Angst In My Pangst

Once in a while – rather, most of the time – there is this inexplicable urge to sit still and consume a series from beginning till end, without falling for other consummables on the side. Be it a comicbook series, or a bunch of thematically-linked movies, a TV season or an anime series. Last week, it was one anime series, and one comicbook run. I finished thirteen episodes of Genshiken, the anime based on the manga by Kio Shimoku. The storyline follows that of the comic very closely – I have not been able to find the last few volumes of the manga, so I don’t really know how it ends in Shimoku’s version. Anime based on manga have this notorious tendency to veer away from the storyline of the work , mostly because the manga is slower to release, and the directors of the animated version have to come up with their own story once they overtake the written word.

Genshiken appealed to me primarily because of the glimpse it offers into the otaku culture. The stock of characters cover a diverse spectrum of otaku-levelness – from the strictly-anti-otaku Saki Kasukabe, who joins the Society For Study of Modern Visual Culture to keep tabs on hot gamer boyfriend Kousaka; shy, introverted Sasahara who wants to come to terms with his bizarre tastes in otakuness; the bespectacled, hardcore Madarame, obsessed with manga and doujinshi and games and Kujibiki Unbalance, the greatest anime-within-an-anime series ever. There are other members of the Genshiken, all of whom come with their own baggage and come to know each other against the backdrop of cosplay events, Comifest, doujinshi-hunting in Akihabara and general slacking around. While not really an engrossing series per se, Genshiken is the kind of anime ( and manga ) that you probably won’t enjoy unless you know a little about otaku culture – the series abounds with references to games, series and comics. A meta-anime anime, so to say.

And now I am watching Basilisk, another series that is a victim of the bought-first-couple-of-volumes-unable-to-find-rest syndrome. ( Damn you, Indian Booksellers! ) 24 episodes in this series, and I was done with 6 last night. I should take about three more days to finish this one. Lots of ninja action, the kind of ninja action that has grotesque creatures fighting each other with strange powers. So far, there is a ninja that controls his body hair to behave like tentacles, there’s a spider-like character whose primary power is to spit glue-like phlegm towards his enemies, there’s a short-lived character with no arms and legs that keeps his sword inside his gullet and fights with his tongue. Hrmm. Your cup of tea? Don’t think so.