badger11’s take on anime

This episode finds Satou and Hitomi meeting up with three other guys from the website Hitomi goes to. They’re here for the “off-line” meeting. They take a train and then boat out to an island that one of the group owns. With the exception of Satou, everyone is withdrawn, barely talking unless they have to. Satou, is the Engerizer Rabbit compared to the rest of the group. Not surprising since he thinks he’s going to start a new life with Hitomi. After getting to the island, they all pretty much hang out on the beach, “having fun during the last day of our lives” as one of the group says. While on the island, Satou decides to end his hikikomori life by trying to talk to each of these guys. He gets shutdown pretty quick and flashes back to his last year in high school where you can basically see the start of Satou withdrawing from society.

Back home, Hitomi’s boyfriend gets off work early and heads to her apartment. Finding it empty, he eventually starts searching around on her computer and find the website and the details about the offline meeting and Hitomi’s mention of basically visiting Satou. Over at Satou’s place, a cute but sad Misaki is walking up to Satou’s apartment (probably to collect the penalty fee from Satou since he cancelled the contract early). Yamazaki comes screaming out of his apartment and banging on Satou’s door because they’re late for the Natsucomi fest. Misaki tells him that Satou took off with a woman. Yamazaki doesn’t believe it until he realizes that Satou would follow Senpai shopping if she asked him to (not his words but then I’m just projecting). Hitomi’s boyfriend shows up and tells them about the offline meeting. Back at the meeting, Satou starts to build a bonfire. After talking with one of the others about “having fun during the last day of our lives”, Satou finally figures out exactly what the purpose of the trip is.

In this episode, we see three groups. Satou, the other islanders, and Yamazaki, Misaki, and Hitomi’s boyfriend. And they’re all trying to end something. Satou trying to end his hikikomori life, the other islander are planning to go offline, and the the last three will probably do attempt to do something to end the paths Satou and the gang are on. I believe that the third group will actually succeed in intervening and stopping Satou and Hitomi from the direction they’re headed in. And that means Satou will still remain a Hikikomori. And I pretty much belive that the off-line group will decide to not go through with it. So everyone wins but Satou. But I reserve the right to be wrong.

Is it just me or do these two go to the same stylist ?

One of the shows that I’m planning on watching is Hataraki Man. Its about Matsukata Hirokko, an editor at Jidai magazine who basically is a workaholic. According to the promo, she’s got a boyfriend who she doesn’t see very often and is basically your normal “conflicted and frustrated” type. At work, she’s surrounded by a laid-back editor, a dependable chief editor, a junior editor whose described as “adorable”, and (get this) yet another editor who has the opposite personality of Matsukata. So if that’s true, then guess who ain’t going to be pulling their weight at work.

The Workers Party new motto: “Live to work!”

Hataraki Man is based on a manga which I haven’t read. I’m wondering if there’s going to be some “Sex in the City” moments. Not really sure why I’m watching this. Oh wait, the promo emphasized Matsukata’s “Naturally Large-Bust”. Actually, that’s not really why. Its her eyes. They scare me. They’re the kind of eyes that hypnotize you into joining a cult or believe that a politician is sincere.

Genshiken is one of the few animes and manga that I really liked and rewatch the dvds and actually hang onto the manga. I even liked the OP and ED songs when I usually ignore or loathe them. I was disappointed when I heard that instead of a second season, they were giving Kujibiki Unbalance its own season. Earlier today I was perusing Anime News Network and noticed the news that Genshiken OAVs will be released.

Heading over to Heisei Democracy, I found more information. The OAVs will be tacked onto the Kujibiki dvds, one Genshiken OAV per dvd for a total of three episodes. The same cast will provide the vocals and Ogiue will be introduced. The first Kujibiki Unbalance dvd will be released on December 22nd in Japan. That being said, it’ll be along wait for it to be released here in the States. Well, at least we get a few more episodes.

Kujibiki Unbalance is on my to watch list, but I’ve got a strong bias against it because I’m such a Genshiken fanboy. I’ll probably watch the entire run since I haven’t found anything on tv that peaks my interest.