Genshiken is essentially a club for otaku and each member has different interest such as playing ero-game (not sure what it's called in U.S.),
reading or creating manga, or making or wearing costumes (cosplay).

I just finished the "first generation" composing of nine volumes. Each
volume covers approximately six monthly episodes so two volumes cover a year
in the character's life. However, there was one episode taking place in September of the fourth year that dragged on for several issue so even
though the graduation ceremony said 2005, the last two volumes weren't published until 2006. I am not sure what happened but the final two volumes contain many episodes that were not originally published in a magazine.

2nd Generation picks up the story immediately after the end of first but the author didn't start on this until four years after the series ended.

I will talk more about the series when I have time.

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I started reading the 2nd Generation, which begins with Volume 10. The
author apparently did an one-shot that was published in February of 2010,
which is almost four years after the series ended in 2016. He then
officially started the serialization in December of 2010.

All the members that joined in the first episode of the series have since graduated so we are left with just three members who joined since then. One
is Oota, who joined few months after the episode 1 because she moved back
from U.S. (Japanese school year begins in April.) Many of the alumni show
up often and many work and live nearby.

As far as the new member, an American girl who is the friend of Oota is
study abroad and officially has joined the club. And three more joined.
Two women, both wearing glasses and Hato, a boy who dresses up as a woman
ONLY when he's in the club.

I have every volume all the way to 18 so I know I am going to enjoy it. The first thing I noticed is that the lines are much thinner than before.

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I think pacing was the major issue with the "1st Generation" because this
was in monthly installment and author did it in real time until the very
end. And he typically produced only 24 pages a month, including the cover. (In contrast, weekly manga is 18 pages plus cover.) The story is quite
dense so he could draw a little bigger and get the page count up but I think plotting was an issue and he can only come up with so much story every
month.

So typically they have to devote the April issue to recruiting new member.
Then there are typically couple conventions they attend and preparing for
them. And a school festival. You never see any of them studying nor find
out what their majors are. This is problematic for the supposed main
character Sasahara, who was new to the otaku culture at the beginning and
never did much except to try out some "ero games." And yet he landed a job
as a manga editor when he graduated. Most other characters have their niche from the beginning and they just kind of stuck to it. Saki just came along because she likes Koosaka and didn't contribute much except being forced
into cosplay here and there.

Oota, another female student, joined fairly early on and another girl,
Ogiue, joined much later. She draws manga so the club felt more evenly balanced but in one storyline she drew yaoi manga starring two male members
of the club.

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On 12/30/2016 05:10 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:

I think pacing was the major issue with the "1st Generation" because
this was in monthly installment and author did it in real time until the
very end. And he typically produced only 24 pages a month, including
the cover. (In contrast, weekly manga is 18 pages plus cover.) The
story is quite dense so he could draw a little bigger and get the page
count up but I think plotting was an issue and he can only come up with
so much story every month.

If he has lots of plot and ideas the problem is to draw
the more interesting parts in each chapter to keep the readers interest
and give them reasons to come back to the story in every issue.
Check on the magazine that published the story originally. I think
it does not come out every month.

So typically they have to devote the April issue to recruiting new
member. Then there are typically couple conventions they attend and
preparing for them. And a school festival. You never see any of them studying nor find out what their majors are. This is problematic for
the supposed main character Sasahara, who was new to the otaku culture
at the beginning and never did much except to try out some "ero games."

He used those games for the intended purpose though it was
blanked out as an image. Hardly "try out".

And yet he landed a job as a manga editor when he graduated. Most other characters have their niche from the beginning and they just kind of
stuck to it. Saki just came along because she likes Koosaka and didn't contribute much except being forced into cosplay here and there.

Sasahara as Club President initiates and with help from
Saki Kasukeba, the business major and girlfriend of Kousaku published
a doujin including art from both a senior member, Kugayama, who is
rather difficult and from Oguie mentioned below.

