genshiken – bluemist anime blog

Genshiken

Again, this anime is about this group of guys composing of Genshiken (short for Gendai Shikaku Bunka Kenkyuukai [Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture]) club members. Frankly, they are ‘otakus’ and this is their life story. Yup. Them otakus like everything. Anime, manga, videogames, cosplay, models and toys, doujinshi, ero-games, blah blah blah. They also love [Kujibiki Unbalance->].

I was quite surprised that this anime is actually licensed, considering that this has a theme that Americans may not accept. In America, otakuism is like having a cool, elitist lifestyle, regarded as somewhat honorable. In Japan, being an otaku means being in your self-contained hobbyist world, without much social life, neglecting your physical appearance, and basically obsessed with your hobby. Moreover, many anime fans in America think otakuism in Japan is popular, meaning anime, games, and stuff like that are really popular in Japan. They think anime is mostly not for kids. Hell no in Japan. Maybe through this series they would be kinda surprised that the regular mass Japanese viewpoint is from the Genshiken character Saki, who is your typical Japanese girl forced to hang out with these otakus because her boyfriend is (sadly) also one.

Culture barriers are really complex at times. In America otaku are honored, in Japan otaku are oppressed. In other countries anime is cool, in Japan (where anime itself originates) anime is childish. Of course there are subsections to this kind of issue, but this is generally the case. In any case, Genshiken is somehow a generic mirror to the otaku society of Japan. They watch and discuss anime (mostly Kujibiki Unbalance), they play games (actual Guilty Gear footage is being used all the time), attend those doujinshi festivals, do mecha plastic models, and the ever-loved cosplay. The multitude of Japanese cultural (and otaku-cultural) references may alienate me, but generally this is a very fun watch.

[Genshiken OVA->]

Kujibiki Unbalance

Nothing much to say. It has a weird premise (or maybe I just don’t get it).

Episode 1
A school which is basically organizing a bunch of challenge plays, group vs. group, probably to decide who gets to be the student council leaders. And so, our main guy Chihiro has been assigned by lottery (kujibiki) to be in the cooking room, having three girls as allies/groupmates of sort. One of them (Tokino) likes mushrooms too much. And so as preliminary they get into a cooking match with another group. The Chairman (yellow long hair) is personally there to see the match. And by luck, it’s a cooking match using… mushrooms! Well sadly, the group screwed up something. But in the very end, using a somewhat dangerous mushroom, they capture the Chairman’s taste buds and wins the match. Also, apparently the main guy and the Chairman know each other a while back, in the simple anime cliche of ‘promise girl’.

Episode 21
Shedding new light to the term recap episode, this is… a recap episode wherein we have never even seen the episodes it recaps. Considering how people tend to hate these kinds of stuff, but actually it isn’t quite bad when you think about it. This episode resulted into a fast-paced slew of comedy acts relating to all the lottery challenges that the team has faced. A soccer match, a net popularity challenge, hot and cold survival challenge, jungle shooting match, karaoke singing, swimming relay, mahjong, and dungeon RPG. We also see some sort of plot advancement, in which the Chairman met some evil-looking guy. That’s supposed to be next episode right? Too bad we have no next episode…

Episode 25
Some internal conflict I’m not quite sure of broke the team apart. It seems that they don’t wanna participate in the lottery matches anymore, so the four parted ways. It was already the finals, just when they are already close, they decided to call it quits. Chihiro (our main guy) went off to visit a grave, and saw Chairman/Ritsuko there. Again we see some kind of childhood promise scenes. Anyway, Rit-chan convinced Chihiro into not quitting the lottery, in which he agrees somewhat. But the other team members still seem not interested. Chihiro tried and convinced the three of them to reform their team, but they’re not interested anymore. Komaki is busy taking care of her siblings. Izumi is busy gambling again, and Tokino is simply not interested. But after a while of thought, they got convinced and the four are back to join in the finals!

Well that’s about it. There are 3 OVA’s of Kujibiki Unbalance, apparently listed as 3 key episodes out of 26. Let me remind everyone that, yes, this is the Kujibiki Unbalance that the [Genshiken->] crew has been watching throughout that anime series. Kujian used to be the anime within that anime, but now we get to see some episodes of it. I wish that we would see an actual TV series of this though. For now, it’s fun to look back at Genshiken and see how they discuss Kujian. Maybe I’ll be doing a rewatch anytime soon.

Now for the technicals… the OP is the same OP that was inserted into Genshiken. Featuring of course the song of the same name as the anime, probably the only UNDER17 song I heard that doesn’t seem overly cute. The seiyuu cast is surprisingly recognizable, and the animation is quite good in its own unique way. This looks like a fun anime, too bad we don’t see the entire series… yet.

New Kujibiki Unbalance

Admittedly, I don’t know too much about the new Kujibiki Unbalance, a 13-episode series featuring a completely new story and art style, but almost the same set of characters. People have been telling me to steer clear of this title since it may not be as good as the first, which I currently am. Eventually I may give it a try, but since I am currently busy I should focus on some better anime.