The Essentials
Name: Genshiken (Season 1), The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 12
Released: October 10, 2004 - December 26, 2004
Based On: Genshiken manga by Shimoku Kio
Director: Takashi Ikehata
Produced By: Palm Studio, Media Factory
US Distribution By: Media Blasters
Major Japanese Cast
Kanji Sasahara: Takanori Ohyama
Saki Kasukabe: Satsuki Yukino
Makoto Kohsaka: Mitsuki Saiga
Harunobu Madarame: Nobuyuki Hiyama
Soichiro Tanaka: Tomokazu Seki
Mitsunori Kugayama: Kenji Nomura
Kanako Ohno: Ayako Kawasumi
Genshiken chairman: Yuji Ueda
Major English Cast
Kanji Sasahara: Michael Perreca
Saki Kasukabe: Carol Jacobanis
Makoto Kohsaka: Kenneth Robert Marlo
Harunobu Madarame: Billy Regan
Soichiro Tanaka: Bill Rogers
Mitsunori Kugayama: Rome Elliot
Kanako Ohno: Rachael Lillis
Genshiken chairman: Tobb Garbeil
Scores
Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 8/10 (x 2 = 16 pts)
English Dubs: 7/10 (x 1 = 7 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)
Total: 168/200 (83.5%)
Review
Genshiken is about a group of otaku college students who spend most of their non-class time hanging out at their otaku-related club Genshiken, which is short for The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture. Genshiken mainly focuses on Kanji Sasahara, a new arrival at Shiiou University, as he ends up deciding to join Genshiken since it looks like it will be a club he will enjoy. Once he joins he meets a variety of different club members, each with their own interests and quirks.
As the series goes on, interpersonal relationships between the characters start, grow, and change over time, all largely centered around the otaku lifestyle that most of the characters are deeply involved in.
While she may not be the focus of the show, Saki, someone who could be best described as the anti-Otaku of the show, even though she’s forced to hang out with Genshiken to be with her boyfriend Makoto, ends up being a strong motivational force to several members of Genshiken. Her motivation may be, for the most part, unintended and done in roughly, if not cruelly, at times, though. However, her interaction with all the otaku around her certainly creates many humorous moments in the show.
In the end, the series turns up being a mostly comedic slice-of-life show about the otaku culture. Despite this simplistic sounding basis for the series, Genshiken ends up being a fairly entertaining show which shows both depth and quality, with all around character development and growth for nearly all the major characters in the show.
My biggest beef for this series runs directly from the type of series it is: an otaku-centric series. As a result, many of the jokes in the series are otaku in-jokes, often heavily relying on references to other series which one may not get unless you watched, or at least were aware of, those series. That can start to become frustrating as the number of jokes that one just doesn’t get starts to pile up. However, Genshiken is hardly completely based around these types of jokes, with humor that any viewer can laugh at still being the bulk of the laughs (at least…I think it is the bulk).
Genshiken excels in it’s technical aspects as well, having good animation, music, though it only has what I thought was an average dub.
If you’re a hardcore otaku, you’ll probably end up loving this series, and if you aren’t one, then this series still has enough in it to make it a worthwhile watch.
First Watched: July - August 2007
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes
One Comment
Good review - I also enjoyed the show, but I’m sure lots of the jokes were lost on me.