Anyone had a chance to watch this series? Myself I just finished the third and final volume and noticed that they plan on making another season in the near future to air in October.

Series Info
Info taken from Anime News Network

Overall the series is really good and it's something that I think any anime fan who attends con's. or anime clubs should watch. I wonder how much of it is fact. *chuckles*

I've finished episode 6, and I'll probably watch more of it today. I've also read up through volume 3 of the manga and I have volume 4 reserved at my local library.

I have yet to read through any of the Manga. Then again I don't read that much manga anymore. Does it follow the animated series well?

It's the successor to Otaku no Video.....that's how I see it. :lol:

*chuckles* Thinking about it like that I guess you are right. And here I just about forgot about Otaku no Video. heh

At the same time, Otaku no Video was far more idealistic and optomistic. It was full of bold declarations, high aspirations, and was made at a time when fandom was young and the future was wide and bright!

Genshiken is way more degenerate and almost depressing! I guess that makes sense since it was made at a time when Japanese fandom had boiled down to loli-con doujinshi fans who only watch self referential stuff!

Even still, I liked it a lot, and it will hold a special place in Animate/ Anime Punch history!

It's been a long time that i've seen Otaku no Video but from what I recall i would fully agree with you Kasiermikeb.

As for Genshiken, well i'm not the loli-con doujinshi fan type or as die hard a fan as most of the folks portrayed in the series. But i will say that my wife can fit very well into the role of Saki Kasukabe, she is not a fan of anime but has been very willing to learn just what it is that I enjoy about anime and gaming. *chuckles*

Now can I get to a con, and ever ponder the thought of cosplay? Going to a con is possible, but cosplay i doubt. *chuckles*

I have to disagree a little. Genshiken represented more than just the loli-con doujinshi fans. Sure, that label may apply to more than enough of the characters, but there were also the cosplay and plastic model-building otaku represented.

But you're still right that Otaku no Video had a wider range of fandom represented, and was definitely more optimistic and hopeful of the future.

I liked Genshiken and I look forwardto the second season.

And while "Otaku no Video" was hopeful (the ending, especially was very bright and optimistic), it was hopeful in a "we will live trough all the bad times and succeed no matter what because we are young and have youthful energy" sort of way. Also, I the only one who found the live action segements to be not only depressing but also disturbing at times?

I've seen the first episode and that was that. It's a cute idea to base an anime series around an "anime" club for the main plot, but it didn't interest me to continue.

Heh perhaps that's part of the reason why I've forgot a good deal of the ending. Last live action show i ran through was Densha Otoko, and while that's not about anime clubs, it did have the focus of an anime fan's life. That had some parts that I found abit depressing, maybe because I've spent my nights in the past just posting on a message board all night, then again I'm not looking for advice like Densha Otoko was.

Kalajessta: It's one of those series that you just have to watch a few to get into. Myself I have to give most shows a few eps. before i can say I got into it or not. Last time i stopped and judged it by the first show was Full Metal Alchemist and I thought the show was not my type of show. A month or two later a friend pointed it out to me again and told me to give it 4 shows then the next thing I knew I became a fan. heh

But Genshiken I guess depends if it's something that interests you or not. While it's not "real life" I feel it's more "real life" than most fantasy anime series and that's why it was appealing to me.

Beck is another example of what I think would be a "real life" anime. No super powers or world saving, just a kid trying to live a dream. *chuckles*

I haven't seen Geshinken, but it sounds kind of like a degenerate version of Comic Party (which, from what I gather was probably inspired by Otaku no Video on some level)

Mashidar: We're finishing Beck this friday I think, starting from Grateful Sound!

Yeah, I agree, Genshiken is like Beck in a lot of ways, mainly for its down-to-earthfulness

And on the subject of giving a show a chance, for a while my brother and I had a phrase "The first volume always sucks". A few notable examples I can remember are Nadia, and Trigun, both of which we stopped at the first tape with for literally years, only to have them later become some of our favorite shows. Some shows like Lain take 12 episodes to go somewhere, but once it does it's totally worth it!