Oota, another female student, joined fairly early on and another girl,
Ogiue, joined much later. She draws manga so the club felt more evenly balanced but in one storyline she drew yaoi manga starring two male
members of the club.

Kanako Ohno is the regular spelling of this character's name,
which you render as Oota. Ohno is a devoted cos-player which gives
Tanaka a lot of hope.

I don't know how you arrived at the spelling in Romanji of
the character names. At the article at the URL below, there is a lot
of information on the story and on the character names.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Genshiken_characters>

In "Genshiken Nidaime", published in the USA as
"Genshiken:Second Season" Oguie becomes the Club President.
She continued to draw yaoi of her fellow and former club
members along with Hato and several others inside and
outside of the Genshiken club. She also becomes the best
sort of mangaka.

Sasahara who becomes Oguie's boyfriend and lover, goes
out and looks for work at publishers as an editor until he spots
an advertisement for a company that provides manga editors to
publishers. He was a shy and retiring sort of otaku when he
joins the club as viewpoint sort of character but with the
encouragement of his senior members he becomes more open
about his interests, Oh and the reason he looks for such
work is that manga and anime are such a large part of his
life he wishes to work in the industry.

And the original President has a real name but
you have to read closely to find out where it is set
out. I have read Genshiken, the original 9 volumes
at least 5 times which is how I got so familiar with
the plot twists and the meaning of the characters.
I have read the available volume of Nidaime nearly as
often and have watched both the anime and the OVAs
published in the "Kujibiki Unbalance" DVD and the
chapters on which they were based as published in
the translated, printed volumes.
"Kujibiki Unbalance" started as an anime
and manga internal to the main show and became
an independent manga and anime. The Genshiken DVDs
included chapters of the supposed anime and when
KU was put on SVDs OVAs of Genshiken were included
to keep the main story alive and moving.
All of the Genshiken OVA stuff that was
published became part of Genshiken Nidaime/Second
Season manga.

Possibly the best part is where the mangaka
who enjoyed "Genshiken" give their opinion via pages
in a particular volume of the story and its accuracy
relating to the clubs that they knew.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

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"Bobbie Sellers" wrote in message news:o47cl8$tf9$1@dont-email.me...

On 12/30/2016 05:10 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:

I think pacing was the major issue with the "1st Generation" because
this was in monthly installment and author did it in real time until the
very end. And he typically produced only 24 pages a month, including
the cover. (In contrast, weekly manga is 18 pages plus cover.) The
story is quite dense so he could draw a little bigger and get the page
count up but I think plotting was an issue and he can only come up with
so much story every month.

If he has lots of plot and ideas the problem is to draw
the more interesting parts in each chapter to keep the readers interest
and give them reasons to come back to the story in every issue.
Check on the magazine that published the story originally. I think
it does not come out every month.

So typically they have to devote the April issue to recruiting new
member. Then there are typically couple conventions they attend and
preparing for them. And a school festival. You never see any of them studying nor find out what their majors are. This is problematic for
the supposed main character Sasahara, who was new to the otaku culture
at the beginning and never did much except to try out some "ero games."

He used those games for the intended purpose though it was
blanked out as an image. Hardly "try out".

And yet he landed a job as a manga editor when he graduated. Most other characters have their niche from the beginning and they just kind of
stuck to it. Saki just came along because she likes Koosaka and didn't contribute much except being forced into cosplay here and there.

Sasahara as Club President initiates and with help from
Saki Kasukeba, the business major and girlfriend of Kousaku published
a doujin including art from both a senior member, Kugayama, who is
rather difficult and from Oguie mentioned below.

Oota, another female student, joined fairly early on and another girl,
Ogiue, joined much later. She draws manga so the club felt more evenly balanced but in one storyline she drew yaoi manga starring two male
members of the club.

Kanako Ohno is the regular spelling of this character's name,
which you render as Oota. Ohno is a devoted cos-player which gives
Tanaka a lot of hope.

I don't know how you arrived at the spelling in Romanji of
the character names. At the article at the URL below, there is a lot
of information on the story and on the character names.

