Genshiken Omnibus 1: The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture

Genshiken: The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture #1-3

by Shimoku Kio, David Ury (Translator)

TO THINE OWN OTAKU BE TRUE

It’s spring of freshman year, and Kanji Sasahara has a difficult dilemma. Should he declare his love for manga and anime fandom by  joining an otaku club, like he has always wanted to? Is he prepared to deal with the social stigma attached to being an otaku? Meanwhile, Saki Kasakabe has her own otaku conundrum. How can she turn her boyfriend, anime fanboy Makoto, into a normal guy? Kanji follow his heart as does Saki. When both Kanji and Makoto join Genshiken: The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, Saki chases Makoto through the various activities of the club from costume-playing and comic conventions, to video gaming and anime model figures. Saki finds otaku to be more than she imagined, but not necessarily in a good way.
 
Includes special extras after the story!

Genres: Manga, Slice Of Life, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comedy, Romance

528 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 2012

About the author

Shimoku Kio (木尾士目) is a Japanese manga artist best known for his manga Genshiken, which was originally serialized in the Afternoon Magazine. It was later published in Japan by Kodansha, which produces Afternoon Magazine, and by Del Rey in the United States. Genshiken is an anime, manga, and light novel series about a college otaku club and its members.

Reviews

[osoi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Если я о чем и жалею, так это о том, что у меня было всего два дня на чтение первого омнибуса. Тут столько деталей, что можно растянуть чтение на недели, и при этом получить ни с чем не сравнимое удовольствие. Но и в стремительном погружении можно найти плюсы – моя голова кружится от легкой одурманенности всеми персонажами Genshiken. Они все по-своему волшебны, хотя совершенно точно раздражали бы меня в любой другой ситуации :D

Сперва нам показывают обычного пацана, который стесняется вступить в клуб по интересам и признаться cебе самому в том, что он отакун в глубине души. Но почти сразу вокруг него неизбежно начинают крутиться самые разные личности, раскрывающие свой характер через взаимодействие друг с другом в рамках клуба (и вне). Я в кои-то веки не могу никого толком выделить, потому что они настолько гармонируют друг с другом, что я их только в связке и воспринимаю. Стычки Madarame vs. Kasukabe доставляли всю дорогу (схлестнуть отаку 900 lvl и яростную ненавистницу отаку… да). А еще Kōsaka между ними с вечной улыбочкой – это нечто :D История играет всеми красками, когда эти ребята собираются вместе, а новые лица вписываются в картину на ура, будто всегда там и были. Это отдельная ветвь мастерства, ведь по сути все держится только на взаимодействии персонажей в рамках ограниченного (в основном) пространства.

P.S. Третий том закончился совсем не честно, и я требую продолжения.

hisashiburi

[Jesus Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genshiken

An interesting view of a university club of otakus, manga and anime fans, and cosplayers. It is interesting to see how the relations evolve in this group, especially with outsider
Lots of fun moments.

Only thing is it focus too much on how Kousaka is drawn to the erotic side of this world, it's not direct and frontal which is a good thing, but it would be nice to see him have other interest on this beside that.

4star

[Clayton VanLeeuwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thrift manga, often completely blind to what a series might be about. What I found in this Genshiken omnibus?- The cultural differences (from my western experience) to fandom and porn was interesting but unfortunately, there was a real lack of story and character progression. After characters are introduced, nothing substantial happens to them. Lots of sweaty awkward jokes with no obstacles or challenges = boring chapters

[Jane(Janelba) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my thing at all and no real storyline !

[William Hanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to give this 2.5 stars. It had a few funny moments, but it just didn't appeal to me.

[Social_Sloth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good art, a different kind of story about the life of male otakus...

[Ta0paipai · Rating 3 out of 5]

An almost ethnographic look into the world of otaku. The art is decent enough, but it’s the view into that otaku world that makes reading it worthwhile.

[Sahib · Rating 4 out of 5]

big relate allnover the place.

[Timothy Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this back when it was coming out and loving it. These are the kinds of friends I always wanted to have.

[Sarah Smithson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I watched some of the anime many years ago and wanted to give the manga a try. I don't remember a whole lot of the anime, but the manga felt similar to what I remember.

[scarlettraces · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahahahaha. Hahaha. I watched the anime many many years ago, when there wasn't as much of this kind of genre around, and have remembered certain incidents ever since (the discussion about exactly which late night anime it might have been, for instance). They are kind of my people? But I would not be interested in Comiket day 3 [and *definitely* not in the moe that predominates in the background]? Things like Wotakoi, Complex Age, Still Sick are a lot more personally relatable buuuuut this is still pretty funny.

[Sean O'Hara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genshiken is sorta the Japanese Revenge of the Nerds. Rather than being set in a fraternity, it concerns a college club, the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture (Genshiken for short), which basically consists of sitting around the clubroom playing video games, reading manga and discussing the latest anime.

At the start of the series the club gets two new members, Kanji Sasahara and Makoto Kousaka. Kanji went through high school hiding his otaku interests and now that he's at university he wants to come out of the closet. Makoto, by contrast, seems like the anti-otaku, a perfectly ordinary, well-adjusted, good looking guy -- who just happens to love gaming and manga. He's so normal, in fact, that he attracts the beautiful Saki Kasakabe as a girlfriend. But Saki doesn't want to date an otaku and does everything she can to pry him out of the Genshiken -- but in doing so, she gets dragged into the strange world of otaku culture. And wackiness ensues.

[Chip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you consider yourself a hardcore nerd? After reading Genshiken, you may have to recalibrate your scale. Genshiken takes a humorous but unapologetic look into the life of a group of otaku and their college club for "the study of modern visual culture." That is, of course, manga, anime, video games, and porn. The oddball in the group is Kasukabe-san, a woman who gets sucked into their madness when her uncharacteristically good-looking and inexplicably carefree boyfriend joins the club. Cringeworthy hilarity ensues.

The really redeeming quality of Genshiken is that despite being part of otaku culture, it doesn't try to sugar-coat or glorify it. The author presents the club members with all of their insecurities and prejudices, and lets you decide where you stand between their "otaku pride" and Kasukabe-san's inevitable disgust. It's fun and honest.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Genshiken. What reading Genshiken reminds me of is a lot of the stuff I've been hearing Kevin Smith say about Clerks, that part of his inspiration was "no one was making movies about people like him and his friends". For better or worse, reading Genshiken is like reading a story about me and my friends, and the actual types of conversations we would have, the games we play, standing in line at conventions, shelling out for merchandise, all that. The tagline "to thine own otaku be true" really does ring true for this series. I'll definitely be reading the whole series.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the insight into the otaku life, but it's pretty heavy on the male perspective. I'm hoping the introduction of Ohno adds the female perspective in future volumes. Kasakabe makes a nice foil to the whole "how otaku can you go" theme.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

Find this book at Hillingdon Libraries

[Christina]

Shonen manga about an otaku manga/anime club. Otaku is extreme fandom. This is written for teen boys, and was so full of references to manga, anime, and video games I'm not familiar with that I decided not to keep reading after the first chapter. I just couldn't connect with it on any level.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It honestly did not take me a year to read this, I got it for Christmas last year - started it, then got busy with other stuff/books. I finished it off after not getting any books for Christmas this year (tragedy!)

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

F A S C I N A T I N G.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mature themes, references to manga porn. Another interesting foray into fictional Japanese culture.

[doseofsoma]

Madarame is my manga BF
I enjoyed it but I don’t think it would be for a someone who isn’t an anime/manga fan

[Linda]

Not for me