Trent Arms: I've not had the chance to see Comic Party, first I heard of it was the other day when talking about Genshiken with a friend. I do wonder if it's any good. Noticed in your sig the different anime series that you seem to enjoy at the moment. Very good picks. Scrapped Princess is one of the series I really liked but never got enough attention by the people I know i'm afraid.

Kaisermikeb: *chuckles* I always wished for more Beck. Almost made me pick up the manga to see how the series went after the anime. Nadia I only got to see the first vol. and I liked what I saw there. But it was not enough to keep me going at the time. Odds are i'll pick it up in a box set when the time is right. Trigun I loved the moment I saw it. *chuckles* I remember buying all the VHS tapes for it, then buying DVD's to replace my VHS tapes.

I try to give every anime at least five episodes worth before I say "this anime sucks" or "I'm bored." But Genkshiken never interested me enough to pick it up. I was also watching about 5 other series at the same time when my friend told me about Genkshiken, so maybe that's why I never got truely interested in it. It's my collection some where. Maybe I should give it another chance.

heh yeah watching 5 series at the time would cause one to be distracted. ^^

I tend to find a few series at once. Like now, I'm currently caught up on current episodes in Naruto and Kyou Kara Maou, but on the side of that I also watch weekly now, Fate/Stay Night, Lemon Angel Project, Kashimashi and Kage Kara Mamoru. Let alone I'm trying to catch up in my old series that I was watching before my last monitor decided to "die" on me. But that's only really one way to discover what series are good and what arn't. Summer I generally have more time to watch more series then just my normal weekly ones. I should go through my collection and see what I have watched and what I haven't yet, and clear off the anime that is on my external and internal hardrives.

I have way too much.

Heh i'm much the same. I buy alot of retail when something comes out that strikes my fancy. Such as Genshiken, and I just picked up the box set for Steam Detectives and Cat Girl Nuku Nuku. ^^

I've enjoyed Naruto as of late, the last two shows have been the best in a long time IMO. Fate -Stay Night- Has to be one of the best series i've seen in awhile. Kage Kara Mamoru i think is the one with the ninja family? That's an interesting series for how many shows i've seen of it so far.

Besides those i'm following Bleach, and Shakugan no Shana. Lucky for me I just formated my Pc two days ago so I have plenty of room. *chuckles*

The only series i'm really looking forward to right now is School Rumble's next season, and the next season of Genshiken.

I currently already plan on cosplaying Fate/Stay Night as Saber for Otakon 2007. I'm thinking of cosplaying as Shana either this year or next, but most likely this year if I can find a prop commission person. But yeah, I totallly agree with you on Fate/Stay Night. It's very good, new and fresh from anything else that's been out in a while. But I'm glad I don't buy anime for this reason. It's too expensive, and I can get fresh stuff out of Japan by downloading it.

buying anime is alright if kept if done at a rational pace. Plus it helps the industry which conversely helps fandom.

Aside from weekly releases or serieses seen at an anime club, it's pretty bad to watch more than once at a time. I try to cut through one thing at a time. Most recently it was He is my Master, before that Maico 2010, and before that Ebichu, and before that Gunbuster.

You really appreciate a show a lot more if you focus on it, rather than try and divide your attentions, at least if you are watching alone. Though, my favorite way to watch a series is by volume and with someone. Depending on the release, and whether or not it is just comming out or not, it could be a week between volumes, or it could be two months. Since I'm watching it with someone, we have lots of time to talk about it in between those periods, and really get to speculate about things, and argue about things, and such. It really builds a better understanding of the characters and story. Even with downloads or fansubs, I try to choose serieses that other people I know have seen, or get other people to watch it, that way I have someone to talk about it with.

kalajessta: Ah Saber would be an interesting cosplay to see though. Would you go all out in what i'd call her "battle mode" with the armor? Or a more casual mode when she's just wandering about the house? Shana would be kinda neat to see as well, although she has a few more annoying traits as a persona I think.

I tend to download almost anything that has a 1 buy the name. *chuckles* If it's new and has some appeal to me I tend to give it a shot.