I was probably typing too quickly and may also have forgotten the names of
the characters. In Japanese version they typically show how the name is pronounced just once when that name is first used within the volume. Just
like Katou is spelled more commonly as "Kato" in U.S., it's hard to say
which spelling is correct. Ohno is pronounced as O-o-No, not Oh-No in
Japanese so I spelled it that way.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Genshiken_characters>

In "Genshiken Nidaime", published in the USA as
"Genshiken:Second Season" Oguie becomes the Club President.
She continued to draw yaoi of her fellow and former club
members along with Hato and several others inside and
outside of the Genshiken club. She also becomes the best
sort of mangaka.

Sasahara who becomes Oguie's boyfriend and lover, goes
out and looks for work at publishers as an editor until he spots
an advertisement for a company that provides manga editors to
publishers. He was a shy and retiring sort of otaku when he
joins the club as viewpoint sort of character but with the
encouragement of his senior members he becomes more open
about his interests, Oh and the reason he looks for such
work is that manga and anime are such a large part of his
life he wishes to work in the industry.

And the original President has a real name but
you have to read closely to find out where it is set
out. I have read Genshiken, the original 9 volumes
at least 5 times which is how I got so familiar with
the plot twists and the meaning of the characters.
I have read the available volume of Nidaime nearly as
often and have watched both the anime and the OVAs
published in the "Kujibiki Unbalance" DVD and the
chapters on which they were based as published in
the translated, printed volumes.
"Kujibiki Unbalance" started as an anime
and manga internal to the main show and became
an independent manga and anime. The Genshiken DVDs
included chapters of the supposed anime and when
KU was put on SVDs OVAs of Genshiken were included
to keep the main story alive and moving.
All of the Genshiken OVA stuff that was
published became part of Genshiken Nidaime/Second
Season manga.

Possibly the best part is where the mangaka
who enjoyed "Genshiken" give their opinion via pages
in a particular volume of the story and its accuracy
relating to the clubs that they knew.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

The last volume I have is 19 and it looks like the series ended at 21, which was published in Japan in October of 2016. I don't recall ever seeing Genshiken at Kinokuniya so I might have to read the rest online somewhere.
I assume they covered about one year of their lives in 12 volumes, with each volume containing six monthly installments.

I wonder why the author took four years off between the first and second seasons as the story naturally picked up
immediately after the end of first season.

A great deal of second season explored Madarame and his various "love interests," one of which is Hato and neither one of them is gay. This
actually took up an insane amount of chapters and it kind of strange as Madarame didn't particular stand out in first season. I even wonder if the author set up that nose hair thing in first season fully planning on
bringing it back later on.

Some of the chapters in second season is titled "Kujibiki Unbalance" as a tribute to the manga-inside-manga.

I really enjoyed the series even though it was extremely unrealistic. I
wonder if you were offended with the way Susanna and Angela were portrayed.

Ken

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At the beginning of Season 2, Ohno and Sue were cosplaying as characters
from a manga, did you know what manga that was from? It's an obscure parody
of a very well-known manga series.

Also, Sue's often saying "Ogiue is my bride/wife" (not sure if they used
wife or bride in the English translation). This line actually came form the same manga.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/13/2017 12:36 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:

At the beginning of Season 2, Ohno and Sue were cosplaying as characters
from a manga, did you know what manga that was from? It's an obscure
parody of a very well-known manga series.

I believe the reference is given in the culture notes in the back of the English translation but I don't have time to check that
right now.

I will try to look this up later today and get back to you.

Also, Sue's often saying "Ogiue is my bride/wife" (not sure if they used
wife or bride in the English translation). This line actually came form
the same manga.

In the English, both licensed and amateur, the line is
"Oguie (or Chika) is my waifu".

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"Bobbie Sellers" wrote in message news:o5bs1e$s22$1@dont-email.me...

On 01/13/2017 12:36 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:

At the beginning of Season 2, Ohno and Sue were cosplaying as characters
from a manga, did you know what manga that was from? It's an obscure
parody of a very well-known manga series.

