Sunday, April 19, 2009

For Jessica

Since Jessica asked so nicely, I’ll provide a brief summary of Genshiken.

It’s an anime about otaku. Wow, that was brief. I suppose I could provide a summary of the characters.

Kanji Sasahara

Sasahara is a university freshman just coming to terms with being an otaku. He joins Genshiken in order to get acquainted with other otaku and learn more about the lifestyle. Much of the series focuses on his introduction to otaku culture.

Saki Kasukabe

Not an otaku herself, Saki’s presence at Genshiken is a consequence of her otaku boyfriend Kousaka. She loathes otakuness on the whole and makes an effort to get Kousaka to give up the lifestyle.

Makoto Kousaka

At first glance Kousaka doesn’t seem like much of an otaku. He is very fashionable and the clear bishounen of the series. However otakuness is deeply engraved in his personality. He is particularly skilled at video games and is often shown playing Guilty Gear X.

Harunobu Madarame

Madarame is the most hardcore otaku in Genshiken. He is argumentative and is often seen arguing heatedly with other members over some small detail in a manga or anime. Taking otakuness to a dangerous level, he even cuts back on living expenses to pay for trips to the dojinshi store.

Souichiro Tanaka

Tanaka loves cosplay and model building. He is very skilled at making costumes and designs all of those worn by the girls in the series.

Mitsunori Kugayama

Kugayuma is overweight and quiet (he has a stutter). While he is a skilled artist he lacks motivation and confidence in his abilities.

Kanako Ohno

Ohno comes to university after spending (five?) years at school in the US. She’s very quiet much of the time but comes out of her shell whenever the topic of cosplay comes up. She often tries to convince Saki to cosplay despite her adamantly voiced rejection of the idea.

That’s about it (for the first season anyways). It’s quite fantastic and comes highly recommended by me. Perhaps we’ll get together and watch it sometime this summer, yes?

2 comments:

  1. What's an otaku??? I understood everything but that. You think being friends with you, TB and Zess I would automatically know these things...

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  2. Let's see what Wikipedia has to say...

    Otaku is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games.

    I think that sums it up quite nicely.

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