Saturday 3 August 2013

Genshiken Second Season - Episode 5

Comiket continues into this fifth episode of Genshiken Second Season, as some of the old hands join the group while Ohno focuses on getting all of the girls (plus Hato) cosplaying.

It's Madarame who finds himself the uncomfortable focus of attention this time around, not least because of the presence of Angela who clearly still holds a candle for our slender-fingered otaku friend.  As if this isn't enough of a problem on its own, Hato takes an instant dislike to this scenario for reasons that he can't quite verbalise, and determined to protect Madarame from Angela's predatory instincts he chooses to ditch the girls and help Madarame with buying doujinshi instead.


Along the way, Hato gets to meet a crossplaying Kousaka, which gives him some understanding of what Madarame is up against in terms of his unrequited love for Saki; a topic which Hato also tries to probe at having seen the photos of her in Madarame's apartment, only to find him to be unsurprisingly reticent to discuss any such topics.  Things come to a head when Angela shifts her flirting up a gear as the day comes to an end - faced with the prospect of spilling the beans about Madarame's romantic interest in Saki, he instead goes off on a Boys Love tangent which thrills Angela and shocks pretty much everyone else, but at least saves Madarame from embarrassment... well, from one for of embarrassment anyway.

Even if it perhaps spends a little too long lingering on Hato's proclivities and interfering at times, Genshiken Second Season is continuing along on its merry way as a decidedly fun show for this season - its references are always fun to latch on to and are all sufficiently modern as to be relevant (did anyone else spot the Gargantia cosplay?), and the show's cast of characters new and old are all hugely entertaining to watch and well-realised in this adaptation.  Even as someone who can occasionally be a little luke-warm about the source material for this particular series, this treatment is still entertaining me greatly.

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