Even the Genshiken characters can't believe how shitty this series is.
A letter to Saki Kasukabe:
Dear Giant Twat,
The following is a list of grievances I hold against you:
- 1.) You cling to a relationship that is purely physical in nature, regardless of how wrong you are for the other person.
- 2.) You are vapid, selfish, elitist, and contribute nothing of value to the club.
- 3.) You are an egotistical hypocrite who thinks she knows what’s best for everyone else.
- 4.) You deceived your current boyfriend by intentionally concealing the fact that you were still in contact with an ex-boyfriend.
- 5.) You intentionally tried to shut down the Genshiken club.
- 6.) You intentionally sabotaged the club’s recruitment of new members.
- 7.) You forced a group of people to throw away prized memorabilia because you are a clutz.
- 8.) You destroyed said memorabilia in a fire, and carelessly destroyed a model kit that another member spent hours building.
- 9.) In both aforementioned instances you agreed to cosplay in order to make up for it, but bailed out both times, seemingly having no regard for the promises you broke.
- 10.) You are a huge bitch.
In summary, please die a horrible death. Try one of the following: seppeku, walking into oncoming traffic, or eating the gun. Your death would doubtlessly bring happiness to the world of self-respecting human beings, and it would vastly improve the quality of the television series Genshiken. Please consider my recommendation.
Sincerely,
BrikHaus
The real life Genshiken club.
Genshiken seems like it would be cool at first glance, but as it turns out, it’s a steaming piece of shit. I previously ranked it as number 9 in my 20 Shittiest Anime of the Decade (2000-2009) article, and I thought it would be fun to revisit my hatred for it.
This series claims to be centered around otaku lifestyle, so the choice to make the main character, Saki, an otaku-hater was a very poor decision. The main character should have been Kanji. He is an otaku, but with far more mainstream interests than the other characters. It would make more sense to bring the viewers into the otaku realm through someone a little more identifiable to the audience. Sure, he’s otaku, but he’s not hardcore like the other club members. Quickly, it becomes apparent that his girlfriend Saki is the main character. Everything is shown through her vapid, narcissistic, bitchy eyes. 75% of the show is from her perspective. Otaku are shown as vile, slimy, disgusting creatures. This makes it very difficult to enjoy the series when most of it features Saki’s inability to form healthy relationships with other human beings. It’s a good study of a psychiatric personality disorder, but it doesn’t feature the otaku lifestyle very well.
This is why Welcome to the NHK is a vastly superior anime. It manages to show the oddities of otaku lifestyle in equal amounts of positive and negative light. All at once we get to identify with, be repulsed by, laugh at, root for, and empathize with otaku. They are shown as real human beings with flaws and redeeming qualities. Welcome to the NHK got everything right. Genshiken, on the other hand, is a piece of shit that gets everything wrong. It trashes the culture it claims to love, and attempts to make anime-viewers feel like outsiders. I don’t need to feel ostracized while watching anime. I can get that by simply telling a cute girl or a random passer-by that I watch cartoons from Japan. Besides, it just feels lazy when the entire series is written as LOL OTAKU SURE ARE GROSS AND WEIRD LOL instead of coming up with a storyline and creating characters that show actual growth.
On a random note, they did get the characters Ohno and Tanaka together. It’s pretty rare for an anime to seal the deal in terms of relationships. Usually everything is just left up to your imagination, and you can classify as that as good or bad. Personally, all the characters are weak stereotypes, so I could care less. I can, however, imagine what kind of gross otaku sex they had. Sweaty, unwashed flab must have bounced everywhere. Ugh.
I found it difficult to care about anything in Genshiken. The entire show just felt weak, cliche, frustrating, and kind of creepy. Every character is a huge, worthless loser, and Saki is the most repugnant of all. There was more stuff about this series that I hated, but it’s too big a piece of shit to waste any more time on. Fuck this series.
Verdict: Shitty
Awesomely Shitty 
Dropped it a little over halfway through. Only watched the second season because someone told me there was a must-watch episode with gay stuff.
I’m glad someone else thought this was a piece of shit. We watched Genshiken at my college’s anime club and I left after the first episode, because the characters repulsed me. Other people in the audience seemed to be genuinely enjoying it, which is either a sign that they haven’t seen enough comedy anime (cause honestly, the “humor” in Genshiken was the only good thing about it), or a sign that anime fans are becoming more mindless than ever.
Fuck this series indeed.
