Okay just to make things easier I will calling Genshiken Nidaime just Nidaime and the og Genshiken just Genshiken Genshiken Nidaime is the continuation of Genshiken going from talking about talking about random general otaku stuff to a hyperfocus on the yaoi/fujo side of things with an almost full renewal of the cast with most of the og cast either graduating moving on with life etc. This is completely fine Genshiken at the end of the day is very down to earth in this aspect one of the big messages behind the og is how nice everyday things slowly change and eventually come to an end to create a new status quo friends graduate or get different priorities and what was a everyday occurance of meeting up every day in one room to talk about otakushit slowly turns into maybe next month we can meet up with half of the crew and drink for 3 hours I guess. Remember this tidbit for later. Anyway back to Nidaime it starts introducing us to a bunch of new fujos or just making them part of the main cast Yoshitake a fujo obsessed with japan history gay sex Hato a crossdresser that can only draw amazing gay porn while dressed as a woman Sue an autistic anime loving gremlin that is in love with the best character and Mirei and theres Kuchiki I guess too but he only shows up for gags and nobody cares about him whatever. 220https://i.ur.com/tu0uwR9.png The start of Nidaime is great as someone who has never delved much into the fujoverse due to my sexual orientation seeing and reading the whole aspect of it was really engaging and told in a very entertaining and informative manner and the atmosphere created is very similar to the Genshiken although this time around is about gay sex a nice comfy otaku atmosphere with some struggles of life here and there small arcs about reviving the club with various activities drawing doujinshi for Comiket all the good stuff. The foundation of Genshiken are still there but it all comes down due to the fact that it starts focusing mainly on 2 characters: Haato and Madarame. Haato is our new protagonist this time around to sum him up hes a man who crossdresses as his high school crush and is into yaoi and his whole arc is about him sorting out his feelings since his situation is just a huge although very entertaining mess. He does however feel like kind of a Mary sue a man who is cuter than all of the girls in the club combined that draws at a professional level with almost no training and I feel like he gets way too much of a spotlight throughout Nidaime when the other characters had some nice plot points that really arent explained much. So you are probably thinking to yourself and when reading Nidaime wow theres a lot of yaoi discussion this time around which makes complete sense but in the middle of it theres an outlier Madarame: Madarame is what I would like to call the exception to Genshiken as a whole. as I mentioned before the series is very direct with its all good things slowly deteriorate and come to an end and Madarame is the antithesis to this he refuses to change and move on with life by still going to the club after graduating since he happens to work and live nearby. Sasahara? Moving on with life working as an editor Tanaka? Working in the fashion/cosplay industry Kugayama? Doing some sales stuff Ogiue? Altough she shows up every now and then shes working as a real mangaka now no time to do much club stuff. But Madarame? Still there eating his lunch in a suit in the club not really doing anything thinking about how much he hates himself and his regrets but not really acting on them. 220https://i.ur.com/GUQgOTB.png Now I have no issue with all of this we are all familiar with the feeling of not wanting to move on and the moments in which these topics are touched upon are fantastic ex. the confession but the problem outside of that is that he just sort of exists doesnt really engage with the yaoi side besides him lusting for Hato but more on this later. To be succinct the start of Nidaime is great Sue is lovely Ogiue shows up frequently and her backstory is also great Mirei has her moments and does a really nice job of the situation of being surrounded by extremely talented people but yourself not being very good at it Yoshitake is a megane braid goddess that is very entertaining despite me not giving a damn about samurais having gay sex and Hato is a good vessel for the discussion of crossdressing as a whole and the whole start does an excellent job of recreating Genshikens lively femotaku atmosphere. Okay so now comes the negative part all the good stuff I just talked about? Replaced with the final arc which is: Madarame Harem Yeah you read that right Madarame the loser that refuses to move on be active change himself etc etc gets a harem and most of Nidaime centers this and in my opinion just goes against one of the biggest points that Genshiken tries to make be somewhat realistic about otaku in society. Genshiken pretty much drills this very often otaku behaviour is seen as weird from the outskirts most of the cast dates each other or other otaku because of this the only exception being Saki who even despite most of Genshiken being about this she still goes from finding it absolutely disgusting to tolerating it for the sake of her boyfriend. But now the series goes from a down to earth view of relationships to the lousy loser getting a harem without doing much of anything and most of his crushes being forced outside of Hato really. 220https://i.ur.com/lUo775c.png All that yaoi/fujo otaku shit? Out of the window most of the manga now is about relationship drama Hato and Madarame having the Am I gay confusion over and over again for dozens of chapters without anything getting resolved Mirei having issues trying to draw and having confidence issues? Out of the window now she also wants to fuck Hato but oh no shes part of the harem Ohno and Ogiue? Out of the picture funnily enough one of the best parts of Genshiken with the whole people moving on finally plays as a negative because now theres basically no way of talking about anything other than haremshit. Sue? Shes great and very cute and has some of the best moments but she doesnt really get developed much because hes just used as a mascot and all we get really is the fact that she now wants the MadarameD. The best thing I can say is about Yoshitake whose role in the whole drama at least makes her very entertaining but it doesnt redeem the arc itself. 220https://i.ur.com/ZCrQxV8.png So after dozens of chapters of nothing because its haremshit things come to an end in the end nobody wins because Madarame admits that hes a loser that hates himself etc etc and finally decides to move on closing the cycle of the original Genshiken. But then the mangaka figures out that the best girl should win and if you dont consider her to be the best girl then tough luck buddy thats how harems work babyy 220https://i.ur.com/lg9sNzE.png Another random tidbit is that I got really disappointed that they just flatout stopped doing extra pages about Kujibiki Unbalance even though it was mostly random bullshit about it felt extremely cute to read about and now the entire segment is completely gone here. To sum it up Nidaime is great the foundation of it is great the characters are fun and have a lot of chemistry with one another which works really well as a sequel to Genshiken but with a different vibe and topics covered but it throws away most of it for the sake of a harem arc that feels directionless most of the time and way overstays its welcome 7.5/10 mostly brought down by this final arc Ogiue Chika is my wife and Sue is my daughter