Well as I said the culture notes explain that Sue is playing as
'Terryman' a US Chojin and Ohno as 'Kinnukuman' the star of the
anime and manga series, "Kinnukuman" from the 1970s and 1980s.
Toys were imported to the US briefly but I used to see "Ultimate
Muscle" on a kids TV cartoon time on weekends after turn of the
century. Ohno uses the Kinnukuman character(meat) on her forehead. Sue
sports the Cowboy hat and ever present hamburger of Terryman.

Later on Sue uses the Evil face of Asuraman who has 3 faces and
6 arms all of these are part of the same story, roughly a parody
of professional wrestling. The wrestlers are all super men aka
chojin drawn from all over the inhabited worlds. I saw it because
I had nothing better to do but I did not hold it in high esteem.

Also, Sue's often saying "Ogiue is my bride/wife" (not sure if they used
wife or bride in the English translation). This line actually came form
the same manga.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

@@@@@@@

Correct. But the costumes are from "Kinnikuman Lady," a parody of
Kinnikuman from 2009.

Kinnikuman itself ended in 80s but the authors had another series depicting their offspring. That series ended with the offspring traveling back in
time and fighting against their fathers in their prime. When that series ended, the authors decided to pick up the original series, which is still
going today, so everything is taking place in 1980s.

But the waifu thing definitely came from Kinnikuman Lady as that series contained some lesbian undertone. I am not sure if this series was ever translated into English but I just happened to across it in my stash.

Ken

http://kinnikuman.wikia.com/wiki/Kinnikuman_Lady

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/13/2017 12:36 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:

At the beginning of Season 2, Ohno and Sue were cosplaying as characters
from a manga, did you know what manga that was from? It's an obscure
parody of a very well-known manga series.

Well as I said the culture notes explain that Sue is playing as
'Terryman' a US Chojin and Ohno as 'Kinnukuman' the star of the
anime and manga series, "Kinnukuman" from the 1970s and 1980s.
Toys were imported to the US briefly but I used to see "Ultimate
Muscle" on a kids TV cartoon time on weekends after turn of the
century. Ohno uses the Kinnukuman character(meat) on her forehead. Sue
sports the Cowboy hat and ever present hamburger of Terryman.

Later on Sue uses the Evil face of Asuraman who has 3 faces and
6 arms all of these are part of the same story, roughly a parody
of professional wrestling. The wrestlers are all super men aka
chojin drawn from all over the inhabited worlds. I saw it because
I had nothing better to do but I did not hold it in high esteem.

Also, Sue's often saying "Ogiue is my bride/wife" (not sure if they used
wife or bride in the English translation). This line actually came form
the same manga.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/13/2017 05:15 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:

Kinnikuman Lady

I guess the people who wrote the culture notes were not as hip as you about KL.
Yes it is available online.
Check your email for the URL.
Others may search for the title plus manga and gee, a lot of results.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

"Bobbie Sellers" wrote in message news:o5cbdf$q1s$1@dont-email.me...

On 01/13/2017 05:15 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:

Kinnikuman Lady

I guess the people who wrote the culture notes were not as hip as you
about KL.
Yes it is available online.
Check your email for the URL.
Others may search for the title plus manga and gee, a lot of results.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com


@@@@@@@@@@@@

Thanks for the link. It is, however, interesting that Genshiken carried on
the parody for several years. It's a KL is published by someone else and
not sure if it was popular as it tended to recycled the plots from the
original book.

I didn't recall the "waifu" thing until I re-read KL. It was a very small
part of KL. None of these were explained in the Japanese version of G and I wonder if anyone reading G. actually got the reference (unless it was often quoted on TV and other medias in Japan).

So what else are you reading, Bobbie? I got through Azumi II as the
complete series was available from SFPL. I also got most of Salaryman
Kintaro. It's a very crudely drawn and unrealistic portrayal of a Japanese "salaryman" but it had its moments.

Ken

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