Sunday, March 02, 2008

Genshiken 2 - Completed Review


What is it?
Continuation of the first Genshiken. Read that review if you need info. Besides, I wouldn't suggest you watch this unless you've seen the first season anyways.
What's good about it?
Much of the same it had going in the first season. Likeable characters, lots of drama, interesting subject matter. Some characters take on a larger role now that some of the older members have moved on, notably Ogiue, who I like a lot.
What's bad about it?
Some of the characters that have moved on are those that are the most interesting. Conflict, humour and debating have been drastically reduced with the reduced presence of Madarame, Kusakabe and the old chairman. In what was a complete surprise move to me, Kuchiki is back for the second season and the decision to handover the ice-breaker, joking role to him was a complete mistake.
Final Verdict
In many ways the second season of is more ambitious than the first. It wasn't afraid of moving out of it's confort zone and making drastic changes to the content, the cast and the themes. Of course, when you make so many changes to an already great series the bulk of the changes end up being hit-and-miss, you're more likely to hurt the quality and that was the case here. Despite the increase in output from the more "vanilla" characters, Genshiken 2 remains a good series, if not a lesser one than its predecessor. Fans of the original won't need my endorsement to watch the second season but viewers unfamiliar to Genshiken should definitely watch the first season to decide if the second one will appeal to them.
8.4/10

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