On chapter 20 they even joke about the name Saki when the grandma is helping with naming the baby by saying " you have to know there's an actual manga that uses that name", then they name the baby saki, proving the wife isnt named saki herself or they wouldnt have even mentioned another manga using the name (this is just a common sense thing here, would completely make the saki being in another manga part pointless in the rest of the dialogue they had in them panels if the mothers name was saki, i'm sure she didnt forget her own name). You will see alot of these little jokes and referencing genshiken, in the spotted flower cause that is what the author was going for since genshiken is his most famous manga
In this interview the author is asked this question
What is the relation between your other manga "Spotted Flower" and Genshiken?
Hm? There isn't one.
...And that is my official statement.
The title name was just a playful idea that I came up with after creating the concept of the couple and noticing them feeling very familiar to me. I'm honestly not sure what to do with the big reaction that it ended up getting from the fans afterwards.
Even from the planning stage, there was no intention of making the two titles related in any way. The idea never even came up during discussion with my editor either.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2015-02-03/interview-genshiken-creator-shimoku-kio/.84036 interview link
Im sorry for the people who were hoping it was them two, but the author himself has confirmed multiple times that they arent the same characters. I can really tell by looking at pictures of these 2 female characters (Saki and the wife) side by side that they look nothing alike in anyway. Even if they are much older there is no way they would look as different as they do in spotted flower.
http://i66.tinypic.com/28jrdj.jpg This is Saki at the end of the last manga
http://i64.tinypic.com/293u7nc.jpg Here is the wife in spotted flower
They dont even look anything alike, if the wife looks like anyone, it would be Chika Ogiue http://i64.tinypic.com/ng6gro.jpg end of genshiken manga and here are 2 animated pictures of ogiue http://i66.tinypic.com/2hn6qub.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/2d92pas.jpg, Ogiue definitely looks more like the wife then Saki
This is a picture of the husband http://i65.tinypic.com/sfgh1j.jpg, again no way a sane person can look at that and say he is madarame (the husband doesnt even have madarame trademark snaggle tooth that is always hanging out and there are plenty of wide open mouth shots in this manga, the dot sized pupils ( anyone that has read genshiken and watched the anime know what i mean, his pupils are almost literally a dot, maybe 2 dots on top of each other) that are also a trademark of madarame look, and only a few spots does he even remotely look like madarame, mostly when he is looking to be in a panic)
This is a colored picture of the husband and wife http://i64.tinypic.com/5xn2mt.jpg from vol 2 extra, you seriously trying to say these 2 are madarame and saki, come on really.
This is the 2 color picture of saki http://i65.tinypic.com/24lsow8.jpg from anime
http://i67.tinypic.com/16m0rap.jpg from manga, not only do they not look alike but saki has good size tits in both the manga and anime while the wife in spotted flower is flat chested til she gets pregnant and even then they aren't that big.
Here is Sue in the same anime outfit (saki isnt the only character to ever wear that cosplay)
http://i68.tinypic.com/10xwyew.jpg
This is the author at a signing, you cant see his face, but by his build and even the glasses (look just like the husbands) you can tell he probably draws atleast 1 character after himself atleast a little, that could be why some characters look similar even though they are different characters. For example, i could take an entire character from one manga and put them in another with a different name and backstory, then bam not the same character even though carbine copy https://www.genkidama.com.br/anikenkai/2014/03/08/kio-shimoku-o-autor-de-genshiken-em-fotos/
When it comes to the same manga artist, alot of their characters end up looking like each other, that is just the way it is for most of the artists, it is easier sometimes to just throw a face that you are use to put some different eyes, hair, etc on them and call it another character and that is what happened here, as much as some people want it, this is not saki and madarame, again sorry to disappoint.
Here is a picture of his newest manga Hashikki Ensemble, but these characters have names and guess who they look like http://i67.tinypic.com/2q8sz9f.jpg, as you can see here he recycles characters features but with a different name and backstory, these characters are no longer the same just like the spotted characters. Just more proof that the characters in spotted flower and genshiken are not the same, just recycled features ( which again the wife looks nothing like saki and more in line with Ogiue if she was based off someone from genshiken)
He relates to ogiue in this interview where he says she is based on him and his experiences giving more credibility to him using her as a base for the wife not saki https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/15931-genshiken-kio-shimoku-and-the-otaku-soul.html ( just use find and type in ogiue name if you dont want to read whole interview) Shimoku is the author btw if you didnt know when you read the questions
I know there are some shippers for them two here and if that is what you want to imagine i say go for it, but putting false info on a manga page and confusing new readers isnt the right way to do things, when you put all the facts together without rose tinted glasses this manga is clearly neither a Alternate universe nor the actually characters from genshiken.