Kasiermikeb: My roommate and I tend to enjoy watching anime at the same time if it's a good release. Bleach is one that we tend to watch then talk about, same goes for Shakugan no Shana. There's very few series I watch by myself unless it's something the roommate finds stupid. He's not a fan of the romantic/comedy series like Love Hina or the harem type anime's, where as I'll watch them.

He is my master is an example of a show he didn't care to watch, where as I thought the series was alright. Mahou Sensei Negima is another series he kinda watched but not really, where as I watched it and bought the manga's for the series as they come out.

Gundam Seed Destiny is another series that I finished up not to long ago, always enjoy the gundam series not so much for the mecha, as the overall story about conflict and it's effects on people and the world. Turn A Gundam is a series that falls into my must watch sections not just for it's music but story overall. One of the few series that after watching the final show, I felt complete. *laughs* If that makes any sense.

I think I'm watching 6-10 animes right now. There's a few that I started but am not very interested in watching anymore, like ARIA and Black Cat. (Even if Eve is the possibly the coolest little girl character ever.)

I'm also looking forward to the new seasons of School Rumble and Genshiken. I also want to see the anime of XXXholic, but I tend to hate CLAMP animes as much as I like CLAMP mangas. I wish some completed animes would finish with the fansubs already. Gakuen Alice is quite possibly the slowest, at an episode a month. Gokujo Seitokai is at least a little better, there's only 4 left till it's done. That series has this interesting way of surprising you with little things while making the larger plot completely predictable. And why the hell can't anyone finish fansubbing Kamichu!? I'd lke to see the end of Gun x Sword too, it's pretty cool. Ergo Proxy comes out later this month, it looks cool. Still waiting on Noien subs too, but I think that's still in progress. Pani Poni's not as funny as I'd like, but anything that can challenge the amount of gags than Excel Saga deserves at least a bit of respect.

I like the Shana anime, but I'm not particularly attached to it.

New Animes this season

Fate/Stay Night is going pretty well, I watched Tsukihime, but I thought it was a bit weak. There were some things that were obviously better explained in the game. I'm actually seeding a Type Moon doujinshi torrent as I type this.

Kage Kara Mamoru: It's crap, but I can't stop watching it same as with Karin. If you want love comedy wackiness this season, you're probably better off with Magikano.

Kagihime Alice Rondo: I swear to God I'm going to stop watching this piece of shit. I just finished watching Rozen Maiden, and don't want to hear about more shitty Alices.

Trent: Genshiken is considerably different from Comic Party. It is realistic, it's a bunch of Otaku's at a college who somehow justify their otakuness enough to have a club separate from manga and anime clubs. I don't know about later, but so far they haven't even mentioned non-H doujinshi in the Genshiken anime. All those guys seem to buy at Comiket is hentai. Comic Party is much more kiddy(Nevermind that it started out as a h-game). Genshiken reminds me far too much of my own life, but I still like because it's realistic and funny.

Mashidar: Nice to see another WoT reader, we've just got one more book and we're done. The Mahou Sensei Negima anime doesn't do the manga justice. I gave up on it a while before it ended. If you're the type of person who can read manga online. (It seems not everyone is.) and want to get up to date on it, this group usually scanlates new chapters within a week of serialization. http://homepage.mac.com/sp831/lovehina/downloads.html

Gun X Sword I enjoy alot, just like you wish more subs were being done for the series. Van's persona seems interesting and his relationship with Wendy is always funny to watch. The latest show I saw had another cast member join and I can't recall her name, yet it makes me laugh that Van can remember her name and does not seem to recall Wendy's name often.

Shana catchs me because I like the premisis of the series. Something about the Yuji really being dead, but because of his gift ATM he will live on forever until the gift is removed. Plus the ever growing relationship between Shana and Yuji puts a smile on my face.

Fate -Stay Night- I love so far. I've not read much into the game but it's so far one of the series that i'll follow till the end. The music for the series I enjoy alot as well plus the overall tale about the war for the Holy Grail. Saber by far is who I enjoy the most in the series, but that might be due to her personality.

