History Manga / Genshiken

* HaremSeries: Of course never ''really'', but invoked in-universe in ''Second Season''. Kasukabe at one point muses to herself that it's as if Madarame has managed to unwittingly find himself right at the point in one where he's spent some personal time with every girl and they've all shown their interest, but he hasn't made any moves towards picking one (because he knows he doesn't have the social experience to be sure about any of this). This comes at a head when the "Harem" arc has to force

** They went absolutely nuts on cosplay in [[http://ogiuemaniax.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/the-cosplay-id-game-for-comic-festival-in-genshiken-second-season-episodes-4-and-5/ Episodes 4 and 5]] of "Second Season". Let's see, there were [[MadokaMagica Kyubey and friends]], [[Anime/GargantiaOnTheVerdurousPlanet Chamber, Amy and Saaya]], Yamada from ''Anime/KujibikiUnbalance'', [[Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt Panty and Stocking]], [[Manga/CuticleDetectiveInaba Don Valentino]], [[Manga/YondemasuyoAzazelsan Azazel]], a [[Manga/AttackOnTitan Titan]], [[LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}} Tsukihi and Karen Araragi]], [[Anime/PsychoPass Akane Tsunemori and Shinya Kougami]], [[Music/VocaLoid Miku and Rin]]...

* HotBlooded: Madarame, as voiced by NobuyukiHiyama.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Keiko puts it bluntly that she's very sure everyone knew about [[spoiler: Madarame's feelings for Kasukabe, probably even Kasukabe herself]].

%%* IHaveThisFriend

%%* ReferenceOverdosed

** If [[SpottedFlower Spotted Flower]] is any prediction of a post-Nidaime future...[[spoiler: the [[Expy]] of Hato undergoes gender reassignment surgery yet appears to be in a physical relationship with the Yajima Expy.]]

* ADateWithRosiePalms: That's what male and female otaku use hentai for, according to the otaku themselves. An extended sequence showed Sasahara getting into an eroge after he bought his new computer but the scene ends when he finally gets in the mood.

* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Kousaka never realizes you aren't supposed to discuss it.

* FishOutOfWater: Kasukabe in the first series.

* SceneryPorn: The series was acclaimed for its attention to scenery detail early in its serialization. There are a lot of panning shots of the Shiiou University campus, which were inspired by two campuses that the author knew of.

* DenserAndWackier: The novel has supernatural elements and a bizarre plot.

* FishOutOfWater: Kasukabe.

* GyaruGirl: Kanji Sasahara's sister is a ''kogal''. Fortunately, she at least changes a little for the better at the end of the manga.

* HaremSeries: Of course never ''really'', but invoked in-universe in ''Second Season''. Kasukabe at one point muses to herself that it's as if Madarame has managed to unwittingly find himself right at the point in one where he's spent some personal time with every girl and they've all shown their interest, but he hasn't made any moves towards picking one (because he knows he doesn't have the social experience to be sure about any of this).

* IronicEcho: Sue goes meta and quotes ''Genshiken itself'' in chapter 56, when Ogiue is fretting over the club's eclectic group of new recruits. Predictably, Ogiue panics when her infamous self-introduction is presented out-of-context to the new members, as she screams for Sue to shut up before she gets to the part about yaoi fangirls.

* LeftHanging: The second season of the anime doesn't cover the final arc of the manga, leaving about two and a half volumes' worth of material un-animated. It's even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, as the preview for the last episode has Madarame stating proudly "INCOMPLETE ANIME ARE THE BEST EVER!" Though a new series was made, it's an adaption of ''Nidaime''.

** In Nidaime, [[spoiler: Sue tells Madarame her feelings in Chapter 118.]]

* PlotHole: A flash forward at the end of the original manga series shows 3 normal guys walking into the Genshiken room sometime in the future. However, in the first chapter of the new series, the author clearly changed his mind and made the new members 3 girls [[spoiler: actually 2 girls and a "girl"]]. The inconsistency was never explained.

