Genshiken: Second Season vol. 2

The nuttiness continues in this volume as the gang races to complete not only Ogiue’s debut manga, but also her doujinshi for Comi-Fest.  Then Ohno’s other American friend Angela (of the ginormous boobs) also makes a return appearance once the con begins in earnest and the direction of this “second season” becomes a bit more clear.  It appears that the thrust of this revival is going to involve seeing whether or not Madarame can finally get over his attraction to Kasukabe and move on with his life.  This is most clearly seen in the showdown between Hato (the crossdresser) and Angela at the end of the convention, and this being “Genshiken” everyone involved winds up embarrassing themselves in ways that are more amusing than depressing.

Hato does remain the focus of a lot of this volume as well, and it also appears that we’ll be continuing to dig into his gender identity issues as well.  Granted, a lot of the time it’s played for laughs but he’s continuing to develop a real affection and concern for Madarame as well.  Part of me worries that it’s going to culminate in some kind of scene where he tries to fool the otaku into thinking he’s another girl to get him over it.  Of course, mangaka Kio Shimoku has demonstrated that he knows how to handle cathartic, character-changing moments in this series, so I’m not worried yet about what he has in store.  Plus, this volume hints that the subject of Ogiue’s infamous junior-high doujinshi may be coming back into play, possibly.  We get plenty of reasons to look forward to vol. 3 in September here, so it’s a good thing to have this series back again.