I am a WoT fan but alas i've only read the first few books. When I used the name Mashidar it didn't hit me till a friend noticed that it was from WoT so perhaps in the back of my mind I used the last name due to what i've read. *chuckles*

I was reading the Negima series online for abit, then formated the HD so I lost all my anime and links, so thanks for the link. You are correct as the anime kinda made the series seem bland and tacky where as the manga made the series really stand out. I enjoyed Eva in Negima manga. But alot of her design seemed held back in the anime. It was depressing. ^^

I don't know maybe i'm alone in thinking that Genshiken's focus seemed more on Saki and her understanding of the Otaku's universe so she could have her relationship with her Otaku man. I think for me the series kinda gave abit of insite on other things besides anime in general. Such as the con's and video game aspect.

Where as someone like me can fully relate to the series and what goes on in it, the wife was able to see abit more of the different things that "might" go through the mind of an Otaku. Might not be true for alot of things, but at the same time i'm sure there are times things are like that to some aspect. Be it waiting in line to get into a con, to playing that video game against a friend you can never beat. *chuckles*

I'm cosplaying Wendy from GunxSword at Sugoi this year. I will probably have a Van too. If anyone is interested in cosplaying with us, let me know. It would kick ass if we had a huge GunxSword group.

But anyways, there are alot of awsome anime out this season. I'm really glad there is. The Naruto fillers are getting weak in plots and characters and other then episode 170, I was getting rather bored with it. Time Jump will be appearing in a few short more months xD.

I remember last summer, I was really disappointed in the anime. The only series I ended up watching fully was Loveless, Sukisyo (unless that was spring), and Naruto (since I was a late bloomer in watching it). I'm hoping this summer won't be a disappointment either.

*chuckles* I'd like to see how things go with a GunXSword cosplay.

I agree with you fully, Naruto was getting kinda bland as of late due to the filler arc, but with last two shows i'm very happy with how things are picking up and hope they stay that way the last 11-12 weeks before the next arc.

I don't even recall what I watched last summer...*thinks* perhaps Beck, and maybe Midori no Hibi, a gundam series i'm sure, School Rumble I think as well.

As someone who fansubs a bit on the side, I'd just like to point out that fansubbers don't owe you a thing. They don't owe you quick releases. Hell, they don't owe you releases at all. I've completely stopped fansubbing shows before because I decided I simply didn't like the show.

I'm actually getting rather fed up with most of the fansbu community, and a lot of what anime fandom thinks about it. I feel like fansubbers have lost track of some important things - or maybe it's always been like this and I just didn't notice.

Fansubbing now seems to be more about the ego of the subbers than about the anime itself. You occasionally get little wars between different fansubbers. Groups go rather out of their way to give credit to everyone in their group who did anything: translater, timer, editor, typesetting, karaoke, raw provider ... it goes on and on. But there are very few group out there who will translate the Japanese credits for a show. Nowadays, probably most of the shows that get made will make it to the American market without fansubbers - none of them will if the Japanese didn't make the show in the first place. Don't they deserve more credit than the random guy who downloaded the raw off Winny?

What annoys me the most though is the large number of fans who insist that fansubs are good for the anime industry. That it helps American companies determine what to license, for one. If people really believe that, then why do they still fansub shows that have been licensed!? In particular right now, nobody should be subbing Shakugan no Shana or Fate/Stay Night because they're both licensed by Geneon. Geneon helped pay for the production costs of the show, and had the rights long before they even hit the air in Japan.

Then there's the argument that fansubs allow fans a "try-before-you-buy" opportunity. Sure they do - but they encourage so many of the fans to skip the "buy" part of that process which is neccessary to keep the industry going. And there are plenty of other ways to watch something before deciding whether or not to buy it - libraries, renting, anime clubs, conventions, trailers on other anime releases, the teaser episodes the come with newtype usa, etc, etc.

I think the only shows that should really ever by fansubbed are those rare gems that are truly worth seeing, but don't have a chance of being licensed. And even then, you don't need a whole slew of groups subbing the same series. If you go to AnimeSuki right now and look at Bleach, you'll see that they have torrent for that series from THIRTEEN different groups. What's the point in having that many groups fansub something? Especially when it's like Bleach and will very likely make it's way over here and onto Cartoon Network anyways.