** To a much more appropriate degree, Madarame, who may even be more shameless about it.

* RefugeInAudacity: Sue, both in-universe and outside it. Sue is successfully attending a Japanese high school without anybody but her closest friends (and even for them it takes quite a while) being at all sure she can even ''speak or read Japanese'' beyond parroting lines from anime. Likewise, Sue gets away by being a possibly uncomprehending foreigner to push the envelope on cosplay far beyond what would be socially acceptable in either Japan ''or'' the United States. From an "out of universe" context, Sue's ability to physically and emotionally protect her friends, usually while conveying complete boredom and disinterest, is unrealistic enough (both for her age and in general) that at least by contrast with the more realistic characters it borders on CrazyAwesome, and the series uses this to set up and resolve situations which without her presence would otherwise have darker and longer-term consequences.
* {{Retcon}}: Angela's introduction scene with Madarame in the Anime gets referenced in ''Nidaime'' despite never appearing in the manga prior, because the author really liked it.
* SchoolClubsAreSeriousBusiness: The people who decide which clubs are official are cracking down on those that don't do anything, because there are so many clubs that even the Genshiken's remote space is coveted. (Admittedly, the list of clubs we get to see has some ''amazingly'' suspicious entries.)

* SequentialArtist: 2 specific arcs are built around attempting to be in this trope. Ougi creates the [[YaoiFanGirl Yaoi]] variety.

* SceneryPorn

* ShrinesAndTemples: The club members visit the Narita Temple during New Year's Eve

** As their friendship develops, Saki becomes quite a bit nicer to Madarame.

In November 2010, [[UnCanceled the series is back up again]] as ''Genshiken Nidaime'' (''Genshiken: Second Season'' in the North American release) starting with Chapter 56, which was released as a bonus together with the Japanese ''Genshiken 2'' box-set that covered the start of a new Genshiken headed by Ogiue and continuing in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine. Originally ''Nidaime'' was intended as a limited-run continuation that was only to last a volume or two, but it has since been picked up for regular serialization and the volume collections are published as volume 10+ of the original series, although localization overseas pegs it as a new series.

A new anime began airing in July 2013, adapting the ''Nidaime'' material. It is unknown what, if anything, will be done with the material from volumes 8 and 9 of the manga.

* ExpressiveHair: Ogiue.
* EyesAlwaysShut: Tanaka.

* GenkiGirl: Yoshitake and Susan in Chapter 56.
%%ZCE * GenreSavvy:

** One episode had Sasahara and Madarame playing [[NintendoDS DS]]. You can't actually SEE what they are playing, but the BGM of the game is the regular battle theme from ''[[VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey Etrian Odyssey I]]''.

* CosplayOtakuGirl: Ohno. Also, Kasukabe the anti-otaku reluctantly cosplays when shamed into doing so. In the last OVA, initially-resistant YaoiFangirl Ogiue is talked into cosplaying in private.

* SchoolClubsAreSeriousBusiness: The people who decide which clubs are official are cracking down on those that don't do anything, because there are so many clubs that even the Genshiken's remote space is coveted.

* {{Delinquents}}: Kanji Sasahara's sister is a ''[[GyaruGirl kogal]]''. Fortunately, she at least changes a little for the better at the end of the manga.

* {{Delinquents}}: Kanji Sasahara's sister is a ''[[RichBitch kogal]]''. Fortunately, she at least changes a little for the better at the end of the manga.

* FauxFluency: Ohno's "English" dialogue in the anime. One can imagine AyakoKawasumi reading off a card written entirely in Katakana, with Creator/YukoGoto and Creator/YukiKaida (competent and fluent in English, respectively) standing beside her and shaking their heads.

* TakeThat: Not too prevalent, given that it's a series about enjoying being an Otaku, but in one episode preview the club members mention that you really shouldn't sing [[LuckyStar "Motteke! Sailor Fuku!"]] and [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya "Hare Hare Yukai"]] in public.

