| Title: | Genshiken |
| Episode: | 10: The Fetishism Of Leisurely Spending From The Viewpoint Of Economic Effects |
| Synopsis | |
| The Genshiken members have come to the beach, and Sasahara's sister Keiko has tagged along as well. While Madarame complains that it would be embarassing to show up at ComiFes with a tan, Keiko vows to make Kohsaka hers. Saki, however, makes it clear that she expects Keiko to stay away from Kohsaka and herself. The others are reluctant to venture out of the shade of their parasol, and Keiko wonders why they bothered to come to the sea if they are only going to read magazines, discuss the upcoming ComiFes, or play word games. Eventually they take their chances in the sunlight, and the group runs into a former boyfriend of Keiko's. The two didn't part on good terms, and Keiko is thrilled when Kohsaka stands up for her. As the others admire the elaborate sand castle that Tanaka and Ohno have built, Keiko gets an idea how she might compete with Saki for his attention. She insists that Sasahara let her stay at his place for awhile, and give her a crash course in "anime that reeks of otakuness"... | |
| Comments | |
| I was a bit surprised to see Keiko again, and also that the trip to the beach only takes up the first half of the episode. Looks like I was wrong about Madarame--he has no interest in getting seriously involved with a girl (though he and the others did find the girls in swimsuits to be inexplicably intriguing, if you know what I mean). Anyway, this episode got kind of "deep" (if that's the right word) towards the end as the two outsiders Saki and Keiko discuss the conclusions they've reached about what it means to be an otaku. "You don't become an otaku by trying--you're just one before you know it" seems to sum it all up. That makes sense to me--if I had thought to write the dates down, I could point to one day on the calendar when I was virtually ignorant of the existence of the anime industry, and the next day (when I stumbled upon Adult Swim's Saturday latenight lineup) when I found myself intrigued by it. There must have been some sort of wish for entertainment of this sort already buried within my mind beforehand. Saki also mentions the concept of "valuing your time alone"--maybe she meant that the girlfriend of an otaku will have to accept that her boyfriend will be so preoccupied that they won't have as much time together as most couples would, and she'll have to find something to do to keep herself occupied while he's busy. Or perhaps she meant an otaku is capable of enjoying his own time alone, with only anime, manga, video games, or whatever as "company". Or maybe she meant both. AstroNerdBoy would like to add that the "alone time" spent by otaku is normally spent with H-manga, H-doujinshi, or H-games. ^_^;;;;; | |