Just my disillusioned 2 cents.

What your saying is probably true, but is by no means new. At least groups don't openly badmouth each other in their subs anymore.

The simple truth is that fansubbers have never been great. Most of them suck at translation, and that's always been true. Most of them are worth exactly how much it costs to get them, and only now and then will you get the rare gem that not only knew what it was doing, but knew enough about Japan to do everything right, or maybe even have some liner notes at the beginning. There has never been a convincing arguement for fansubs, and unless American companies stop licensing anime or start going all macross on us

Though, I do disagree with you on one thing. If you're going to sub something, do it right, and get it out. Don't start something you can't finish, and don't do something you can't do right.

I'd never complain at the fansubbers themselves, like you said, they do it for free and with little or no rewards. I'm just your average impatient viewer. I know that they're people who can randomly start or stop doing whatever it is they feel like.

I was just venting. The only series that get fansubbed the day they are aired are the series with a massive fan-following. Bleach and Naruto are prime examples of this.

As for the complete futility and damage caused by fansubbers, not everything gets licensed and subbed. There are people at animeclub damn excited to see some old series like Ideon get fansubbed at all, regardless of pace.

Wars between fansubbers usually have some decent reason behind them. Work or credit being stolen hurts even if there's no money involved. Poor quality groups attacked by higher quality groups are forced to rethink their fansubbing decisions, perhaps raise their quality or move on to other series. I don't think they all have good reasons for conflict, but like you said earlier, who am I to judge them?

There are other ways to be introduced to an anime besides fansubs, but frankly, that's the most convenient way for me. And if you want to see the series, even the slowest fansubbers are usually quicker than waiting for the official English version DVD to come out.

It's well beyond me to figure out if the effect of fansubs is beneficial or harmful. Ultimately, they're for the fans, by the fans, because the fans are interested in it.

Thought I'd add this, since it applies: http://www.animesuki.com/doc.php/legal/mediafactory.html
http://animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=369

Noein, School Rumble, and Genshiken were all effected by this, but people sub them anyways.

Myself I don't feel anyone owes me anything and I agree with alot of what is being said by all parties. I enjoy fansubs, for me it's the fact that i'm exposed to new shows that odds are I would pass up if I saw them in the retail market right away. There are many series that i've picked up from the first few shows from a fansub group and a few shows that I passed on after watching the first show.

School Rumble is a series I can't wait to start collecting when the DVD's are released. Just finished buying Genshiken's three DVD's. Then again my main place of buying anime used to be Media Play and at the moment is Best Buy with Media Play closing down. I'm hoping to wait for a boxed set for Scrapped Princess.

Much like Cheese Ninja the overall effect of fansubs is beyond my thinking. I'd like to think they help, but I know there are many people who just take advantage of the service and have no intention of buying any US release no matter the title.

I think without fansubs I would of never seen Turn A Gundam. I might be wrong but is Turn A Gundam licensed in America?

The points Koorogi, kaisermikeb, and Cheese Ninja bring up I really can't add more to because I feel the same on all accounts in different areas. I just know that i'm a fan, and I hope that never changes. *chuckles*

I agree that they shouldn't do something they can't do right. And if doing it right means taking their time, then so be it. Fansubbers have a life too.

As for not starting something they won't finish, that's a bit different. I agree they shouldn't start if they can't finish, and can be reasonably expected to realize that they can't. But if they decide they won't finish because they can't stand the series, I can't fault them for that.

And even given everything I've said, I still watch fansubs, but avoid those of licensed series.

I've watched a bit (just got the 3rd volume!) and I like it- its alot like my group of friends for the most part. And the manga is cute- that I've only read the first 2. I like the whole "anime within an anime" thing too- which is rather amuzing. And all the figures coming out for it seems very.. appropriate. hehe.

Its not my favorite anime but I think worth owning.

I've read the manga...they have them at the columbus library branches.......

I love Genshiken, great series! I'm the creepy upperclassman dude/Madarame/Sasahara of Youngstown State University's anime club, also called Genshiken/The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture.

:lol: I love hearing the people from Student Organizations trip over the name.