Genshiken - The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture

Description

From Kodansha:
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 costumeplaying 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.

Official English

Type

Manga

Kujibiki Unbalance (Novel) (Side Story)

Kujibiki Unbalance (Spin-Off)

Genshiken Nidaime - The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture II (Sequel)

Ramen Tenshi Pretty Menma (Spin-Off)

Spotted Flower (Alternate Version)

Shouron Genshiken: Hairu Ranto no Yabou (Novel) (Side Story)

Associated Names

Genshiken

Genshiken - Otaku Club

Genshiken, The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture

The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture

げんしけん

现视研

現代視覚文化研究会

Groups Scanlating

Jinmen Juushin

Manga-Sketchbook

Latest Release(s)

v.9 c. by Manga-Sketchbook 17 years ago

v.8 c. by Manga-Sketchbook 18 years ago

v.7 c. by Manga-Sketchbook 18 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

9 Volumes (Complete)
5 Volumes (Shinsouban)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1

Ends at Vol 7, Chap 42 (S2 + OVA) Original ending in S2E24, Skips Chap 17, 20, 35

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

5 topics, 30 posts

Click here to view the forum

User Rating

Average: 8.5 / 10.0 (966 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.43 / 10.0

29%

27%

22%

13%

Last Updated

January 12th, 2025 12:36am PST - 4 months ago

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Genre

Comedy Drama Mature Romance School Life Seinen Slice of Life
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Rakkyou no Kawa

Genshiken Nidaime - The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture II

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii

Futaribocchi no Otacir no Hime

Otaku Tomodachi to no Sex wa Saikou ni Kimochi Ii

Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Kodansha

Serialized In (magazine)

Afternoon (Kodansha)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Del Rey (Defunct / 9 Vols - Complete)

INKR Comics

Kodansha USA (3 Vols - Complete)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #698

(-72)

Monthly Pos #1452

(-211)

3 Month Pos #2696

(+189)

6 Month Pos #3112

(+305)

Year Pos #3415

(-43)

List Stats

On 1046 reading lists

On 1308 wish lists

On 2334 completed lists

On 149 unfinished lists

On 462 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

Should I read it?

14 years ago

Genshiken 57

14 years ago

Genshiken 56

15 years ago

new genshiken is out!

17 years ago

Season 2 is Official!

18 years ago

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

A good manga until the end

by Cometssatwhoosh
5 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

Slice of life otakus! Count me in! The characters were so relatable and had some real issues and hijinks to deal with.

Unfortunately, the newer club members and a couple of the original ones when interacting with them were boringggggg. The plot line felt so forced and dropped my ratings by 2 stars at least.

The drawing is unique and the references are funny though. Wish the new club members' plot lines could've been dropped.

... Last updated 5 years ago

Was this comment useful? Yes

One of My Best Manga Experiences

by cecropiamoth
11 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

There are quite a few manga floating around that are very hard to read with pleasure unless you've had the experience of being some kind of "outsider" in relation to everyday or normal life. This story of an otaku club at a university is one such story. At least one reviewer has already dismissed all the manga- and anime-obsessed characters as being "just a bunch of losers", and therefore beneath his interest. Indeed they are losers -- in the sense that they are mostly not socially adept AND they lack any interest in standard things most people in college are interested in, like business, sports, chasing members of the opposite sex, and so on.

But, guess what, they are still human! That means they need friends and a place to belong. This manga is the story of how this collection of outcasts find and together build up such a place. To me, who has plenty of experience of being an undesired outsider, this story is all the more precious and fun because of the sheer unliklihood of a collection such persons getting together and ending up enjoying just about as much fun and friendship as non-losers.

I wish I had found a group like this when I was in college!

... Last updated 11 years ago

Was this comment useful? Yes

I was really into Genshiken

by jackalan
13 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I don't know why but I honestly did.

The drawing wasn't beautiful. There were so many lines and words and explanations and thoughts. The genre is seinen and I've never read any seinen before. The characters seemed too realistic to throw myself into my imagination of this and that that I normally did with shoujos and shounens. It was slice-of-life! Daily life would be boring wouldn't it?

But then, I fell in love. I read this manga over and over again, Countless time that I hardly remembered. It was probably the most re-read manga for me in 2008 and probably in 2009 too. Its development is just superb. Its characters are just convincing. I felt like I was in the manga living the lives with the characters.

Last but not least, the ending was very well-made.

I have nothing to go against my fullest rating of 10 here. Genshiken totally and whole-heartedly deserves this

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Exceptionally good

by connerity
14 years ago

Rating: 9.7 / 10.0

I'm gonna keep this short even though one could write a lot about it.
It is very good because the setting is absolutely believable and it could completely happen in real life, there's nothing that would be impossible.
That aside, the characters were very well done, especially Saki. This manga wouldn't work at all if it had your typical perfect manga people, it's this good because the people portrayed are everyday's people.

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woohoo, spoiler

by HuhWhat
15 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

In the end, Madarame never got the girl. And everyone else paired up like bunnies in a trench. In said nutshell, I was very disappointed by the end.

The extreme realistic portrayal of otaku life can only play the hook for so long before it becomes nothing more than novelty. All these match-ups of convenience ala school life, may have its roots in reality, but that's not what I want from manga. I empathetically hope Madarame the best of luck.

... Last updated 15 years ago

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Genshiken is...

by Faukner
15 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

a story about different kinds of people though all of them (except for one)is an otaku. But don't let that put you off, Its a fun read and the characters are very different from any you will find in other mangas.
If you are in anyway interested in the japanese culture of cosplay, anime, manga and even doujinshi then this certainly is the manga for you.
But even if you're not into things like that give it a chance like I did. Perhaps you'll like it.

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Unn so cute

by Lyn Emerald
16 years ago

Rating: 9.5 / 10.0

OMG! what a nice manga, through the story I really felt like the mangaka had a very developed feminine side! It was almost like a josei XD... I really like this type of seinen, it reminded me of D-ash. UuUuU I really loved madarame-san! at first I was like "what the hell is wrong with this freak!" but then I was like "Un so cuuuteeeee"
It's a funny, interesting and enjoyablle manga, everybody should read it!

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Good

by cherrykookie
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

Original and funny story, with nice art. I enjoyed it because it was something new, although story doesn't exactly have a plot..although it does have a theme which is 'change'/ 'look inside'..anyhow, it was good except it was a bit dull and boring at times!

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mediocre manga

by kami0001
16 years ago

Rating: N/A

just finished reading the manga. In my opinion, it was a mediocre manga. The only thing special about the manga was it was original and unique. The art, story, characters development were so so, not so great but not really bad. The only thing i didn't like was that there wasn't a clear main character (may be sasahara but i doubt it since the story focuses in too many characters). The ending was predictable and absolutely nothing special about it.

Overall, it gave me a huge different opinion about manga/anime and Otaku's life. I bet it's definitely worth reading it if you are really into manga/anime

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happy and a little sad that it's over

by chaumein
16 years ago

Rating: 8.9 / 10.0

I liked it a lot. Even though nothing majorly traumatic happened I was still very moved at the end. It really did feel like you just spent four years with these characters and are watching them grow up and move on past a life where you can't read about them any more. And maybe it's because I'm also in university, Genshiken really made me want to be out there and enjoy it while I can.

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