somewhat wrong though ~_~
It’s reality, and reality bites sometimes. That’s one of the reasons I like Genshiken. You can’t always have it go right. I do feel sorry for Sasahara, but I dislike how he’s handling it right now. Oh wells.
@Calawain
Like I said, his intention probably was to start off with some negative points and then follow it up from there. It gives the employer the impression that you have really made some changes for the better in your life, which is always a good thing. I’m pretty sure Sasahara was not planning to talk bad things about himself for the entire 3 minutes (he was cut off around 17 seconds into the interview); that would be VERY stupid. It really depends on the interviewer. Some of them are patient enough and will hear out what you have to say, while others who could care less about how your spent your 4 years in university will want to stop you and move on to a more relevant topic.
@Daniel: Well, it’s nevertheless a silly thing to do to reveal your mistakes at the start. Employers are not keen on knowing whether you improve or not. they want to know what you can bring for the company, and the way he started is just suicide. I do get your point, Daniel, but it’s not really valid in reality. That really shows how Sasahara is not really adept in communication, and that good guys are not exactly competent guys. =/
A very nice episode for sure. ^^
What’s more depressing is that you people are actually wasting your time on this worthless show. Makes me want to commit homicide than suicide; more than anything.
Interesting. Thank you.