* HoYay:
** Madarame/Sasahara get a lot of doujinshi and fanart devoted to them most likely because of Ogiue's event in the manga and anime.
** In-universe, Madarame gets involved in both Ogiue's and Hato's yaoi fantasies.
** There's a few moments between Kasukabe and Ohno.

* AnimeAccentAbsence: While not a ''foreign'' character, Ohno spent about 8 years living in the US prior to the start of the series, and shouldn't be nearly as fluent in Japanese as she's portrayed. On the other hand, her English is grammatically correct, but her accent (in the anime) is absurdly thick for having spent her formative years abroad. This could be {{handwave}}d with the explanation that though Ohno lived in the US from age 10 to 18, it was because she had moved with her parents, so presumably they spoke Japanese at home. And Angela mentions that Ohno used to spend quite a bit of time with other Japanese people in the vicinity. Or you could just say it's due to the limits of the actress playing her.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Keiko Sasahara to her brother Kanji. In contrast to Kanji the closet-otaku, she's a fashion-obsessed ''gyaru'' with an ever-changing list of boyfriends. She is immediately attracted to prettyboy Kousaka, spending the rest of the series trying to steal him away from Kasukabe, and joining the Genshiken in the process.
** Can be seen as a subversion of the idealized "little sister" trope among Japanese otaku, as Keiko is anything but (and Kanji is quick to emphasize this).
* ArtEvolution: The characters start out drawn fairly realistically, but grow more stylized and cartoonish as the series goes on. By the time the ninth volume rolls around, you wonder if this is how the characters in the first volume would have depicted ''themselves'' in a doujinshi.

* ArtShift: The DatingSim parody, the yaoi parody, and whenever Kasukabe gets angry.

* AttractiveBentGender: [[spoiler:Hato]], much to Kuchiki's delight.

* BerserkButton: Ask Kasukabe if she's in Genshiken or if she'd like to cosplay. On second thought...don't ask her.
** Or perhaps you should try disgracing the honor of cosplay around Ohno...
*** Or trying to reveal her preferences for balder and older guys, she'll be going for your throat, literally!

* {{Blackmail}}: The first club president does this to Kasukabe to make her join Genshiken.

* BlankWhiteEyes

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Kousaka, which causes Kasukabe a world of anguish because, well, see the immediately preceding trope
** "Saki-chan's moe? You don't have any."

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Kousaka, all the time (except when gaming).
** Also Kasukabe's reaction when Ogiue shows her the Sasa x Mada yaoi drawings: "...Two-timing?"
* ConversationalTroping

* CuteLittleFangs: Madarame has these. Well subverted in that Madarame is anything but cute, and some may see the little fang as one more element of his general creepiness.

* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: In the fanbook there are some short dialogues between the Genshiken members, and Kuchiki brings up that he downloads all of his software from the internet, which makes Sasahara think "He's such a jerk."
** Sasahara does work in the media industry (as an editor), though, so his point of view isn't exactly unfounded.
* {{Delinquents}}: Kanji Sasahara's sister is a ''[[RichBitch kogal]]''.
** As a result, since Kanji is an otaku, SiblingYinYang.
** Fortunately, she at least changes a little for the better at the end of the manga.

* [[EvolvingCredits Evolving End Credits]]: Each episode has subtle differences on the "Genshiken members sitting in the clubroom watching TV" end sequence, putting in or taking out characters and changing how they look. For example, episode 4 (which ended with Kasukabe going on a rampage after Madarame stuck a pair of cat ears on her) has everyone slumped over the table looking worn out, with Ohno standing nearby still dressed as [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Jam Kuradoberi.]]

* GratuitousJapanese: Most of Sue's dialogue, though much of it seems strangely appropriate for the situation. It [[ObfuscatingStupidity might not be an accident]].

* HandBehindHead

* HoYay: Madarame/Sasahara get a lot of doujinshi and fanart devoted to them most likely because of Ogiue's event in the manga and anime.

* HugeSchoolgirl: Sort of. Although a university student, Ohno is unusually tall and busty and at the same time shy about her physique. Except when cosplaying.

* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam "Not even my own father hit me."]] in the manga after Kanji is on the receiving end of a slap by Kasukabe. Kasukabe, being completely out of the anime loop, takes it seriously at first until the other club members congratulate him.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: See ExpospeakGag, above.
** Which may reference the first President's research project, having used the Genshiken club as research subjects without their knowledge. Once he's gone (to write his doctoral thesis), the episode titles become much more mundane.
* IHaveThisFriend

** [[LampshadeHanging "How do you know about that?!"]]
*** Since Sue [[SpeaksInShoutouts only speaks in anime quotes]], [[BreakingTheFourthWall she must've watched the series]].

* LeftHanging: The second season of the anime doesn't cover the final arc of the manga, leaving about two and a half volumes' worth of material un-animated. Though there ''is'' a new series, it's an adaption of ''Nidaime''.
** It's even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, as the preview for the last episode has Madarame stating proudly "INCOMPLETE ANIME ARE THE BEST EVER!"
* LimpAndLivid
* LoudspeakerTruck

* LoveConfession: [[spoiler: Madarame tries to confess his feelings for Saki in chapter 53, but is unable to and just ends up "thanking" her for putting up with the club for four years. He finally confesses in chapter 80 of Nidaime, and is turned down.]]

* NoodleIncident: Exactly what Ogiue said to the girls of the Manga Club before she joined the Genshiken is never revealed, but it was bad enough to split it up into warring factions.

* NotHelpingYourCase

* OlderThanTheyLook: Everyone speculates just how old the Prez actually was after finding a box of his old manga 'zines, all of which dated back to ''1987''.

* {{Omake}}
* {{Otaku}}
* OutOfFocus: Since ''Nidaime'', some of the former Genshiken members have pretty much disappeared from the radar, save occasional appearances. Not too surprising for Kasukabe and Kousaka, a bit more for Sasahara since he's Ogiue's boyfriend. Actually, even Ogiue seems more and more absent in the latst chapters, the story being increasingly focused on Hato.
** Which was explicitly the point of ''Nidaime'', to show what was happening with the new Genshiken membership. However, a drifting focus has been built into the series from the start as leadership has changed hands and the group has added and lost members. Kasukabe and her struggles with understanding otaku took much of the early focus; it drifted more onto Sasahara for his tenure as president; Ogiue grabbed the focus once her backstory started to come out, and now it's drifted towards the new group with Hato. Meanwhile, the other characters have moved in and out, retaining a secondary focus and sometimes losing it. [[TruthInTelevision It's remarkably alike to the feeling of watching a real college club evolve over several years as membership changes and the social circles rebalance.]]

* PostModernism: It's a manga about a manga club.
** Ogiue decided to submit her debut work in Monthly Afternoon, the same publication Genshiken is on.
** Taken further when the club is helping Ogiue finish one of her doujin drafts on time, Yoshitake holds up one of the issues the manga was in for inspiration. It turns out to be the issue of Afternoon with ''Genshiken'' on the cover.

* ProudToBeAGeek: Kuchiki, who is shameless about it and to a MUCH more appropriate degree, Madarame, who is may even be MORE shameless about it.

* ReferenceOverdosed

* SeriousBusiness: Each character is completely devoted to his/her hobbies. Best exemplified in Madarame's expense management and his rant about 2D vs. 3D. See the quote atop this page.

* ShipSinking: As of Chapter 80, [[spoiler:Madarame x Saki]] is given a viking funeral.

* ShipTease: The novel has some pretty blatant ShipTease for Madarame X Kasukabe.
** ''Manga/SpottedFlower'' is all about a suspiciously familiar otaku and his pregnant non-otaku wife. It's possible this was a bone thrown to all the Mada x Saki shippers.

* ShoutOut: So, so many, often under fake names - ''Anime/CodeGeass'', for instant, is "Code Bleed" or something. ''Manga/LuckyStar'' can be briefly seen as a very popular Doujin at Comifes. And there was a hell of a lot of ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' in the first season. This gets switched to ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' XI during the three special episodes in between seasons 1 and 2.

