hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

The post for the study of the adaptation of visual media

Or just another post with scattered thoughts comparing the Genshiken manga and anime. Manga and anime spoilers abound.

Fateful Encounter. In the manga, we were not shown how Saki and Kousaka met in university. [Add: WRONG. orz It's in the omake at the end of the first volume of the manga. The anime just showed it right up front in chronological order.] The anime opened with her trying to pick him up but then having him recognize her as a childhood friend. I liked the latter a lot as it played up the childhood friend factor, the serendipity of their meeting and the humour with Saki's slack-jawed recalled of Kousaka, Shaven Head version. It also gave this relationship the impact and focus as the 'anchor event' that then ripples through the series where a key dynamic was Saki, as the non-otaku, bouncing off the rest of the otaku cast and Kousaka as the credible reason why she was forced to take the time to get know everyone in the gang. Though I have to say, art-wise, it's in the manga that Saki and Kousaka come across as being both beautiful and stylish much more convincingly, especially with respect to the detailing of Kousaka's clothes and rendering his face and build in a more obviously willowy bishounen way.

Trap trap trap. Kousaka cross-dressing for ComiFes in the third episode of the second season was pure win. But I really preferred the manga version where he cosplayed as Tachibana Izumi; this seems much more workable given how Izumi's a tomboy and flat-chested. Plus he looked oh so sultry in the manga when talking about copying Saki's makeup technique. Yeah, I'd totally hit that, man. But I guess the imperatives of promoting the 2006 re-imagined release of Kujibiki Unbalance had the studio roll out Kousaka as the much-hairstyle-improved Akiyama Tokino. An added touch in the anime which I liked very much was how they added Kousaka going: 'Aha~♥ What do you think, Saki-chan?' when she walks in on the Genshiken ComiFes stall. It just underlined so strongly how Kousaka is really hardcore otaku and as Madarame said, not just from a different planet from ordinary people but from a whole different galaxy.