Genshiken

English Title: The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture
Genre: comedy
Format: 12 Episodes
Allegiance: Palm Studios
Director: Takashi Ikehata & Tsutomu Mizushima
Vintage: 2004
Intelligence Agency Report by: Drake
Kanji Sasahara is an incoming college freshman with a goal in mind: to join a group that can appreciate his secret interest in anime, manga and video games. Upon visiting Genshiken, The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, his fear of exposing his otaku side is destroyed by Madarame, the militant sop homore figure of the group. As the year progresses, Sasahara partakes in many activities with his newfound friends, such as visiting doujinshi stores, attending conventions, and playing video games.

Field Agent Report by: Drake
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
8.00
7.00
8.00
8.75
8.25
Overall 8.00
(not an average)

During my senior year of high school, my English class discussed in detail the concept of a story within a story. To clarify the concept in a few words, an example would be a person watching a play in which people are watching a play. After graduating from high school, I never thought that I would actually recall the concept… until I heard about Genshiken.

I think one of my favorite parts of this particular series was the portrayal of the different subgroups of otaku. The series portrays the many different flavors of otaku so no matter which type of otaku you are, you can find yourself relating to at least one of the characters.

The art style did nothing to separate itself from its generic counterpart comedy anime. The anime has the same old stereotypical character designs, such as Sasahara resembling Keitaro from Love Hina. The music is pretty catchy and upbeat, and definitely a good aspect of the series. It helps to give off that lighthearted feeling that the anime carries and is just in general a good OST.

In the end, Genshiken did a very good job of parodying the different types of otaku. I found myself laughing more than once and smiling as I identified with some of the different characters shown in the series. So what are you waiting for? Go watch Genshiken!