** Good thing the fansubs offer footnotes about the fake names in the manga and anime.
*** While sadly, the official translations of both, do not.
** Also, the anime has the beeping clock from ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' during the third day of the 2004 Comiket/Comifest, when the ''Genshiken'' first enters as a vendor.
** Obviously, all instances of Ohno and the others cosplaying count too. Like [[VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} KOS-MOS]] and [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Yoko]].
*** Or [[Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt Panty and Stocking]].

** When [[spoiler: Hato's inner maiden]] fantasizes about Madarame, he responds with a "Shut up, 801-chan!" which is a reference to fujoshi-to-perfect-girl-evolution manga {{Tonari no 801-chan}} which itself had references to the ''original'' Genshiken. It's like a full circle of referencing.
** Chapter 56 has Sue channeling [[LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}} Senjougahara Hitagi and Hachikuji Mayoi.]]
*** She's also taken on Oshino Shinobu, albeit with some more... realistic... undergarments.

* ShrinesAndTemples: The club members visit the Narita Temple during New Year's Eve)

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Rather realistically, Ohno and Kasukabe speak rather correct English with one hell of a rough Japanese accent, while Angela actually sounds convincingly American even when played by a Japanese {{seiyuu}}.
** Although Angela's choice of words (lack of slang and all) make it harder to swallow. She says "sensible" where she obviously means to say "sensitive". Normally such a mistake would go all but unnoticed, but she has an entire monologue about the "sensibility" of Japanese men and so repeats it enough for it to become very jarring for English speakers.
** Furthermore, much of her lines are delivered in this weird sing-songy inflection that sounds completely unnatural. For example, when she says, "I can't wait to go to the Butler's Cafe!", it sounds more like she's calling someone off-screen than a joyful declaration.

* {{Tsundere}}: Ogiue, so adorable but so mean too. Poor Sasahara.
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the bonus chapter of the final volume.

* UnstoppableRage: Early in the series when Madarame placed cat ears on Kasukabe.
** Kasukabe in general. About ninety percent of the violence inflicted in the club has had something to do with her.
* VagueAge: Ohno refuses to elaborate on Sue's age. And with good reason, given that [[spoiler:she was the one that introduced Sue to yaoi, most possibly ''[[WhatTheHellHero at a rather young age]]''.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: Kasukabe claims to hate the otakus at Genshiken, but she still hangs around the clubroom without Kousaka there, and is more than willing to stand up for them.
** Keiko eventually tolerates Genshiken's members to the point where she can casually talk to them, although it's mostly her trying to advertise the bar she works for.

* WebcomicTime: A one-off form of it, when the series got {{Uncancelled}} after about four and a half years, but events in-series had only moved on a couple months at most. Suddenly characters move from making references to series current to early and mid 2006, to referencing series that wouldn't even have existed yet if a strict chronology was followed on with the continuation. Angela's references to the ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' series get only the narrowest pass if she's quoting the original light novel which came out within the rough time of ''Nidaime'' thus far, but the ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' cosplay doesn't fit anywhere.

* WholesomeCrossdresser: Kousaka, who crossplays to help sell ''{{doujinshi}}''. He doesn't expect Kasukabe to show up when she does.

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Stretched out a bit in the anime with Ohno and Tanaka. In the manga, they hook up offscreen and reveal that they are already a couple when Kasukabe teases them about their relationship, catching her off-guard (she's actually the last to know). In the anime, they are much more timid about things and need Kasukabe to play matchmaker, helping them overcome their mutual fear of rejection.

* YaoiFangirl: Ohno and Ogiue.
** Season two, episode five. Not content with hinting, they ''animate'' Ogiue's fantasies. [[{{Squick}} Be afraid]], [[GuyOnGuyIsHot or not]], [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments or collapse from laughter]].