Um… ok. Did we watch the same series?? I DUNNO WTF YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT! Yes, they sometimes present the ‘other side’ of how otakus are VIEWED IN THE REAL OUTSIDE WORLD, but so the f*ck what! There’s PLENTY of positive sh*t about otaku there. I mean, do you REALLY think an anime company would TRASH ITS AUDIENCE AND THE VERY PRODUCT IT’S MAKING?? That just would seem pointless. Come up with better arguments, dude. This is so transparent.
And for the last time, SAKI IS NOT THE MAIN CHARACTER, you dipsh*t. It’s Kanji Sasahara. Yes, sometimes the show is seen through Saki’s eyes, but it’s OBVIOUS that Kanji is the protagonist. Hell, his name is even listed FIRST on the f*cking Wiki page, for whatever that’s worth. Honestly, it seems to me like you just READ ABOUT THIS ANIME FROM HATERS AND THEN JUMPED TO CONCLUSIONS. Did you REALLY watch this??
Your criticisms are so baseless. However, I DO agree with your “letter” to Saki. But Number 9 is kind of off. If I recall, she DID cosplay at least once and go through with it! I even remember the scene to this day in fairly vivid detail. She may have bailed once, but she also went through w/ it once, so we’re even on that point.
And ftr, Welcome to the NHK… kinda sucked. Sorry, dude. I dunno wtf you’re smoking. That hikikimori bs just drove me so far up the wall, I had no choice but to STOP watching, like, halfway through. I mean, really? A show about a random loser who stays at home all the time and rarely gets out and needs “counseling” from his peers is BETTER than Genshiken?
“While Sasahara starts off as a quiet, reserved member of Genshiken, he transforms into a somewhat stronger-willed individual, especially during his presidency. While not completely confident in himself, he is able to find a job as a manga editor and even fight back his own doubts in order to confess his feelings for Ogiue. As of the end of the manga, Sasahara is still dating Ogiue, and accepts the fact that she is using him as a direct model for dōjinshi. Sasahara also helps Ogiue by providing criticism and being an unofficial editor for her work in general, despite the possible risk to their relationship.” And here YOU are claiming that the characters are all static and sh*t. lmao
People as dumb as you are a disgrace to the otaku community. One more thing: “Surprisingly, Saki actually saves Genshiken from being shut down on two separate occasions, though her motives have more to do with revenge and guilt than becoming more of an otaku.
Despite being vehemently against otaku activities such as wearing nekomimi (cat-ears) at the start of the series, Saki eventually becomes comfortable with the other club members to the point that she can be considered their close friend (aside from the possible exception of Kuchiki). Saki has a tendency to use nicknames. She calls Sasahara “Sasayan”, Kugayama “Kugapii”, and Ogiue “Ogichin” by nicknames, and even though she at first refuses to call Kuchiki by his self-appointed nickname (“Kucchi”), Saki starts using that nickname as well.” I kind of REMEMBER it being that way, too! Another strike against you…
When did you last watch this show, dude?
It’s been a couple years since I last watched “Genshiken.”
I found “NHK” to be better, because it had real depth and relatable characters. Whereas everyone in “Genshiken” was just a standard TV-anime stereotype. “NHK” showed true progression from shut-in to ready-to-deal-with-his-issues protagonist. It seemed more natural and believable.
Obviously, we are going to have to agree to disagree.
Looking pretty meh so far
It’s not worth it. Don’t even bother.
I 100% disagree with you. Genshiken and Welcome to the N.H.K. are two of my favorite anime, with Genshiken being my #1 favorite of all time. I feel like Kasukabe needs a break here. If you’ve been keeping up with the manga which is still in production, you’ll see that she has completely transformed to a loyal friend who will go out of her way to help out in a crisis. The show is full of character development. It doesn’t trash the otaku lifestyle but shows what it’s really like to be an otaku. People tend to forget that being an otaku hasn’t always been as popular as it is today. You couldn’t just watch a season or two of Naruto and claim to be otaku. Genshiken provides a realistic view of Otakudom from a time just before society began to love nerds and find them socially acceptable. Saki accurately represents those on the outside who have been molded by the media to be shallow and judgemental. Initially she couldn’t understand how someone as cute as Kousaka could be a part of this digusting group of nerds. And the members of Genshiken were equally as amazed that he could blend so well with society AND have such niche interests, all the while being seemingly oblivious to any of this. What I love about Genshiken is that it is not one sided. It gives outsiders a glimpse of otaku life. It gives otakus the perspective of outsiders. With Kuchiki on one end of the spectrum, Kasukabe on the other, and Kousaka smack dab in the middle, Genshiken creates a work of art that people on both sides can relate to and enjoy. It also accurately demonstrates that in the real world, we will have to deal with unlikable characters, not just people we like and share common interests with.