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Interview: Genshiken creator Shimoku Kio




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LinkTSwordmaster



Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 533
Location: PA / USA
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 4:38 pm Reply with quote
Wow, I thought this interview had fallen off the face of the Earth after not hearing anything about it for so long - glad to see it actually happened.

I wouldn't say those answers were particularly shocking so much as I found them a bit unexpected. Was a good read either way.
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Jayhosh



Joined: 24 May 2013
Posts: 972
Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:37 pm Reply with quote
How convenient. I recently joined the anime club at my college so this intrigues me. I wonder how others' experiences in these clubs are compared to my own. I've decided not to continue going to the meetings for our club because at least half of the male members were essentially sexual predators, which lead to most of the really nice females not returning for future meetings. Plus they watched shitty anime.
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lebrel



Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 374
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:04 pm Reply with quote
Interesting interview. I'm kind of surprised he implied that he doesn't know much about BL/fujoshi, as the fujoshi talk always seemed very spot on to me (as a fujoshi myself).

Quote:
“otokonoko*” (男の娘: Men that cross dress and live life as women)


You know, I don't think this is a very good definition. From what I've seen, most real-life men who identify as otokonoko are very clear that they're men; they don't want to be women, they just want to dress like women. This also goes for the vast majority of 2D otokonoko characters.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6371
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:19 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the interview, I really like the manga really much a few year back.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:50 am Reply with quote
Kind of funny how he took what would normally be a loaded question about the current state of the industry and responded with his views about deadlines and keeping quality up, goals that anyone studio working on any project would have to meet, and something a mangaka who writes about otaku would know very well.

As getting BL fan approach right for the girls, maybe it's because he wrote Ohno and Ogiue (at least) as characters first and left the caricatures for the Americans.

On the Olympics, I agree that a lot of the Akiba stuff should just be ignored, otherwise too much international attention would probably disrupt the balance and upset the fans who pay to keep stuff going. The Japanese might tolerate otaku and fujoshi activities, but the international media circus will not.
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BassKuroi





PostPosted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 4:37 pm Reply with quote
I lost interest in Nidaime a long time ago, but I keep vol. 1-9 between the most lovely written manga I ever read.
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CoreSignal



Joined: 04 Sep 2014
Posts: 727
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:11 pm Reply with quote
Nice little interview. I know Kio rarely does interviews, so it's always good see one from him. It's pretty obvious that the original cast were based on people he knows in real life, with the exception of Sue and Angela (the latter being a stereotype, imo). Like a lot of fans of the original, I don't like the cast of Nidaime as much. His response about having a (mostly) all-female cast for Nidaime was really interesting. Since he mentioned he didn't know much about female otaku, I'm curious as to what female fans of Genshiken think about the authenticity of Ogiue, Ohno, Yajima, etc. Still, Kio is one of the few mangaka who can write fairly realistic characters and really natural-sounding dialogue.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Kind of funny how he took what would normally be a loaded question about the current state of the industry and responded with his views about deadlines and keeping quality up, goals that anyone studio working on any project would have to meet, and something a mangaka who writes about otaku would know very well.

He did answer it, he said he didn't work in the industry, lol. In all seriousness, I'm sure he doesn't have much say. He knows what pays the bills.
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lebrel



Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 374
PostPosted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 7:14 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
As getting BL fan approach right for the girls, maybe it's because he wrote Ohno and Ogiue (at least) as characters first and left the caricatures for the Americans.


It's not just that they are well-written characters, it's that how they act as BL fans strikes me as pretty representative of a significant fraction of actual BL fans; what they talk to each other about, how they think about pairings, the fantasies they share, etc. It's a lot closer than what I would expect from someone who was just faking it.

CoreSignal wrote:
Since he mentioned he didn't know much about female otaku, I'm curious as to what female fans of Genshiken think about the authenticity of Ogiue, Ohno, Yajima, etc.


See above. Smile
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here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1529
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 7:54 am Reply with quote
CoreSignal wrote:
Since he mentioned he didn't know much about female otaku, I'm curious as to what female fans of Genshiken think about the authenticity of Ogiue, Ohno, Yajima, etc. .


I love the series and thought Kio did a great job pumping new life into it with new characters. As far as what I, as a female think of the characters:

Ohno, Angela, and Sue are all adorable and add a lot to the story, but, to me, aren't realistic.

I think Rika is very close to realistic. The way she can manipulate people is almost a little too perfect (but very funny and necessary for the storyline).

Ogiue feels pretty real too. I know she's a fan favorite, but I've always felt that her transformation and roll were just a little too cookie cutter for me. Still, I've nothing against her character.

He nailed it with Yajima.

Kio gave very thoughtful answers. Nicely done!
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thelastgogeta



Joined: 26 May 2011
Posts: 301
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 9:45 am Reply with quote
Oooh! Some good answers even to some less than expertly written questions though I still need to finish Genshiken (I do have Return of the Otaku and all of the volumes up to Second Generation Vol 1) prior to reading more of this.

Thanks for letting us ask some questions, ANN.
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NERVchild



Joined: 30 Dec 2008
Posts: 35
PostPosted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 2:02 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad this interview finally got posted. Nice job.
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CoreSignal



Joined: 04 Sep 2014
Posts: 727
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:02 am Reply with quote
@lebrel, @here-and-faraway, cool, it always good hear about how well male writers/creators depict female characters. Ogiue is probably my favorite female Genshiken character, but yeah, I can see her character being a bit exaggerated for story purposes. And Yajima does come across as the most realistic, personality-wise.
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