* YaoiGuys: Well, sort of. Resident yaoi-fangirl-in-denial Ogiue sees one of the other club members pulling another's tie, and gets inspired to draw some ''very'' hardcore yaoi of the two of them. To make things stranger, one of them is actually her love interest. And just to top it off, he didn't mind all that much, even giving her tips on how to make the story better.
** "Mind all that much"? After finishing with the Ogiue-drawn yaoi, Sasahara admits that "it got hard".
** There's a reason though. Basically she drew her ideal version of the two characters as {{Bishonen}} that don't really resemble the real Sasahara and Madarame so he didn't recognize the two characters as himself and Madarame and since he is in love with her he wanted to help her and spend time with her.
** One of Hato's ''many'' explanations for crossdressing is his fantasies of an [[spoiler: eventual Hato x Mada]] event.

[[caption-width-right:350: From left to right: [[{{Moe}} Madarame]], [[NiceGuy Tanaka]], [[CosplayOtakuGirl Ohno]], [[{{Tsundere}} Ogiue]], [[TheFriendNobodyLikes Kuchiki]], [[AudienceSurrogate Sasahara]], [[BrilliantButLazy Kugayama]], [[{{Bishonen}} Kousaka]], [[OnlySaneWoman Kasukabe]], and [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Keiko]].]]

* GenreSavvy: Obviously.

* ComicBookTime: Because of the four-year gap between the end of Genshiken and the release of Nidaime (chronologically set 2006), many of the references come from media that wouldn't have existed during that point in time, like {{Bayonetta}} and {{KOn}}.

In November 2010, [[UnCanceled the series is back up again]] as ''Genshiken Nidaime'' (''Genshiken: Second Season'' in the North American release) starting with Chapter 56, which was released as a bonus together with the Japanese ''Genshiken 2'' box-set that covered the start of a new Genshiken headed by Oguie and continuing in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine. Originally ''Nidaime'' was intended as a limited-run continuation that was only to last a volume or two, but it has since been picked up for regular serialization and the volume collections are published as volume 10+ of the original series, although localization overseas pegs it as a new series.

* CosplayOtakuGirl: Ohno. Also, Kasukabe the anti-otaku reluctantly cosplays when shamed into doing so. In the last OVA, initially-resistant YaoiFangirl Oguie is talked into cosplaying in private.

** Oguie decided to submit her debut work in Monthly Afternoon, the same publication Genshiken is on.
** Taken further when the club is helping Oguie finish one of her doujin drafts on time, Yoshitake holds up one of the issues the manga was in for inspiration. It turns out to be the issue of Afternoon with ''Genshiken'' on the cover.

* StupidSexyFlanders: In the manga, the rest of the guys comment on how Kousaka's legs look when he crossplays. Oguie just asks "Is he really a guy?". It's hammed up even more in the anime.

** This is much truer of Sasahara and Oguie's false starts at their relationship, with lots of matchmaking going on behind the scenes by Ohno, Kasukabi, and Madarame to get them together. While the anime never reached far enough along in the manga's storyline to see the Genshiken vacation where Sasahara and Oguie finally express their feelings, the anime shoehorned those emotional elements into Tanaka and Ohno's relationship. It still works, but seems a bit strange after reading the manga first.

** A different example involves the club helping Oguie finish one of her doujin drafts on time, Yoshitake holds up one of the issues the manga was in for inspiration. It turns out to be the issue of Monthly Afternoon with ''Genshiken'' on the cover.

* ComicBookTime: Because of the four-year gap between the end of Genshiken and the release of Nidaime (set a few months after the first series), many of the references come from media that wouldn't have existed during that point in time, like {{Bayonetta}} and {{KOn}}.

* PresentDayPast: Because of the large gap between the end of Genshiken and the release of Nidaime (set a few months after the first series), many of the references come from media that wouldn't have appeared during the original series' run, like {{Bayonetta}} and {{KOn}}.

* PresentDayPast: Because of the large gap between the end of Genshiken and the release of Nidaime, many of the references come from media that wouldn't have appeared during the original series' run, like {{Bayonetta}} and {{KOn}}.