Anime Thoughts: Genshiken

I have the impression that you don't have to be a fan of anime or manga for very long before you start hearing the Japanese word "otaku." (For that case, some who aren't fans may have heard the word already.) In my case, though, it didn't seem that much longer after that before I started hearing people insisting that those North American fans using "otaku" as a mere synonym for "fan" were in fact labelling themselves with a term meaning more "grotesque fanboy who uses fictional characters as a substitute for an inability to form connections with actual people..."

However, there have been pushbacks to that grim definition at different times and in different places. One of them is with a manga series that had an anime adaptation made of it, "Genshiken." After finishing the ninth and final volume of the manga with a sense of satisfaction, I was nevertheless left with a sort of annoyed "So now what feeling?", aware of my uneasier and more tentative connection to manga than to anime. (I managed to put this feeling into words well enough for it to be selected for an anime question-and-answer column's recent "I ask the question, you give your answer" section.) Nevertheless, I wasn't done with Genshiken quite yet: I had also picked up the anime version on sale a while before, and had it sitting around since. I suppose I did start tearing the shrinkwrap off with a sort of uncertain "But what if I don't like this version?" thought, and yet I did start watching.
( The perils of fandom )